The former Baltimore Raven retired in 2023 and spent last season as a scouting intern, but has re-joined Joe Hortiz and Jesse Minter in Los Angeles.

Hortiz has made it clear and obvious he wanted to bring the winning culture that he experienced across his 26 years at in Maryland, to Los Angeles where he earned his first role as General Manager. He continues to rely on those Baltimore connections as he adds yet another former Raven to the 90 active man roster ahead of training camp which will start in about six weeks' time. It's not only a Joe Hortiz connection from his time in his scouting department that contributed to this reunion, Jesse Minter was the assistant defensive backs coach so he would have spent a great deal of time with Jefferson both on the practise field and in the film room.

There were signs Jefferson was aiming at a surprise comeback after he posted the clip below to his Twitter/X account and less than two hours later there was news that he was expected to try out with the Chargers' during their early June minicamp.

As Kyle DeDiminicantanio wrote in his article on June 3rd, when Jordan Schultz broke the news that Tony would be trying out during minicamp; "The Chargers have a very formidable starting pair at safety in Derwin James Jr. and Alohi Gilman, but the depth behind them is extremely questionable and filled by players from Tom Telesco’s regime."

The impact of this signing can be seen in two ways; the first is simply as a veteran camp body that can act as on-field coach to the younger safeties. Jefferson has had a reputation for being a stellar teammate who brought postivity and acted as a leader, so he could provide an example of how to be a professional the rookies in secondary. The other angle to take on this signing is that it both raises questions about the existing depth of JT Woods and AJ Finley, and potentially makes adding another veteran safety, through a trade or free agent signing, somewhat unlikely.

In my opinion it is more likely that Joe Hortiz wanted to add a veteran who has experienced winning, to a secondary that was very much lacking in that kind of familiarity with what it takes to consistently better your opponents. The only player with a winning record in Steve Clinkscale's position group is Kristian Fulton who had a 0.581 winning record and that pales in comparison to Tony Jefferson's 0.761 over his decade long career between Arizona, Baltimore, San Francisco and New York (Giants). Considering he is coming out of retirement it will likely be for a veteran minimum and I see this as no object to adding another safety either after the next set of post-camp cuts or before the trade deadline.

The one concern I do have is JT Woods' development, the former third round pick has had unknown health concerns that have kept him off the field so any further obstacles to his path to playing time will be unwanted by JT even if the advice Tony can pass onto him can improve him mentally. He needs the reps as much as anyone on the roster bubble and I am of the opinion he is further down on the depth chart than he should be so there is a genuine possibility he could be fighting for this place on the roster when preseason rolls around.

What do you think of this signing Stormcloud? Does it have a wider impact on the roster?

If the first few years of the Tom Telesco era, the Chargers regularly on-boarded former Colts to their roster, reuniting the Colts' former director of player personnel with players he was familiar with. In Joe Hortiz's first offseason, he deftly navigated a quick roster reload by signing Ravens cast-offs that were looking to reset their markets, and whom he had plenty of familiarity with.

While the Chargers aren't likely to see the same volume of turnover in future seasons, and the same amount of Ravens migrating west for the spring, there will likely continue to be a reunion or two for Hortiz and Greg Roman in each of the next couple seasons, similar to what was seen at the start of Telesco's tenure.

Here is the current list of Ravens on an expiring deal, per Spotrac:

• Ronnie Stanley, LT
• Patrick Mekari, T/G
• Nelson Agholor, WR
• Patrick Ricard, FB
• Malik Harrison, LB
• Justice Hill, RB
• Josh Jones, T
• Brent Urban, DE
• Josh Johnson, QB
• Chris Board, LB
• Deonte Harty, WR
• Ben Cleveland, G
• Brandon Stevens, CB
• Josh Tupou, DT
• Deadrin Senat, DT
• Ka'dar Holman, CB
• Tylan Wallace, WR

When trying to predict who the Chargers might target next offseason as a free agent acquisition, it's important to remember that Joe Hortiz will be hesitant to sign a Compensatory Free Agent unless he envisions the player as a core piece to build around, or if they fall below compensatory value (around $3 million per year), or if Hortiz has enough outgoing Unrestricted Free Agents to budget for a CFA signing or two. Even so, signing top-tier free agents is likely a thing of the past, as Hortiz will attempt to align his signings with his mid-to-low tier outgoing CFA contracts, preserving his highest earning compensatory picks from cancellation.

