The Chargers are still carrying the sting from the voided Daiyan Henley trade with the Denver Broncos into the weekend. The Broncos backed out of the deal due to a failed physical, and it didn’t sit right at all with GM Joe Hortiz.
Hortiz explained that Denver tried to lowball the Chargers after the agreement was already in place, using Henley’s physical to push for a cheaper return.
The Broncos Tried to Get a Discount on Daiyan Henley Trade
“First, it was a difficult trade for the organization to make initially,” Hortiz said, according to Omar Navarro. “A lot of thought went into it, we knew the impact of Daiyan and how much we loved Daiyan. It was a hard decision to make just to trade him. We felt like to make that trade, we had to have compensation that was truly worth it.
“We came to terms on it, made an agreement, they called us up and were asking us to amend the trade based on the physical,” Hortiz continued. “In our minds, a physical is a binary thing. It’s a pass or a fail. They wanted the player still, they wanted to change the terms, they used it. We weren’t going to do it.”
He later added: “They tried to adjust a lot of things. There were a number of different suggestions made and as I was hearing them out, I was explaining to them none of those would make sense to us. Went back to, ‘We only considered this deal for this player because what we believe he is and his worth.’ They were trying to change it, and we weren’t interested in it.”
The original Tuesday deal had Henley heading to Denver in exchange for a 2027 fourth-round pick and a 2028 fifth-round selection.
Chargers GM and HC Speak Up
The Chargers also pushed back on the idea that the Broncos were caught off guard by Henley’s health. Hortiz maintained that Los Angeles was transparent about the knee and shoulder issues
Henley has managed this season, noting that the linebacker was still expected to practice and play right away. Henley had just logged 87 percent of the defensive snaps in Sunday’s 44-22 loss to the Texans, pacing the Chargers with 10 tackles and intercepting C.J. Stroud.
Head coach Jim Harbaugh directly called out the NFL to look into the loophole, since Hortiz mentioned other GMs around the league reached out to him on Thursday about the same issue, since post-deadline physicals leave the selling team with almost no leverage.
“It’s a medical grade, it’s a pass/fail for a medical grade. They told us they weren’t going to pass him if it was a fourth and a fifth, which was agreed upon,” Harbaugh said. “They would not pass him for that, they would pass him for a fourth and a ‘fill in the blank. There’s a loophole there that gives them an opportunity to do that. That’s something that sets a bad precedent and should be looked into.”
To which Hortiz added, “I 100 percent agree with him. I’ve had other GMs call me about it today,” Hortiz said. “It’s a really unfortunate thing. It gives you an opportunity to make a trade at the deadline and then try to change the terms that you already agreed upon with no recourse. You create a leverage standpoint.”
Chargers’ Joe Hortiz Reveals Stunning Detail in Failed Daiyan Henley Trade With Broncos