Jerry Tillery is going to go down as one of the worst first-round picks made by the LA Chargers. Tillery could just never put it together on the Chargers and slowly became one of the most despised players on the roster among the fanbase.
It all came to a head during the bye week in 2022 when the Chargers decided it was best to just move on from Tillery, waiving him before his rookie contract ended. The Las Vegas Raiders scooped Tillery up and in classic Raiders fan fashion, convinced themselves that a mediocre player was going to make a big difference.
Vegas didn't just scoop Tillery up for the remainder of the 2022 season, though. The team committed to re-signing the former first-round pick, giving him starting-caliber money in the process. No, we are not joking.
Comp update: Jerry Tillery’s deal with the #Raiders is a two-year contract for $7M, worth up to $8M. Also includes $5.6M guaranteed, source says. https://t.co/mFvSbSwMMa
— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) March 16, 2023
Good for Jerry Tillery. It is always great to see players get paid from teams, regardless of whether or not it makes sense. And let us tell you: it makes absolutely no sense for the Raiders, which makes it so great for Chargers fans.
Raiders re-signing Jerry Tillery is comical for Chargers fans.
We all have seen how hit-and-miss Tillery can be and the fact that they committed starting money to him on a two-year deal really is something. The exact numbers have yet to be released but the Chargers were able to bring back Morgan Fox on a two-year deal as well.
Based on the Chargers' financial situation, there is a good chance that Fox's price tag ended up being pretty close to that of Tillery's, making this even better. Fox was actually hugely impactful for the Chargers last year. Tillery was not.
Tillery finished the 2022 season with 19 quarterback pressures, per Pro Football Focus, which is less than half of what Fox finished with. To be fair, he had one good game with the Raiders and it came against the Chargers in which he finished with six pressures. But nearly the entire starting offensive line was out for that game.
Cool, Tillery got to play well against his former team but outside of that one game, he proved why Chargers fans had a problem with him. In seven other games he finished with three total pressures. Three pressures in 125 pass-rushing snaps, for those keeping track at home. And this is a guy who is supposed to be a pass-rusher! This is ignoring the fact that he is horrible against the run.
And let's not forget that Tillery literally cost the Raiders the game against the LA Rams late in the season which ultimately killed the team's playoff chances. It was his last contribution to the Chargers and it was probably the best one of his career.
Former #Chargers DT Jerry Tillery commits an unsportsmanlike penalty that cost the #Raiders the game pic.twitter.com/FiWTZzMhpr
— Chargers Country (@ChargersCountry) December 9, 2022
The Raiders have two more years of this and Chargers fans get four total games to root against Tillery over the next two seasons.
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I guess it is a win-win for both parties considering this is what the Raiders wanted?