Each day leading up to the 2026 NFL Draft — April 23-25 — TeamFB7 will break down a different team’s biggest draft need and the best selection to address it. Granted, teams will most often use their first-round pick on the best available player/value and not necessarily always their biggest need, so this isn’t going to compile together into a mock draft in the end. It’s more a breakdown of how each team could best address its most paramount priority if it chooses.
It’s plain and simple — if the Los Angeles Chargers ever want to win a playoff game in quarterback Justin Herbert’s career, they need to find a way to protect him better.
That may be a bit overdramatic … or is it?
Since Herbert came into the NFL in 2020, he is the most-sacked quarterback in the league, taking 225 over his six seasons with the Chargers.
That stat is only mildly misleading, as Justin Fields, Russell Wilson, Baker Mayfield, Joe Burrow, Geno Smith and Daniel Jones are in the top 10 on that list with a higher sacks-per-game ratio. But this one is more direct and pertinent — Herbert is second to only Smith in both total sacks (95) and sacks per game (2.9) the last two seasons.
And there’s no bigger reason why the Chargers have flamed out in the wildcard round both years after back-to-back 11-win seasons under coach Jim Harbaugh.
In losing 32-12 to the Texans in the 2025 wildcard round, Herbert was sacked 4 times but pressured on 19 of his 36 drop-backs, per NFL Next Gen Stats — which was surely a factor in the 4 interceptions he threw that game too.
In the 16-3 wildcard loss to the Patriots this year, Herbert was sacked 6 times.
A big part of the problem, of course, was that the Chargers played most of last season without their two expected starting tackles.
Less than two weeks after signing a 4-year, $114-million extension, Pro Bowl left tackle Rashawn Slater tore the patellar tendon in his knee during an early August practice and missed the entire season.
Right tackle Joe Alt, the No. 5 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, was then limited to six games before undergoing season-ending ankle surgery.
(Jamaree Salyer, a former starter for the team in 2022-23, took over at left tackle after Alt’s injury. He signed with the Dolphins this offseason on a telling 1-year, $1.4-million minimal-investment contract and is expected to slot in at guard there.)
Just getting those two top-end bookends back in 2026 substantially improves the situation.
But the problems were deeper than that.
The Chargers used a league-high 32 different offensive line combinations over the course of the season, per NFL Next Gen Stats.
They signed free agent right guard Mekhi Becton to a 2-year, $20-million contract last year, but he was so bad (PFF graded him 79th out of 81 qualifying guards) that he was released after one season with the team.
Left guard Zion Johnson, a first-round pick in 2022 and a starter for the team the last four seasons, ranked 52nd out of 81 per PFF. But he signed a big free agent contract with the OL-desperate Browns for 3 years and $49.5 million.
And Bradley Bozeman, whom PFF graded as the worst of 40 qualifying centers, retired.
So that meant the Chargers had to replace the entire interior of their offensive line — which could only be a positive.
They signed former Commanders center Tyler Biadasz (graded 11th out of 40 Cs by PFF) on a 3-year, $30-million deal and former Dolphins right guard Cole Strange (58th out of 81 OGs, per PFF) for 2 years and $13 million to address two of those spots.
Los Angeles also added guard Kayode Awosika, a former Lions reserve with 11 starts in 49 games played over the last four seasons, on a 1-year, $2-million deal. But ideally he provides depth along with Trevor Penning, a first-round pick of the Saints in 2022 who logged 551 snaps and made four starts last season for the Chargers while mostly playing left guard but also some right guard and even left tackle.
But despite the glaring need to draft an immediate-impact offensive guard, it’s very possible that’s not what the Chargers do with their first-round pick — for one main reason.
The Chargers pick 22nd overall in the draft, which unfortunately for them is one spot behind the Steelers, who also need to draft a starting left guard. And Pittsburgh is widely projected to scoop up the only OG prospect expected to go in the first round — Penn State’s Olaivavega Ioane. (Not counting Utah’s Spencer Fano, who is an offensive tackle that may wind up playing guard in the NFL and will be off the board much earlier in the first round.)
