Only 53 of the 90 players on the LA Chargers are going to make the active roster for the start of the regular season. That leaves 37 players who will end up being cut, although 16 of them can stay with the team in some capacity on the practice squad.
Many of the preseason cuts are already obvious. There are plenty of undrafted free agents and fringe roster players who always had a slim chance of making the roster. Those players are mostly unaffected by bad play in the preseason.
However, there are also the players on the roster bubble who need good preseason showings in order to secure a spot on the roster. Unfortunately for some of these players, they may have sealed their fate in a negative way in Saturday's preseason loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
3 Chargers who played themselves off the roster in preseason Week 2:
QB Luis Perez
Easton Stick was dreadful in the first half and Luis Perez did not look much better. It actually started out on a more promising note for Perez, who quickly came crashing back down to Earth alongside his teammate in the quarterback room.
Perez completed 13 of 20 passes for just 78 yards. While he did not throw an interception or drop a snap like Stick, it was beyond evident Perez is not ready to be a legitimate backup quarterback on an NFL roster.
Stick may not end up being the backup either but he has the benefit of having an existing relationship with Justin Herbert and the team. Whether the Chargers keep a third quarterback or decide not to add external help at all, Stick has a much better chance of sticking around in some capacity.
That leaves no room for Perez, who might play in the final preseason game of the year but won't have a real chance of making the roster.
OL Alex Leatherwood
What happens when you take an extremely disappointing first-round bust who struggled immensely on his first two teams and give him a chance to make the roster on his third team in the NFL? You get more poor play that makes it clear they are not cut out for the roster.
That was the case with former Raiders first-round pick Alex Leatherwood on Saturday. Leatherwood turned in yet another bad showing after struggling in the preseason opener. Any hope that even the most optimistic Chargers fans had is now fading away.
It would take a truly dire situation for the Chargers to keep Leatherwood around on the roster. The team is far better off keeping an entirely unproven player who at least has some upside over someone who the team knows is not going to produce.
WR Cornelius Johnson
The Chargers selected Michigan's Cornelius Johnson in the seventh round of the 2024 NFL Draft essentially as a priority undrafted free agent to give Jim Harbaugh's guy a chance at making the roster. Unfortunately, after two preseason games and training camp, it does not look like Johnson will make the 53-man roster.
Johnson did not catch a single pass in Saturday's loss and recorded the second-worst Pro Football Focus grade among all Chargers players in the game. Granted, PFF grades are rather subjective at times and shouldn't be the end-all, say-all, but it is concerning how little Johnson has done.
No Chargers receiver has really stood out with the atrocious quarterback play and that is a bigger problem for Johnson than it is for other receivers on the team. Fellow seventh-round pick Brenden Rice has a higher ceiling so he may get the nod if it comes down to it. Meanwhile, veteran special teamer Simi Fehoko turned in the best performance of any Chargers' wideout on Saturday.
As light as the WR room is at the top, it is rather deep toward the backend and someone has to be left out. After two straight preseason games without a catch, Johnson might be that guy (even though Rice also has no preseason catches).
Last year the Chargers cut their last pick of the 2023 NFL Draft, Max Duggan, before the season. This year, the team might do so again with Johnson.