Good Afternoon Stormcloud! Next up on the defensive side of the ball are the Outside Linebackers, or Edge Defenders as they are otherwise known. The team saw a whole host of exits from this unit, with a big name seeing the end of his time in powder blue. How the team replaces their combined production will be a critical part of this analysis. 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

• Joey Bosa
• Chris Rumph II
• Andrew Farmer II
• Ty Shelby
• Brevin Allen
• Chris Collins

The new look OLB room

• Incumbent (2): Tuli Tuipulotu, Bud Dupree
• Returning (3): Khalil Mack, Caleb Murphy*, Tre’mon Morris-Brash
• Free Agents (0): N/A
• Draft (1): Kyle Kennard
• UDFA (2): Garmon Randolph, Kylan Guidry

Returning

The biggest signing that Chargers made this off-season was keeping future the hall-of-famer, Khalil Mack, in the building. With reported interest from multiple teams the team not only had to offer the right money but they would have had to convince him that their path to a Superbowl was on track and realistically achievable in a time frame that fits his fight against Father Time. Mack signed a fully guaranteed 1 year $18 million deal which was lower than he was projected to get on the open market. This tells us that he chose to be a part of this team once again and that he shared Jim Harbaugh’s belief that this team is on an upwards trajectory which should give fans hope. The length of this deal is probably what both teams wanted too, it gives both parties a way out if either Mack or the team regress but with the way Mack is integrated into the fabric of Jim Harbaugh’s team, I do not envision 2026 being the end of the road for their partnership.

“I told Coach, ‘See you Monday’ then Khalil was like, ‘Why are you not coming in tomorrow?’ I said, ‘You know what, you’re right’. Next morning, I met him in the weight room and we got to work in. After that, it was an every Friday thing. Khalil just showed me how to be intentional every day and taking advantage. Small incremental gains every day to get to where I want to be, to set myself up later.”

Tarheeb Still on Khalil Mack’s influence on him this off-season

In my time following the team in 2006 we have seen some incredible leaders; Rivers, LT, Hardwick, Merriman, Gates, Weddle and Allen were all inspirational on the field. However since I started living and breathing everything to do with this team 7 years ago, there have been very few who have had the impact off the field that Khalil Mack has had. Mack and Derwin have set the tone for the defense to build from with their elite work ethic and hard-nosed style of play. Harbaugh has done well to let the pair be part of the player leadership group which is key to any team with championship aspirations.

The Chargers offered Caleb Murphy a future/reserves contract at the end of last season after they picked him up mid-season after he was released by the Tennessee Titans. Murphy spent two preseasons in Nashville after joining them as a UDFA coming out of Ferris State in 2022. Caleb is not a standout athlete so you can see how he fell out of the bottom of the seventh round however he was one of the best Division II players of all time so you can also see why the Titans took a chance on him.

“Murphy was a two-time Division II National Champion who set the NCAA single-season record with 25.5 sacks and tied the standing record of 39 tackles for loss during the 2022 season. He was awarded the Ted Hendricks Award, becoming the first non-FBS player to earn the honor of the nation’s top defensive end.”

From Bolts From The Blue’s analysis of his signing

Murphy took off during his first preseason in 2023, he had 7 pressures which led to 4 sacks and 3 hurries across 50 pass rush snaps however his run defense was poor according to PFF and he failed to break into the 53-man roster and spent the season on the practice squad. Unfortunately for Caleb he failed to have the same effect in 2024 and was subsequently released. The Chargers took a chance on his productive traits in late October and he played 12 snaps between Weeks 10 and 11. I see Murphy as a pre-season body that can allow the established players in Bud Dupree, Khalil Mack and Tuli Tuipulotu to take a backseat during the games.

Tre’Mon Morris-Brash impressed everybody during 2024’s preseason and it was a surprise to many that he didn’t make the 53-roster after a stellar showing across the three games last August. His consistent production despite being a UDFA that even the draft community knew very little about, was a pleasant surprise. However once he was sent down to the practice squad we didn’t see him again despite a whole host of injuries to Edge players, Jesse Minter and his staff chose others like Caleb Murphy and Chris Collins over Tre’Mon which is usually a sign that there was something that people outside of the building weren’t seeing. Whether there was an unknown injury or just poor practice tape we don’t know, however to lose out on an opportunity like that must have meant something was amiss. If he can come back from that and return to the impressive quality of his play from this time a year ago, then he has a real chance at providing the explosive edge the team was looking for in the back half of last season.

