Grading Chargers' 2023 rookie class after first quarter of the season

Sixth-round pick Scott Matlock: C

Despite being a sixth-round pick, Scott Matlock has actually logged some playing time early in his NFL career. Matlock has played 24% of the Chargers' defensive snaps and 25% of the team's special teams snaps so far this season.

While it is a good sign that Matlock is playing as much as he is, he also has not been playing all that well. Matlock isn't much of a pass-rush threat and his run defense has certainly left something to be desired thus far.

All that being said, he is still a rookie that is getting his footing in the NFL. Expecting a sixth-round pick to come in and instantly be above average is silly. These are the building blocks toward Matlock (hopefully) being an impact player for multiple seasons.

Seventh-round pick Max Duggan: F

This was a selection that we disagreed with at the time and it has panned out as expected. The Chargers, who notoriously do not trade any kind of late-round capital for in-season help, decided to use their seventh-round pick on a third-string quarterback who wasn't very good.

Duggan did not look like an NFL quarterback at all in the preseason and he did not make the 53-man roster as a result, even with the NFL's new third-quarterback rule. Instead, he was waived by the Chargers and re-signed to the practice squad.

Expecting seventh-round picks to be impact players is silly and it is true that there are a lot of seventh-round picks that don't make rosters. But the Chargers have now discarded all three seventh-round picks in the Brandon Staley era. But they won't ever trade those picks.