Zion Johnson is one of a select few major free agents the LA Chargers have to decide on this offseason. Johnson is an unrestricted free agent after the team declined his fifth-year option and might be due for a pay day that is larger than the Bolts expected.
Johnson is coming off a career year that was buried alongside a terrible offensive line. Johnson was far from perfect, and he certainly still has his skeptics, but he put together the most complete season of his career thus far. At just 26 years old, there's still plenty of room for Johnson to develop a an NFL guard.
Whether or not the Chargers should re-sign Johnson is a hotly debated topic among fans but the answer may have already been revealed. The Chargers social media team dropped a couples quiz video with Johnson and his significant other on Tuesday, less than a week before legal tampering begins in the NFL.
Is this the Chargers' way of covertly telling their fans who pay the most attention that Johnson will be back in powder blue next season? Perhaps.
Zion Johnson's return to the Chargers has never felt more real
Update: Chargers senior vice president of brand and creative content, Jason LaVine, said on social media that the video is "nothing" and that fans should "move onto something else."
Of course, the social media team is not involved with the front-office procedures and don't know what is happening behind closed doors. That being said, however, the timing of this video is interesting, especially given the production value of the shoot itself.
There are one of two ways this video could have been done. The Chargers could have shot this at a previous time and were holding onto the video until it made sense to post. This is a love-filled couples quiz, after all, and theoretically would have lined up perfectly with Valentine's Day.
Perhaps that was the original plan but the video had to be held. Even if it wasn't Valentine's Day, one possibility is that the Chargers filmed this close to the 2025 season and have been sitting on it since. Suddenly posting it a week before free agency starts seems to indicate a change in the situation.
The other possibility is that this was recently recorded and uploaded. But even then, that would mean Johnson was in the building as an impending free agent and was willing to film a video ahead of free-agent negotiations.
It is important to note that this is the third "date night" video the Chargers have published. The first was released on the first Saturday of December with Cameron Dicker. The second was released on the first Saturday of January with Ladd McConkey.
The first Saturday of February was the day before the Super Bowl. The second Saturday was Valentine's Day. Either day would have been a topical time to continue the trend, but the social team didn't. Why? Was it because of Johnson's impending free agency? Why else would they sit on a video that was seemingly filmed during the season?
We're firmly entering conspiracy theory territory here, but that's the beauty of fandom. This may end up being a giant nothing-burger that was completely situational with bad timing. Or it might be a sign of something to come. A green light of sorts for the social team. An indication that Zion Johnson is returning to the Chargers.
Time will ultimately tell.