Chargers’ Khalil Mack mulls retirement, Asante Samuel Jr. reveals injury early in offseason

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Reality set in Sunday morning as the Los Angeles Chargers held exit meetings and packed up their belongings in clear trash bags. A 32-12 loss to the Houston Texans ended their season in the wild-card round the night before, and now a group of players that had become so close and so connected over nine months will cease to exist under its current form.

Some players will return for 2025, such as safety Derwin James Jr., quarterback Justin Herbert and left tackle Rashawn Slater. But the Chargers have so many pending free agents and potential losses that the roster will undoubtedly look different come spring. Loss hurts. So is the certainty of losing teammates to the cold, hard stuff of the NFL.

Cornerback Kristian Fulton, one of those pending free agents, said coach Jim Harbaugh “made football fun again for a lot of guys here.” Safety guard Elijah Molden, another pending free agent, said this season has been the most fun he’s had in football since he was a freshman in high school, playing alongside his brother at the university.

Players remembered while accepting the inevitable changes.

“Everyone is the best version of themselves when they’re having fun,” James said. “No matter what work you do in life, when you have fun, when you smile and have a good attitude about it, you will perform at your best.”

Let’s move on to some news and notes from Baggie Day.

• Khalil Mack, the center player, is expected to become a free agent. He said he was considering retirement but did not want to provide “definitive answers” about his future so soon after the season ended. Mack, who turns 34 next month, has made the playoffs five times. He has never won a playoff game. Mack said retiring without a playoff win “would be the hardest part.” But he also feels the pull of becoming a full-time father to his wife and two young sons.

“Knowing that, overall, you’re spending time with your family, instilling the same values ​​in my boys,” Mack said, “spending that time with them is more important to me.”

Mack said he doesn’t have a specific timetable for making a decision. He is set to become an unrestricted free agent for the first time. He would not say whether he would be willing to play for another team in 2025.

“This is new to me, and I don’t want to be disrespectful throughout the process and say something I don’t mean, so that’s why I’m limiting my comments to that title,” Mack said.

Mack said he believes in the Chargers organization.

“As long as Justin Herbert is your quarterback, and you have Derwin James and all these guys who love football, and you have Jim Harbaugh as your coach, you know you always have a chance to win,” Mack said. “It’s obvious in the sense that, yes, if you know football, then you know it. But yes, I don’t want to talk too much.

Mack responded decisively to the criticism Herbert received over the past 24 hours, following the quarterback’s four-interception game against the Texans.

“Who gives a damn what anyone else has to say about this guy?” » said Mack. “No one knows what he’s been through this year. No one knows what a great leader he is and what he is willing to do. I always had this guy behind me, no matter what. I let him know this on the plane last night: he’s going to be an all-time great in this game, and so he needs to take advantage of moments like this to learn from them, improve and make sure May this never happen again.

• Joey Bosa, Mack’s point partner, refused to speak in the locker room. Bosa has a cap hit exceeding $36 million and could be a cap casualty. Tuli Tuipulotu, Edge’s edge rusher, said it would be “hard to think about not having” Mack and Bosa in his room.

• Cornerback Asante Samuel Jr., who landed on injured reserve in Week 6 and missed the rest of the season, said he was suffering from “stinger symptoms.” According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, stinger injuries “are injuries that occur when nerves in the neck and shoulder are stretched or compressed after an impact” and can feel like “an electric shock or lightning bolt to the arm.” .

“I just wanted to make sure that long term I’m going to be healthy, that my overall health is good,” Samuel said. “I wish I could have been there with the team. It was killing me not to be there with those guys. But I had to make sure my health was good.

Samuel said he was “born with” the disease. This season, the symptoms first appeared during practice in Week 1. He played four games after that first instance. Symptoms recurred after a collision in practice before a Week 6 game against the Denver Broncos, according to Samuel. He said he experienced symptoms in both shoulders, but the condition of the left shoulder was worse than the right.

Samuel said he expects to be ready for the start of the offseason program. He is a pending unrestricted free agent. He said he wanted to return to the Chargers. “I love this team,” he said. “I love this city. And I love everyone here.

• Linebacker Daiyan Henley said he played with a torn labrum in his shoulder that he first suffered in a Week 4 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Henley said he plans to have surgery.

• Slater just completed his fourth season in the NFL. He has been eligible for a contract extension since his third season ended in 2023 and said it would be “great” to get a long-term extension this offseason. He is still under contract for 2025 on the fifth-year option the Chargers exercised in May. Slater said he and the Chargers have not yet entered into contract negotiations. “I always focused on the ball and kind of let things happen as they happen,” Slater said.

Slater is coming off a borderline All-Pro season. It is expected to command an expansion of hardware near the top of the market, with an average annual value of about $25 million.

• Molden said he tore the meniscus in his right knee during the Chargers’ Week 15 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He missed one game but played despite his injury. In week 17, he broke his left fibula. Molden plans to have meniscus surgery this month. He said the fibula would heal on its own. He hopes to run within the next six weeks.

Molden said he told the coaching staff he wanted to return in 2025.

“It’s a unique situation where I have to take care of my family’s future and my own future,” Molden said. “But it’s somewhere I would love to play.” It’s a place that kind of revitalized my career.

• Receiver DJ Chark had a disappointing season. He signed a one-year, $3 million contract with the Chargers last offseason. He was showing promising signs in training camp before suffering a hip injury in late August. Chark ended up missing the first eight games of the season. He said he suffered a setback during the rehabilitation process. Chark finished the regular season with just four catches for 31 yards.

“I was just trying to get back as quickly as possible, but it wasn’t ready yet,” Chark said of the setback. “So that prolonged that a little bit. Once I was able to come back, it was more about rotation (as far as playing time).

Chark added that he was “not opposed” to returning to the Chargers.

“I feel like I’m very talented and can offer a lot of things, so it really depends,” Chark said.

(Top photo by Khalil Mack: Alex Slitz/Getty Images)