Rashawn Slater will not enter the 2025 campaign as a pending free agent. Talks on a Chargers extension produced an agreement Sunday. 
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports team and player have agreed to a four-year, $114MM extension. This monster pact – which is now official – includes $92MM guaranteed and makes Slater the highest-paid offensive linemen in NFL history. As a result of this pact, he is on the books with Los Angeles through 2029.
Given the Chargers’ decision to pick up Slater’s fifth-year option last spring, he was on track to collect $19.04MM in 2025. A mutual interest has long existed for a multi-year pact to be worked out, however, and after skipping OTAs the former No. 13 pick attended mandatory minicamp. Expecting to land an extension in time for Week 1, Slater was also present for the start of training camp this month. Per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Slater sat out early practices while the agreement was finalized.
When Penei Sewell inked his Lions extension last offseason, he moved the bar to $28MM in average annual value. Tristan Wirfs narrowly surpassed that mark on his second Buccaneers contract, and Slater has now moved to the top of the pecking order. The 26-year-old’s AAV of $28.5MM is a new watermark for offensive linemen, and his guarantee figure – which will come into greater focus when the full structure of this pact is known, of course – far outpaces the other top earners along the O-line.
Slater has started all 51 of his regular season games with the Bolts, putting to rest questions about his arm length potentially preventing him from operating as a left tackle at the NFL level. The Northwestern product earned a Pro Bowl nod as a rookie and has rebounded from a health perspective since being limited to three games the following year. Slater finished a career-worst 17th in terms of PFF grade in 2023, but he landed a far better evaluation last season.
In 2024 – with No. 5 pick Joe Alt handling right tackle duties – Slater received a 90.9 PFF grade, good for second amongst qualifying tackles. The Chargers will be counting on that level of play continuing for the foreseeable future. Alt loomed as a potential candidate to replace Slater on the blindside starting in 2026, but today’s move ensures that tandem will remain in place for years to come.
Strength up front was, to no surprise, a key target for the Jim Harbaugh-Joe Hortiz regime when it took over last year. The Chargers now have Slater under contract long term while Alt has plenty of runway on his rookie pact. Mekhi Becton was signed in free agency after his stellar one-and-done Eagles campaign, and he will occupy the right guard spot. A rotation between left guard and center is ongoing with respect to Zion Johnson and Bradley Bozeman, but regardless of how that plays out the offensive line will again be expected to be among the league’s best in 2025.
The Bolts made the postseason in Harbaugh’s first year in charge, but a turnover-filled performance on the part of quarterback Justin Herbert resulted in a wild-card exit. If the team is to take a step forward this year, Slater will no doubt play a major role. His performance will now be measured with a record-breaking commitment on the part of the team in mind.
28.5 ain’t bad, coulda signed him earlier and saved money tho.
Good deal I’m glad this got done and didn’t linger on any more.
Can someone Please explain why sports contracts automatically increase based off the previous player at that position? Why does this happen what rule of economics governs this? I can’t think of anything else simple to this phenomenon, if someone buys a car at 20k the next car on the lot isn’t automatically 23k and so on. I don’t understand this, if you can explain it to me , I’d appreciate it.
It’s more like selling a house in a specific neighborhood than selling a car off a lot. There are very, very few high end left tackles in the world. The raise in benchmarks also raise the threat of waiting to pay a guy. The franchise tag will go up. The price on the free agent market will go up. The salary cap will also go up. So if a guy is more or less in the top echelon, you can either pay him a tick more than the new benchmark or you risk having to pay a lot more or lose him.
It can also make negotiating simpler. The Jets and Gardner didn’t have to work too hard at coming up with a price because they worked out the tiniest increment above what Stingley got.
I I understand that this involves supply and demand, but why does Gardner get more then stingly? Why not the same and if sauce gets x amount why didn’t stingly ask for that amount? Basically I’m asking what is forcing the price increase?
If the demand is the same and the scarce supply just got lessened by one for the foreseeable future, that’s enough to add a tip. In Gardner’s case, his annual average salary is 0.3% higher. It’s much less than a rounding error difference.