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Dalton Risner is someone I had been hoping the Bolts would pick up as competition to start at RG. I faded his contract heavily in my AtoZ Sports article, because he posted career lows with the Vikings last year after going unsigned until basically the start of the season.
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!
Veteran depth is always good, but the guys that we already have may be better, cheaper, younger, less injured, etc.
Risner's PFF Grades were also so-so:
Age: 28.8
Run Blocking Grade in 2023: 50.0, 65th/79
Pass Blocking Grade in 2023: 67.4, 20th/77
Overall Grade 2023: 57.1, 46th/79
Zion's PFF Grades were better on the run blocking side and worse on the pass pro:
Age: 24.5
Run Blocking Grade in 2023: 57.2, 49th/79
Pass Blocking Grade in 2023: 58.8, 42nd/77
Overall Grade 2023: 57.6, 44th/79
Sayler's PFF Grades were a little worse on run blocking (in fact they were really bad) and less than Risner on the pass blocking as well. Overall Risner would have been an improvement over Sayler, but not a huge improvement. Sayler is cheaper/younger:
Age: 23.8
Run Blocking Grade in 2023: 49.4, 68th/79
Pass Blocking Grade in 2023: 61.2, 34th/77
Overall Grade 2023: 54.2, 56th/79
Sayler may be better suited as a swing tackle. Might be why Harbaugh immediately brought up "best five" and thinking about moving Pipkins to guard. May also why they may be looking at Leatherwood as a potential guard or swing guard.
I also believe that the Chargers lined up with a subpar Center the last 1.5 seasons and it was very impactful to the guard play. More than a few on this site have expressed concerns about the IOL quality. This may just be a situation where it will take another offseason to fix.
I have mentioned in at least three other posts that I would like to see them sign Connor Williams as the future center even though he would most likely start the season on the PUP list.
@spanos-must-go Connor Williams has been the dude I've been pounding the table for since before he got hurt, I hear you! I love the idea of signing a guy that's put elite tape at C and plays guard at a high level as well.
My personal goal for this offseason was for the Chargers to prioritize moves that prevented Justin Herbert from being the next Andrew Luck. If he gets seriously injured again this season, I worry about the mental toll it would take on him from constantly rehabbing injuries. It made the Alt pick digestible for me, and when we got Ladd it all felt brilliant.
Bozeman is no Linsley, but perhaps all we need Bozeman to be is closer to Linsley than he is Clapp and Zion and Salyer/Pipkins. Maybe he brings a vet presence that helps Jaimes and/McFadden improve at both G and C, as he played both for Roman?
I think we're allowed to both be optimistic about who we have, and also be hopeful for another signing or two 
@bolt-up Great question! No idea, but his agent updated everyone in March that the knee injury was significant and he might not sign until August when it was presumed he'd be healthy.
It seems very likely that Connor won't be able to get more than a one-year prove-it based on that timing. The agents comments are interesting - it does make me wonder if it was a multiple-ligament injury, if I'm being honest.
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