Chargers Sign DE Ben Gardner To Their Practice Squad

Update:

The Chargers have signed DE Ben Gardner to their practice squad after hosting him for a tryout on Tuesday with 10 other players listed below.

Gardner, 24, was a seventh-round pick by the Cowboys in 2014 and was signed to a four-year contract, but suffered a season-ending shoulder injury before the start of the season.

He was apart of the Cowboys final roster cuts back in September, and has yet to appeared in a regular-season game during his NFL career

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The San Diego Chargers tried out 11 players on Tuesday including DE Lawrence Okoye and veteran P Steve Weatherford.

The others who tried out for San Diego include: P Steven Clark, LS Andrew East, P Brandon Fields, DE Ben Gardner, LB Jeff Luc, TE Sean McGrath, P Kasey Redfern, OT Jake Rodgers, and G Anthony Steen.

Okoye, 24, originally signed on with the 49ers as an undrafted free agent back in 2013. He was considered to be a developmental project, seeing as he was a former rugby and track star.

Okoye spent a little over two years in San Francisco before he was waived at the start of the 2015 season and later added to the Cardinals practice squad. Arizona later parted ways with Okoye, but he’s tried out for the Seahawks, Panthers, and Chiefs in recent weeks.

Okoye has yet to appear in an NFL game.

Weatherford, 32, originally signed on with the Saints as an undrafted free agent out of back in 2006. Since then, he played briefly for the Chiefs, Jaguars, and Jets before finding a home with the Giants in July of 2011.

Weatherford spent four years with the Giants before he was released at the start of the regular season.

The Jets signed Weatherford to a contract a few weeks ago for game against the Patriots after P Ryan Quigley was unable to suit up.

In 2014, Weatherford totaled 3,249 yards punting on 80 attempts (40.61 average) to go along with six touchbacks. Last year, Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 28 punter out of 38 qualifying players.