Free Agents

The team opted to completely ignore the free agent pool of Edge players which was not only substantial in numbers but it also had many different types that provided options for teams in need. However when I was evaluating the available free agents after the Superbowl I thought there was a lack of high quality options and the league agreed with only one player who signed with a new team entering into the top 20 contracts in terms of AAV. In hindsight it appears that it was a smart move for the Chargers’ front office to play forego investing in the available talent considering how many players got overpaid despite the middling talent on offer. Hortiz has shown us all that the patience he learned in Baltimore is still well placed now he’s the man in charge of making the final call.

“You don’t make snap judgments, you don’t make snap decisions. The draft process, the free agency process, signing players during the season, everything is a process. It’s a discussion. The best decisions come through discussions.”

From Joe Hortiz’s introductory press conference

There’s a reason I am talking about available free agents on a roster reset article and that is that I am not convinced that Joe Hortiz is done adding to the position group. The Chargers are going to find out very early whether they have the answers at outside linebacker or not with a standout pair of offensive tackles blocking their path to the quarterback. The patience Hortiz has shown over the last three months has meant the Chargers are in-play to still make a move at Outside Linebacker should they see reason to do so. Some of the top Edge free agents who were available in March are still unsigned as we go into Phase 3 of the off-season; Von Miller, Matt Judon, Za’Darius Smith and Jadeveon Clowney. They are all waiting for the phone to start ringing and those calls are very likely to happen when competitive teams start to realize they are getting no pressure on the quarterback, this happens every single year so the veterans are smart to play it slow.

Draft

The Chargers may have selected Kyle Kennard in the fourth round however he comes into the team with one of the most decorated Resumes of any Day 3 selection in recent memory. He was a Consensus All-American, the Nagurski Trophy winner, the SEC Defensive Player of the Year and First Team All-SEC. It’s not very often a player with that many accolades from his senior season has to wait 125 picks to hear his name called. Kennard was one player whose film I didn’t get to before the draft but now I have watched a great deal of his tape I can happily say that he is exactly as advertised. That’s both a compliment and a cause for pause, the latter is something we should expect for a Day 3 prospect but there is plenty to be excited about. I’ll be doing a full breakdown of what the rookie out of South Carolina is going to bring to the table but I’ll set the expectations by saying he should be seen as a contributing factor very quickly this season.

As the spear tip of the Gamecocks’ impressive defensive front, Kennard benefited somewhat from his teammates collective efforts to account for 11.5 sacks in his lone season in Columbia. His production off the edge took a huge jump when he landed in the SEC before then he was a Yellowjacket in the ACC for four years and during his time at Georgia Tech he totaled 15 sacks across four seasons. Kyle gave Will Campbell hell when the Gamecocks hosted LSU and the number four overall draft pick wasn’t the only lineman he caused trouble, his sacks were spread out with a sack in 9 of his 10 games including 4.5 against ranked opponents which is usually a sign for continued success at the next level. He also had 15.5 TFLs which, together with his sack production, earned him the Bronko Nagurski which is awarded to the best defensive player in the nation.

Kyle is a pass rush specialist who uses his height, length and bend-ability to beat Offensive Tackles to their mark and wins with a few reliable moves. His 70th percentile arm length is something he relied on to give him the leverage he needed to control the rep but there is a lot more to pass rushing than being long. Pete Jenkins, the legendary defensive line coach with 35 years of experience at the highest level of the game, broke down the art of pass rushing into three phases;

The Approach: The point at which the rusher gets off the ball to the point where the rusher contacts the blocker

The Contact Point: The point at which the rusher executes a move on the blocker

The Decision Point: The point at which the rusher decides whether to stick with the rush or counter

Pete Jenkins – former LSU and Philadelphia Eagles’ Defensive Line coach

Kennard has become excellent at the opening and closing phases. His abilities at ‘The Approach’ are much improved from his days at Georgia Tech in terms of technique, angles and leverage, he combines these to put him in position to consistently win early. Don’t let his 55th percentile 10 yard split fool you, he has an elite get-off which means he’s landing his third step as the quarterback is receiving the ball from a shotgun alignment. When it comes to ‘The Decision Point’ Kennard makes the right call more often than not. He blended a good knowledge of when to use his favorite speed-rip move or use his linear twitch to plant and cut inside, this allowed him to have an outrageous pressure to sack conversion rate of 39.7%. He also made the right calls in critical moments such as goal line situations where he was consistently in the right place at the right time, that is rarely ever a fluke.

