The Los Angeles Chargers are going into the offseason facing cap issues, with four players set to make over $30 million in 2024. With the Chargers being $44 million in the red, at least two of those players are going to have to go – and two of them are wide receivers. And there are further questions about what the depth chart will look like in the wake of the incoming regime change – particularly around the future of last year’s first-round receiver, who is off to a rough start.
2024 Chargers Offseason Preview: Wide Receivers
The (Expensive) Starters: Keenan Allen & Mike Williams
Keenan Allen and Mike Williams have been the strong starting duo of the Chargers wide receivers for the last five years. They complement each other well, with Allen being the elite route-runner and best at getting separation, while Williams is the big-play, jump-ball guy. The only problem over the years, at times, has been them both staying healthy – but Williams more so. Both of them missed a handful of games in 2022, and Williams went down for the season in Week 3. Allen was out the final few games of the 2023 season as well, but it seemed like he would have played if the season wasn’t lost.
Given Williams’ injury history and having only two 1,000-yard seasons in seven years – while Allen has five in the same time period – he is the more likely of the two to be traded or cut (more likely the former). It’s not impossible that Allen gets jettisoned instead, but he’s coming off arguably the best season of his career and he has made it clear that he wants to stay. It is quite unlikely that both would be jettisoned, given that they would be without a clear WR1 at that point and probably be unable to get a new one in free agency.
Josh Palmer
Palmer will be going into the final year of his rookie contract – and remains an interesting wildcard in the wide receiver corps. In some ways, he’s basically a discount Keenan Allen who gets less separation, and his ceiling is WR2. However, every time he has been asked to step up in a higher role, he has done well with it, and has gotten better each year – and so has his chemistry with Justin Herbert.
At minimum, his role next year should be WR3 – and that depends if there is a new face brought in to replace Williams or Allen. It is possible that he ends up being WR2 permanently instead and that the offense functions just fine, but that really depends on how the rest of the offense looks. The only way he ends up being any lower is if they add a new starter and Quentin Johnston has a dramatic improvement in Year 2…
Quentin Johnston
…and speaking of Johnston, his role for 2024 is the most up in the air. He had a disastrous first year for a first-rounder, finishing with only 431 receiving yards and two touchdowns. He showed the occasional flash here and there, but his season was plagued by some horrendous drops and poor route-running. Johnston was drafted more for his speed and his after-the-catch ability, but has not been good or consistent enough in other departments for it to balance out. It shows, given that both Herbert and Easton Stick did not look his way much – even when all three of the other top receivers were all out in the final few games.
Given the poor start he is off to in his career and that a new regime is coming in, he will have to work hard to get his way back into the good graces of both the coaches and Herbert. It certainly is possible that he could make a turnaround; some expected him to be more of a project anyway rather than an immediate breakout (though that begs the question why the Chargers drafted him in a make-or-break year). The worst-case scenario for him is that he ends up toward the bottom of the depth chart and finds himself on the roster bubble next year.
Everyone Else
Given the injuries last year, the Chargers went through quite a few wide receivers. If we broke down in detail all of them, it would take two articles. To begin a more quick breakdown: Derius Davis is the last guy on the active roster under contract. He is already one of the better kick returners in the league, and though he hasn’t shown much as a pass-catcher, his future is secure for that reason.
Simi Fehoko was brought back on a futures contract. He only caught one pass all year, but it was for a touchdown, so he at least has that going for him. Among the unrestricted free agents: if any of them, Alex Erickson is most likely to be brought back. He played actually pretty well down the stretch when everyone else was injured, getting more targets than Johnston.
Jalen Guyton had only 10 catches for 89 yards and a touchdown after returning from a torn ACL and seems unlikely to be brought back at this point. Keelan Doss is an exclusive-rights free agent, so the Chargers could easily bring him back on the cheap as a training camp body and then put him on the practice squad.
The Outside Options
With Williams (or maybe Allen) on the way out and Johnston looking like a potential bust, the Chargers will likely look to bring a new receiver into the mix. Unless they manage to free up more cap space than expected, it will likely not be from free agency. Kendrick Bourne and Tyler Boyd would probably be the most affordable decent options. Bourne might not even be better than Palmer, and Boyd may be pushing it in terms of affordability.
More likely the Chargers take somebody in the Draft, in the first or second round. At the fifth overall pick, they may be just too late to get Marvin Harrison Jr. However, they could get Malik Nabers instead, who had 1,500+ yards last year with LSU. He has been named in multiple mocks so far already. The two most likely options at fifth overall appear to be either Nabers or tight end Brock Bowers, so either way the Chargers would be improving their passing offense.
In Conclusion
The Chargers wide receivers will be facing some change at the postion, but if they go wide receiver with their first-round pick, they may be able to more easily fix it than some of their other positions. A trio of Allen, Nabers, and Palmer sounds pretty good by themselves. And if Johnston gets his act together and lives up to his first-round billing… well, the pass offense would be quite difficult to stop. Even if none of that happens, though, Herbert may be able to make do with Allen and Palmer and an upgrade at tight end (like Bowers). We have seen that Herbert doesn’t necessarily need an all-star cast at wideout to make magic happen. But both the fans and Herbert himself probably prefer otherwise.
Main Photo: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
