The Chargers’ 2024-2025 campaign has officially come to an end. The season didn’t end the way anyone wanted it to, but there are still many reasons to look forward to the future. Many of those reasons are from their draft class, widely considered one of the best the Chargers have had in years. Guys like Joe Alt and Ladd McConkey have become staples of their offense while late-round gems have made their names known around the NFL world. This list goes through every one of the Chargers’ 2024 draft picks – except WR Cornelius Johnson who was cut before he got onto the field – and how their rookie years panned out.
RT Joe Alt: A+
Joe Alt had a phenomenal rookie season. The Notre Dame Alumni was borderline elite in his first season, creating one of the best tackle duos in the league. Alt had a 77.6 PFF grade, the 19th highest among all offensive tackles that year. If it weren’t for the poor interior line play, the Chargers would’ve successfully built the wall they wanted behind Justin Herbert and his friends in the backfield. Comparing him to the rest of the players drafted around him, no other player would benefit this team the way Alt has. The fifth-overall pick has given Justin Herbert more time to survive in the pocket. If they can boost the interior, Alt and Slater will be the stars of one of the best offensive lines in the league for years to come.
WR Ladd McConkey: A+
Ladd McConkey is the steal of the 2024 draft. He is this year’s Puka Nacua, in a way. Ladd went for over 1,000 receiving yards in his rookie year, breaking Keenan Allen’s rookie receiving yard record for Los Angeles. He is already Herbert’s favorite target and is being assigned choice routes in just his rookie season. The trust he has built with Justin Herbert, Greg Roman, and Jim Harbaugh in his first year has been impressive. Heading into the playoffs, the former Georgia Bulldog is one of the focal points of this offense and will be a problem for opposing defenses to gameplan for.
LB Junior Colson: C
Junior Colson’s lack of opportunity is to no fault of his own. Nobody expected Daiyan Henley to turn into a budding star in his sophomore year. Denzel Perryman is still solid at this age. On top of this, Harbaugh and Minter have opted to use guys like Troy Tye and Nick Niemann a lot of the time Perryman has missed. He hasn’t been bad when Colson has played, but he won’t get a real opportunity until next year. Assuming Perryman doesn’t come back, the Michigan Man will get a real opportunity to be a star in the system he was a part of in college. For now, however, he’ll have to settle for a C.
DT Justin Eboigbe: D
There’s no way around it, Eboigbe hasn’t looked great in his time with the Chargers. Fresh out of Alabama, Eboigbe has been outshined by Poona Ford and Teair Tart in his rookie year, which is to no fault of his own. Nobody expected Ford and Tart to play so well all year, and therefore Eboigbe didn’t get as much playing time. However, many interior D-linemen struggle at the beginning of their careers, so he could make big improvements further in the future.
CB Tarheeb Still: A-
Tarheeb Still came up big in the later half of the season. With a breakout game against the Falcons where he racked up two interceptions and a pick-six, Still became a very valuable piece of Jesse Minter’s defense. His only real signs of mistakes were the times where – after his big return against Kirk Cousins – he would undercut the ball to try and make a play on the ball, but would miss and result in a man getting open for a big gain. The only other reason this grade is not even higher than it is is because he only started for 12 games and may have only gotten extended snaps during a few of those. He looked very promising all year, but it is not out of the realm of possibility that he could have just had a hot couple of months. The chances are, however, that Still will be a big piece of this defense moving forward.
CB Cam Hart: B
Cam Hart is a tough player to grade after his rookie year. When Hart was given the opportunity, he looked even better than the previously mentioned Tarheeb Still. However, many different factors led to him only starting six games this season. He only broke out about halfway through the year, and he suffered multiple concussions after that. When he returned in the playoffs against the Texans, he injured his shoulder and missed a large portion of the game. Keeping his upper body away from hits like those could be something he can work on in the future, but it is hard to expect a player to play for a long time if they begin to develop a history of concussions. Hart could have the highest ceiling of any of these late-round picks, but there is some work to be done before he gets to that point.
RB Kimani Vidal: C+
Kimani Vidal is exactly what anyone would expect out of a late-round pick. Vidal ran for a little over 150 yards on 45 touches this season. Those aren’t great numbers, but they should be more than good enough to keep the Troy alumni on the roster. He only played in ten games, meaning there is a good amount of room for improvement. Vidal looked nothing short of solid all year, and he will surely be a good depth piece in this RB room in the foreseeable future. There’s no world where he evolves into a bell-cow, every-down back type of guy, but that isn’t really what teams are looking for anymore. At the end of the day, it is unlikely that any GM in the NFL is kicking themselves for passing on Kimani Vidal, and that is why he gets a C+ for his rookie year: serviceable, but nothing worth putting in a recap of the Chargers’ season.
WR Brenden Rice: N/A
Brenden Rice didn’t suit up for the Chargers this year, which isn’t always expected of a seventh-round pick. However, there are still reasons to hold out for Rice to make big improvements in the offseason. For one, he was very good when catching passes from Caleb Williams at USC. In his senior year, Rice went for 791 yards and 12 touchdowns. A Pac-12 offense is very different from the one Jim Harbaugh runs, but Rice has shown that he can be a great QB’s most reliable option. On top of this, it is literally in his name to be a great Wide Receiver. The son of the man many people consider to be the GOAT at his position, Jerry has said that he will be helping coach up Brenden as his NFL career grows. Brenden Rice doesn’t have much film to go off of in the NFL, but he is certainly worth holding onto.
