The Los Angeles Chargers’ latest loss is far more embarrassing than any they’ve suffered on the field this season
The Los Angeles Chargers finally accepted their fate ahead of Tuesday’s NFL Trade Deadline…or so we thought.
The Los Angeles Chargers waited until the last possible moment to become sellers at the NFL trade deadline. Even then, Chargers general manager Joe Hortiz and coach Jim Harbaugh found a way to botch it.
At 0-8, Los Angeles stiff-armed the idea of moving anyone off the roster until the final minutes before the deadline. The Chargers’ lone move was sending linebacker Daiyan Henley to the Denver Broncos in exchange for fourth- and fifth-round draft picks. There’s just one problem with that decision — it turns out that Henley wasn’t able to pass a physical. The trade has since been nullified. And in the process, it’s told us a bit more about this Chargers’ regime.
The Denver Broncos failed Daiyan Henley on a physical, cancelling the Chargers’ one and only trade deadline deal at 0-8
Consider the context here. Los Angeles is one loss away from guaranteeing a losing season in 2026. Most front offices in that position spend the weeks before the deadline gauging the market for every veteran who might fetch a draft pick. The Chargers didn’t. Instead, they managed to scrape out a deal — but were selling a proverbial lemon amid an injury issue so bad that Henley wasn’t able to pass his physical.
I want to be fair to Henley. He’s a good player. A really good player. I’m also not going to pretend to know what was on the Chargers’ medical report or all of the details behind the scenes. But it’s fair to ask how a front office lands on a single trade at the deadline and that trade falls apart in the hours after the fact due to a complication. Were they really ready to sell? Or simply looking to pull a fast one with a player who wasn’t 100%?
The Chargers will lose their extra draft choices in return and have already welcomed Henley back to the roster with a very silly social media post. Something to smile about in a season that hasn’t offered much…I suppose.
The stubbornness that Hortiz and Harbaugh have carried through the deadline is hard to overlook. The Chargers chose to stiff-arm possible assets for the long-haul. Then, when they finally did act, the one deal they struck was around an ailing player. So now the Chargers will have nothing to show for the deadline, other than yet another embarrassing loss.
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