Dalvin Tomlinson has lined up his next opportunity. The veteran defensive tackle has agreed to terms with the Chargers, per his agency (h/t Tom Pelissero of NFL Network).
Pelissero’s colleague Ian Rapoport reports this is a one-year deal. Tomlinson is in line to collect $7.5MM with $6MM of that figure fully guaranteed. The Bolts will be his fifth career NFL team.
The Bolts have specialized in low-cost veteran D-linemen during Jim Harbaugh and Joe Hortiz‘s time in Los Angeles. The team has brought in the likes of Da’Shawn Hand, Poona Ford, Teair Tart and Naquan Jones on low-cost deals. Ford and Tart played their way into bigger deals — Tart’s coming with the Bolts — after impressing for low-level money. Tomlinson checks in with a higher pay rate by comparison to the original pacts for the aforementioned D-linemen, but he has now been cut twice in two years.
The Browns released Tomlinson in 2025, and the Cardinals cut him days ago. Tomlinson follows Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave as D-tackles being cap casualties twice in two years only to find a new home shortly after. The Chargers are Tomlinson’s fifth team, as he played for the Giants and Vikings before signing a big-ticket Browns contract.
A 142-game starter throughout a nine-year career, Tomlinson has only missed seven career games. The former second-round pick logged 17 starts for the Cardinals last season. Pro Football Focus graded the run stuffer 114th among 127 qualified interior D-linemen last season. PFF viewed Tomlinson’s run defense as having fallen off considerably; the Chargers obviously disagree. Though, Tomlinson has needed to take pay cuts in each of the past two years. After the Browns moved his four-year, $57MM contract off their payroll, the Cardinals gave the 335-pound defender a two-year, $29MM accord.
More to come…