The Chargers' three man rotation of EDGE rushers looked about as effective as ever in 2025. Tuli Tuipulotu led the way production wise in his true breakout season with 75 pressures and 13 sacks. Despite an elbow injury early in the season, Khalil Mack still had an incredibly impactful season as LA's top run defender. Los Angeles was 10th in the league in sacks with 47.
The third man in that rotation was Odafe Oweh. Oweh was acquired in a midseason trade from Baltimore in exchange for a draft pick and S Alohi Gilman. He went on to have 7.5 regular season sacks and a monster 3 sack, 2 forced fumbles game against New England in the playoffs. With the Chargers likely prioritizing Tuli Tuipulotu for the long term, they let Oweh walk to the Commanders in free agency. Washington gave the Penn State product a four year, $100 million deal.
The Chargers brought back Mack in free agency this offseason on another one year, $18 million deal. In the draft, they replaced Oweh as the teams' third EDGE with Miami's Akheem Mesidor.
Other notes in the EDGE room: veteran Bud Dupree will have to fight for his roster spot against 2025 fourth-round pick Kyle Kennard and 2026 Western Michigan UDFA Nadame Tucker. It's worth pointing out as many know that Tucker played under new DC Chris O'Leary in college last season.
How are the Chargers' EDGE rushers shaping up in 2026 following Tuli Tuipulotu's breakout season?
EDGE1: Tuli Tuipulotu
The question entering this season is ultimately if Tuipulotu can back up his breakout campaign from last year. Tuipulotu set personal best marks in 2025 for pressures (75), sacks (13) and defensive stops in the backfield (34).
As a run defender, there's still strides for Tuipulotu to make. But he's certainly much improved from when he first came into the league in that capacity. And there's still reason to believe that the USC product hasn't maxed out his ceiling. Despite playing three years in the league already, Tuipulotu will turn just 24 in September.
The Chargers are now in active negotiations with Tuipulotu on a contract extension. What happens here could impact the offseason and regular season to a degree if a deal is not done in training camp. For what it's worth, Tuipulotu did not rule out the possibility of a hold-in when asked about it in June.
It should be exciting to see some of the ways the Chargers can use Tuipulotu and Mesidor's respective abilities to pass rush inside to make their defense more versatile.
Grade: B+
EDGE2: Khalil Mack
The perception of Mack's season will be that it was a down year. As mentioned earlier, Mack probably isn't recreating his 2018 or 2023 seasons as a pass rusher at 35 years old. On top of aging, he dealt with an elbow injury that held him out for about a month last year.
That being said, Mack is still vital to Los Angeles' EDGE room. That impact comes particularly in the form of run defense. The Chargers were fourth in rush defense EPA for the entire 2025 season. In the four games Mack missed due to injury, Los Angeles was just 21st in rush defense EPA from Weeks 3-6.
Mack is also still a pretty decent pass rusher even if he's not going to be what he once was. In nine games from Week 8-17 last season, Mack still had 5+ pressures in four of them. Until he fully falls off or ages out, the expectation should be pretty bullish on the floor he still provides as an all-around EDGE defender.
Grade: B
EDGE3: Akheem Mesidor
Mesidor takes the baton from Oweh and factors in as the third man in the rotation. Los Angeles' 2025 first-round selection had 67 pressures and 12.5 sacks with the Miami Hurricanes last season. In his four game College Football Playoff run with Miami, Mesidor had 5.5 sacks and 23 pressures.
The name of the game for why the Chargers took Mesidor is instant impact. Detractors of the pick (myself included, to an extent) will point out age and whether the 25 year old has the same ceiling of the other EDGE rushers in the class. But the Chargers took him because they believe he'll be able to contribute right away.
As a former interior D-Line player, Mesidor does provide some inside rushing versatility that adds to what the Chargers can do in their top three-man rotation. It's a different package relative to what Oweh brought as a pass rusher last season, but it's one that can still be effective assuming Mesidor picks up where he left off in 2025.
Grade: New rookie, N/A
The competition for EDGE4: Bud Dupree, Kyle Kennard, Nadame Tucker
The Chargers have relied so heavily on their 3-man rotation in the Hortiz/Harbaugh/Minter era that EDGE4 hasn't been quite as prioritized. For a few years, that spot has been filled by veteran EDGE Bud Dupree. He's coming off of a year where he played just 392 total snaps and had his lowest pressure count in a season since 2016. The other thing is that Dupree doesn't really play special teams snaps. Of his 84 special teams snaps last year, 54 were on the field goal block team.
This feels like the first year in which Dupree's EDGE4 spot is on the line. Fourth-round pick Kyle Kennard is still in the mix to potentially take it, although he struggled last year on film. Both Kennard and Dupree were healthy scratches for the New England playoff game. If Kennard wants the spot, his game needs to go up a level.
Nadame Tucker played under Chris O'Leary at Western Michigan and had an incredibly successful pass-rushing year in his final collegiate season. Tucker had 21 tackles for loss and 14.5 sacks in 2025. O'Leary effectively said that the fourth EDGE spot is fully up in the air from a competition standpoint this offseason.
Bud Dupree: D+
Kyle Kennard: D
Nadame Tucker: New rookie, N/A
Others on roster: Garmon Randolph
Garmon Randolph had a solid 2025 preseason with the Chargers that earned him a practice squad spot. He'll likely be looking to repeat that same success, but is now in a deeper EDGE room as far as competition is concerned.
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