The Chargers are meeting with a potential addition to their offensive line to kick off the second week of free agency.
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports that guard Spencer Burford arrived for a visit with the team on Sunday night. It’s the first reported visit for Burford since the start of the new league year.
Burford was a 2022 49ers fourth-round pick and he started 29 games over his first two seasons. Burford was a reserve in all of his 2024 appearances, but returned to make 11 starts — including both 49ers playoff games — in 2025.
The Chargers released guard Mekhi Becton earlier this month and center Bradley Bozeman retired, but they have signed center Tyler Biadasz and guard Cole Strange to bolster their line in recent days.
A day before Seahawks G.M. John Schneider addressed the potential impact of Washington’s looming “millionaire tax” on the defending Super Bowl champions, Simms and I stumbled into a conversation about state income taxes during PFT Live.
The spark came from the trade that has sent defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa from the Cowboys (and Texas) to the 49ers (and California). In his last stop, there was no state income tax. At his new team, he’ll lose 13.3 percent, off the top.
It’s not as clean and simple as every penny of compensation being taxed, or not, by the state where the team plays. For road trips, the game check is taxed by the state in which the game happens. It gets more complicated as to per-game roster bonuses. As we hear it, some states try to tax the visiting player based also on a percentage of the full-year roster bonuses and/or the prorated portion of the signing bonus for the season in which the game is played.
And, yes, the lack of state income tax becomes a selling point in free agency, which explains Schneider’s concerns about Washington’s tax rate for millionaires increasing from 0.0 percent to 9.9. But, as Odighizuwa will learn the hard way, that doesn’t matter if the free-agent contract also doesn’t include a no-trade clause.
Regardless, the variations in state income tax create an imbalance as it relates to the most important aspect of anyone’s pay — how much they take home.
Simms mentioned on Thursday’s PFT Live that he heard something interesting from someone in the league who saw the tax discussion from the day before. (And, yes, plenty of people in the league watch PFT Live — probably because it features no phony debates, no false praise, no reckless hype, no minced words, and no performative antics.) There’s an argument to be made that the salary cap should take state income taxes into account.
It would be complicated, given that taxes depend on where games are played. Still, every team has eight or nine home games per year. That’s roughly half of the compensation, taxed based on where the team is located.
The real question is whether teams should get more to spend, given that more of what is paid will end up being taken off the top by the state government. Some teams may not want to do it, since having a higher cap means having a higher floor means spending more money that otherwise would be siphoned away as pure profit.
And the numbers would be significant. At a 2026 salary cap of $301.2 million, providing the Rams, Chargers, and 49ers with a 13.3-percent bump would push the cap to $341.2 million for those teams.
The deeper question is whether state income taxes make a competitive difference. As noted the other day, most of the teams in the no-tax states haven’t been to a Super Bowl this century. (The Seahawks and Buccaneers are the exception; the Titans, Cowboys, Dolphins, Jaguars, and Texans are not.)
Part of the problem is that most players don’t fret about state income taxes, even if they should. Players focus mainly on annual average, the true locker-room measuring stick that determines the pecking order among the most and least valuable players.
Although it would indeed be difficult to come up with the right way to determine cap credits, since the total tax burden depends on where games are played, that would be doable. The bigger challenge would be to get all teams in states with income tax to agree to a higher cap in order to account for it.
News flash: Not every team is as obsessed with winning as they pretend to be. For many owners, it’s about profit. Having more money to spend means having less to buy giant yachts or that much-needed tenth home. Especially since the owners of the teams in the high-tax states are also paying those increased rates, too.
Just kidding. The ultra-rich have seemingly cracked the code on eating nearly every ounce of what they kill. Which is another reason why the owners of the teams in the high-tax states won’t want to have more to spend — even if they have to say they do.
New Chargers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel will be working with a backup quarterback who was already in L.A.
Via Adam Schefter of ESPN, Trey Lance has signed a one-year deal to return to the Chargers. It’s reportedly worth “up to” $6.75 million (which means the base value will be lower, perhaps significantly).
Lance signed with the Chargers as a free agent in 2025. He appeared in four games with one start, completing 27 of 57 passes for 226 yards, no touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 50.8.
The third overall pick of the 49ers in 2021, Lance’s days as a starter have seemingly ended. He entered 2022 as the Week 1 starting quarterback in San Francisco, but he suffered a season-ending ankle injury in Week 2. By 2023, Brock Purdy had moved from last player drafted to the top of the depth chart.
Lance was traded to the Cowboys that same year. He spent the final two seasons of his rookie contract in Dallas.
For his career, Lance has 16 regular-season appearances and six starts.
The Falcons have agreed to terms with defensive lineman Da’Shawn Hand on a one-year, $3 million deal, Mike Garafolo of NFL Media reports.
Hand, 30, played for the Chargers last season. He started 13 games and saw action on 451 defensive snaps and 53 on special teams, totaling 29 tackles, 1.5 sacks, five quarterback hits and an interception.
He spent four weeks on injured reserve after injuring his groin in a Week 5 game.
Hand entered the NFL as a fourth-round pick of the Lions in 2018 and spent three-plus seasons in Detroit. He also spent time with the Titans and Dolphins.
In his career, Hand has totaled 131 tackles, 6.5 sacks, 14 quarterback hits, nine passes defensed and four forced fumbles.
Veteran tight end Tyler Conklin’s next stop will be Detroit.
Conklin’s agent Mike McCartney announced that his client has agreed to sign a one-year deal with the Lions.
Conklin is making the move to the NFC North after spending last season with the Chargers. He had seven catches for 101 yards while appearing in 13 games and making five starts.
That came after a three-year run that saw Conklin catch 170 passes for 1,622 yards and seven touchdowns with the Jets.
Sam LaPorta, Brock Wright, Zach Horton, and Thomas Gordon are the other tight ends on the roster for the Lions.
