Chargers fans should wish Gerald Everett never left
The Chargers needed to address the tight end room this offseason and they did just that. The team signed Will Dissly to be a blocking specialist and also signed Hayden Hurst to a cheap contract to give the team a passing option.
Meanwhile, Gerald Everett signed a two-year, $12 million contract with the Chicago Bears. At the time of signing with the Bears it did not seem like that big of a deal that the Chargers were losing Everett. However, with how this offseason has shaken out, it is clear that the team could have brought him back.
Hurst's salary cap hit is still unknown but according to Over The Cap, Everett's cap hit is only $5.46 million this season. Even if Hurst signed for the minimum his cap hit will be over $1 million, meaning that the Chargers saved, at most, $4.5 million by going with Hurst over Everett.
When the Chargers were pinching pennies and every dollar mattered it made sense as to why they would sign Hurst. But with more cap space being opened up by the Allen trade, spending an extra $4.5 million (at most) on Everett would have been more than doable this season.
Dissly is not a pass-catching threat, Hurst has huge injury red flags and the Chargers currently have $14.4 million in projected effective cap space (that is how much the team can spend after factoring in the draft class pool and an in-season budget); and that is with Hurst being projected to make $2 million!
The Chargers had more than enough room to bring back Everett. With the bad group of pass-catchers that the Chargers do have, fans should be wishing for Everett to return.