Chargers' recent draft pick already dubbed a cut candidate at OTAs

Early Chargers OTAs returns have a notable cut candidate emerging.

Kyle Kennard | Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

After an offseason that earned plenty of strong grades, the Los Angeles Chargers head to OTAs with a notable number of roster battles. 

Call it a good thing: Despite major roster churn over the first two years of the Jim Harbaugh experience, the Chargers keep adding to the roster, improving depth and creating meaningful roster battles. 

Unfortunately, though, that sort of positive means some fan favorites and notable names get put in roster battles perhaps earlier than fans would have thought, making them cut candidates. 

And while the calendar hasn’t even turned to June, Chargers OTAs has already produced one notable cut candidate. 

Chargers recent draft pick hits cut candidate list

Kyle Kennard | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

Sometimes roster moves and what players around the team have to say, plus a splash of depth chart logic, create cut candidates that are pretty obvious. 

Right now? The name to know is Kyle Kennard. 

A fourth-round pick in 2025, Kennard didn’t make the expected impact as a rookie. After OTAs, Daniel Popper of The Athletic wrote this: “After an underwhelming rookie season, Kennard will be fighting for a roster spot heading into Year 2.”

Kennard is on the hot seat to the point guys like Khalil Mack gave Popper a quote like this: “There’s a hunger there. I can just tell. The level of focus and detail.”

The capper? Popper went on to call that quote “most positive development I’ve heard on Kennard this offseason.”

Harsh, perhaps, but Kennard played just 80 snaps last year and the Chargers aren’t waiting around on guys to pan out while in win-now mode. 

Case in point, while they lost Odafe Oweh in free agency, the fact they traded for him at all was an indictment on the room and injury situation. 

Now, the Chargers brought back Mack again, drafted Akheem Mesidor in the first round and still have Tuli Tuipulotu rising to stardom and earning a major second contract.

There’s also Bud Dupree as veteran depth and popular undrafted free agent Nadame Tucker, who happened to play under Chargers defensive coordinator Chris O’Leary at Western Michigan. That connection could mean an undrafted free agent ends up getting the nod after a strong summer.

Maybe Kennard is ready for that second-year leap, of course. But with how the first year unfolded and the current makeup of the roster, he’s going to need to show it early and often, starting right now during OTAs. 

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