Six players the Chargers could bring back with their two playoff IR activations

On Saturday, the Chargers activated S Alohi Gilman from the teams’ reserve/injured list after opening his practice window earlier in the week. With Los Angeles banged up at the safety position, Gilman’s presence is a boost for the secondary prior to the postseason.

Gilman returning from IR is the teams’ eighth activation of the season. That is the NFL’s limit for how many IR activations a team can use in a regular season campaign. However, league rules also grant two extra elevations for teams competing in the postseason.

This opens the door to several possibilities for Los Angeles in the postseason. Not including players on season-ending IR (for example, S Elijah Molden), these are the names the Chargers could see back on the field in January: CB Eli Apple, WR Simi Fehoko, S Marcus Maye, WR Brenden Rice, WR Jalen Reagor, and CB Asante Samuel Jr.

Fehoko seems like an obvious candidate to return for the postseason. He’s had the most time to rehab his elbow injury since November out of the receiver group. The conversation on Rice meanwhile has been rather silent since going on IR. Reagor will be at least eligible to return for the postseason from his finger injury as he’ll have spent his fourth week on injured reserve in Week 18.

Considering the nature of Joshua Palmer’s heel injury being uncertain entering the playoffs, the Chargers would like to have at least one of those receivers back soon.

Apple, Maye, and Samuel Jr. represent some of the Chargers’ secondary options that were placed on IR. Both Apple and Samuel Jr. have spent the requisite time on IR needed to make a return. Although it’s unclear what stages of injury recovery either player is at. The team has refused to give much information about the status of Samuel’s shoulder injury since he was placed on IR prior to Week 6’s contest at Denver.

The wait for Maye will need to be a little longer. He has spent two weeks on IR since injuring his ankle against Denver. He’d need to still spend another two weeks on injured reserve in the postseason to be eligible to return. That would require a Chargers’ run to the AFC Championship game for him to see the field again.

The Chargers will figure out who they could reasonably bring off of IR by the middle of next week when they’d need to open up practice return windows. By tonight or tomorrow, Los Angeles will officially know their Wild Card Weekend opponent.