So where does that leave Los Angeles, which also holds picks in the 2nd round (55th overall), 3rd (86th), 4th (123rd) and 6th (204th)?
What Are Other Biggest Needs For Los Angeles Chargers In 2026 NFL Draft?
Unless the Steelers surprise everyone and pass on Ioane or Los Angeles trades up ahead of Pittsburgh, which seems unlikely with its limited draft capital, the Chargers will have to address another need with that No. 22 pick.
They could look to add an edge rusher.
The Chargers return their sack leader Tuli Tuipulotu (13 sacks, 20 tackles for loss in 2025), re-signed 35-year-old four-time All-Pro Khalil Mack on a one-year $18-million deal and also have veteran Bud Dupree (2 sacks in 16 games last season). But Mack isn’t the same force he once was, with 5.5 sacks in 12 games last season, and the team lost Odafe Oweh (7.5 sacks in 12 regular-season games with the team plus 3 in the playoff game) in free agency to the Commanders.
There will be several edge rusher options available at this point in the draft, perhaps including Miami’s Akheem Mesidor, Missouri’s Zion Young, Auburn’s Keldric Faulk and Clemson’s T.J. Parker.
We’ve recommended Mesidor and Parker over Faulk to other teams in our draft preview series because for those teams the need was for an immediate difference-making EDGE. With Tuipulotu and Mack, the Chargers can prioritize long-term upside more, and that’s what the 6-foot-5, 276-pound Faulk offers.
Faulk had just 2 sacks and 5 TFLs as a junior for Auburn after posting 7 sacks and 11 TFLs as a true sophomore, but here’s some useful context on that.
And even if he still has to develop further as a pass rusher, he’d likely be an immediate help in rush defense.
The Chargers could also look to upgrade the interior of the defensive line.
They already signed former Cardinals nose tackle Dalvin Tomlinson for 1 year and $6.2 million. PFF graded him 120th out of 134 interior defensive linemen after he produced 26 tackles, 3 TFLs and 1 sack in 17 games for one of the NFL’s worst defenses, but he’s been a starter in the league for nine years and that position isn’t necessarily about stats.
The Chargers are clearly high on sixth-year veteran Teair Tart, who spent the last two seasons with the team and earned a 3-year, $30-million extension this offseason.
They also have promising third-year lineman Justin Eboigbe, who broke out with 39 tackles and 6 sacks last season despite only starting one of the 17 games he played, and Jamaree Caldwell, who had 31 tackles, 5 TFLs and 1 sack and started 5 games as a rookie.
The rotation and depth is a bit thin, though, and taking the first defensive tackle in the draft (likely to be Clemson’s Peter Woods or Ohio State’s Kayden McDonald) makes a lot of sense — strengthening both the top of the depth chart and by extension the bottom.
What Should Chargers Do In First Round Of 2026 NFL Draft?
If Ioane is off the board already, the Chargers should actually try to trade back.
Offensive guard is the clear priority here, but No. 22 is too early to reach for the next tier of OG prospects — Georgia Tech’s Keylan Rutledge, Oregon’s Emmanuel Pregnon and Texas A&M’s Chase Bisontis — while pick No. 55 might be too late.
ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. projects the Chargers to land Pregnon at No. 55, but it’s exceedingly likely he’s taken early in the second round, and Los Angeles shouldn’t gamble on it.
If the Chargers can’t trade back into the end of Round 1 or the start of Round 2, then they should take Faulk.
Mack and Dupree are on the downside of their careers and both free agents after this season. Faulk could immediately help the group and then be primed to take over as a potentially dynamic tandem with Tuipulotu for the foreseeable future.
In that scenario, though, the Chargers should then try to trade up from No. 55 to earlier in the second round. Any of those three aforementioned offensive guards would be nice fits.
