The Chargers made a couple of changes to their defense on Tuesday.
They announced that they have signed linebacker Kana’i Mauga to their 90-man roster. They waived linebacker Jeremiah Jean-Baptiste in a corresponding move.
Mauga appeared in 17 games for the Raiders over the last two seasons. Almost all of his playing time came on special teams and he was credited with six tackles in those appearances. He initially entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent with the Broncos in 2022, but never appeared in any games for the team.
Jean-Baptiste signed with the Chargers after going undrafted last year and he spent his rookie season on the team’s practice squad.
YouTube will be the exclusive home of the second game of the NFL season.
The NFL announced today that YouTube will stream the Friday night Week One game in São Paulo, Brazil on Friday, September 5. The announcement indicated that the YouTube stream will be free and will not require a paid YouTube subscription.
Although NFL Sunday Ticket has been offered through YouTube for the last two seasons, this is the first time a game has been available exclusively on YouTube.
The Chargers will be the designated home team for the Brazil game. The NFL has not announced who the Chargers’ opponent will be, but reports have indicated it will be the Chiefs.
The Chargers signed wide receiver Dalevon Campbell, the team announced Monday.
In a corresponding move, they waived center/guard Bucky Williams.
Campbell led South Carolina with a 26.0-yard receiving average last season. He previously played two seasons at Nevada, where he earned honorable mention All-Mountain West honors in 2023. Campbell also spent three seasons at Illinois, where he redshirted in 2019.
In 60 career games, he made 21 starts and totaled 88 catches for 1,471 yards and three touchdowns.
Williams played at FCS Austin Peay in Clarksville, Tennessee, for four seasons before transferring to Appalachian State. He made 50 total college starts before signing with the Chargers after the 2024 draft.
He spent last season on injured reserve.
Officially, the Week 1 schedule is one-for-one in division games (Cowboys at Eagles). Unofficially (for now), it’s two-for-two (Chargers vs. Chiefs in Brazil).
So here’s the question: Will division games predominate in Week 1?
Since 2010, the regular season has ended with a weekend of division games only. It was driven by competitive integrity concerns. Fifteen years later, it’s still not clear how or why that matters.
If teams with playoff berths clinched will be resting starters for the postseason, the Week 18 opponent won’t change that. And if someone is trying to tank, facing a division rival won’t tap into some reservoir of pride that will prevent it.
Going with division rivalries out of the gates would add some spice to the opening slate. A little contempt bred from familiarity.
Last year, three of the Week 1 games involved division rivalries. Maybe there will only be two this year. Regardless, the first two games — Thursday night and Friday night — will involve division rivalries.
If that trend continues for prime-time games, how about the Steelers (and Aaron Rodgers) against the Bengals or the Ravens on Sunday night? Packers-Lions on Monday night?
The only issue with sending division rivalries to prime time early means that the rematch can’t be flexed into a key evening spot later. By rule, the network traditionally affiliated with each conference (CBS for the AFC and Fox for the NFC) is required to televise at least one of the two games in each division rivalry.
Which means that, for now, Eagles-Cowboys definitely will be on Fox, and Chargers-Chiefs definitely will be on CBS.
The Chargers could have kept their “home” game against the Chiefs at home. They decided not to.
The league reportedly has picked the Chiefs to be the Week 1 Friday night opponent for the Chargers in Brazil. The Chiefs game was not one of the two home games that Chargers chose to protect.
As recently explained by Ben Fischer and Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal, teams exporting home games to the international series can protect up to two games. The Chargers, per the report, did not protect any of their three AFC West home games.
The Chargers host the Chiefs, Broncos, and Raiders every year. They opted to focus on teams that visit less frequently, with the Steelers, Commanders, and Eagles specifically named as the games the Chargers were more inclined to protect.
The specific two the Chargers protected haven’t been identified. It doesn’t matter. If the report that it will be the Chiefs is accurate (the official announcement comes Tuesday morning), the Chiefs game goes to São Paulo, and the other eight (Steelers, Eagles, Commanders, Texans, Colts, Vikings, Raiders, and Broncos) will stay at SoFi.
We’ve known for a long time that the Chargers will be hosting the Week 1 Friday night game in Brazil. On Tuesday, we’ll officially know the opponent.
Unofficially, it reportedly will be the Chiefs.
Via Eric Fisher of FrontOfficeSports.com, the AFC West rivalry will unfold well south of the border, on September 5.
It’s an unusual choice, given that it robs the Chargers of home-field advantage for one of their three home games against division foes. The fact there’s a good chance Chiefs fans would have outnumbered Chargers fans in a game that would have been played at SoFi Stadium takes away some of the sting.
For the Chiefs, it’s yet another high-profile, standalone game for a team that has become one of the league’s biggest draws. With the game reportedly set to stream globally on YouTube at no charge, it could shatter all prior streaming records.
The full schedule will be released on Wednesday, May 14, at 8:00 p.m. ET. Plenty of other games will be leaked and reported before it becomes official.
The Chargers signed seven of their nine draft picks Friday, the team announced.
Oregon defensive tackle Jamaree Caldwell (third rounder), South Carolina edge rusher Kyle Kennard (fourth), Auburn wide receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith (fifth), Syracuse tight end Oronde Gadsden II (fifth), Pittsburgh offensive lineman Branson Taylor (sixth), Clemson safety R.J. Mickens (sixth) and Florida cornerback Trikweze Bridges (seventh) now are under contract.
