The Chargers will have a few new looks to choose from when they suit up for games this season.
The team unveiled alternate uniform options on Tuesday and they include a gold jersey for the first time in team history. They will wear those jerseys with gold pants and their white helmets for their Week 7 game against the Colts.
In addition to the gold uniform tops, the Chargers also revealed a navy blue throwback look. The jerseys will be matched with navy pants and helmets similar to the ones that the team wore in the 1990s and 2000s.
They will wear the combination in Week 8 when they induct Rodney Harrison, who wore the original navy uniforms, into their Hall of Fame and again in Week 13.
The Chargers also revealed that they will have powder blue pants as an option to go with their main powder blue and white jerseys.
The Chargers have started doing some roster housekeeping before their first training camp practices.
The NFL’s daily transaction report shows that they placed five players on the physically unable to perform list. None of those players will be able to take part in practice until they are activated and they can be activated at any time.
Defensive back Elijah Molden is one of the five on the list. Molden, who signed a new three-year contract this offseason, missed the end of the 2024 campaign with a broken fibula.
The Chargers also placed wide receiver Mike Williams, linebacker Del’Shawn Phillips, wide receiver Jaylen Johnson, and offensive tackle Savion Washington on the list.
One of the benefits of owning and operating a media outlet that everyone connected to the NFL reads (not an exaggeration) is that various folks will from time to time pass long ideas, knowing that, if I like the idea, there’s a chance it’ll be broadcast to everyone who wastes their time reading crap like this.
Now that Chargers receiver Tre Harris has become the first of up to 30 unsigned second-round holdouts over the issue of guarantees, the obvious question becomes how long will these holdouts last? The better question may be this: Why did the second-round picks take so long to take a stand?
An agent who doesn’t represent any of the 30 unsigned second-rounders over the issue of guaranteed pay has raised a very good point — good enough to steal.
The second-round picks should have held out earlier. At a minimum, they should have collectively skipped mandatory minicamp. Instead, all of them signed participation agreements and showed up for work despite not being employed, throughout the offseason program.
So now they’re going to stay away?
The teams may not take it seriously. They’ll count on players caving so that they can get ready for the season, accepting less-than-100-percent guarantees in order to get to work. And any such deals coming later in the round will set the parameters for the rest of the round.
At the top of the second round, there’s another dynamic to consider. With the fourth pick in round two (Browns running back Quinshon Judkins) arrested on Saturday for battery and domestic violence, he could be the first one to take less than 100 percent guarantees.
However it plays out, it will be much harder to hold the players together once camps open. Especially since agents traditionally haven’t been willing to take advantage of the ability of players to coordinate and collude.
The best approach, at this point, would be for the NFL Players Association to arrange a conference call of all agents who represent the 30 unsigned second-round picks and come up with a strategy. Although it could be very difficult to get 100 percent guarantees for all of round two, the union and agents could take last year’s percentages for each of the second-round picks and figure out the number to demand for all of the unsigned players.
Then, take it to the teams and say, “This is what it takes to get all of these deals done.”
Of course, that approach would require the players to hold together. To respect an unofficial picket line. Given that players generally won’t (and owners generally will) do without football, it will be hard to do it. (We invite the 30 unsigned second-round picks to prove us wrong about that.)
The point for now is that the effort to coordinate should have started weeks ago. And that, since it didn’t happen, there’s a very real urgency to come up with an organized and effective plan.
Even if it will be difficult to pull it off, the NFLPA should be trying to do it.
The Chargers’ rookies reported to training camp on Saturday, and second-round wide receiver Tre Harris was not present, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports.
Harris remains unsigned, as do 29 other players drafted in the second round.
Texans receiver Jayden Higgins, the 34th overall pick, became the first second-round pick ever to receive a fully guaranteed contract. The Browns then had to give linebacker Carson Schwesinger, the 33rd overall pick, a fully guaranteed deal. No other second-round draft pick has signed.
Harris, the 55th overall pick, became the first second-rounder to miss the start of training camp as the Chargers are the first team to open camp.
Because he is not under contract, Harris is not subject to fines.
In five college seasons — three at Louisiana Tech and two at Ole Miss — Harris caught 220 passes for 3,532 yards and 29 touchdowns. He is in the mix to replace Mike Williams opposite Ladd McConkey.
The 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement created a rookie wage scale that leaves few issues on which to haggle. This year, one of those issues has prevented 30 of 32 second-round picks from signing.
The problem is simple to explain, far from simple to solve. Before 2025, no second-round picks had received fully-guaranteed rookie contracts. With the Texans giving receiver Jayden Higgins, the second pick in round two, a fully-guaranteed deal, the issue was framed.
The Browns quickly gave linebacker Carson Schwesinger, the first pick in round two, a fully-guaranteed deal. They had little choice, once the player taken immediately after him got a fully-guaranteed contract.
For the next 30 picks in round two, no deal has been done. While all of them participated in the offseason program under participation agreements, they won’t be practicing (or even present) without signed contracts.
It gets real on Saturday, when the Chargers report — and when (as noted by Adam Schefter of ESPN.com) second-round receiver Tre Harris does not.
