2. B.J. Hill
B.J. Hill may not be a household name and certainly is not the biggest-name defensive tackle that is hitting free agency for the Bengals this offseason. That would be Larry Ogunjobi, who is a decent pass-rusher but is horrible against the run. That is the last thing that the LA Chargers need to add to the defensive tackle room.
The Bolts need to bolster the run and there is a myriad of ways to do that. The team could make a big, splashy signing that costs a fair amount of money or they could even take a defensive tackle in the first two rounds of the 2022 NFL Draft to really land an impact player.
The moves that go under the radar are often the ones that have the biggest impacts and this would be an under-the-radar move. Hill is not going to get a big contract and would otherwise seem like a signing that fans forget about in a few weeks. However, in the playing time that he has gotten in Cincy, he has proven to be really good against the run.
According to Pro Football Focus, Hill registered 25 run stops in only 173 run defense snaps in 2021. Hill ranked 27th in the NFL in run-stop percentage with at least 20% of snaps played, ranking slightly higher than LA's own, Linval Joseph.
Hill is a recent third-round pick that really has not done much in the NFL to this point and was even traded by the team that drafted him, the New York Giants. Hill's stock is higher than it has ever been after intercepting Patrick Mahomes in the AFC Championship Game but he is still going to be an under-the-radar signing for whichever team ends up with him.
Perhaps that team could be the LA Chargers.