The Chargers signed guard Kayode Awosika towards the end of the NFL free agency in March. Relative to maybe some of the pre-free agency expectations, the Chargers' signings at guard were rather low profile. In addition to Awosika, the Chargers signed Mike McDaniel target Cole Strange to play right guard and re-signed Trevor Penning. But there wasn't necessarily a hot commodity signing that the fanbase might've expected given the team's financial resources and cap space this offseason.
The Chargers did make up for that a bit in the draft and undrafted free agency by taking swings at all five spots along the offensive line. But still, it's an open competition at left guard instead of maybe having the established, proven starter some Chargers fans were hoping for.
Could Kayode Awosika end up running away with the starting left guard job for the Chargers?
Awosika has been a backup guard in Detroit for the past four seasons. He started four games with the Lions last year due to injuries and played a total of 287 snaps on the season. Awosika allowed 10 pressures and three sacks with a 95.9 pass blocking efficiency in 2025. For 2026, he has a cap hit similar to that of most depth offensive line pieces-just over $1.8 million.
Awosika has been the teams' primary first unit left guard through OTAs to this point. Slaughter has also rotated in with the ones in addition to being backup center on the teams' second string offensive line.
Awosika holding the spot over Slaughter for now isn't a surprise as the team makes their second-round draft pick earn his spot. But going into OTAs, my expectation wasn't that he would be higher on the depth chart than Trevor Penning. Penning has a higher cap hit than Awosika by roughly $1.7 million and was with the team last season. While the trench pecking order means very little until the pads come on in training camp, it's at least notable as a positive for Awosika to this point.
Yesterday at his media availability, Awosika was asked if he was guaranteed a chance to start along the offensive line when he was signed:
"Honestly, if it was I don't even recall because I attack everything the same way," Awosika said. "I go into every building, especially going to a new team-competition, people going down for instance is something that happens 24/7. As players, especially going to a new place, you come in with the mindset to fight to do anything-start. And after that, everything falls where it lies. We're in OTAs learning new systems, new everything. And I think competition breeds the best out of everybody so I think it's super important to just come in with a competitive mindset."
It's still very, very early in the process. But Awosika does have early pole position to start at left guard when the season kicks off. It's a bit of a surprise development to say the least.
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