3 Chargers who won't be back after being eliminated from playoff contention

After a disappointing season that led to the firing of their head coach and general manager during the season, 2024 is expected to be a transition year for the Los Angeles Chargers. 

The Chargers are going to revamp and rebuild the roster with an eye toward the future to ensure franchise quarterback Justin Herbert has the pieces he needs to succeed. As things stand, the Chargers will have the fifth-highest total cap space in the NFL in 2024 and are over $30 million above the salary cap.

With several aging players on the roster and the team seemingly far from contention without a head coach or general manager to guide them, the Chargers could shake things up heading into next season. 

With that said, here are three Chargers who won’t be back with the team having been eliminated from playoff contention for several weeks now.

3. Gerald Everett, TE

Since signing with the Chargers in 2022, tight end Gerald Everett has emerged as a safety valve in the middle of the field for quarterback Justin Herbert, catching at least 50 passes in each of the past two seasons. However, with the 30-year-old tight end set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, the Chargers could elect to allocate the financial resources it would cost to re-sign him elsewhere.

Not to mention, the team has been rotating a variety of young tight ends with Everett throughout the season. The team has been seeing what they have from players such as Donald Parham Jr. and Stone Smartt.

Parham is a 6-foot-8, 237-pound tight end who has shown flashes of red zone potential and Smartt has displayed big-play ability. Parham and Smartt have played 47 and 28 percent of the Chargers’ offensive snaps this season, suggesting the Chargers have faith in both players to be on the field and could ask them to take on larger roles in place of Everett.

While Everett may not command a large salary to return, he can be deemed expendable for a rebuilding franchise that has several holes to plug on both sides of the ball.