If you were to find one thing in common with all of the upper echelon of the NFL, it is as clear-cut as it gets. All of the best of the best are capable of dominating the most important facet of the game of football: Winning in the trenches. So, how do the Los Angeles Chargers stack up when we take a look at their big guys up front?

(Part 1 of the Chargers' Season Preview can be found here.)

Offensive Line

For years, the Chargers' O-line has been the subject of criticism due to a lackluster run game, and allowing the franchise’s Golden Goose in Justin Herbert to take copious amounts of punishment, forcing QB1 to play through a laundry list of injuries. This led to the addition of Joe Alt with the sixth-overall pick in 2024, a rookie who immediately made the transition to right tackle and played at a high level, posting a 77.6 grade, and more notably, a 79.4 pass blocking grade. While he kept Herbert upright from the right side, his left tackle counterpart, Rashawn Slater (who just signed a four-year deal worth $114 million this past offseason) earned every bit of that with a 91.1 overall grade, includling an elite 90.4 pass block grade.

How does a unit that had neither of these players in 2023 barely improve as an offensive line in 2024? In 2023, the Chargers allowed 44 sacks and had a 72% run block win rate while in 2024, they allowed 41 sacks and maintained their 72% run block rate. This shows a marginal improvement at best, despite the addition of two genuine All-Pro caliber tackles. Ladies and gentlemen, introducing Zion Johnson, Bradley Bozeman, and an out-of-position Trey Pipkins! They posted PFF grades of 65.7, 61.2, and 57.8, respectively ... but most notably, they posted two of the worst pass blocking grades across the league last year between Pipkins’ 49.7 (94th among 136 guards) and Bozeman’s 52.3 (53rd among 64 centers). Yikes!

Entering the offseason, a team with three gaping holes in the interior of their offensive line and north of $100 million in spending money is probably expecting the be extremely aggressive in revamping this unit. Well, the plan of action was as follows: Re-sign Bradley Bozeman, a center who graded outside of the top 32 centers in the NFL (reminder, there's only 32 teams) to compete for the left guard job, announce that Zion Johnson will be making the move to center (he’s never recorded a snap in either college and the NFL there) and retaining Trey Pipkins despite his $10 million cap hit for the upcoming season.

With all of that said, Joe Horitz and company did make a move, bringing over a Super Bowl 59 participant and proud graduate of Jeff Stoutland University, Mehki Becton, to hopefully add to a unit looking to continue to establish the run with his massive frame and 74.7 run block grade. This was about the only thing stopping most Chargers fans from grabbing the pitchforks and requesting the jobs of all people involved in protecting Justin Herbert.

A starting offensive line of Rashawn Slater, Bradley Bozeman, Zion Johnson, Mehki Becton, and Joe Alt is actually not the worst unit in the league by any stretch. Despite the interior woes of this unit, a group anchored by a tackle duo that can rival the Philadelphia Eagles' Jordan Mailata and Lane Johnson is going to be okay at the very worst.

[Insert Undertaker gong here.]

The Chargers lost arguably their second-most important player on the roster when Rashawn Slater, about two weeks after his massive contract extension, tore his patella tendon and will not only miss the entire 2025 season. Worst of all, conventional wisdom says this is the kind of injury that has a long-term effect on a player's career. An argument can be made that this is the kind of injury that derails a team’s entire outlook, and this unit could not handle any injuries whatsoever, much less to the consensus best of the bunch.

With Slater’s injury, Joe Alt will slide back over to his long-time Notre Dame position of left tackle, and Trey Pipkins will slide back into his career position of right tackle, (where he still struggled mightily), even though he looked much more comfortable there than at right guard. The problems don’t stop after the starting five, sadly, as during this preseason, the backup linemen behind veteran Andre James and Jamaree Sayler posted pass block grades of 36.8, 22.2, 26.2, 59.9(!!!), 44.4, 45.6, and 43.7.

Yay.

Defensive Line

It was not long ago that the Chargers were such a joke up front that if you mentioned the name “Rex Burkhead” to a Chargers fan they would most likely burst into hysterics remembering the time he went for 150 yards and two touchdowns in a game that bounced the Chargers from the ranks of a playoff team in 2021. Those days are (for the most part) far behind us, as the 2024 Chargers were seventh in the NFL in Run Stop Win Rate (32%).

Despite the loss of Poona Ford to free agency, you can argue that the Chargers defensive line is actually a strong point of this roster, despite the lack of star power. Veterans like Teair Tart (who had a phenomenal season last year as the team's nose tackle), Da’Shawn Hand (who fits the mold of Ford and Teair, a veteran whose talents are poised to allow him to be this best version of himself in a Jesse Minter defense), and a budding star in third-round pick Jamree Caldwell (the former Duck led all rookie interior defensive lineman in both run stop win rate and PFF’s run defense grade in this preseason). Add in another veteran like Naquan Jones, development from 2024 fourth-round pick Justin Eboigbe, and the starting fullback who is also a contributor on the D-line, Scott Matlock, and you have a pretty solid room.

Edge Rushers

In today’s NFL, the edge reigns supreme. Whether it’s taking over as the highest paid non-QB, or watching on the grandest stages when a strong pass rush off the edge turns Patrick Mahomes into a mortal man, no unit on the field can turn a good (or even okay) defense as a whole into an elite defense quite like the edge rusher. When you realize that the Chargers' Pass Rush Win Rate was a meh (at best) 37%, good for 22nd in the league, it makes sense that the Bolts moved on from much-maligned, yet uber-talented Joey Bosa. His production just wasn't meeting his price tag. The loss of Bosa was mitigated by the retention of ageless wonder Khalil Mack, fresh off an elite 90.4 PFF grade, but Mack is much more proficient in the run game at this stage of his career. This still leaves the Chargers with a pretty big hole with no game-breaking pass rusher.

With this current roster construction, it is clear they believe they can build that kind of pass rush in the aggregate, with young stud Tuli Tuipulotu finally being given the keys to the starting job after a stellar first two years. There's also fourth-round rookie Kyle Kennard out of South Carolina and veteran pass rusher Bud Dupree who is hopefully no more than EDGE4 on this depth chart. This leaves the fifth edge rusher spot up for grabs throughout camp and preseason, with Tre’Mon Morris Brash and Caleb Murphy vying for it. Both players have had very impressive preseasons both on defense and with Ryan Ficken’s special teams unit, making the decision quite difficult.

That puts a bow on the big boys up front! Next time, we'll put a bow on the whole roster when we discuss the linebackers, secondary, and special teams unit before the Bolts take the field for Week 1 in Brazil!