Why the Chargers Have Flexibility to Draft 'Best Player Available' in Round 1 of 2025 NFL Draft

Apr 17, 2025 at 03:00 PM

Omar Navarro

Jr. Writer

The Chargers have set their roster up quite nicely a week away from the 2025 NFL Draft.

How good do they feel about the roster after free agency?

General Manager Joe Hortiz believes the team could hit the field right now if they needed.

"I feel like we could go out and play a game tomorrow and be damn good in that game," Hortiz said on Thursday.

Hortiz and Assistant General Manager Chad Alexander held their pre-draft press conference Thursday at The Bolt just a week away from Round 1 kicking off in Green Bay.

The draft is another major step in the offseason process and the biggest since the start of the New League Year last month.

And the overarching feeling in the group is one of high optimism, as it was a successful free agency period — one that opens things up for the team starting next Thursday.

"I thought it was great," Hortiz said. "Free agency is a moving target. You got with a plan, our plan was to add as much to our team as we possibly could.

"You look at what we did, we were able to address a lot of different positions," Hortiz continued. "Sometimes it takes some patience out the gate and I think that's the way to play it.

"You got to make smart decisions, calculated decisions and try to build your roster as deep as you can going into the draft so you can sit there and let the draft come to you and pick the best player available," Hortiz added. "I think we were able to accomplish that."

The Chargers added 21 players during this opening period of free agency, a number that includes returners such as Khalil Mack and Elijah Molden among others.

But the work isn't done yet, and as Hortiz showed in his first calendar year, roster building is a year-round thing.

The draft is just the next step.

"I feel like we did a really good job in free agency, really addressing a lot of needs on our team," Hortiz said.

He later added: "We have a chance to add 10 more players through the draft and additional players post draft and undrafted free agents, then free agency after the draft. Free agency never ends, as you guys know, as we showed, but it's just excitement."

Aside from adding the talent and competition in free agency and what it does to bolster the roster, both Hortiz and Alexander feel it also opens up a lot when the Bolts are on the clock next week.

"You let the board come to you," Hortiz said. "You don't feel the pressure, so to speak, that, 'Oh we got to address this player, we have to take this position.'

"I just don't feel that way because of the way we have spread ourselves out in free agency and adding to the roster and really completing the roster," Hortiz said. "I think that's the goal. You want to put yourself in a position to be go to draft day and say, 'We can literally let the board come to us. We can take the best player.'"

Hortiz did acknowledge, however, that if two players were to be tied or close, there would be different factors to weigh.

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The Los Angeles Chargers host Arrow McLaren racing on Wednesday, April 9, 2025 at The Bolt in El Segundo, CA.