Los Angeles Chargers Hidden Gems: 3 Secret Superstars on the 2025 roster

The 2025 Chargers are hoping that their upcoming season ends more positively than 2024’s did. Here are three Secret Superstars who can help Jim Harbaugh’s team on its way.

If you evaluate draft prospects long enough, you’re going to have swings and misses along the way.

I regret to inform you up front that Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert was one of my Vlad Guerrero-level swings, with far less positive impact. Herbert’s traits were obvious, but as he was in an offense that I thought should have been locked in a shed and set on fire, it was tough to tell how those traits would transfer to the NFL. When you see a 6’6, 236-pound rocket-armed guy missing screen passes wildly, and making the most of his deep-ball opportunities when he had them (which wasn’t nearly enough), you can be distracted when you play too much attention to the scheme, and not enough to isolating the player regardless of his environment.

Which proved to be a valuable lesson for me.

That said, five years into Herbert’s NFL career, are we still waiting for the quarterback his most ardent supporters hope to eventually see? Not that Herbert’s 2024 season, his first under head coach Jim Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Greg Roman, was bad for the most part — in the regular season, he completed 332 of 504 passes for 3,870 yards, 23 touchdowns, three interceptions, and a passer rating of 101.7 — the first time Herbert broke 100 in his NFL career.

Then, of course, came the 32-12 loss to the Houston Texans in the Wild Card round, when Herbert (who had the NFL’s lowest interception rate in the regular season at 0.6%) threw four picks in his worst game to date.

Harbaugh blamed the protection, which didn’t hold up well against Houston’s ravenous pass rush, after the fact. Herbert blamed himself, as all great quarterbacks do, whether it’s true or not.

The only thing you can do after something like that is to look forward.

“Just like every other loss,” Herbert said in June of that disaster. “You take a look on what you did wrong, what you did right and try to improve. If I spend any more time on worrying or focusing on a loss like that, I think I’m doing a disservice on my teammates. Obviously, it didn’t go the way we wanted to, like I said at the end of the year, but you’ve got to move on and take a look at what you did wrong. Be honest with yourself, be critical, but you can’t let it take up too much of your time.”

The time is now for Herbert and the Chargers to take the proverbial next step. If they’re to do so, they’ll need help from a full roster that has been assembled to perform at a championship level. It’s the second time in his professional career that Herbert has had the same offensive coordinator two years in a row — he also had Joe Lombardi in 2021 and 2022, for better or worse. Harbaugh is a fierce quarterback developer who understands exactly what he has in Herbert, and defensive coordinator Jesse Minter oversees a unit that propelled itself from 26th in Defensive DVOA in 2023 to ninth in 2024, Minter’s first year in charge.

The receiver group has been upgraded with Mike Williams’ return to the Bolts, as well as the draft additions of receivers Tre Harris and KeAndre Lambert-Smith. The tight end group has been similarly bolstered with Syracuse’s Oronde Gadsden II, son of the man who caught Dan Marino’s final touchdown pass.

However, in this installation of our “Hidden Gems” series, in which we examine one underrated veteran, one underrated free-agent signing, and one underrated draft pick, we’re looking at three guys who have been, and will be, involved in Minter’s defense.

Because as important as Justin Herbert is, it’s about more than the quarterback.

Underrated Veteran: EDGE Tuli Tuipulotu

Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

The Chargers selected the 6’3, 266-pound Tuipulotu with the 55th overall pick in the second round of the 2023 draft, and in his second NFL season, Tuipulotu was one of the young players who didn’t “improve” under Minter, because he was already in a pretty good place after a rookie season in which he had eight sacks, 51 total pressures, 39 solo tackles, 34 stops, 10 tackles for loss, and two forced fumbles.

In 2024, Tuipulotu personified the old axiom that for pass-rushers, there are times when sacks don’t happen for a while… and then they can come in waves. Tuipulotu had nine sacks, 43 total pressures, 19 solo tackles, 20 stops, 11 tackles for loss, and a forced fumble in the 2024 season. But he didn’t get a sack until Week 8 against the New Orleans Saints, and then? BOOM. From Week 9 through Week 11, there wasn’t a more prolific quarterback disruptor in the league.

All of that landed Tuipulotu on the “Secret Superstars” team for Week 11, so why not put him here, too? Tuipulotu logged fewer overall snaps in 2024, especially early in the season as the Chargers rotated their edge guys, but his effect on the defense was clear when he was out there more often. The Chargers’ pressure rate jumped from 31.6% to 36.8% when Tuipulotu was on the field, and the sack rate also increased from 6.2% to 7.6%.

“Just being under this defense, I’ve learned a lot,” Tuipulotu said in late January. “I’m in the system and I know the system, but I can take another step, for sure, just understanding everyone’s job to make it easier for me to be out there.

“We were a good defense this year, and I’m happy with where we’re going.”

Maybe with a few more snaps in 2025, Tuipulotu can affect the direction of the Chargers’ defense even more.

Underrated Free-Agent Signing: CB Donte Jackson

Photo by Chris Unger/Getty Images

The 2024 Chargers got themselves a serious steal in the person of Maryland cornerback Tarheeb Still, who mastered Minter’s complex defense pretty quickly. In his rookie season, Still allowed 49 catches on 75 targets for 582 yards, 257 yards after the catch, three touchdowns, four interceptions, four pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 80.0.

