The Los Angeles Chargers added some help for their offensive line by agreeing on a trade to acquire Trevor Penning from the New Orleans Saints for a 2027 sixth-round pick. The deal is pending a physical. Penning missed the first three weeks of this season with turf toe.
The Chargers lost starting left tackle Joe Alt for the season in Sunday’s win over the Tennessee Titans. Alt suffered a right high ankle injury and will undergo surgery. The Chargers have already been playing all season without tackle Rashawn Slater, who tore his patellar tendon in training camp. Alt and Slater were one of the league’s best tackle duos. The Chargers were thin at this position as a result. Those injuries were the impetus for this trade.
The Chargers are acquiring Trevor Penning from the Saints, per source.
Offensive line help for Los Angeles at the buzzer.
— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) November 4, 2025
Penning, a first-round pick in 2022, has experience at left and right tackle. He made a move inside to left guard this season. At minimum, he will provide competition and depth at multiple spots.
Alt had entered training camp as the Chargers’ starting right tackle. He moved to the left side after Slater’s injury. Trey Pipkins III had taken over as the starting right tackle, but he suffered a knee injury and missed Weeks 6 and 7. While Pipkins was out, Bobby Hart — who the Chargers signed off the street in early October — provided some measure of stability at right tackle. Hart, however, suffered groin and ankle injuries in the first quarter of Sunday’s win, and he is expected to miss time.
The injuries have been never-ending for the Chargers at tackle.
Jamaree Salyer took over for Alt at left tackle Sunday. Pipkins took over for Hart at right tackle. Salyer, too, missed time earlier this season with a knee injury.
The Chargers traded for tackle Austin Deculus in August, sending a conditional 2027 seventh-round pick to the Houston Texans. Deculus was called into action in Week 4, when Alt first suffered a right high ankle sprain. He started the next three games before suffering an ankle injury that has kept him out for the past two weeks.
Moving forward, the Chargers have Salyer, Pipkins, Deculus and Penning as options at the two tackles spots.
Starting right guard Mekhi Becton has also been limited to 51.7 percent of the offensive snaps this season because of various ailments, from food poisoning to a concussion to a hand injury to a knee injury. Becton missed the win over the Titans with the knee injury. Foster Sarell has replaced Becton for 132 snaps in the past two weeks. He has allowed 12 pressures. Penning could be a contingency plan at right guard in place of Becton, who has not been able to stay on the field this season.
