{"id":138196,"date":"2023-02-04T16:00:52","date_gmt":"2023-02-04T21:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=138196"},"modified":"2023-02-04T13:20:59","modified_gmt":"2023-02-04T18:20:59","slug":"projected-contracts-chargers-free-agents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023\/02\/04\/projected-contracts-chargers-free-agents\/","title":{"rendered":"Are the Chargers Free Agents Worth Their Projected Contracts?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Chargers have no shortage of good free agents set to hit the market, and each player is due for a pay raise. Recently, the fine folks at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pff.com\/news\/nfl-2023-free-agent-rankings-free-agency\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pro Football Focus<\/a> projected contracts for 100 of the top free agents, and three Chargers made the list. Now, nobody claims every single one of these projections will be 100% accurate, but assuming they&#8217;re in the right ballpark, let&#8217;s take a look at if the Chargers should re-sign any of these players.<\/p>\n<h2>PFF Projects Contracts For Three Chargers Free Agents<\/h2>\n<h3>1. Drue Tranquill, LB<\/h3>\n<p><em>Projected Contract: Two years, $8.5 million; $5 million guaranteed<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The highest-rated player of all the Chargers free agents, Drue Tranquill is hitting free agency at the right time. After spending his first three years as a backup, the fourth-round pick finally earned the chance to start in 2022, and he made the most of his opportunity. Appearing in all 17 games, Tranquill finished the season with five sacks, a staggering 145 tackles, 10 tackles-for-loss, and eight quarterback hits while also holding his own in coverage.<\/p>\n<p>If you could guarantee Tranquill continued to play like that over the next two years, then this projected contract would be a steal. However, because 2022 was his first season as a full-time starter, there is some risk that this was a career year and he won&#8217;t be able to play at that high of a level at a consistent rate. That being said, for just over $4 million a year, Tranquill is well worth the risk. The former fourth-round pick is a true three-down linebacker that can function in coverage and as a run defender, and players like that are hard to find.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Chargers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Chargers<\/a> Drue Tranquil with one of the fastest sacks you\u2019ll ever see. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/TkSuPjVeNa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/TkSuPjVeNa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NFL Unlimited (@NFLUnlimited) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NFLUnlimited\/status\/1582205625357848576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 18, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>2. Kyle Van Noy, EDGE<\/h3>\n<p><em>Projected Contract: Two years, $6.5 million; $4 million guaranteed<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The one Patriots free agent signing that actually paid off, Kyle Van Noy had a great first season in Los Angeles. A versatile chess piece that can play a multitude of positions, Van Noy definitely deserves a chance to play on an NFL defense. Unfortunately, that opportunity might not come with the Chargers.<\/p>\n<p>As mentioned in a previous article, the Chargers are currently $20 million over the salary cap and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023\/02\/02\/five-los-angeles-chargers-cut-candidates\/\" target=\"_self\">will need to cut a few players<\/a> in the coming weeks. Los Angeles needs to be incredibly careful with their money, and that might mean they won&#8217;t have the available financial resources to invest in a good-but-not-great player entering his age-32 season. Granted, this is a relatively cheap contract, so maybe the Chargers find a way to make it work, but that&#8217;s anything but a guarantee.<\/p>\n<h3>3. Morgan Fox, DT<\/h3>\n<p><em>Projected Contract: Two years, $9 million; $5 million guaranteed<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The last of the Chargers free agents on the list, opinions on Morgan Fox will vary dramatically depending on what you value in a player. While Fox is an above-average pass rusher, he is terrible against the run. The Chargers had arguably the worst run defense in football, and the team is likely to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023\/02\/03\/five-los-angeles-chargers-nfl-draft-targets\/\" target=\"_self\">address that weakness in the NFL Draft<\/a>. Considering the Chargers current financial situation, it&#8217;s hard to justify investing $4.5 million per season in a player with that will not fix one of the biggest issues with the 2022 iteration of the team. Fox is a fine situational rusher, but for that type of money, you need somebody that isn&#8217;t a liability in short-yardage and early-down situations.<\/p>\n<p>Main photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"AETS2bWYR8Juh--fiSLwdw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1246280011\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'AETS2bWYR8Juh--fiSLwdw',sig:'L-VKHmK82LNQ0yoUsKISZMhN-f7I-4l1xhzE-5MDp8A=',w:'594px',h:'395px',items:'1246280011',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pro Football Focus recently projected contracts for three of the Chargers free agents, but are these players worth that kind of money?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":138198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[7642,9653,3267,9654],"class_list":["post-138196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chargers","tag-chargers-featured","tag-drue-tranquil","tag-kyle-van-noy","tag-morgan-fox"],"modified_by":"David Latham, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}