Still made Secret Superstars for Week 13 after that Falcons game. Are we sensing a trend here?

It’s also nice when your most precocious cornerback has an older veteran from whom to learn, and the Chargers hope they got that guy in former Carolina Panthers and Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Donte Jackson on a two-year, $13 million deal with just $7 million guaranteed.

Quite the bargain given Jackson’s 2024 season with the Steelers — he allowed 38 catches on 62 targets for 282 yards, 198 yards after the catch, four touchdowns, five interceptions, three pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 75.2. The Chargers didn’t just pay Jackson to be a mentor for Still and fellow 2024 fifth-round pick Cam Hart, another defender whose arrow is pointing straight up. Jackson is here to start right away, and he has the experience to excel wherever they put him — a must in Minter’s versatile coverages.

“You know, everybody’s playing their role,” Jackson said of Minter’s defense during his introductory press conference. “The way that the safeties and those guys are moving around, everybody’s basically positionless. [It] just forces the offense to make a lot of mistakes.

“It’s a young group, but definitely just more infatuated with just a bunch of positionless players, man, and everybody just kind of banding together and playing dominant defense. One of the best defenses in the league last year. [I’m] just super-excited.”

When asked whether he sees himself as one of those positionless players, Jackson answered in the affirmative.

“I mean, we talk mostly about being outside. But definitely, I’m a football player. Whatever door is open, I’m able to walk through and be successful. So whatever, Coach, anything you need from me, whatever the team needs from me, I’m willing to do. Football player first, and like I said, it’s kind of a culture around here of guys knowing what to do in different positions and knowing how to play different positions.

“Whatever opens up, I’m super, super there for it, and I’m just super-excited. It’s an awesome group and obviously an awesome city, an awesome facility, but just a great group of guys, man, a great group of leaders, and it’s going to be fun,”

Jackson may be most excited about playing with Derwin James — they were both drafted in 2018, and teaming up is something that’s been on their minds for a while now.

“Yeah, yeah, been knowing Derwin for a long time, man, since coming out of the draft,” Jackson said at his introductory press conference in April. “Obviously, [we] played in college through the same three years [Jackson at LSU; James at Florida State]. So, just excited. You know, we’ve been talking and been wanting to play with each other. We’ve liked each other’s games from afar just from watching over the years.”

Every great team has those players who have been around enough to help the kids with their football acumen at the same time that their own athleticism is still more than NFL-ready. Donte Jackson could well be the man for this particular cornerback room.

Underrated Draft Pick: DI Jamaree Caldwell

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As much as my pre-draft evaluation of Justin Herbert sucked, I’m a bit more confident in the NFL futures of two other former Ducks in the 2025 class. Let’s start with pass-rushing monster Derrick Harmon, who the Steelers selected with the 21st overall pick. Harmon led the NCAA in quarterback pressures among interior defensive linemen, and given his insane gap versatility, he might just be the next Cam Heyward over time.

But you know how it is when you’re watching one player over and over, and a teammate stands out as well? That’s what happened for me when I was studying Harmon, and Jamaree Caldwell announced his presence with authority as Oregon’s man in the middle. Caldwell transferred to Oregon after two seasons with the Houston Cougars, and his combination of earthmoving size (6’ 2⅛, 332 pounds at the scouting combine) and pure athleticism showed up over and over on tape. Like a lot of defensive tackles who soak up blocks so that others can shine — Caldwell was double-teamed on 270 of his 541 snaps in 2024 — the stats aren’t mind-blowing.

Which is why the tape is so important to Caldwell’s overall story. One sack, 25 total pressures, 22 solo tackles, 21 stops, five tackles for loss, and one forced fumble? Pretty good, but you’ve got to check out the end zone view to see how well this guy can wreck protections over and over.

The Chargers, who took Caldwell with the 86th pick in the third round, were all over it.

“Derrick Harmon is a great player,” Harbaugh said after the draft. “But you’re watching him and you’re like, ‘This other guy here is really good, too.’ They’re both really good. Excited to have that athleticism. It’s unique what Jamaree Caldwell has. And the strength and power.”

“Some of the plays, you watch film on him and you just see him toss bodies. It’s really impressive,” general manager Joe Hortiz said. “He does a really good job staying square, physical, strikes with his hands, he’s got feel. Big man, quick feet.”

Not bad for a guy who stepped away from the game in the 2020 COVID season to help his mother financially. Caldwell had already gone through a circuitous route that included some junior college time. But when he came back to the game, Caldwell came back hard.

”Right down the middle of them,” Caldwell said at the Senior Bowl, when asked how he gets past blockers. “You’ve got to set it up with the bull rush. Get the bull rush going. I’m somebody that’s willing to learn, someone who is willing to bounce back from adversity, and someone that’s willing to — I use my little term — die in the trenches. And not allow someone to just bully you out of the trenches.”

Sounds like a Jim Harbaugh personality to me.

BONUS TRIVIA: In professional football, there have been exactly two players with the first name “Jamaree.” Both play for the Chargers, and both weigh over 320 pounds: Caldwell, and offensive guard Jamaree Salyer. It’s nice that they’ve hooked up on the same team!

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions).