La Canfora described them as “the chum in the water that contending teams are eager to bite into” after they fell to 0-6 with a 22-6 loss at Kansas City in which they didn’t score a touchdown.
Mack, James, And A Receiver Are The Names
Khalil Mack “seems as good as gone,” La Canfora wrote, “though the team gave him so much money up front as a signing bonus that it’s a bitter pill to swallow.”
Mack is 35 and signed a one-year, $18 million fully guaranteed deal this offseason with $10 million paid as a signing bonus, and he said earlier this month that “we’re still ring chasing here” and that he has “total faith” in the team, according to ESPN’s Anthony Gharib.
Derwin James is a less certain case, with La Canfora saying “people I talk to believe the demand for a positionless defender with that unique skill set will be high enough that he could get moved.”
🚨🚨#49ers are expected to have interest in #Chargers Khalil Mack
— NFL Rumors (@nflrums) October 17, 2026
James is 30, signed a three-year, $75.6 million extension in May that runs through 2029, and has appeared in three games this season with 21 tackles.
La Canfora also wrote that “at least one receiver is likely out of there, too,” without naming him, and ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler listed Quentin Johnston among the names that have come up around the league.
Pro Football Rumors reported the Chargers have been rebuffing trade inquiries and expecting a turnaround, so the sell-off La Canfora describes would be a reversal of how the team has publicly acted.
Herbert And McDaniel Are The Bigger Questions
La Canfora wrote that some around the league are wondering if Justin Herbert will be there in 2027, and that “perhaps someone might be able to pry him away even sooner, possibly by the trade deadline.”
He also said a Herbert trade “would still constitute a major surprise, but not a total shock,” and one longtime executive told him, “I don’t think he’s getting traded now, maybe more of a discussion in the offseason.”
Herbert is 31st in the NFL in passer rating at 68.8 with five touchdown passes and eight interceptions, and he isn’t completing 60 percent of his passes.
57 yards from Herbert to Johnston! LACvsKC on CBS/Paramount+ Stream on @NFLPlus https://t.co/a6kEFGZWO4
— NFL (@NFL) October 18, 2026
His base salaries are $24 million this season, $36 million next season, and $47 million in 2028, when he’s also due a $5 million roster bonus, and he has a no-trade clause, so any deal would require his approval.
Fowler wrote that many evaluators around the league still have “a deep affinity for Justin Herbert despite his poor play.”
La Canfora said the Mike McDaniel experiment has been “a flop on a scale no one could have fathomed,” and that “whether McDaniel gets fired outright or not, someone else is going to be calling plays there, and perhaps head coach Jim Harbaugh will take over himself.”
Harbaugh declined to give firm assurances about McDaniel’s future after the loss, and the Chargers, who went 11-6 and reached the playoffs in each of Harbaugh’s first two seasons, are on their Week 7 bye before facing the Rams on November 1, nine days before the deadline.
