How much will it cost the Los Angeles Chargers to extend Pro Bowl tackle Rashawn Slater?
Rashawn Slater was a polarizing prospect for pundits during his pre-draft process. He garnered plenty of attention with impressive videos from the Northwestern weight room, one featuring him front-squatting 450-pounds for reps. And although Northwestern’s schedule wasn’t regularly challenging Slater with top-end pass rushers, he dominated a game against Chase Young in 2019 that many […]
Rashawn Slater was a polarizing prospect for pundits during his pre-draft process. He garnered plenty of attention with impressive videos from the Northwestern weight room, one featuring him front-squatting 450-pounds for reps. And although Northwestern’s schedule wasn’t regularly challenging Slater with top-end pass rushers, he dominated a game against Chase Young in 2019 that many scouts and pundits repeatedly cited as the leading example of his potential.
As fate would have it, Slater would be selected by the Los Angeles Chargers 13th overall, setting him up for an NFL debut against none other than Chase Young. Young was coming off a Rookie of the Year performance, adding extra intrigue to this matchup.
There was a significant amount of chatter that Slater was better suited for a move inside, where his smaller frame and arm length wouldn’t be a potential liability for a player with excellent strength and athleticism. The common notion was that Slater could likely be a starting-quality tackle, but he profiled as an All-Pro guard.
If the Chargers had made Slater a guard instead of their franchise left tackle, perhaps he would have been an All-Pro on the inside. They’ll never lose sleep over this hypothetical, because he managed this feat as a left tackle in his rookie season, debuting in the NFL with a zero-pressure effort against Chase Young’s Commanders. Along with his second-team All-Pro nod as a rookie, he was voted to his first Pro Bowl and was one of four rookies to receive votes for Offensive Rookie of the Year.
The next two years were setbacks for the talented tackle. In his sophomore campaign, Slater actually looked to have improved on his already impressive skill set. He only allowed three pressures in the 110 passing downs he played before tearing his bicep, an impressive 2.72% pressure-allowed rate. In 2023, he managed to make all 17 starts for the Chargers, but his pressure rate rose to 5.29% and his PFF run blocking grade dropped from the elite scores he had posted his first two years to a lowly 59.5. Duke Manyweather later provided key context, explaining that Slater had battled through a double high ankle sprain all season.
A healthy Rashawn Slater will undoubtedly rejoin Tristan Wirfs and Penei Sewell in the elite-tier of young tackles, and ironically is the only one of the bunch to have done so at left tackle for his whole NFL career. Penei Sewell reset the tackle market this offseason, signing a monster four-year, $112 million contract as a right tackle, bucking the notion that right tackles should be valued lower than left tackles. Tristan Wirfs has had an otherworldly start to his career, with three Pro Bowls and one 1st-Team All-Pro selection to his name, and doing so at both tackle positions.
Wirfs is currently “holding-in” for a new contract, so there is certainly pressure for Joe Hortiz to lock up Rashawn Slater to a new deal before Wirfs drives the market even higher than Sewell’s $28 million APY. But where should a contract fall for Slater if they negotiate now? Even with his “down” 2023, where does he rank against his contemporaries?
Slater's representation will extrapolate the data from his first two years in the league and largely dismiss the decline in year three. Assuming the double high ankle sprain revelation is true, it would be a misstep for any general manager to punish a proven star by using injury-influenced data to negotiate against a foundational piece of their roster, unless durability is the primary concern driving their negotiations. The Chargers made Justin Herbert the highest-paid quarterback in the league despite having a down year (by Herbert’s standards) while he gutted through a fractured rib cartilage injury through the majority of the 2022 season.
Only Laremy Tunsil held a lower pressure allowed percentage than Slater in his first two seasons, and even with the injury-impacted 2023 campaign, he was still third-lowest amongst this impressive group. His weighted run blocking grade in these first two seasons was also ranked second, only lower than Sewell’s incredible 87.13 rating.
This creates an argument that Slater is amongst the top of this group, while perhaps being the most balanced in his pass versus run blocking proficiency. Sewell and Slater early careers were frequently compared as they were both top-15 picks coming out of the 2021 NFL Draft, but it’s very clear both the Lions and the Chargers hit home runs on franchise cornerstone players. Given his age, accolades, draft pedigree, and performance, Sewell is the clear comparable for this negotiation, at least until Wirfs is signed.
If Slater chooses to play out the season and he returns to his 2021-2022 form, the rising cap in 2025 will position him to be the first tackle to hit the $30 million APY mark. He will likely be content with a small bump over what Sewell received and a modest nudge over Tunsil’s cap share, but his exceptional skill in both the pass and run game should justify a slight increase above Tunsil.
This would revise the cap-share leaderboard as shown below. Slater’s number still fits comfortably under Trent Williams’, giving Wirfs room to negotiate into the $30 million range while still not commanding the new cap-share lead.
