Good Evening Stormcloud! Next up on the defensive side of the ball are the Off-ball, or inside, Linebackers. Much like the safeties there was less turnover here but there are still some transactions to analyze and positional value to be discussed! This evaluation will therefore include:

• Returning players who signed a new deal with the team
• External free agents who signed before the May 1st compensation pick exemption deadline
• Players who were added in any of the seven rounds of the 2025 NFL Draft
• Undrafted free agents (UDFA) who signed deals with the team after the draft
• Unsigned players who are listed as camp invites in media reports

Note: If a player has an asterisk after their name (*) this means that they were added during the 2024 season and have been retained

Outgoing players

• Nick Niemann
• Jeremiah Jean-Baptiste

The new look ILB room

• Incumbent (2): Daiyan Henley, Junior Colson
• Returning (2): Troy Dye, Denzel Perryman
• Free Agents (2): Del’Shawn Phillips, Kana’i Mauga
• Draft (0): N/A
• UDFA (1): Marlowe Wax

Returning

Troy Dye was brought in last off-season to be a special teamer with backup upside yet in the regular season he continually stepped up to the plate when injuries started to mount up. He was really impressive during a three game stretch between Baltimore, Atlanta and Kansas City where he grew into the run defense to a level that I don’t think many people saw coming. Compare that to the preseason where he struggled to step into his gaps and you can see that he was able to grow into Jesse Minter’s defense thanks to Navorro Bowman’s guiding hand. 

Side note but Bowman’s impact has been a level above what you could expect from a first time on-field coach. There is very little correlation between being a good player and a good coach so even though Bowman was one of the best Linebackers of his generation he should be given ample praise for the job he has done considering he was only an analyst at Maryland for a single season. The way he elevated Daiyan Henley’s game stood out but everyone that stepped into the role was able to keep the game flowing without any major deficiencies and that is no mean feat.

“Being back in a place where you’re wanted and appreciated is an amazing thing for me. That was a big reason why I came back, plus a great locker room, great staff, great guys… It was just the right fit.”

Troy Dye on finding a home in powder blue

Dye led the team with 391 special team snaps and that is where he is going to provide the most impact especially as the Chargers lost Nick Niemann in free agency and Tuli Tuipulotu will be seeing a reduced role due to his promotion to starting Edge, both players were core-four special team starters. He will likely be the captain and leader of Ryan Fickens’ unit. Whilst it’s good to know we can rely on him to step in and play at an adequate level at linebacker, his impact will come on the more under-appreciated side of the ball.

Denzel Perryman, the last remaining San Diego Charger, returns to the team on another short term deal as he enters his 11th season since being selected by the Bolts in the second round of the 2015 draft. Jim Harbaugh and Joe Hortiz clearly respected his experience when they sought out to reunite Denzel with the team that drafted him after three seasons away including stops in Houston, Vegas and Carolina (for a very brief time). His leadership shone immediately which was a necessity as was the older player in a young linebacker room with a young coach. It wasn’t just his longevity that Bolts covered though, he set the tone that Jesse Minter wanted his Linebackers to play with through aggressive run fills and patient backside pursuits.

“They brought me back for a reason, I still feel like regardless of my age, how many years it is, I still bring some kind of value to the team.”

Denzel Perryman on looking ahead to the 2025 season

To play with light boxes and faster slimmer players at the second level of the defense the team needs players who can trigger downhill and hit the hole with force, Denzel continues to provide that at a remarkable level even if his body isn’t quite holding up to the physical toll that play style takes. He missed the majority of the second half of last season with groin and toe issues and with Junior Colson hopefully stepping up, his play time may be reduced but when he is in the game expect to see him harrowing after the ball carrier in the only way he knows how.

Free Agents

Del’Shawn Phillips was brought in on a 1 year $2 million deal that speaks to his projection as a special teams ace. Phillips has been around the league appearing in 72 games with stops in Houston, Baltimore, New York (the green side) and Buffalo. After losing Nick Niemann to the Texans the Bolts acted quickly to replace his position as one of Ryan Fickens’ most valued members of his special teams unit. Despite his longevity in the league Phillips has seen limiter action on defense with only 272 snaps resulting in 42 tackles over his six seasons in the league. According to PFF he is a strong and consistent special teams player with a grade of at least 71.6 in each of the last five years with a high of 90.5 in his lone year as a New York Jet.

“Known for his impact on special teams, Phillips has totaled 34 tackles on 1,389 special teams snaps. In three postseason contests, he has totaled a solo tackle, tackle for loss, three special teams tackles and a safety.”

From Chargers.com

Kana’i Mauga looks to be another special teams’ addition with his experience as a contributing player on five phases. All 305 snaps of regular season action were as a special teamer for the Las Vegas Raiders over the past two seasons but he was actually brought in by the Denver Broncos as a UDFA coming out of USC. So to say he knows the state and division very well would be an understatement. Mauga has the size and mid range speed to be a contributing factor on defense in the preseason but there would need to be multiple injuries for him to see the field in the regular season.

