What’s going on with Chargers’ injured rookie?

A breakout Chargers rookie won't be able to play for an unknown amount of time.

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The all-out fight with the injury bug continues for the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 16. 

Those Chargers posted a massive final injury report Friday ahead of kickoff against the Dallas Cowboys. 

There were some major names on the list, no doubt, such as pass-rusher Bud Dupree and wideout Quentin Johnston. By far the biggest, literally and figuratively, was defensive lineman Teair Tart. 

Perhaps the most interesting, though, is the slowly evolving situation with rookie safety RJ Mickens. 

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The Chargers couldn’t afford to lose Mickens, a surging rookie sixth-round pick by the team this year. 

Mickens has been on a roll, showing the hot preseason wasn’t a fluke. He’s grabbed two interceptions and stood tall against the run on a short amount of playing time on the back half of this season. 

But Mickens is now out for at least Week 16 with a shoulder injury, with various coaches getting very mysterious in talking about his need to miss time. Granted, Mickens has dodged injured reserve so far (they’re out of IR returns until the playoffs, anyway), but the whole ordeal has been odd.

"Another heady, good, smart player … it's like he's not a rookie and has been playing for three or four years. His dad played and he has been in the game for a long time," Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh said, according to Omar Navarro of Chargers.com. "Something great about R.J. is that he takes coaching really well. In great communication with Derwin [James] and Elijah [Molden], and he is not an error repeater.

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The Chargers were already thin at safety, too. They traded one away before the deadline because of strong depth there. But Elijah Molden is one of the guys joining Mickens as out against the Cowboys. 

The whole ordeal leaves the Chargers leaning on nickelback Derwin James, plus names like Tony Jefferson and Kendall Williamson. 

The Chargers can survive one week without Mickens. But he’s a boon to the lineup, they’d surely like to see him get more developmental reps and the vague nature of the whole thing casts doubt on his outlook. 

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