The middle phase, ‘The Contact Point’, is where Kennard needs to improve as he enters the NFL and it is why he fell out of the top 100. He has accurate and technically sound hand fighting skills but he lacks counters and gets stuck on blocks too often. He converted well once he got into the backfield but he only had 39 pressures on 310 pass rush attempts, a pass rush win rate of 12.5%, which put him in the bottom quartile compared to the rest of the 2025 draft class.

Using more of a “jet mode” stance as a super senior, Kennard was able to improve his takeoff as a pass rusher to be disruptive from wide alignment. He can use his length in different ways to pry open blocks, but he is inconsistent as a point-of-attack player and larger tackles can engulf him. Overall, Kennard has work to do developing his counters and becoming more consistent on run downs to reach his NFL potential, but he brings energetic speed off the edge when he can pin his ears back. He projects as a passing-down specialist, and his role can evolve from there.

From The Athletic’s Dane Brugler’s Draft Profile of Kyle Kennard

I always find it fascinating to look at player comparisons as the above graphic shows and the fact that Kennard is the same size as Will Anderson Jr caught me off guard because they play with such different styles. In terms of how he fits into this group, it will be interesting to see his early share as whilst I think he will initially be used as a money-down specialist, I see traits in his game that make me believe the team will push him towards becoming a full time starter within the next two seasons.

UDFA

Garmon Randolph stands out when you’re looking at Baylor’s defense as they are lined up before the snap. He is just shy off 6′ 7″ and a trim 265 lbs, whilst this is rare for an Outside Linebacker, it’s more common in Tight Ends which is where Garmon played for the majority of his high school days. Since Matt Rhule recruited him to join the Baylor Bears in 2019 Randolph has played basically every position across the front seven but found his home as a stand-up outside linebacker playing off the edge of the Dave Aranda’s Tite front. The first thing you notice about him is his athleticism, he has an overall RAS of 9.17 with his best testing seen at his 10 yard split of 1.55 seconds which is 96th percentile for Edge rushers, this is especially impressive with a 98th percentile height. This stands out on film as he able to use his long frame and speed to turn speed to power and drive back tackles who haven’t got the anchor to cope.

However there are the significant drawbacks you would expect from a player who went undrafted, his production was poor with a total of 10 sacks and 14.5 TFLs across 6 seasons, he didn’t start until his third season but that’s still a low output with 27 starts under his belt. Garmon was still figuring defense out when COVID hit and he has had to battle through an ankle injury but the fact he only had a single season as a full time starter in 2022 before being sent back to a rotational role tells us that the coaches didn’t see an NFL player in the making. That said there are flashes on his tape that excite scouts and Dane Brugler of The Athletic was clearly a fan of the direction he is heading in so maybe we can hold out hope yet especially seeing as he is still getting used to a position at which he has had a non-linear path of progression.

He has an explosive first step as a rusher and smooth movement skills when dropping into space. A taller player, he gets upright when setting the edge, but his length and hand strength help him win battles. His motor also jumps out, although his hard-charging style leads to too many missed tackles. Overall, Randolph is still learning how to fully weaponize his size and athleticism, but it feels like there is untapped talent ready to be developed.

From The Athletic’s Dane Brugler’s Draft Profile of Garmon Randolph

Kylan Guidry, on the otherhand, is more of a traditional Outside Linebacker type who is compact and explosive. His best asset is his speed where overall he has a 91st percentile overall speed profile including the fastest 20 yard split of any Edge prospect ever (I have checked every resource I can access and it’s legit laser timed run). That’s 4 hundredths of a second behind the fastest ever time which was by a receiver weighing 36 lbs less than Guidry.

All-22 film of Western Kentucky’s defense is seemingly impossible to get hold of so the little tape I’ve seen on him is from the broadcast angle however you can see his closing speed and a decent ability to efficiently blow through blocks to get to the ball carrier. Guidry is decent in coverage too and this versatility, when combined with his athletic abilities, means he’s able to play just about anywhere on defense. In 2024 he primarily played OLB with 274 snaps there but he also had 80 at inside linebacker, 24 plays in the apex and even 25 at corner when match ups determined he flexed outside. He’s also got some special teams experience so his path to the roster is made more realistic because of the flexibility that his profile offers the coaching staff on game days.

