Through three games this season, you would think that draft analysts would all agree that the Chargers would be looking at offensive players in next year’s draft. Surprisingly though, it’s been defensive linemen more so than anything else, both tackles and edges.
The Chargers have done a good job of building and establishing a room that offers both top-tier play, young potential, and tried-and-true veteran leadership. At the same time, that room is missing a dynamic pass rusher who can help push pockets
and get from point A to point B as fast as possible.
In this new 2027 mock draft from CBS Sports, analyst Mike Renner has the Chargers selecting Ole Miss defensive tackle Will Echoles with the 14th overall pick. That spot in the draft would also mean Renner foresees the Chargers actually winning some games this year, putting them around six to eight Ws in the column.
Here’s what Renner had to say about the pairing:
“Echoles is the kind of interior penetrator the Chargers’ defensive line has been missing. They have a lot of guys who are great at eating space in the run game, but not many who can create havoc in the backfield. That’s what Echoles has been doing since the start of last year.”
At 6’3 and 310 pounds, Echoles has both the mass to hold up in the middle and explosiveness off the line to make quarterbacks nervous on passing downs. Through four games this season, Echoles has three tackles for loss and a half sack, but his film shows a guy that does a lot of influencing on each play without ending it in the stat sheet.
Defensive tackle is a hard position to foresee the Chargers selecting that early due to several other positions of need that seem much more prominent right now, but elite interior players are also hard to come by and play just as big of a role in stopping offenses as anyone else.
Hard to get off a pass when someone is in your face in an instant. Hard to establish the run when your interior can’t get movement. These are all things Echoles will bring to a team in 2027.
