Los Angeles

Chargers

The Chargers would save $10 million by moving on from Becton, who openly seemed to not jive with former OC Greg Roman’s preferred blocking structures. Chargers GM Joe Hortiz said “I’m not going to talk about that right now” when asked about a Becton release at the NFL Combine. Becton, entering just his age-27 season, would be an interesting rebound candidate on the open market after a woeful year in Los Angeles.

Bozeman started his career as a sixth-round pick with the Ravens back in 2018 and also spent time with the Panthers and Chargers. The eight-year vet started 110 of the 129 games he appeared in during his career, and started all 156 games at center for the Chargers last season.

The Chargers do not often dip outside of GM Joe Hortiz’s preferred free agency lanes, but Rhim speculates it might be different for the former Ravens center who Hortiz helped draft in 2022. The Chargers definitely have a need at the position as Bradley Bozeman has been outclassed the last few years. Linderbaum would do a lot to help fix an interior line that has just never come together. But this does rely on the Chargers doing something they haven’t really done under Hortiz yet: spending big in free agency.

McCaffrey is a former undrafted free agent NFL wide receiver who spent time with five different NFL teams. He joined the college coaching ranks as a wide receivers coach at Northern Colorado in 2020. He added offensive coordinator to his title in 2021 and held both roles for two seasons. McCaffrey joined the NFL coaching ranks as a member of former Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel’s coaching staff in 2023, serving as an offensive assistant through the 2025 season. McCaffrey’s new role reunites him with McDaniel, who was hired as the Chargers’ offensive coordinator in January. 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey and Commanders WR Luke McCaffrey are Max’s younger brothers.

Spence is expected to serve as the Chargers’ new inside linebackers coach, though the role has not yet been finalized. The former NFL linebacker (2012-2017) began his coaching career as a special teams analyst at Western Michigan in 2023. He coached linebackers for them in 2024 and edges in 2025.

Cool. Gase took a five-year hiatus from coaching after a failed two-year stint with the Jets (2019 to 2020), which came after a failed head coaching stint with the Dolphins (2016 to 2018). The 47-year-old coach will now get a chance to work with Justin Herbert in his new role, in hopes of rebuilding his image. It’s hard to imagine Gase ever getting another head coaching job, but it will be interesting to see if he can again rise through the ranks after one of the more forgettable five-year stretches for any coach.

Gase has not coached since his 2019-2020 run as the Jets’ head coach. He served as the Dolphins’ head coach before that, from 2016-2018. The Chargers swapped out former OC Greg Roman for new OC Mike McDaniel this offseason, and are evidently not done adding new offensive staffers.

Schultz claims Day was a “serious candidate” for an L.A. promotion before head coach Jim Harbaugh eventually settled on big-named organizational outsider Mike McDaniel. Coaching in the NFL or FBS since 2006, Day has spent most of his time in the big leagues, including time on Kyle Shanahan’s staff. He has never been a play-caller or offensive coordinator, while this would make for an unusual jump from one brother’s staff to another. John might be wondering why he wasn’t good enough for Jim’s job, but we digress.

If that seems random, it’s less so than it appears on the surface, as O’Leary served as the Bolts’ safeties coach in 2024. O’Leary apparently earned internal raves for his 2024 work with Derwin James, then went on to coordinator one of the nation’s best scoring defenses at Western Michigan. Before his Chargers and WMU stops, O’Leary spent six seasons at Notre Dame. It’s a somewhat outside-the-box hire, but a seemingly good one for a team tasked with replacing Jesse Minter.

Leonhard, a former Bills safety, has spoken to Buffalo about the team’s defensive coordinator opening. Now he’s getting interest from Jim Harbaugh and the Chargers, who lost defensive coordinator Jesse Minter to the Ravens this month. In LA, Leonhard would take over a stellar defensive group that last year allowed the league’s seventh lowest yards per play and the fifth lowest offensive success rate. Only three defenses allowed a lower EPA per rushing attempt than the Bolts.