UDFA

Marlow Wax was the only rookie linebacker the Chargers added after opting not to draft one however there are plenty of reasons why the Chargers opted to add a player of Max’s type despite the room being essentially complete. Wax is a smaller linebacker that plays with speed and more  strength than expected however his lack of elite traits dropped his stock. He also had a lower leg injury in his senior year that reduced his opportunity to collate film for scouts which would have caused him to fall even further. That said his production was impressive over the seven games he was healthy for as he stacked up 38 tackles, 23 run stops, 16 pressures, 8 hurries, 5 sacks, 1 forced fumble and 1 interception. This earned him an Honorable Mention All-ACC selection.

As I mentioned in the Safety roster reset evaluation, I think Jesse Minter will move into playing more fire zone which would rely on blitzing players from off ball alignments and that is exactly what Marlowe excels at. His production as pass rusher was clear to see with 20 sacks over his last four seasons and there are some encouraging signs that this will be sustainable when taking the leap to the NFL.

Wax’s burst from a standing start is impressive with a 99th percentile 10 yard split which gives him a split second advantage when firing between offensive lineman. He is also far stronger than a player of his stature should be, he benched 23 reps which puts him at the 57th percentile but to achieve this at such a small size means that in terms of a weight adjusted bench press he was actually in the 68th percentile. You can see this show up on film too as he frequently flattens running backs on the way to the quarterback. When he combines these skills with his relentless motor and fearless play style you can really see why the Chargers chose to bring his talents to Southern California.

Reasons for change

As with the Safety room we have very little change to talk about here with the total investment in the three new faces not even surpassing $5 million. However unlike with the secondary that is less about their faith in the quality of their starters and more that the importance of off-ball linebackers is dramatically reduced in Minter’s two-high nickel base scheme. This is exacerbated on third downs when Minter likes to play Dime, he ran this at 23.7% of the time when they had Derwin, Alohi and Elijah but this slipped to 18.2% without Molden or Gilman. In Dime personnel grouping there is only one off-ball linebacker on the field so with the Chargers’ starting 11 healthy, we should see less snaps available to the Linebackers.

This is not to say the Chargers don’t have talent at the position, Daiyan Henley was one of the most consistent players on the defense last season which was his first as a starter. This was a big step up from Brandon Staley’s puzzling decision to bench him completely in his rookie year so Harbaugh, Minter and Bowman deserve credit for reinstating The Ranger’s confidence which allowed him to achieve the levels many of us thought were possible. I thought he was unlucky to miss out on All-Pro recognition, his production was certainly good enough with 147 tackles, 50 timing stops, 14 pressures, 6 pass break ups and 1 interception but it was his coverage skills that stood out to me. His ability to be an all down player is based on his fluidity in space and his range, skills which elevates his game to a point he can get the national attention he deserves.

The bet for this position is much clearer than at other spots; this staff believes that Junior Colson is going to take a similar step up that the Bolts saw from Daiyan. The former Michigan Wolverine needed a while to acclimatize to the speed of the NFL but unfortunately his injuries came at inopportune moments to hinder his progress when he really needed to stack small improvements to keep pace with a defense that was taking off. It ended up being a very limited year for the young player however Junior is still only 22 years old, which is the same age as the 2025 draft class’s four year seniors. As many others have pointed out, that could be like having another draft pick walk in the door at OTAs.

Position Reset Evaluation

This group is one of the only ones that I would say has stayed the same if not devalued itself from last season. Losing a reliable backup and special teams ace in Nick Niemann and with Perryman coming back from a slew of lower body injuries at 33 years old means that linebacker could be seen as position that needed addressing. It would therefore be seen as an under-investment to replace those players with an unproven sophomore, two special team only players and an UDFA. However despite my morose preface I think this was exactly the right strategy to avoid pouring precious resources into a devalued position especially when the Bolts have two potentially explosive young starters that can grow together to be a linchpin for the defense to build around. It is a gamble but as usual this team has contingency built in with veteran pieces that can slot in where needed.

I do not envision the team adding more players to this room unless there’s a significant injury. One thing to watch is that Daiyan had an off-season surgery on a torn labrum in his left shoulder, he played through a lot of the season with it and it has kept him away from OTAs so far. There is always the chance for roster churn, in fact the front office already did this when they brought in Kana’i Mauga in place of Jeremiah Jean-Baptiste, who signed a Reserve/Future contract at the end of last season.

The NFL’s use of ‘Base’ defense (4-3/3-4) has dropped in the last five years from ~27% to 21.2% this past season. During that time, most NFL defenses shifted to different versions of Nickel. In 2019, the average NFL defense used a five DB alignment on 55.5% of their plays. Today, that number sits at ~67% (PFF).

From Matchquarters’ analysis of league wide defensive trends

The value of the linebacker unit is going to be their consistency and reliability as a veteran group that can execute the assignment in front of them rather than one that is going to be able to win games themselves. This approach to the position aligns with the meta of the league’s best defenses that are asking less of their off-ball linebackers to push them from a primary means of attack into a secondary response unit.