Ronnie Stanley will certainly be retained, and the Chargers are set in the tackle department. However, there's another offensive lineman that leaps off the screen as a player Hortiz could decide to add as a true building block on the line, and isn't currently projected as one of the top players at his position in the 2025 free agent class.

Ben Cleveland was a name Chargers fans were linking to the Bolts in the 2021 draft. Heading into draft season, Cleveland became a folk lore figure with stories of his insane athletic prowess frequently hitting social media. One such claim was that his strength coaches at Georgia had to stop him at 45 reps on the 225-pound bench press. Ben expressed his goal at the NFL Combine was to beat the previous Combine record of 49 reps... but he came very short in the actual drill, posting a still very respectable 30 reps. In the end, his elite size and strength grades were paired with elite speed and acceleration in his drills, decent explosion and a fairly weak shuttle score. He earned an Elite RAS grade of 9.63.

Why would the Ravens let Cleveland walk?

The Ravens are currently over $3,5000,000 in the "red' with their cap space for 2025, and while they could certainly restructure some contracts to free up room for a Cleveland extension, they still need to figure out how to squeeze a Ronnie Stanley deal into that mix, while budgeting for their rookie class, in-season budget, and whatever other holes they need to address.

The Ravens organization taught Joe Hortiz the compensatory system game; they are very comfortable letting players walk in free agency to refill their compensatory coffers. Just last season, the Ravens had a breakout lineman in John Simpson. Simpson had started one season for the Raiders, but when they released him in December 2022, the Ravens signed him to their practice squad and eventually to a "futures" contract. Simpson ended up winning the job at left guard in 2023, and although his play wasn't graded high by PFF, was routinely praised by former pros for his tenacity and run blocking skills.

Here, Chris Long points out how John Simpson is a guy that regularly catches his eyes with dominant play in the run game.

While Simpson did a solid job in his one year with the Ravens, Baltimore was content letting him walk with the core they already had established at the offensive line, and likely felt insulated from creating a "need' with Ben Cleveland waiting in the wings.

Assuming Stanley is retained, they will return four starters at the offensive line again in 2025. Retaining Cleveland isn't a necessity for Baltimore to maintain continuity on its line with so many returning starters; it's likely they'll look to a cast-off vet or a rookie to fill that void at left guard in 2025 or perhaps have an under-the-radar player developing now.

Has Ben Cleveland lived up to his pre-draft hype?

Cleveland might actually have a similar career trajectory as Trey Pipkins, though with a prototypical athletic profile. He's only played in a reserve role thus far in his career, with a handful of starts to his name. The team is extending a little trust his way in giving him a starting role in his fourth year, with almost no competition brought in despite his limited starting experience.

Ben had some rough moments in games were he filled in for an injured player or spelled a starter, but in the games he started, the consistency in play seemed to help him get in a rhythm. Through weeks 4-16 of 2023, filling in as a reserve, he played 11 pass blocking snaps and allowed one pressure. In his week 14 of 2022, another game where he was tasked with filling in for an injury, he took seven snaps and allowed a sack. Extrapolating those stats to 50 pass-snap games sets an ugly pace of over 5.5 pressures per game, including 2.78 sacks per game. However, in Ben's three starts in these same seasons, he only allowed three pressures and no sacks on 164 passing snaps, a near unrecognizable improvement.

Even if Cleveland starts a little slow this season, his history suggests with added consistently and starting reps, he'll settle in a perform very well in both the passing and running game.

In the below video, you'll see Cleveland dominantly win a rep against new member of the AFC West, Christian Wilkins.

What would the price tag be?

There's no way of knowing what Ben Cleveland's market value will be before he's had a full season as a starter. However, John Simpson provides an excellent barometer for what to expect if Cleveland does a solid job in his first year.

