Chargers Compared to Bengals, Ripped by Execs for NFL Free Agency

The Chargers will always fall behind more aggressive teams and owners, it seems.

Joe Hortiz | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Los Angeles Chargers fans can feel justified in their disappointment with the team right now: 

Everyone else sees it too. 

When the Chargers approached NFL free agency with nearly $100 million to spend, most didn’t think they would have one of the lowest cash spends in the NFL when all is said and done. Mike McDaniel is in town to go all-in with Justin Herbert, right? 

Apparently not. The Chargers signed Tyler Biadasz before free agency started, but then took a shockingly quiet path through the open market before a draft where they don’t even have a full class’s worth of picks. 

The ho-hum performance in a win-now window has some comparing the Chargers to other conservative teams like the Cincinnati Bengals. 

Chargers accused of being too timid compared to actual contenders 

Jim Harbaugh | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Mike Sando of The Athletic recently polled anonymous executives and similar about each NFL team. 

The things said about the Chargers aren’t exactly glowing. 

One NFL exec told Sando that, now that other NFL owners have become more aggressive with increasing salary caps and the usefulness of trades, it makes it hard for teams like the Chargers to keep pace: 

“Once you have the owners who say, ‘No, I want to go for it,’ it becomes really hard for the teams who are passive to win big. If you’re the Chargers or the Bengals and you’re gonna play this thing passive, yeah, you’re going to compete with the Ravens right now and the Broncos right now, but in two years, it’s gonna be a different team that passed you.”

It’s a sobering yet fair take. The Chargers are hanging their hopes on good health and McDaniel being a big solution. But hope isn’t really a plan and McDaniel probably wouldn’t say no to more roster upgrades. 

Here’s a telling comment from an exec, per Sando: “Their quarterback is making $24 million (in base salary) this year, and they are going to be the lowest cash spending team in the league. Take advantage of this and get good players, even if it’s just on one-year deals.”

This is the crux of the argument Chargers fans make, especially when looking at what appear to be two obviously lackluster guard spots again. They have droves of cap space, but couldn’t have done more, even on a short-term basis? 

None of this urges the Chargers to go be reckless and ruin future years. But the win-now window is so obviously now, that the almost aw shucks approach to the roster feels wildly stubborn. 

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