2. Sign Cornelius Lucas
Cornelius Lucas represents another somewhat cheap offensive line signing for the LA Chargers and some fans may not be interested in that. However, while it comes at a cheap price, there really is not that big of a difference between someone like Lucas and someone like Riley Reiff, who is going to cost the team more.
Drafting a right tackle in the first round is still a possibility but it does feel like the Chargers need a stopgap option before drafting one in the first two rounds next year. Regardless of what the plan is for the Bolts, a really talented option is going to be available for cheap in Lucas.
Lucas is a swing tackle who has experience playing on both sides of the offensive line and has done quite well on both sides. This adds value in the instance that Rashawn Slater misses time and the team needs Lucas to slide to the left side and allow Trey Pipkins to play where he is better at right tackle.
Lucas had a down year last season that was still better than Bryan Bulaga in terms of pass-block efficiency rate. When Lucas is at his full game has put together some of the best pass-blocking numbers in the league while being a capable run-blocker as well.
In 2020 and 2019 Lucas had a 97.7% pass-block efficiency rate, ranking 16th in the statistic in 2020 and 10th in the statistic in 2019. He did it on both sides as well as he primarily played left tackle in 2020 and right tackle in 2019.
Better yet, Lucas is projected to get a two-year, $5 million contract this offseason. Just for simplicity's sake, we will assume that his cap hit is a flat $2.5 million for both years. The Chargers would be getting someone who has been a top-16 pass-blocking tackle in two separate years for only $2.5 million.
This would give the Chargers $5 million left to spend of the $9 million.