Which Chargers Storylines Are Worth Paying Attention to at OTAs (And Which Aren't)

The Chargers have new coordinators and several position battles that will get significant attention in training camp. Which storylines are worth the attention?

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The Los Angeles Chargers are currently engaged in a voluntary portion of organized team activities. As the team begins to get together more and the public is given more glimpses of how the team is operating, storylines have begun to emerge.

The national media has started to chime in on several of the Chargers' offseason storylines, while other important storylines are only discussed among local media and Chargers beat writers. Which of these storylines that have or will be coming out of training camp should get real attention? Let's dig in to which storylines are worth the attention.

Justin Herbert misses voluntary OTAs: Not worth attention

Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert has lived, breathed and been obsessed with football since entering the NFL. It has been a shocker that he has missed a few voluntary workouts.

He is also coming off a season where he was pressured at a historically high rate and took significant damage. The pressure of needing to be superhuman for the Chargers just to have a chance may have been too heavy of a burden.

Justin Herbert has gone from workaholic to starring in his pop-star girlfriend's music video seemingly overnight. It was not long ago that former teammate Kyle Van Noy discussed Herbert needing to relax a bit with NFL reporter Eric Williams. Van Noy played with Herbert in 2022 and he commented stating "Part of me says [he] needs to relax a little bit, because he cares so much," Van Noy said. "He’s a perfectionist. Just go out there and play ball."

No one inside the Chargers organization seems to be worried about Herbert enjoying Madison Beer's opening leg of her tour and missing some voluntary workouts. He finally is showing the world some of his personal life and hopefully he is taking Van Noy's advice and relaxing a bit.

Defensive drop off with the departure of Jesse Minter: Pay attention

The Chargers were lucky to have defensive guru Jesse Minter at the helm of the defense for the past two seasons. Now that he has departed to become the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens, his protege Chris O'Leary returns to the Chargers to take over.

Stepping in for Minter is a big step for O'Leary and a drop off is somewhat normal and expected. However, will he bring significant changes to the structure of the defense in camp? O'Leary ran the same defensive system at Western Michigan and even showed Chargers defensive film to his team. Maintaining the system and adding his own flavor to defensive play calls dependent on matchups is the likely outcome but it is worth keeping an eye on.

Position group battles

Edge rushers: Pay attention

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The Chargers added a first-round edge rusher in Akheem Mesidor to a room that already has Khalil Mack and Tuli Tuipulotu. Those three are clearly safe. However, the room behind them could shape into a bloodbath of a competition between veteran Bud Dupree, 2025 fourth round pick Kyle Kennard and undrafted free agent Nadame Tucker all potential options to fight for one or possibly two roster spots.

Will the Chargers actually embrace competitors welcome? Or will they simply anoint veteran Bud Dupree to the fourth edge rusher role? How they handle that room is worth keeping an eye on.

Interior offensive line: Definitely pay attention

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The Chargers added a career center in Jake Slaughter in the second round of the 2026 draft to compete for the starting left guard role. Will the Chargers force the issue if he is not ready?

If Slaughter does win the job at left guard, all three of the presumed starting interior offensive lineman with Slaughter, Tyler Biadasz and Cole Strange are all capable of playing center, do they carry a backup center or an extra guard or tackle?

The combinations on the interior are endless not just for the starting lineup but for the entire rotation and depth as well. Who thrives and survives will be a fascinating watch.

Inside linebackers: Pay attention

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Los Angeles has a very deep inside linebacker group with Daiyan Henley, Denzel Perryman, Troy Dye, Del'Shawn Phillips, Junior Colson and Marlowe Wax to start the room. Someone wont survive training camp out of this group. The Chargers likely do not have the roster space to carry six linebackers.