With 2026 training camp around the corner at the Bolt in El Segundo, the Chargers are about to welcome a new wave of undrafted rookies trying to force their way onto the roster. More than 20 of them will arrive with the same basic mission: turn a long shot into an NFL job.
That’s familiar territory for this franchise. The Chargers have built a real track record of finding useful, even iconic, players from the undrafted pool. And when you start sorting through that history, a few names rise well above the rest.
Antonio Gates sits at the top of the mountain. The former college basketball player signed with the Chargers as an undrafted free agent after the 2003 draft and barely saw the field as a rookie, finishing with 389 yards on 24 catches and two touchdowns.
After that, the rest turned into one of the great career arcs in NFL history. Gates retired with 955 receptions and 11,841 receiving yards, both third all-time among tight ends, and his 116 touchdowns are the most ever by a tight end.
He’s not just the Chargers’ best undrafted signing. He belongs on the NFL’s undrafted Mount Rushmore, period.
Another 2003 pickup, Kris Dielman, carved out a completely different kind of legacy. The Chargers signed him as a defensive tackle out of Indiana, after he had also played tight end earlier in college for then-offensive coordinator Cam Cameron.
The team moved him to guard, and eventually he became the kind of interior lineman opponents dreaded. Dielman was the enforcer of that Chargers era, known for the kind of bloody trench warfare that made him a fan favorite.
He made four Pro Bowls and added to his legend by turning down a bigger free-agent offer from the Seattle Seahawks to come back to Los Angeles.
Then there’s Austin Ekeler, whose path to the league looked about as unlikely as it gets. He came out of Division Two Western Colorado and entered camp as a low-priority undrafted addition.
Ekeler won over the staff with special teams work and, in the preseason finale against the San Francisco 49ers, grabbed a roster spot that changed everything. From there, he became a stabilizing force for the Chargers’ rushing game through injuries and holdouts.
Ekeler is still an active player and spent the last two seasons with the Washington Commanders, but his Chargers production still stands out: 4,352 rushing yards, 3,884 receiving yards and 69 touchdowns. His 418 points rank fourth all-time among non-kickers and eighth in franchise history.
The last spot came down to a tougher call, with wide receiver Malcom Floyd left just outside the group. But Darren Bennett’s impact was too big to ignore.
Bennett played Australian rules football from 1982-1993, then asked for a tryout with the Chargers while in California on his honeymoon in 1993. His first snap hit him squarely in the face, but he still impressed enough to get invited to camp.
He spent the entire 1994 season on the practice squad before becoming the Chargers’ full-time punter in 1995.
From there, Bennett became one of the best punters in the league through the 2003 season and earned two Pro Bowl selections. He’s also widely credited as the first of the Australian rules players to make the jump into punting in the NFL and college football, and he helped pioneer the “Aussie rules kick,” better known now as the drop punt technique.
In Other News...
Chargers May Already Have A New Offensive Line Problem
The Chargers brought in another possible answer for their reshuffled front when they signed guard Cole Strange after his run through New England and Miami. It is the kind of move that makes sense on paper for a team that spent much of 2025 dealing with injuries and turnover up front, and it fits a broader offseason push to keep rebuilding the offensive line with young talent and veteran insurance.
Still, Strange arrives with some baggage, and that is what makes this addition feel more like a question than a solution. His pass protection has been uneven enough to raise real concern about whether he can lock down a starting job, which matters for a Chargers line that already has plenty to sort out after investing heavily in the position and trying to stabilize the interior for the season ahead. [Read more 🡒]
Chargers Camp Will Test Whether This Offseason Fixed The Biggest Problems
When the Chargers open training camp on July 28, the offseason overhaul will finally move from theory to evaluation. New offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel and defensive coordinator Chris O'Leary were brought in to help clean up the teams biggest problem areas, and camp will quickly show whether those changes have real traction. The offensive line shuffle has a clear battleground at left guard, while Justin Herberts work under McDaniel will be watched closely as the staff tries to reshape the passing game around a quicker rhythm.
On the other side of the ball, O'Learys approach is expected to bring a different look up front and alter how the Chargers deploy some of their best defensive pieces. There are still questions in the cornerback room, too, which means general manager Joe Hortiz may not be done tinkering if the younger options do not answer the bell. For a roster that spent the offseason trying to patch obvious holes, camp is less about getting reps and more about finding out which fixes actually hold up. [Read more 🡒]
Chargers Suddenly Have A Real Chance To Unlock Justin Herbert
The Chargers enter the season with a different kind of optimism around Justin Herbert, and it starts up front. After spending the offseason reshaping the offensive line, the team has tried to give Herbert a cleaner pocket and a more stable platform than he has had in recent years, a move that fits the broader sense that Los Angeles is trying to make its offense more functional and less dependent on improvisation.
Bleacher Reports latest NFL Power Rankings slot the Chargers in the middle of the top tier, with the defense viewed as steady and the offense carrying the bigger upside swing. The bigger question now is whether those changes are enough to push Los Angeles from being a team that has hovered near contention into one that can finally break through in the AFC West, where the Chargers have spent too long chasing the division lead instead of owning it. [Read more 🡒]