Ahead of tonight’s Harbaugh Bowl, the Chargers made a handful of changes to their roster. Most notably, the team announced that they’ve placed tight end Hayden Hurst on injured reserve.
After not being listed earlier in the week, Hurst popped up on the injury report this past Friday with a hip injury. That issue ended up being severe enough to sideline the player for at least the next four games. Hurst will be first eligible to return in Week 16.
After getting cut by the Panthers this offseason, Hurst quickly caught on with the Chargers. The veteran led the Chargers TE grouping in snaps through the first four weeks, but he’s since been passed by both Will Dissly and Eric Tomlinson on the depth chart. In seven appearances this year, Hurst has hauled in seven catches. The tight end topped 50 catches in both 2020 and 2022.
The Chargers made additional moves today, including activating Deane Leonard from IR. The cornerback has missed the past five games while nursing a hamstring injury. After garnering three starts last season, Leonard reverted back to primarily a special teams role in 2024.
The team added more defensive depth ahead of tonight’s game. The Chargers signed cornerback Eli Apple to the active roster while promoting safety Tony Jefferson and outside linebacker Caleb Murphy from the practice squad. To open extra roster space, the team waived safety AJ Finley.
Hurst is a good, not great, TE, but his injuries have held him back from consistently displaying his upside. It looked like L.A. had supplanted him on the depth chart anyway, unfortunately. Still, Hurst has managed to carve out a good career, which is better than anyone initially anticipated for an older, former minor leaguer who switched to football at South Carolina.
Hurst is still a good fallback free agent option for teams in need of a Band-Aid starting tight end. Hurst is a good character guy, as shown in Baltimore when he was passed by a lower round draft pick, and in other stops with younger teammates. Of course, Mark Andrew’s would also supplant 90% of TEs anyway, injury or not. If Hurst doesn’t want to hang it up, he can probably still find work with a needy team on a short term basis.
He’d probably never admit it publicly, but I’m sure that if Hayden Hurst could go back in time, he’d have re-signed with the Bengals after the 2022 season.
Instead of staying there as the #1 tight end with an MVP-caliber quarterback, instead he took the overpaid deal from Carolina – and 18 months later is flaming out.