What the Chargers offseason could look like if they copy the Bengals
By Jason Reed
What the LA Chargers draft could look like after free agency:
We will have a much clearer picture of what position the LA Chargers are targeting early in the 2022 NFL Draft after free agency and after this specific class of free agents, the most likely first-round pick seems to be a wide receiver, even if the team does bring back Mike Williams.
The Bengals showed that the best thing to do for your young quarterback is to give him weapons and the Chargers could add yet another weapon to the fray. Whether it is Jameson Williams, Chris Olave or Garrett Wilson, the Chargers would be adding a great receiver talent to a room that would suddenly be extremely deep.
The rookie might not play a massive role in year one but it will help bridge the gap as Keenan Allen eventually regresses with age, especially if Mike Williams is only brought back on the franchise tag.
In the second round, I would predict that the Chargers take a defensive tackle in either Devonte Wyatt or Phidarian Mathis. That would give the Bolts a deeper interior defensive line group of Joseph-Day, Wyatt/Mathis, Jones and Jerry Tillery as the fourth option.
From there it would really depend on who is on the board. The Chargers can still afford to sign a cheap tight end for depth with this outlined spending but if not they could find someone they really like in the third round (such as Jalen Wydermyer). If it is not a tight end the next most logical position to draft would be an interior offensive lineman to provide depth at guard.
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Whether or not the Chargers take this path all depends on how much they are looking at previous examples. If they are looking for inspiration on how to spend, the Bengals are the best example to look at.