What the Chargers' 2022 draft class would have been without Khalil Mack trade

The 2022 NFL Draft is officially in the books and for the most part, we know what the LA Chargers' roster is going to look like for the 2022 season. The Chargers have been very aggressive this offseason between the draft, free agency and making trades.

The Bolts traded a second-round pick and next year's sixth-round pick (which they then received back from the Chicago Bears for two sevenths in this year's draft) for former All-Pro, Khalil Mack. This gave the Chargers one of the best edge-rushing duos in the league heading into 2022.

Now that the draft has officially happened and we know where certain prospects fell, it is interesting to raise the question of what the Chargers' draft could have looked like if they didn't trade those picks for Mack. This is by no means saying that this is the route the Chargers should have taken, but it is a fun what-if scenario to break down.

There are several things about the Chargers draft class that would have been different without Khalil Mack.

First, the Chargers would have obviously had a second-round pick to spend, as well as two more sevenths. Second, edge rusher would have been a need for the Bolts heading into the draft. We are going to assume that the rest of the team's free-agent spending remained the same.

After restructuring Mack's contract, he has an $8.75 million cap hit this season. That would give the Chargers extra money to spend and perhaps that means they re-sign Uchenna Nwosu, but I think they would have gone a different direction.

This is not a full Chargers mock draft, but I wanted to break down some key points that likely would have happened if Mack was not a Charger.