Harris was the 23rd pick in round two. And this isn’t about whether he’ll get a fully-guaranteed deal. He won’t. Beyond determining how deep into round two the 100-percent guarantee will go, the challenge becomes setting the right percentage of full guarantee for the rest of the round.
At the risk of making this blurb too damn long, here’s the percentage of full guarantee for each of the 2024 second-round picks:
No. 1: 95.69 percent.
No. 2: 91.9 percent.
No. 3: 88.09 percent.
No. 4: 86.41 percent.
No. 5: 84.73 percent.
No. 6: 82.98 percent.
No. 7: 81.23 percent.
No. 8: 80.46 percent.
No. 9: 79.52 percent.
No. 10: 78.65 percent.
No. 11: 77.98 percent.
No. 12: 77.3 percent.
No. 13: 76.38 percent.
No. 14: 74.14 percent.
No. 15: 72.6 percent.
No. 16: 71.13 percent.
No. 17: 69.72 percent.
No. 18: 68.28 percent.
No. 19: 66.8 percent.
No. 20: 65.22 percent.
No. 21: 63.61 percent.
No. 22: 61.95 percent.
No. 23: 60.24 percent.
No. 24: 58.71 percent.
No. 25: 57.26 percent.
No. 26: 55.7 percent.
No. 27: 54.01 percent.
No. 28: 52.99 percent.
No. 29: 52.75 percent.
No. 30: 52.57 percent.
No. 31: 52.51 percent.
No. 32: 52.39 percent.
The Tre Harris slot had 60.24 percent. It will be higher this year. But how much? If Harris does his deal now, he’ll ideally set the floor for all taken ahead of him and the ceiling for all taken behind him. There’s also a chance that his percentage will be too low — which could result in players taken after him getting a higher percentage. That will become ammunition for other agents to criticize his representation at Athletes First when competing for the same incoming players.
Athletes First is relevant at the other end of the spectrum. They represent the third pick (and first unsigned pick) in round two: Seahawks safety Nick Emmanwori. Thus, as to the threshold question of how deep into the round the fully-guaranteed deals go, Emmanwori and A1 are in the batter’s box.
However it plays out, the urgency reaches full boil as players aren’t showing up for camp. And while the agents and players are permitted to coordinate/collude on a strategy for maximizing the guarantee for the players, the teams cannot coordinate/collude. Now that everyone (finally) knows about the union’s partial win in the collusion case over fully-guaranteed deals, the process from the perspective of the teams becomes a little riskier.
Or a lot.
It’s already a mess. It could soon become a full-blown fiasco, with most teams missing a key young player during training camp, and with one (Seahawks) missing two and one (Bears) missing three.
The two brothers who squared off in Super Bowl XLVII have visited the 47th president.
Via the Baltimore Banner, Ravens coach John Harbaugh and Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Thursday.
A White House official confirmed the meeting to the Banner.
The visits happened at the invitation of the White House.
As noted by the Banner, John Harbaugh typically stays out of political waters. In 2015, however, he advocated the construction of a border wall.
“I’m going Trump here,” Harbaugh said. “Build the wall. If you don’t have a border, you don’t have a country. You’re not a country without a border, right?
“At the same time, you’ve got 12 [million] to 15 million hardworking people here. Give them a shot. Give them a chance to become a citizen, so they’re paying taxes. All of us know that it’s not that complicated, but this side doesn’t want to solve it. Neither does [the other] side. Neither one of them want to solve the problem. Solve the problem.”
Jim Harbaugh is a vocal opponent of abortion, one of the key planks of the Republican party’s platform.
They’re both entitled to express their beliefs, without anyone telling them to “stick to sports.” But that door swings both ways.
Or at least it should.
The rumors started on Sunday. They could not be corroborated until today.
Chargers running back Najee Harris was indeed injured in a fireworks accident during July 4 weekend.
From his agent, Doug Hendrickson: “Najee Harris was present at a 4th of July event where a fireworks mishap resulted in injuries to several attendees. Najee sustained a superficial eye injury during the incident, but is fully expected to be ready for the upcoming NFL season.”
The Chargers did not respond to a request for comment on the matter. When Harris reports for training camp next week in advance of the July 31 Hall of Fame game, Harris will (along with all other players) undergo a full physical.
The rumors persisted all week until the dam broke via a report from Cam Inman of the San Jose Mercury News regarding the fact that Harris had been injured on July 5 in Antioch, California. Inman’s report had no specifics as to the extent or severity of the injury. Inman reported that Harris received treatment at John Muir Hospital in Concord and later at Stanford Hospital.
Multiple other people were injured during the incident.
The original rumors were that Harris had lost an eye. The official word from his camp is that it’s a “superficial eye injury.” The next development will come when he has his training camp physical.
Harris, a first-round pick of the Steelers in 2021, signed a one-year deal with the Chargers in March. He has rushed for more than 1,000 yards in each of his four NFL seasons.
49ers quarterback Brock Purdy was an afterthought when he was drafted with the final pick in 2022. It took injuries to Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo before he saw the field, and after that, Lance and Garoppolo became expendable.
