The Chargers are in the hunt for a new general manager and head coach as they transition into 2024, but the calendar will soon turn toward free agency. The soon-to-be-hired leadership will have some tough decisions to make on their roster with several key internal free agents.
Los Angeles will enter March with just over two dozen free agents that have the potential to hit the open market. However, for the sake of this exercise, I’ve decided to remove the lower-cost restricted and exclusive rights free agents to focus on the unrestricted class.
To make the necessary improvements on their roster, there are some Chargers that just have to be moved on from in the long term.
RB Austin Ekeler
Ekeler is one of the longest-tenured Chargers who has been with the team since signing in 2017 as an undrafted free agent. He’s had an incredibly productive career in usage, with over 8,000 scrimmage yards on 1,430 touches in that span.
But with that aforementioned production comes miles. Ekeler will be 29 when the 2024 season starts. Unfortunately, this past season was one of his least efficient campaigns. He averaged a career-low 3.5 yards per carry. He finished with just seven explosive runs over 10+ yards, a mark that tied the lowest single-season figure in his seven seasons.
He won’t be too expensive on the open market, considering the down year in 2023. But it’s time for the Chargers to rebuild the running back room from the ground up with the impending free agency periods for Ekeler and Joshua Kelley. Ekeler is clearly on the decline as he approaches his 30s and Los Angeles needs explosive players more than safety valves.
CB Michael Davis
Perhaps no Charger embodies hot and cold streaks as much as Davis does. In 2020 and 2022, Davis had quasi-shutdown years in coverage that gave LA hope for long-term production. But his 2021 and 2023 campaigns featured a lot of inconsistent play and coverage mistakes. Davis even got benched by Brandon Staley and the defensive staff at times.
Like Ekeler, Davis will be 29 when the 2024 campaign starts. Cornerbacks tend to have shorter primes. Last season, Davis allowed the highest target reception percentage, total yards, and opposing quarterback passer rating of his career.
Asante Samuel Jr. will be going into a contract year. Outside of him, the Chargers have no true starting corners on the roster right now. Still, it’s time to blow up the initial Staley plan that involved J.C. Jackson and a now struggling Davis in favor of a new vision.
DT Austin Johnson
Johnson’s two years with the Chargers are defined by a knee injury he suffered against the Falcons in 2022. It would end his season prematurely while he was playing pretty well. Johnson was fifth in run stop percentage among defensive tackles at the time of his injury.
Unfortunately, Johnson never quite rebounded to the same level of play in 2023. He finished the season with the lowest Pro Football Focus defensive grade of his career, with 20 fewer run stops than his 2021 Giants season.
After parting ways with Sebastian Joseph-Day towards the end of the year, it seems the Chargers are headed towards a full-scale rebuild in the defensive tackle room. It’s a unit that could probably use a fresh start.
LB Kenneth Murray
By declining to pick up Murray’s fifth-year option last April, the Chargers essentially let us know where they stood with him. There’s not much more to it than that.
To be fair, Murray had a decent season by his standards. He was fitting runs better as a linebacker and improved as a tackler by most metrics paired with film.
That said, there’s a glaring weakness in Murray’s game that will likely always be an issue. Murray and Eric Kendricks were picked apart by opposing quarterbacks consistently in pass coverage. The former first-round pick out of Oklahoma allowed 56 receptions for 660 yards. Murray gave up 245 more passing yards than his 2020 season despite playing fewer coverage snaps.
Maybe there’s an argument to bring back Murray as a rotational piece, considering his improvement as a tackler. Still, he’s just not a starting linebacker in the modern NFL as a liability in coverage.
WR Jalen Guyton
Guyton was never not a one-trick pony in the league. However, his 4.3 straight-line speed combined with Justin Herbert’s cannon of an arm made him a viable threat early in his career.
His torn ACL early in the season against Jacksonville in 2022 has changed his career trajectory. Guyton missed about half of the 2023 campaign due to his recovery and when he returned, he never looked like the same player athletically.
Despite an injured Chargers’ wide receiver room that was practically begging for someone to step up and contribute, Guyton finished with ten receptions for 89 yards in eight games. He registered the lowest yards per route run mark of his career at 0.5 if one would want to look at target efficiency.
The one-dimensional nature of Guyton’s game got exposed due to him not having that same level of souped-up track star speed. As a result, I’m not seeing much of a purpose for an aging version of him potentially returning to the Chargers.
