Devastating Chargers Injury Updates Ask the Question: What Are They Even Doing?

The Chargers are supposed to be on the cutting edge of innovation. Instead, they're suffering the same old injury woes during a lost season.

Jim Harbaugh | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Los Angeles Chargers are a mess in many, many ways right now. 

Perhaps top of the list, though, is the shockingly horrific injury situation floating around the team. This is an organization that is supposed to be at the forefront of analytics and tech and other foresight buzzwords at every level, including training and the approach to offseason prep. 

Yet, entering Week 5, the Chargers have injury reports boasting 20ish players per day and the usual suspects are again hurt. 

And this came on the heels of Jim Harbaugh admitting that, part of the reason his 0-4 team looks so unprepared, is that because they mishandled the training camp and preseason work. 

That mishandling aimed at potentially keeping the roster healthy hasn’t even worked, either. 

Chargers injury updates paint team in bad light

Justin Herbert | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

It would be one thing if the Chargers weren’t annually one of the NFL’s most-injured teams. 

But…they are. 

The Chargers enter Week 5 at 0-4 and have nine players on injured reserve. 

For the Week 5 game against the Denver Broncos, on the final injury report, the Chargers listed quarterback Trey Lance as doubtful. The following players are questionable: 

• TE Charlie Kolar (forearm)
• TE/FB Scott Matlock
• OL Branson Taylor (neck) 
• WR Ladd McConkey (foot)
• CB Rodney Shelley (hamstring) 

The Chargers also listed the following players as out: 

• S Derwin James (hamstring)
• OT Joe Alt (neck)
• LG Kayode Awosika (fibula)
• WR Quentin Johnston (chest)
• CB Donte Jackson (hamstring)
• OL Trevor Penning (concussion)
• WR Brenen Thompson (quadricep)

Star offensive tackle Rashawn Slater, by the way, is also heading to injured reserve with an ankle injury. 

Again, this isn’t just bad luck at this point, right? It leaves the Chargers exposed to stuff like this: 

Starting to think Ben Herbert loads up pillow cases full of bricks and just swings it at guys in the facility https://t.co/b6mpTs5W5G

— Brett Kollmann (@BrettKollmann) October 8, 2026

The Chargers and executive director of player performance Ben Herbert are supposed to be on the cutting edge of everything. The very public plan this offseason was cutting back reps for key players over the summer to avoid injuries. 

The injury wave is here, anyway. And now that the season is lost and so many key players are turning up on injury lists (0-6 by the bye isn’t that unreasonable), one has to think that this is another reason the entire Jim Harbaugh program could be at risk next offseason, not just a coach or two. 

Sign Up For the Chargers Daily Digest - OnSI’s Free Los Angeles Chargers Newsletter