The Official 2026 Chargers Season Discussion - (0-1)

[Bolt4Knob]

Jim Schwartz as well

yes, I knew there was a name out there

Eberflus too but he sucks

[dmac_bolt]

Mack was mostly pushing in the pocket ... these guys weren't pinning their ears back and going. Don't remember Tuli (or Mesidor) ever lined up over a guard on a passing down.
Did Mesidor even play?

Mostly, Brissett was getting rid of the ball quickly ... the coverage schemes were figured out right away.

this is what I saw. AZ had a great plan to drop receivers into the open zone holes and the DBs collectively (CB, S, LB) did not recognize receivers entering zones and then cover them fast enough. Quick pass after quick pass to guys in uncovered territory. Add in a few gem dimes that Brissett dropped to guys that were covered - if that were all they had it would have been a different game. the bigger problem was how often receivers were not covered.

It can be cleaned up. Will it? we shall see ...

[powderblueboy]

The Rams didnt play AZ. Maybe AZ is going to be good this year...but nobody is expecting them to be so right now everyone is like....man the Chargers just did their thing.

Same defense with some wrinkles is how O'Leary said it.....close anyway. Look, our Edge rushers got no pressure. I dont care what defense we are in, the talent should show rushing a QB and beating the OTs and they did not do that asside from Macks one pressure. Mesidor wasnt even noticed much but i did notice him. I also noticed he was a blocker on the punt team and his area was the leaky spot of the block.

Herbert......just going to say he has a weakness of reading D's presnap. The play he got whacked in two seconds is partly on him. Set the protections that way but apparently he didnt see the blitz coming. Just an example of how he isnt close to Rivers in that area and why Phil took the playclock down so far that some posters complained about. Its just a reality. Sorry to say it but it is what it is.

Just a shit game. They need to beat the Raiders. For one its the Raiders but its also a division game so its importnat to get a win before they go on to the tough part of the schedule.

Rivers' football IQ was off the charts ... Herbert's? .... Not so much. Rivers would prepare for a DC that he faced once before, maybe 7 years ago, and spontaneously talk in detail about specific plays from that encounter that helped design the game plan.

Not certain if it isn't some combination of the pass rush and Brissett quickly identifying the soft spots in coverage. It was a mess.

[electricgold]

Sorry bud but the boldened part is just BS uttered outta the emotions of a bad loss. Hortiz did plenty in the draft in 2025. He can not coach the players, it is for the coaches to coach them. I kinda lean more toward his FA spending and I wonder if the Johnny Boy handcuffs are still hidden under the desk somewhere. After all the 2 Spanos scions still have some strong say in the spending, I would imagine.

Instead of drafting Mesidor, why not just resign Oweh (didn't he show enough to be retained)? Oh sorry its better to sit on 40M than pay a player that showed Production. When you're one and done two years in a row, screw giving Tuli and QJ an early extension, if we just had a deep playoff run maybe.

We needed better Oline & LB's and WR's and DB's and still do.

As opposed to resigning Pipkins, Penning, Perryman, journeymen olineman, resigning QJ etc. etc.

Maybe the results of the product on the field yesterday didn't lie? Did it?

Sorry as of today Hortiz is the problem, and hiring O'Leary. Lets face it.

[Velo]

Quentin Johnston. I was hoping this would be his best season (breakout is cliche) where he fulfills his potential, 1k+ yds, 10+ TDs. But he's so inconsistent. Some games it looks like he's not mentally prepared, maybe his lack of showing up wasn't his fault. But he can look so different from game to game. In Dallas last season in front of his family and friends he looked like a world beater. He played well against the Chiefs and Raiders also. But we don't get that QJ every week. I was hoping he would do what Nico Collins did, Collins was mediocre his first two seasons, but season 3 he busted out and became a top 10 WR. I don't know if we're ever going to get that from QJ. He's playing on the 4th year of his rookie contract, he'll play on his rookie option next season. Is he worth a 2nd contract?

[Velo]

Instead of drafting Mesidor, why not just resign Oweh (didn't he show enough to be retained)? We needed Oline & LB's and WR's and DB's and still do.

Oweh did have a sack for the Commanders yesterday. But give Mesidor some time to prove his value, or not. You can't evaluate a rookie edge rusher based on his performance in his very first game when the entire defense sucked. Who knows, maybe Mesidor ends up with 10+ sacks. The season is long.

[Velo]

It seemed Jacob Spomer was a UDFA find. I wonder if he's capable of taking over at OC and Slaughter could slide over to LG, which is where they intended him to play when they drafted him.

[CanadianBoltFan]

Quentin Johnston. I was hoping this would be his best season (breakout is cliche) where he fulfills his potential, 1k+ yds, 10+ TDs. But he's so inconsistent. Some games it looks like he's not mentally prepared, maybe his lack of showing up wasn't his fault. But he can look so different from game to game. In Dallas last season in front of his family and friends he looked like a world beater. He played well against the Chiefs and Raiders also. But we don't get that QJ every week. I was hoping he would do what Nico Collins did, Collins was mediocre his first two seasons, but season 3 he busted out and became a top 10 WR. I don't know if we're ever going to get that from QJ. He's playing on the 4th year of his rookie contract, he'll play on his rookie option next season. Is he worth a 2nd contract?

No...time to move on.

Not only inconsistent QJ is just not a big game impact player. Once Ladd was gone did you have any confidence QJ would step up and make plays?

[Velo]

Charlie Kolar didn't have a target yesterday. The Chargers have good depth at receiving TE with Gadsden, Njoku and Kolar. The WR group seems uninspiring right now, outside of McConkey of course, who is injured, who knows how badly. MM has to get the TE more involved in the passing game.

[Velo]

No...time to move on.

Not only inconsistent QJ is just not a big game impact player. Once Ladd was gone did you have any confidence QJ would step up and make plays?

If he's playing in his home state in front of his friends and family, maybe.

[Factotum]

Instead of drafting Mesidor, why not just resign Oweh (didn't he show enough to be retained)? Oh sorry its better to sit on 40M than pay a player that showed Production.

We needed better Oline & LB's and WR's and DB's and still do.

From my understanding the FO tried but the Commanders decided to upend the Edge market by offering the kind of money which for reasons unbeknownst to us, our FO was not prepared to fork out. If you want to speculate and call the FO cheap, then fine by me, your prerogative not mine.

I just went ahead and looked up the stats of the other guy, his Miami brethren considered the better and younger one of the tandem coached by the great Jason Taylor, blah, blah and guess what? Bain Jr 1 tackle and 1 assist, 0 sacks in their 27-33 loss to the Bengals. Not comparing the Bengals to us or the Bucs to the Cards at this stage of the season but then again, who really knows with one game but yeah, Mesidor 1 tackle 2 assists and 0 sacks.

Bottomline, they are friggin rookies my friend. The reason we lost is not because of our "underperforming" 1st round rook!

[Factotum]

If he's playing in his home state in front of his friends and family, maybe.

Oof! Brutal.