Since the Los Angeles Chargers moved on from Keenan Allen and Mike Williams, there hasn’t been a bigger roster question facing the team than at wide receiver.
But now that the regular season is arriving soon and the NFL’s 53-man roster deadline is less than a week away, the Chargers will have to make hard decisions on who to keep and who to cut.
Projecting Chargers depth chart at Wide Receiver
Starters: Quentin Johnston, Brenden Rice, Ladd McConkey
Quentin Johnston seems to have the least consensus about his standing with the team, but head coach Jim Harbaugh has heaped praise on the second-year wide receiver. In preseason action, Johnston has shown improvement in his hands, route running, and willingness as a run blocker.
Two rookies round out the top three. While Ladd McConkey hasn’t practiced much, he is the team’s only true slot receiver. Whether or not the Chargers run much 11-personnel, McConkey will be in there when they do.
Brenden Rice vowed to make teams feel his pain for passing on him the draft. Once thought to be a third-round pick, Rice dropped into the seventh. Nathan Jahnke of Pro Football Focus expects a rotation at X, so Rice isn’t a true starter in the purest sense of the word, but is all but guaranteed a roster spot.
Rotational Backups: DJ Chark, Josh Palmer, Simi Fehoko
DJ Chark should be the Chargers front-runner, but by many accounts, he has been outplayed by Johnston and Rice. Of his two targets, he dropped one and he has not looked like the excellent blocker he was early in his career.
Josh Palmer has been a non-factor in the preseason, playing just eight snaps. While in some NFL circles, that means he is a lock, but that isn’t the case with Jim Harbaugh. Palmer’s saving grace is that rookie Cornelius Johnson has had a worse camp than he. It will be less of a risk to let Johnson hit the waiver wire than Palmer.
Simi Fehoko saved his job this preseason. Not only has he produced the most as a pass catcher, he has been the team’s best-blocking receiver, a trait that is extremely valued by Harbaugh. This ultimately causes the Chargers to opt for him over Derius Davis.
