Chargers’ ‘demoralized’ group has one more chance to salvage things

It’s tough for the Los Angeles Chargers right now.

Justin Herbert and the Chargers ripped off three straight wins to start the season, taking down the entire AFC West in the process.

Since, they’ve botched winnable games against inferior-seeming teams, and before the bye, took a blowout loss at the hands of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Now, while the Chargers have many problems, the offensive line still remains the top concern.

Chargers fans have started a petition to cryogenically freeze Justin Herbert to save him from their offensive line pic.twitter.com/3Z9hE3MLNZ
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) November 16, 2025

A good descriptor? Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon just dropped this one-liner when summing up every team’s season so far: “The 2025 Chargers are a reminder that one particularly weak or demoralized unit—in this case an offensive line—can derail an entire season.”

And “demoralized” is pretty fair. The unit lost Rashawn Slater, so it kicked Joe Alt over to the left side. Slater’s backup, Trey Pipkins, became the starter on the right side and has battled injuries. Alt went down for the season. Guard Mekhi Becton has battled injuries, too.

Justin Herbert had an avg time to throw of 2.25s vs. PIT, per @TruMediaSports. One of 5 games this year when starting QB had TTT of 2.25s or less.

Pressure % in those:

Aaron Rodgers W9: 12.8%
Patrick Mahomes W7: 20%
Tua Tagovailoa W8: 25.9%
Rodgers W4: 28%
Herbert W10: 42.5%
— Daniel Popper (@danielrpopper) November 10, 2025

There are performance issues, too. Becton has been a free-agent flop when on the field, injuries or not. Jim Harbaugh’s insistence on rolling with Bradley Bozeman at center has predictably backfired. And the constant shuffling has resulted in even starting someone signed off the street, such as Bobby Hart.

But redemption could always be around the corner.

The Chargers will make another unexpected offensive line change coming out of the bye. And they’ll get a chance to roll it out against the lowly Las Vegas Raiders, a 2-9 team that they already ran up the score on earlier this season.

Call it a last chance to rewrite the season-long summary sentence to something along the lines of “redemption.” Because soon enough, the games get more serious with the likes of Philadelphia and Kansas City up after that.

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