Reasons for change

The Chargers did not get the kind of pressure they wanted out of the Outside Linebacker group they had last season. They ranked 22nd in the league in pass rush win rate at 37% despite coming into the season with an Outside Linebacker group that was meant to be one of the best in the league. One of the biggest contributing factors to this was the continued decline of one of their highest paid players and the misplaced faith in the supporting group who were asked to step in as replacements and provide impact as relief options.

Joey Bosa was one of the league’s best technical pass rushers at his peak but between injuries and a decline in performance it was clear that he wasn’t going to have a tenth year as a Charger. I think his subpar performances in recent years have escaped the attention of most fans because of his reputation as an elite Edge player earlier in his career. He just had three elite performances in the last two seasons despite earning $39 million in that time and those came against the Raiders, Jets and Titans, each of which had abysmal quarterback play at the time. He was healthy for a large part of the 2024 season but he was largely a non-factor and once this became apparent Jesse Minter had to prepare countermeasures in order to find alternative sources of production.

The lack of pressure from the Bolts’ base fronts, particularly in the second half of the Texans’ game, has influenced how Joe Hortiz has gone about changing things this off-season. Bosa’s exit has left the team short of 456 snaps but all the players who failed to step up when he was out have also been cut loose, so the change is going to be fairly significant even if three of the four main contributing players are back. Any defensive coordinator in the game would prefer to get consistent pressure by sending four as allows your secondary to play with more freedom but without that you need to become more creative. The Chargers are fortunate to have a play caller who has a proven track record of leading the way in terms of creating pressure without premier Edge players.

So how have the Chargers decided to change the picture to get more pressure? Well as of right now that is in the balance. A true inflection point is rare to come across in the NFL however we will get to see one if the team chooses to add another piece to the Outside Linebackers group over the next phase of the off-season. This move will provide a tell as to how Jesse Minter wants to play defense going into his second year as coordinator; if the Chargers choose not to recruit a veteran mercenary to their pass rush arsenal then we should expect to see more off-ball pressures through Minter’s version of 3-under 3-deep Fire Zone using his bigger secondary players like Derwin James and Junior Colson to force the issue and try to win games themselves. However if the team opt to add one of the available veterans then we can assume it will be more of the same base front with the focus on coverage on the back end that we saw achieve solid if not spectacular milestones that will keep Justin Herbert and the offense in the game.

The addition of Kyle Kennard and the decision to retain Caleb Murphy tells me that the team are currently leaning towards the off-ball pressure creation approach. Off-ball players are usually efficient at getting pressure when they’re sent on blitzes but inefficient at finishing it themselves. Therefore they are often paired with ‘sharks’ who can rush in a disciplined manner, work hard and be in position not only to make plays themselves, but to clean up where others have moved the quarterback off of his spot. This therefore speaks to the front office choosing players with experience of finishing pass rush attempts over those who have the traits but not the production. This strategy would also provide an explanation as to why the team didn’t invest any significant capital at the position.

Position Reset Evaluation

When a team loses a star name and chooses to shift resources to other positions you can normally use Occam’s razor to ascertain that the position group has therefore become weaker. Whilst I do not think the team has improved their pass rush options I think the overall structure of the room has improved through increased versatility and that goes some way to negate the loss of talent.

Kyle Kennard on his own provides the kind of length, speed and natural pass rush skills that this group desperately needed last season. However when you add the explosive abilities of Randolph and Guidry, you can start to understand the vision for what this unit can deliver in the preseason.

During last year’s preseason I was enamored with the creativity that Jesse Minter showed when designing cohesive pressure paths to get to the quarterback. This was especially enjoyable after years of Staley’s disconnected defense driving us to despair. However the regular season rolled around and it all went back to basics. Minter wanted to be structurally sound which, given the context of a first time head coach trying to build a foundation, made sense yet I couldn’t help but hope to see a return to the chaos his Fire Zones made for opposing offenses. This year maybe the complete opposite; the preseason could be the test-bed to see how often he can create pressure by sending four and then, when the season proper kicks off in Brazil, Minter could turn the dial up to 11 and catch the AFC West’s offensive coordinators off guard to set up the season in style.