Simpson signed with the Jets on a two year, $12 million deal, with incentives that can get it to $18 million.

Signing Cleveland to a similar $6 million APY deal seems very reasonable for a player that would only have one, not two, starting seasons under his belt. The Chargers have a plethora of players on prove-it deals that could easily reset their values to a similar valuation, giving Hortiz plenty of compensatory picks even after making a couple signings in this range.

This move could allow Joe Hortiz to trade or release Trey Pipkins, and retain Jamaree Salyer has an excellent swing tackle and guard. Cleveland could be the missing piece at right guard that the IOL is searching for, especially if Bradley Bozeman plays to his ceiling and is extended. It's definitely worth noting that when the Ravens first drafted Ben Cleveland, Bozeman was the starting center in Baltimore, and Greg Roman was the offensive coordinator.

What do you think about Ben Cleveland to LA, StormCloud? Are there any other upcoming Ravens UFA's you'd like us to highlight?

Initially I thought the Vikings re-signed him for $4mil (accidently read that in a recent article that was actually describing his deal last year), but the details came out, and it's actually $2.41M.

Personally, I'm stoked, because I had his projection at $2.5M/1Yr, when PFF had him projected him to a multi-=year deal at $8m/APY.

For the Chargers, I'm a little disappointed, because I feel like this would have been the perfect kind of player and contract to add a baseline-average Guard with tons of career starts. On the positive side, we've seen Harbaugh and Hortiz do this with plenty of positions and players; even if I'm bummed it didn't happen this one. This could potentially be seen as a big vote of confidence in our in-house options. Perhaps Pipkin and Salyer are showing signs of being formidable at guard with Bozeman at center, or perhaps Jaimes and McFadden are displaying the potential we've hoped to see out of them.

Hortiz gets a lot of trust from me, as I'm sure he does with you all, so I'm going to let myself drift towards the side of optimistic thoughts for the time being!

Hello StormCloud! Chargers Talk 4630 is back with another Live Stream recording. This went Live just over an hour ago today, and the main focus was what Stacey Mallory though of the Alex Leatherwood signing. Here's a quick write-up on Stacey's thoughts, as well as the embedded video below, featuring an appearance from co-host Garrett Elsasser all the way from Iceland.

Here are Stacey's thoughts on the Leatherwood signing:

The Chargers have signed former Raiders Tackle Alex Leatherwood who was drafted with the 17th pick in the first round of the 2021 draft.

Out of all the signings the Chargers have made this of season, this is the first one that made me pause. I’ve rushed quick to study highlights and see what’s to like about Leatherwood. To be honest, he reminds me a lot of DJ. Fluker who was an absolute Stud with Alabama and drafted by the Chargers in 2013. And it ended up being a big swing and a miss, cause speed rushers ran around Fluker as of his his feet was stuck in cement.

I know Leatherwood has played a lot of football with Alabama, but most scouts believed Alex Leatherwood had the talent to play in the NFL, but saw him going as a late 2nd or high 3rd round pick. He had some really good games with Alabama, but his stock started to drop after having a bad combine where he lost a lot of his one on one matchups and was not that impressive. That didn’t stop the Raiders from drafting him 17th overall.

All the studying I saw on film, showed he struggled bad at LT & RT. But what I saw from watching his play as a Guard was impressive. Remember when I said he reminded me of Tackle DJ Fluker? In Fluker’s time in the NFL he was lost at the Tackle position, but when it came to running schemes, he was a man amongst boys. And I see the same skillset from Alex Leatherwood.

Leatherwood is really good at run-blocking schemes. At 6-6 315 pounds he’s physical and tough with good effort in the run game. He finishes plays well and has a nasty temperament. He has good agility, technique, and size as a Guard. As far as I’m concerned there’s nothing to like as a Tackle. I see this as Jim Harbaugh loading every position for players to compete to bring out the best in everyone that wants to make this team. Or maybe just another body to get through Camp.

For more on this signing tune into Chargers Talk 4630 on YouTube and X for more details.