Caldwell, the 86th overall pick, earned honorable mention All-Big Ten recognition for Oregon in 2024 after starting all 14 games for the Ducks. He set a career high in 2024 with 29 tackles and added three pass breakups and a forced fumble.
Kennard, the 125th overall selection, ended his college career at South Carolina by winning the Bronko Nagurski Trophy that recognizes college football’s top defensive player. He earned named Southeastern Conference defensive player of the year honors after making 11.5 sacks.
Lambert-Smith, the 158th overall choice, earned second-team All-SEC honors last season with 50 catches for 981 yards and eight touchdowns. His 19.6-yard receiving average last season was the best in the country among players with at least 45 catches.
Gadsden, the 165th overall pick, ended his Syracuse career as the program’s all-time record-holder for receptions (141) and receiving yards (1,970) by a tight end. He earned third-team All-America honors and first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference after setting the school’s single-season receptions record by a tight end with 73 catches for 934 yards and seven touchdowns.
Taylor, the 199th overall choice, appeared in 45 games and made 21 starts over his five seasons at Pitt. Taylor started the first six games of 2024 at left tackle.
Mickens, the 214th overall selection, started 30 of the 60 games he played over a five-year career at Clemson, becoming the 10th player in program history to participate in 60 career contests for the Tigers. He was voted by his teammates as a team captain in 2024 and ranked third on the team with a career-high 85 tackles.
Bridges the 256th overall choice, played 2024 at Florida after a four-year career at Oregon. Bridges led the Gators with a career-high 70 tackles, two interceptions, six pass breakups, a tackle for loss and a pair of forced fumbles last season.
The Chargers also announced they waived outside linebacker Chris Collins.
In addition, the Chargers signed 18 undrafted free agents, Illinois defensive lineman TeRah Edwards, Virginia Tech defensive lineman Josh Fuga, Kansas wide receiver Luke Grimm, Western Kentucky outside linebacker Kylan Guidry, Virginia Tech safety Jaylen Jones, Texas State guard Nash Jones, Maryland center Josh Kaltenberger, Iowa State tight end Stevo Klotz, Bowling Green State cornerback Jordan Oladokun, Iowa State cornerback Myles Purchase, Baylor outside linebacker Garmon Randolph, Oregon cornerback Nikko Reed, Rutgers cornerback Eric Rogers, South Carolina running back Raheim Sanders, Purdue tackle Corey Stewart, Florida State quarterback DJ Uiagalelei, Syracuse tackle Savion Washington and Syracuse linebacker Marlowe Wax will compete for roster spots.
When the Olympics return to Los Angeles, the Coliseum will play a major role in the events. SoFi Stadium will, too.
Via Thuc Nhi Nguyen of the Los Angeles Times, the two stadiums will co-host the opening ceremony. It’s the first time the opening ceremony will unfold in two separate venues.
The precise plan for the two-site ceremony has yet to be determined. There’s still time to figure it out — the ceremony happens on July 14, 2028.
Los Angeles previously hosted the Olympics in 1932 and 1984.
During the Olympics, SoFi Stadium will host both track and field and the swimming competition. The schedule of those events has been flipped, with track and field happening in the first week of the games, and swimming in the second.
Not long after the games end, the 2028 preseason will begin at SoFi Stadium for the Rams and the Chargers.
This year’s Week 1 Friday night game from Brazil will, like last year, be available via streaming. Unlike last year, it will reportedly stream at no charge.
Previously, the candidates were YouTube, Warner Brothers Discovery, and Amazon Prime. Now, Andrew Marchand of TheAthletic.com reports that YouTube is the “heavy favorite” to secure the rights to the game. Marchand adds that the game is expected to be available globally on the massive platform, at no charge.
The Friday night game will feature the Chargers as the home team. The visiting team will be announced on Tuesday, and possibly leaked before that.
Google/YouTube currently holds the rights to the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package, a premium product that was found last year by a California federal court jury to be an antitrust violation. The verdict, which had its multi-billion-dollar damages component thrown out by the trial judge, has not prompted the NFL to make any changes to pricing that was determined to be improperly inflated in order to protect the Sunday afternoon packages currently held by CBS and Fox.
The price to be paid by YouTube isn’t known. Last year’s Friday night game, streamed by Peacock, reportedly came with a price tag of $105 million.
The NFL is able to televise a Week 1 Friday night game only when the first weekend of the regular season lands on the first Friday in September. Next year, when Week 1 coincides with the second Friday in September, the NFL could (if it chooses) shift a Week 1 Friday game to 3:00 p.m. ET, like it currently does on Black Friday.
The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 hinges the NFL’s broadcast antitrust exemption on the avoidance of televising games on Saturdays and after 6:00 p.m. ET on Fridays from the second weekend in September through the second weekend in December.
The Chargers brought Mike Williams back as a free agent this offseason and they drafted Tre Brown in the second round, but General Manager Joe Hortiz may not be done adding receivers to the roster ahead of the 2025 season.
Hortiz, who also drafted KeAndre Lambert-Smith in the fifth round, was a guest on Up & Adams this week and he was asked if the team was still looking to bolster the wideout group this offseason. He said that the team will go through rookie minicamp and organized team activities before making any decisions.
“I think we’re going to see what we have out there this weekend and through OTAs, but I’d never say we’re done adding anything,” Hortiz said. “Any chance we can get — if we need the help, if we can help improve the team and the competitiveness of the team and competition at the position.”
Host Kay Adams brought up former Charger Keenan Allen being a free agent later in the appearance, but Hortiz didn’t give any signal that there’s interest in teaming him up with Williams once again.
