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The Chargers have officially secured their franchise cornerstone, signing Rashawn Slater to a 4-year, $114 million extension—exactly the deal Josha Queipo and I projected back in 2024 and reaffirmed on our Substack just months ago.
At the time, we argued that Slater’s combination of elite pass protection metrics and his value as Justin Herbert’s blindside protector made him a near lock for a top-of-market deal. Slater has maintained a 97.5% PFF pass-efficiency grade since entering the league, and has been a dominant force in the run game when healthy. His rookie season dominance earned him Second-Team All-Pro honors, and despite injuries in 2022, he’s returned to form as one of the NFL’s most consistent offensive linemen.
The move not only validates our projection but also gives the Chargers’ offensive line stability heading into the Hall of Fame Game and training camp this week. With Slater locked in through his prime, Herbert will have the edge protection he needs as Joe Hortiz and Jim Harbaugh continue to reshape this roster into a contender… starting with the interior offensive line.
Here are links to the A to Z article from last year, and the more recent SubStack post.
Excellent, this was always just a matter of time.
@alisterlloyd Well at least the tackles are cooking with gas. The other 3 spots are more like a mini propane tank.
Great, so the Chargers have $5M more to spend in 2025 cap space? So they now have $15M to $20M? Great! And what are they going to do with it?
@tau837 seems to me the value of locking down Slater for the foreseeable future is measured in more than just the cap savings.
@buck-melanoma Yes, obviously. But signing him was a given. The details of the contract were not a given, so it is reasonable to discuss them.
@tau837 of course discussion is reasonable. However, your comment seemed to be more of a dig at Hortiz for his usage of cap space than discussion of the contract.
@buck-melanoma I know this creates cap space for this year, but not sure it makes a whole hell of a difference now. At the trade deadline however…..
@erick-v sure but I’m not the one discussing the cap space nor what Hortiz will or will not do with it. That was tau. 🙂
@buck-melanoma It absolutely was a dig. I posted earlier in the thread to say it was excellent news. Here, I responded to details of the cap hits. Those are different topics.
Yes, I want to see how Hortiz uses the cap space, if he does. If he doesn’t, then what was the point of backloading the contract? So, hopefully, that indicates that he has something planned (e.g., trading for Edge Hendrickson).
@tau837 I think the point here is that the Chargers could have structured this deal in any way they wanted and chose to free up more cap space this year intentionally. The questions for us to debate is why they chose to structure the contract this way and what should Hortiz do with the remaining cap space.
My opinion is that freeing up the space now provides the Chargers with more flexibility. If they need it this year, to either shore up a position OR make a move for one of the disgruntled vets, they now have space. We’ve seen several instances where the ability to eat cap is valued in the trade marker.
Joe is and should keep his cards close to his vest. FWIW, the Chargers have the 8th most cap space @ $31.5M (Patriots are #1 with close to $60M), so they are not the only team that could eat dead cap in a trade. The 49ers ($46M) and Lions ($48M) should be competitors and could eat more cap in a trade.
@kevdiego Fair enough, flexibility is good. They have $15M to $20M in usable cap space, which is a lot. I would love to see them use it productively in 2025, which as you point out could come from a trade.
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