As NFL Trade Deadline Looms, Chargers Have Options to Consider

As the Chargers enter their bye week, the NFL trade deadline sits seven days away.

Nicholas Cothrel | Oct 25, 2022

In this story:

Los Angeles Chargers

The hits keep coming for the Chargers as the team's list of injuries seem to grow in size nearly each week.

Chargers coach Brandon Staley announced Monday that cornerback J.C. Jackson has a rupture to his patella tendon and will miss the remainder of this season. Meanwhile, that wasn't the only catastrophe blow to the team this week as wide receiver Mike Williams suffered a high ankle sprain against the Seahawks and will be out for weeks.

Cornerback Michael Davis, who served the starting cornerback role during the two games Jackson was sidelined earlier this season with an ankle injury, is expected to slot in along the boundary yet again.

With the NFL trade deadline nearing, the Chargers could be in position to pursue roster reinforcements as they enter their bye week in the days ahead. All trades must be finalized by the Nov. 1 at 4 p.m. ET deadline.

Staley said Monday that he will meet with General Manager Tom Telesco, Owner Dean Spanos and President of Football Operations John Spanos in the days ahead to configure where they believe they’re at organizationally as it pertains to making possible trades as they sit with a 4-3 record through seven weeks.

"We are always going to look for avenues to enhance our team and make it better," Staley said of going outside of the organization to explore a trade ahead of the deadline. "If those avenues are possible, then we’ll definitely explore them.”

Perhaps they could pursue options at cornerback following Jackson's season-ending injury, but the current state of their wide receiver group indicates it's a more pressing need at this time.

With Williams slated to miss a matter of weeks, the team has also faced being without Joshua Palmer due to a concussion and wide receiver Keenan Allen just made his return to action last Sunday after a six-week absence with a hamstring injury. Allen was on a snap-count and had his day cut short in his return, catching two passes for 11 yards.

"As the game progressed, throughout that second quarter, he just didn’t feel like he could really burst the way that he wanted to, and didn’t want to risk anything happening to it," Staley said of Allen's Week 7 game. "No setback to it, but just didn’t to push it."

The Chargers also have been tasked with operating without their deep threat, Jalen Guyton, after he tore his ACL in Week 3.

Ultimately, the Chargers have played just a quarter and a half of football this season with their top three wide receivers on the field together.

“That group has been banged up. It hasn’t played together very much, that’s for sure," Staley said of the injuries at wide receiver. "We’ll try to get Keenan back fully healthy, try to get Josh back. Then, with Mike, hopefully, that recovery happens sooner rather than later.

"I don’t think that we’ve been able to truly evaluate this group because it hasn’t played together very much. We have to make improvements, for sure, on our whole offensive football team. I really want to see that group out there together playing because that hasn’t been able to happen yet so far this season.”

Among the wide receivers who've gained steam to be traded ahead of the deadline include Elijah Moore of the Jets, Brandin Cooks of the Texans and Chase Claypool of the Steelers, to name a few.

The Chargers have one of the top deep ball passers in the NFL with Justin Herbert, but they don't currently have a pass-catcher on the roster who routinely reaches the deep part of the field. Therefore, the offense isn't able to use one of Herbert's best traits.

In 10 years at the helm as general manager of the Chargers, Telesco hasn't pulled off a trade at the deadline to acquire a new asset. But if last offseason showed anything, it's that the Chargers are operating with a vision that they want to win now and the expectations have been raised in doing so.

Clearly, they need a lift at wide receiver based on the lack of availability from their top performers at the position. If they do, in fact, opt to make a move, adding a player who brings a speed element, it would offer something they don't currently have – a vertical option to take the top of the defense and tap into Herbert's deep-ball throwing ability.

*Get your Chargers tickets from SI Tickets by clicking here

Read more from Charger Report: