Chargers' 4 most likely first-round needs in the 2024 NFL Draft

Chargers' way-too-early 2024 NFL Draft needs: 2. Tight end

In terms of actual need, the tight end position is the favorite to be No. 1 on this list. Many fans expected the team to take a tight end early in the 2023 NFL Draft but the Bolts opted not to take a tight end at all. That was certainly a shocker.

That essentially guarantees that the Chargers will take a tight end early in the 2024 NFL Draft. Gerald Everett is only under contract for one more season and with the salary cap situation the team is in, it is unlikely that they are going to be able to pay a tight end at all next offseason.

Instead, the team should turn to a top-line tight-end talent in the draft that can come in and start right away. Taking a tight end this year seemingly made more sense as it would give them a year to grow into the system but alas, that is not the direction the team took.

While it makes all the sense in the world, there is one very specific reason why tight end checks in at No. 2 on this list. There simply are not that many tight ends who are worth taking in the first round. The 2023 NFL Draft was a strangely deep tight end class and even then there was only one tight end taken in the first round.

Someone really has to jump off the page for the Bolts at the tight end position to use a first-round pick on them. And while there are some early candidates, there is still a lot that will happen before the 2024 NFL Draft that will shape the board. Thus, we have to go on the historical precedence of there being fewer first-round tight ends taken.