Soon after they and Philip Rivers divorced, the Chargers pulled off a trade last month.
Russell Okung went to the Carolina Panthers for Trai Turner, in a swap of blockers.
It appears the Chargers did well.
Turner is a Pro Bowl regular. A right guard, he should boost the ground game and blunt the inside pass rush.
At 26, he's five years younger than Okung.
Okung is a good left tackle who reliably protects the quarterback's blind side. But when you also consider Okung, 31, missed much of last season because of a blood clot in his lung, it was surprising the Panthers didn't also get a draft pick in the trade.
Jacob Hester was puzzled, too. Happily so.
"Trai Turner is a mauler!" the former Chargers fullback, replying by email, said of his fellow LSU alum this week. "I was shocked he was traded. He brings a new toughness to an offensive line that has been searching for that."
An NFL talent man with a neutral team told me it was a "great deal" for the Chargers. He said the club's relationship with Okung had run its course.
Turner was asked this week why he thinks the Panthers dealt him with two years left on his contract.
He noted the team replaced its coaching staff in recent months.
"The coaches don't know me particularly too well," Turner said by phone from Los Angeles. "Maybe they had a different vision for where they saw the team going."
Turner said new Panthers head coach Matt Rhule, hired in January, "talked about scoring _ he wanted to score early and score often," but didn't provide scheme specifics. Turner added: "I feel like I'm the type of player that would fit into any scheme."
Turner also suggested the Panthers may have dealt him to free up money. He noted the big contract the team gave running back Christian McCaffrey this week. "I'm happy about that; the guy deserves it 100 percent," he said.
The guard is under contract for $8.9 million and $11.5 million over the next two seasons. Okung is due $13 million this year.
Trading Okung during the 2020 season (if there is a 2020 season) or getting a compensatory pick for him in free agency could provide the Panthers draft capital they didn't get in the swap last month.
In the meantime, Okung can help bring along several Panthers linemates including Greg Little, a 2019 draftee who was set back by injuries last year. Okung, who started two Super Bowls with the Seahawks and had a strong 2018 season to help the Chargers go 12-4, will be reunited with line coach Pat Meyer, who directed Chargers lines the past three years.
"It was very hard to trade Trai," Panthers General Manager Marty Hurney said last week, per the Charlotte Observer, "but we thought that was a decision that we wanted to make in the big-picture plan of our offensive line."
The Chargers still lack a reliable left tackle, and finding one is harder than buying a loaf of bread.
But as someone who's gone to five Pro Bowls in the five years since his rookie year, Turner looms as a powerful interior presence while coach Anthony Lynn shifts from the pass-happy Rivers, 38, to a more mobile _ and shorter _ quarterback in Tyrod Taylor, who measured 6-foot } at the NFL combine. If center Mike Pouncey can regain Pro Bowl form in his comeback from the neck injury that ended his 2019 season and new right tackle Bryan Bulaga, a former Packers standout, can overcome his checkered medical history, the Chargers will have at least three good blockers next to each other.
Said Turner: "I'm excited to be a Charger, very excited."
Turner, who singled Lynn out for praise, said he plans to assist not only Chargers teammates but youth in Southern California.
He can teach football to children and young adults, but said he wants to pass along a universal life skill: cooking.
"You look at the times we're in right now, you can't really go and grab food like you want to," he said, "and a lot of people don't have the means to cook or the knowledge to cook."
The New Orleans native learned how to prepare Cajun cuisine from his grandmother and parents, allowing him to enjoy his favorite foods while far from home.
He cooked up a batch of gumbo before talking football this week. In recent days, the 6-foot-3, 315-pounder served himself red beans, stuffed bell peppers and Crawfish Monica. Also, he fried up fish and shrimp to go with peas.
Coming off a 5-11 season, the Chargers could use some seasoning.