Lance, the third overall pick in 2021, lasted through training camp in 2023 before the Cowboys unwisely sent a fourth-round pick to the 49ers for him.
“It’s tough, because Trey and I are tight, dude,” Purdy said during a recent appearance on the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “Absolutely, we’re boys, and we’re bros.”
Purdy is firmly entrenched as the 49ers’ franchise quarterback, having signed a five-year, $265 million extension with the team. Lance already is on his third team, having left the Cowboys to sign a one-year, $2 million deal with the Chargers to back up Justin Herbert.
Lance’s career has not gone how anyone expected.
“I wanted nothing but the best for him, and I know he wanted that for me,” Purdy said. “But that’s just how this business goes and all that. When it did happen, we’re about to play our preseason game against the Chargers, and right before the game, they announced [the trade of Lance to the Cowboys], and I didn’t really know how to act or what to think. I was just like, ‘Man, I hope he can go to Dallas and compete and have a great opportunity.’”
Purdy said he and Lance have never discussed exactly how everything went down, but nothing has changed about Purdy’s feelings about Lance.
“We’ve just texted each other, like, ‘Hey, dude, hope you’re doing good,’ like, randomly throughout the season, offseason, or whatever. ‘Hope you’re doing good,’ this and that. It’s really just been that,” Purdy said. “We haven’t really gotten to the details of, ‘Hey, how do you feel with this happening?’ or whatever. We just stay away from that.”
Thursday’s #PFTPM including a simple question: “What are your thoughts on a potential Bills-Rams Super Bowl?”
My thoughts are it could happen, because both teams are firmly in the Super Bowl window.
In any given year, not many teams truly are. And while teams not apparently in the window can, in theory, win their way in, the salary-cap system has matured to the point where some teams have cracked the code — and some teams can’t crack their way out of a paper bag.
It also helps to have drafted and developed a franchise quarterback.
In most years, roughly 10 teams are in the window, roughly 10 teams aren’t, and the remaining 12 could break either way. This year, the AFC’s true short-list contenders are the Chiefs, Bills, Ravens, Bengals, and Texans. The Broncos and Chargers could force their way into the conversation.
In the NFC, it’s the Eagles, Lions, Rams, 49ers, and Commanders. Maybe the Buccaneers. Maybe the Vikings.
Again, things can and will change. That’s why they play the games, as someone once said. All the time.
For those who like a little variety, it would be nice for someone other than the Chiefs to get a turn in the Super Bowl. And for someone other than the Eagles, 49ers, or Rams to emerge from the NFC.
Since 2017, it’s been the Eagles three times, the 49ers twice, the Rams twice, and the Bucs once. For the AFC, it’s been only the Patriots, Chiefs, and Bengals.
That’s it. Over eight seasons, seven total franchises have taken the 16 total Super Bowl berths.
Free agency, the salary cap, and a draft process that rewards failure should be enough to mix things up. But the reality is that good teams stay good, and bad teams stay bad.
The Chargers will induct Rodney Harrison into their Hall of Fame this season, the team announced Monday.
He becomes the 36th player to receive the organization’s highest honor, and the 44th member overall.
Harrison’s enshrinement is scheduled for Oct. 23, during a halftime ceremony when the Chargers host the Vikings at SoFi Stadium on Thursday Night Football.
He was selected for induction by a vote of the living Chargers Hall of Famers.
“Rodney personified an era of Chargers football defined by physicality, emotion, relentless effort, toughness and grit,” Chargers president of football operations John Spanos said in a statement. “For nearly a decade, he gave everything he had to the Chargers, establishing a standard of accountability and setting the bar for competitive greatness. He made an immediate impact his rookie year, helping lead us to an unforgettable AFC Championship victory in Pittsburgh and appearance in Super Bowl XXIX. The fire that burned inside Rodney was the stuff of legend and, as is the case with all the great ones, it never once faded over the course of his career. And as much as he gave of himself on the field, Rodney found a way to give even more to our community, especially in his work with local youth. Inducting Rodney into the Chargers Hall of Fame is a fitting tribute to a player who gave this franchise everything he had and more.”
Harrison, who now works for NBC Sports, played 15 seasons in the NFL, including nine with the Chargers after they selected him in the fifth round of the 1994 draft. He totaled 21.5 sacks during his time with the organization, the most in franchise history by a defensive back, and 26 interceptions, which ranks third all-time among Chargers defenders and first among safeties.
Harrison, voted the team’s defensive player of the year four times by his teammates, was named to both the 40th and 50th anniversary Chargers’ all-time teams.
“What I remember most about Rodney is his incredible toughness,” former head coach Bobby Ross said in a statement. “He was a hard-hitting, relentless safety — fearless in every sense of the word. He had all the tools: speed, instincts, and range — but what separated him was that physical edge, that toughness you don’t always see, even among the best. He stood out from day one. On top of that, he was a smart, determined player who always came prepared. He had a great football mind and wasn’t afraid to speak up with ideas to help the team. Rodney was a sharp young man and a tremendous representative of our program — and I’m proud to see him take his rightful place in the Chargers Hall of Fame.”
Harrison has a case for Canton, and his induction into the Chargers Hall of Fame will add another line to his resume.
