3 cut players the Chargers should be interested in

NFL teams are in the thick of making their final decisions to cut their respective rosters down to 53 players by today’s 1:00 p.m. PST deadline.

With a ton of notable and usable players becoming casualties of circumstance across the league, there will be a number of names who won’t be without work for long. Below are three players I believe the Chargers should check in on that have already been released ahead of the deadline.

RB Zonovan “Bam” Knight

I liked Knight a lot when he came out of North Carolina State a year ago. He has better play speed than his 4.56 would suggest and the versatility to return kicks. As a rookie, Knight started four games in place of the injured Breece Hall. He finished with 85 carries for 300 rushing yards and a lone touchdown. He also caught 13 passes for 100 yards and returned one kickoff for 18 yards.

Knight didn’t have the strongest preseason, but if it wasn’t for Dalvin Cook being signed, he still likely would have made the team’s final roster. But after the team drafted Israel Abanikanda, the room simply got a bit too crowded.

NFL insider Aaron Wilson reported that the Chargers are expected to keep UDFA Elijah Dotson on the final 53-man roster which means they’re likely to keep four backs initially. Still, I wouldn’t mind the Chargers potentially stashing the 22-year old Knight on the practice squad as an extra emergency option for the run game.

OT Chukwuma Okorafor

“Chim” Okorafor is a massive 6’6 tackle with plenty of experience under his belt playing for the Steelers over the past five seasons. That includes 52 total starts and 48 coming in the past three seasons, alone. Despite five full seasons in the NFL, Okorafor will enter the 2023 season having just turned 26 years old. His price tag might be a bit high for a player with his resume, but the Chargers absolutely should look to upgrade their swing tackle position over defaulting to Foster Sarell for another season.

For comparison, Okorafor finished the 2022 season as a full-time starter with an overall grade of 61.2. He was best in pass protection with a 62.8 grade compared to a 55.7 run block grade. Throw those numbers against Sarell’s 44.6 overall, 49.7 run block, and 37.0 pass block grades and you’ve got one heck of an upgrade.

QB Colt McCoy

This isn’t an exciting option at all but, despite many believing Easton Stick has progressed enough to be the Chargers’ backup to Justin Herbert, I still think we’d all sleep a lot better knowing a well-seasoned was next in line should anything catastrophic happen to the team’s golden boy. I don’t think he fit the system Jonathan Gannon wants to run in Arizona and his presence in the quarterback room would run parallel with the what the Chargers have done in recent years with Chase Daniel as a player/coach concept.

It would also be really cool to see both Moore and McCoy, two of college football’s winningest quarterbacks of all time working together alongside Herbert.

In three games last season, McCoy threw for 780 yards and one touchdown to three interceptions. That’s not a great line, but it’s easy to imagine him having a smoother time with a much, much better wide receiver room should he be forced to play in a pinch.