EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — The Los Angeles Chargers returned from their bye this week. They face the Las Vegas Raiders at home Sunday, the first of six remaining regular-season games.
According to The Athletic’s NFL Playoff Simulator, the Chargers have a 59 percent chance of making the postseason. They fell to 7-4 in Week 11 after a blowout loss at the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Chargers will need to find three wins in the final six games. After the Raiders, the Chargers face a gantlet down the stretch, with games against the Philadelphia Eagles, Kansas City Chiefs, Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans and Denver Broncos.
“Those days after a setback in anything, those are long hours, painful hours and days,” coach Jim Harbaugh said this week. “But I think that’s what the good ones do, when you’re curious to learn. We want to learn and grow, and I thought we did a good job of that.”
As the Chargers prepare for the home stretch, I fielded some of your lingering questions coming out of the bye week.
You ask. I answer.
It’s the mailbag.
Note: Submitted questions have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
What is our team identity? — @SrSprinkle
This is perhaps the most concerning question about the 2025 Chargers, and that is because I do not have a good answer. With six games remaining in the regular season, the Chargers are a team without a defined identity.
Jim Harbaugh was brought in to establish his brand of winning football. Last season, he achieved that goal amid tougher circumstances. The Chargers had limited resources in Harbaugh’s first offseason because of a tight cap situation. Harbaugh and general manager Joe Hortiz did their best to piece the roster together, and by the end of the regular season, the Chargers had a pretty clear identity. They played solid defense. They limited points. They linked up cohesively on the back end against the pass. They stopped the run well enough. On offense, they protected the ball and largely avoided catastrophic mistakes. Once quarterback Justin Herbert got healthy in the second half of the year, he carried that phase with some elite play down the stretch.
More than anything, the Chargers were resilient. In the regular season, they won four games when they were either tied or trailing in the second half. The best example of this came in Week 11 against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Chargers led by 23 points early in the third quarter. The Bengals came back and tied the score in the fourth quarter. The Chargers then put together a winning touchdown drive in the two-minute drill to avoid a collapse. Players often talked about this game as a turning point — proof they were not the same Chargers.
Things unraveled in the playoffs against the Houston Texans. The weaknesses of an incomplete roster were exposed, namely the interior pass protection and the lack of capable pass catchers outside of Ladd McConkey. But 11 wins and a postseason berth represented a great start. The Chargers had the resources to address the weaknesses in the offseason and build on the identity.
This season, however, the Chargers have not built on what was established in 2024. There is not a single element of this team that can be characterized as reliable. The defense is inconsistent. The offense cannot pass protect and turns the ball over too often. The special teams have been a bottom-third unit. The Chargers have not been as resilient as they were last season. They are 2-4 when they have been either tied or behind in the second half. Injuries have, without a doubt, factored into the absent identity. The most complete football the Chargers played this season happened when Joe Alt was on the field. Still, Harbaugh has not molded an identity this season in the same way he did in 2024.
When asked this week to describe his team’s identity, Harbaugh said, “Pride. I’d characterize it as that, in that one word. Pride in individual performance, group performance, the way they prepare, the way they practice and, ultimately, in the production on the field. It means a lot. Everybody cares. Everybody wants to be good at their work.”
What do you think the best O-line combo is? — @BoltzDialogue
I would set up the offensive line as such for the final six games: LT Jamaree Salyer, LG Zion Johnson, C Bradley Bozeman, RG Mekhi Becton, RT Trey Pipkins III.
Harbaugh said this week he feels the Chargers are “as healthy as we have been” since Alt suffered a season-ending ankle injury in Week 9. Bobby Hart will be back in practice this week. Hart started four games at right tackle earlier this season before injuring his knee in Week 9. The Chargers also have Trevor Penning as an option at tackle. Penning started at left tackle in a Week 11 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Chargers must solidify their pass protection for this final six-game stretch. Herbert has been pressured on 41.4 percent of his dropbacks this season, the fourth-highest rate in the league among passer-rating-qualified quarterbacks, according to TruMedia. Salyer is far and away the Chargers’ best available pass-protecting left tackle.
