Chargers Urged to Seek Jim Harbaugh Connection on NFL Trade Block

The Los Angeles Chargers still need help on the interior of Justin Herbert’s offensive line.

What started as a quick, aggressive quest to make upgrades in free agency happen fizzled out in a hurry. The Chargers added new starting center Tyler Biadasz, then faded out by merely signing Cole Strange and bringing back Trevor Penning.

As it turns out, Chargers general manager Joe Hortiz just wasn't able to shake free of a conservative shell that has the front office heavily focused on the NFL draft compensatory pick formula.

In fact, one could argue the Chargers still need to find two starting guards, so one can also presume they make at least one more move before the draft.

If the move isn’t some bargain-bin free agents with starting upside, the Chargers could always look at the NFL’s trade block.

Chargers could target Browns for trade during free agency

Cleveland Browns guard Zak Zinter — Zak Zinter | Morgan Tencza-Imagn Images

Besides consistent offensive line problems, one suggestion always made about the Chargers is that they can pursue Jim Harbaugh’s past Michigan connections.

The Chargers do just that in a new proposal from Bleacher Report’s Moe Moton, who says they should call up the Cleveland Browns about a trade for Zak Zinter:

“The Chargers can plug Zinter into the right guard spot where he lined up at Michigan, allowing Strange to start at left guard, a position he played in his first two seasons with the New England Patriots.”

There’s some poetry here. Zinter played under Harbaugh at Michigan. Those Browns paid up big for Zion Johnson in free agency, the Chargers’ former first-round pick who never panned out completely for them.

Taking a Zinter-Strange combo on the depth chart into the draft might not be the worst outlook for the Chargers. Sure, they'd be getting back the guy Johnson helped bump out of the lineup. It would, at the very least, prevent them from needing to add a guard right in Round 1.

Overall, a rather small trade for a name like Zinter is probably the best example of what the Chargers might consider before the draft. It wouldn’t be the big splash with the big assets fans had hoped for, but at this stage, it would certainly be better than doing nothing.

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