The Chargers suffered a big blow to their offensive line when Brandon Staley announced on Monday afternoon that they have lost left tackle Rashawn Slater to a bicep injury.
Slater left late in the third quarter while grabbing his left arm. He didn’t even make his way to the blue tent, he went straight to the locker room.
Slater is considered a top left tackle in the NFL, so his loss will be felt for an offensive line that has struggled to start the year. The Northwestern product has only given up three pressures in three games for the Chargers.
The Chargers could now plug with Storm Norton as the left tackle. The veteran offensive lineman played 46% of the snaps and allowed eight pressures, according to PFF. Staley wasn’t reassuring about Norton starting at left tackle.
“We’re going to try and keep things as consistent as we can,” Staley explained. “What you can bank on is us putting the five guys out there that we feel like give us the best offensive line to be successful.”
Norton was the starter last season at right tackle, and he had a rough 2021 season that was more evident in the final game of the season when Raiders pass rusher Maxx Crosby had 11 pressures on Norton. Staley said he doesn’t want a musical chair sequence in the offensive line, but it may have to come to that to put the best five out there.
Losing the Pro Bowl is a significant blow to a team dealing with numerous injuries on the offensive side of the football.
- Quarterback Justin Herbert has a rib injury that he will be dealing with during the season
- Center Corey Linsley has a knee injury with no return in sight as of yet.
- Receiver Keenan Allen is dealing with a hamstring injury.
The Chargers coach did say that Herbert came out of the game healthy. He also expects to see Allen at practice this week and is hopeful that Linsley is out there.
Staley confirmed that receiver Jalen Guyton had torn his ACL, and his season was over during his press conference. Guyton caught a 54-yard pass from Herbert in Sunday’s loss. He got hurt in the last two minutes of the game and left the stadium on crutches.
“We certainly feel good about the receivers that are on our team,” Staley said.
Losing Guyton means they have lost their speedy receiver, which no one on the current roster can match. Currently, the only free agent options that could help in that area are Odell Beckham Jr. (recovering from an ACL tear), DeSean Jackson, John Ross, and Will Fuller.
On defense, the Chargers injuries have also stacked up because their top pass rusher Joey Bosa is out with a groin injury.
“Joey has a significant groin injury,” Staley said Monday. “It’s of the nature of not day to day. It’ll probably be week to week.”
While their top cornerback J.C. Jackson is dealing with soreness with the ankle, he just had surgery on.
“More just from the inflammation side of things,” Staley said. “Nothing structural, the wound is healing fine. But just making sure that he doesn’t go out there and have something else happen.”
The injuries are starting to pile up on a squad that is 1-2, but Staley said the team needs to focus on getting ready to play Houston, who beat them down last year 41-29.
“We got to stay together,” Staley said. “We got to make sure that we communicate through this really learn from what happened yesterday. Tell the truth about what happened the best way we know how, and then come back on Wednesday a different football team a better football team that’s headed towards Houston.”