The Chargers made an eyebrow-raising move Wednesday afternoon, as it was announced the Bolts signed former first round tackle Alex Leatherwood from free agency.

Joe Hortiz waived UDFA tackle Tyler Smith on May 23rd, opening up a spot on the 90-man roster. Many speculated an acquisition or trade was oncoming, with fans hoping for an impactful veteran signing such as safety Justin Simmons or some interior offensive line support.

However, Hortiz replaced a tackle with a tackle.

Leatherwood was drafted by the Las Vegas Raiders in 2021 initially as a right tackle but was eventually bumped to guard. It was a quick experiment for Las Vegas, as he was waived in training camp of his second year after the Raiders couldn't find a trade partner for him. The Bears claimed him off waivers, but like the Raiders, let him go the following training camp.

Leatherwood signed with the Browns practice squad last year, but didn't take any regular season snaps.

What makes this move curious is the logjam the Chargers currently have a tackle, and the lack of proven talent or depth at guard. The signing announced Leatherwood as a tackle, though he could still be flexed to guard like how both the Raiders and the Bears utilized him. However, this could also indicate the Chargers are either very confident in Trey Pipkins' transition to guard, or are preparing to deal him in a post-June 1st trade.

The timing of this move certainly foreshadows a second move involving Pipkins, perhaps reuniting him with his biggest supporter Tom Telesco. If not, it's likely Leatherwood is just a camp body and Hortiz isn't feeling pressured to bring in a veteran safety or fill more pressing holes at the moment.

How do you feel about this move, StormCloud?

Although the Chargers' UDFA class has a couple interesting IOL's in Willis Patrick, Bucky Williams, and Karsen Barnhart, the center position was neglected in the draft once again.

The Chargers have backfilled Corey Linsley's assumed departure with Bradley Bozeman, who played guard and center for the Ravens from 2018-2021. Greg Roman was likely behind the signing, as he was Bozeman's offensive coordinator from 2019-2021. Bozeman's first three seasons were primarily played at left guard, until he was plugged in at center in 2021. He boasted career-high PFF scores that season, headlined by a 98.2% Pass Blacking Efficiency (PBE) score.

Bozeman's two years with the Carolina Panthers weren't nearly as successful. He posted his lowest PFF score as a starter and allowed eight sacks in 2018 - double his previous season high. The Bolts are gambling on Bozeman returning to form under a system he's very familiar with, but as he's only on a one-year deal, Joe Hortiz would be wise to consider signing another player with guard/center flex that's still available in free agency.

Connor Williams was the Cowboys' "other" lineman in a group headlined by Tyron Smith, Travis Frederick, Zack Martin, and La'el Collins. He initially bounced between left and right guard in his first season before settling into a starting role on the left side. As the clear fifth man on their line, Williams' market was less than you'd expect when he hit free agency in 2021, signing a relatively modest two-year, $14,035,000 deal with the Miami Dolphins. He moved to center and was a key component to the offensive turnaround around Mike McDaniel.

Williams has averaged a PBE rating of 98.6 over his last three years. Before tearing his ACL in December of 2023, he was having a career year for the Dolphins, boasting a 98.7 PBE rating and earning a 90.5 Run Block Grade per PFF. He was on a clear trajectory to being the top free agent center in the 2024 offseason, but now is unlikely to sign with a team until he's able to pass a physical.

Williams could be a perfect fit for the Los Angeles Chargers, even if he's not fully healthy to start the season. The team has a capable starting offensive line to begin the season, giving Williams time to remain on the PUP until his knee is ready for game speed. Having played LG, C, and RG in his career, he could plug in wherever there was an injury across the interior, or replace Bozeman or Jamaree Salyer if they have similar struggles to their 2023 seasons.

The best wrinkle in this plan is it allows Joe Hortiz to get a head start on signing the top free agent center in 2025 without negatively affecting the compensatory formula.

What do you think, Chargers fans? Sound off in the comments below!

Hello everyone!

This is one of many archive posts I'm putting together to get the videos Ryan and I made prior to the site's development online. Pardon the brevity, just trying to get this content stored on here!