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The Chargers aren’t completely closing the door on Antonio Gates, keeping it cracked open just in case. But it sounds as if it would take the sort of emergency the Chargers had last season with Hunter Henry for Gates to return to the team for a 17th season.

“We’ve had a good amount of private talks with him, but nothing I want to talk about publicly yet,” General Manager Tom Telesco said, via Gilbert Manzano of the Orange County Register. “Take that however you want it.”

The Chargers publicly bid farewell to Gates in the 2018 offseason only to bring him back after Henry’s torn anterior cruciate ligament in May.

Gates caught only 28 passes for 333 yards and two touchdowns while appearing in every regular-season game this season.