Breaking down the AFC West race for 2017
Los Angeles Chargers
The main problem for the Chargers the last couple of years has been the injury bug. Every year they tend to have an outstanding amount of injuries. This year is not too different.
The Chargers spent the draft trying to find another weapon at wide receiver for Philip Rivers with Keenan Allen getting hurt. They drafted Mike Williams out of Clemson, but Williams has been out with a back injury and did not play week one.
They also spent the next two draft picks on offensive linemen, something that the Chargers have needed to improve. However, their second round pick guard Forrest Lamp is already out for the year with a torn ACL.
Those are just a couple of injuries that show how bad the injury bug is in Los Angeles. The Chargers also just moved to Los Angeles, hired a new coaching staff, and have an all new scheme on defense switching from a 3-4 scheme to a 4-3 scheme. All of these things can complicate the season for the Chargers or at least be a distraction.
The Chargers opened up the season looking like the typical Chargers. They weren’t able to score or get much going on offense and had to spend the fourth quarter playing catch up. After icing the kicker and then a blocked kick, they ended up losing to the Broncos.
The offensive line still seems to be in shambles giving Rivers almost no time to throw. There were too many plays to count that Rivers had immediate pressure and had to get rid of the ball too fast. Which is funny because the Los Angeles Times put out an article Tuesday morning that the offensive line held their own.
Dominant off the edge last night pic.twitter.com/0DP8vy5jrM
— PFF (@PFF) September 12, 2017
While they held Von Miller without a sack, there was plenty of guys that made it into Rivers face. In fact, Shaquil Barrett who is stepping in for injured Shane Ray had a great game on the other side of Miller.
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The only offensive lineman that is in his same position from a year ago is the right tackle, Joe Barksdale. He did what he could against Miller and company, but the interior and left side of the line really struggled to hold back the blitz of the Denver defense.
Overall, the team had six quarterback pressures on the night. The Chargers had no answer for the Broncos until the fourth quarter when they were playing catch up. Including garbage time, Rivers threw for only 192 yards and Gordon was only able to get 54 yards on the ground.
If the team is going to take a step forward this year, they have to find a way to give Rivers more time in the pocket before the fourth quarter. Rivers led the league in interceptions last year, most coming in catch up part of the game.
The worst part about the game was how obvious the play calling for the Chargers was. Rex Ryan in his debut commentary job was calling out what the Chargers were going to do before they even lined up. They have to find ways to catch teams off guard and not be so obvious in what they are doing.
The defense had plenty of struggles of their own. It seemed obvious to me that they were still trying to learn this new system of defense while there were plenty of mistakes. They made the Broncos offense look much better than they actually are in my opinion.
Cornerback Casey Hayward led the league in interceptions last year and I expect him to have another good year. He should have had a pick six against the Broncos, but he started to run before catching the ball and ended up dropping it.
While the Chargers have a good overall team, there’s just too many changes to the team and areas on the team that is still struggling immensely. The offensive line is the main problem giving Rivers absolutely no time to scan the field.
The Chargers will probably be at the bottom of the division again unless they find a way to make the third spot. I do not see them having much of a shot winning the division unless the other teams just have ridiculous amounts of key injuries. They will still have a six or seven win season though.