Kimani Vidal Camp Update — August 23: Silence Again as Cutdown Nears
2026 NFL Season · Sunday, Aug 23
A second straight week with no attributable Vidal reporting, while the game coverage's only praised back was an undrafted rookie. The depth-chart math from June heads into cut week undisturbed.
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For the second straight week, Kimani Vidal generated no attributable news. He is not named in the coverage of Thursday's 41-to-17 loss to San Francisco — a game in which the Chargers' backs combined for 31 yards on 17 carries, per Thomas Martinez's grades at Sports Illustrated's Chargers site, and the one back singled out for praise was undrafted rookie Greg Desrosiers, who Martinez credits with leading the group in efficiency and contributing on special teams coverage. For a veteran fighting for a depth role, another back winning the reserve-game writeup is not neutral noise; it is a fourth name getting louder in a room that already had three.
The June preview said Vidal's case was real production in a role that will not repeat on purpose: he proved he can carry volume when injury handed it to him, but Omarion Hampton owns the lead job, Keaton Mitchell was signed with guaranteed money for the change-of-pace work, and Vidal's own tender carries the contract language of a depth back. Nothing this week disturbed a word of that; the two backs ahead of him produced no game evidence either, in a night the coaching staff wrote off as reserves beating themselves.
The difference now is the calendar. Cutdown to 53 is next Sunday, and Vidal's week-to-week silence stops being a neutral outcome when the roster math becomes literal — the number of backs Los Angeles keeps behind Hampton and Mitchell is the whole question, and Thursday's finale against the Rams is the last audition. What to watch: Vidal's touch count against the Rams, especially relative to Desrosiers, and then the cut itself. We'll check after cut day.
_Data via nflverse._
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