Could Chargers strike up rare trade with Raiders before final cuts?

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The Los Angeles Chargers just happen to have three capable quarterbacks and Jim Harbaugh probably only wants to have two on the final roster. 

Across the AFC West, the rival Las Vegas Raiders have a major need at quarterback. 

Time for rivals to link up? 

Those Raiders just lost quarterback Aidan O'Connell to a fractured wrist, leaving Harbaugh’s arch-nemesis Pete Carroll looking for a backup quarterback. 

Harbaugh just so happens to have Trey Lance and Taylor Heinicke behind Justin Herbert on the depth chart. Lance vastly outplayed Heinicke this summer, but the latter was a guy they felt strongly enough to trade for just one year ago. 

RELATED: Chargers' final 53-man roster projection before final cuts

The Chargers aren’t going to get a massive trade return for either of their backup quarterbacks, of course. But something would be far better than nothing because the alternative is simply losing the one that doesn’t make the final 53. 

That’s where a deal with the Raiders can make sense, too. Usually, there would be an in-divison tax on a trade. But Carroll’s club might be the only team in the NFL willing to trade for a capable backup right now. 

RELATED: Did Trey Lance play himself into a potential trade with his preseason performance?

And the Chargers can take comfort in the fact that, should they trade a quarterback to the Raiders and then have to line up against them, they happen to know that passer better than most, anyway. 

Wilder things, as they say, have happened. And with final cuts looming, the Raiders are suddenly a team the Chargers might want to call about a trade. 

With QB Aidan O'Connell fracturing his wrist and being sidelined 6-8 weeks, Raiders HC Pete Carroll said the team now is in the market for a backup QB and it is looking for “an experienced player who can help us.”

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 24, 2025

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