Former Seattle Seahawk tight end Will Dissly plans to sign with the Los Angeles Chargers on a 3-year, $14 million deal with $10 million fully guaranteed, per source. The Chargers depth chart at the position is bare at the moment. Donald Parham and Stone Smartt are currently the only tight ends under contract for the team.
While this move doesn’t offer much in the way of a pass-catching weapon, Dissly is one of the league’s best blocking tight ends. Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh has emphasized both protecting Justin Herbert as well as being fundamentally sound in the trenches. Dissly offers help in both of those areas.
Dissly, 27, entered the NFL in 2018 as a fourth-round pick of the Seahawks. He has spent his entire career in Seattle. In 16 games in 2023, Dissly made 17 catches for 172 yards and a touchdown. In his six-year career, he has 127 receptions for 1,421 yards and 13 touchdowns.
This points in two directions. 1.)The Chargers are still in the Brock Bowers draft conversation 2.) They won’t likely re-sign free agent Gerald Everett.
3 Tight Ends The Los Angeles Chargers Can Draft
Another move in the Wrong Direction for the Los Angeles Chargers Salary Cap
Dissly joins Gus Edwards as the team’s first free agent moves of 2024. The Chargers owed $21.1 million toward the cap before these additions. Now they are likely $28 or so million over the salary cap. Adding Dissly is a smart and prudent way to add the requisite talent to the roster, but The Chargers must rectify their overage before the new league year starts on Wednesday, March 13th at 1 pm PST.
This means a flurry of contract restructures, trades and cuts, mostly at the top of the roster, are still to come.
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