Salyer has moved around quite a bit in his career. He has been at his most solid at left tackle, where he can function in one-on-one situations in pass protection. The Chargers will lose some flexibility in the run game with Salyer at left tackle. He lacks some of the athleticism necessary to run certain concepts. But pass protection has to be the priority in the offensive-line decisions for Harbaugh.
When healthy, Pipkins is the Chargers’ best option at right tackle. I prefer him over Hart. Pipkins has given up only four pressures since returning from a knee injury in Week 9.
Johnson has been the Chargers’ most reliable offensive lineman this season, at left guard. Becton gives the Chargers the best chance at right guard if he can stay on the field. Backup center Andre James got a chance to play against the Jaguars when the Chargers removed starters in the fourth quarter of the blowout. James had some fine moments, but he also gave up a pressure on a stunt up the middle. When the Chargers can stay on schedule, Bozeman provides value as a run blocker. They do not have a good solution at center. The upgrade will have to come in the offseason. I do not see James as a cure-all at the position.
The Chargers face several talented defensive fronts over the final six games of this season. How they protect against those pass-rush units will be a deciding factor in whether they make the postseason.
Los Angeles Chargers cornerback Cam Hart has the skills to play man coverage. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Imagn Images)
Have you heard anything from the coaching staff about why they are absolutely refusing to play man coverage despite (Jesse) Minter’s saying in the spring how he’d like to play more this season? — @RyanWatkins20
The Chargers have played the lowest rate of man coverage in the league this season, according to TruMedia. That continues a trend from last season, when the Chargers ranked 30th in the percentage of defensive plays in man coverage at 15.9 percent. This season, the Chargers have actually played even less man coverage at 11.8 percent of defensive plays.
The Chargers very rarely play man coverage on early downs. They play more man coverage on third down, though still at a low rate relative to the rest of the league. The Chargers have played man coverage on 25.4 percent of third downs, which ranks 27th. On first and second downs, the Chargers have played man coverage on less than 8 percent of defensive plays.
The comments in question were from defensive coordinator Jesse Minter on the “Chargers Weekly” podcast in early May.
“I would like to play more man,” Minter said then, “but I’m also going to always do what our guys do well and try to put them in position to be successful.”
This season, the Chargers have played less man coverage overall, and they have played less man coverage on third downs. This comes down to personnel. If Minter had players who thrived in man coverage, he would play more man. But the Chargers cornerbacks, specifically Donte Jackson and Tarheeb Still, are better players in zone, when they can play from depth and let their instincts and ball skills impress.
In that same answer in May, Minter said, “You take what you have and you utilize what their skill sets are.”
Cornerback Cam Hart has the skills to play man coverage. But when in man coverage, a defense is only as good as its weakest link. The Chargers have to change their personnel if they want to increase the amount of man coverage they play. The Chargers are a better pass defense when they play zone, and the numbers back this up. When the Chargers have been in zone this season, they rank sixth in defensive expected points per dropback, according to TruMedia. When they are in man, they rank 15th.
The Chargers have also been more susceptible to explosive passes when in man coverage. In zone coverage, the Chargers have allowed explosive passes on 9.3 percent of opposing dropbacks, according to TruMedia, second lowest in the league. In man coverage, they have allowed explosive passes on 14.3 percent of opposing dropbacks, which ranks 22nd.
Out of the three edge rushers — Odafe Oweh, Khalil Mack, Tuli Tuipulotu — who do you see returning back? — @Joeys_Vibe
Tuipulotu has one more year remaining on his rookie deal, so he will be on the roster in 2026. The bigger question with Tuipulotu is whether the Chargers will sign him to an extension after this season. He will have three accrued seasons after 2025, meaning he will be eligible for an extension.
Mack is on a one-year deal, and the Chargers will have to re-sign him if they want him back in 2026. Mack, who turns 35 in February, also has to decide whether to keep playing.
The Chargers traded for Oweh in October. He is on the final year of his deal, the fifth-year option the Baltimore Ravens, his former team, picked up in April 2024. According to TruMedia, Oweh has 14 pressures in six games since joining the Chargers, second most on the team in that span behind Tuitpulotu, who has 21.
One thing that has become clear since the Oweh trade: Minter needs three capable edge rushers to really execute his scheme. Since Week 6, the Chargers have created pressure on 52.9 percent of opposing third-down dropbacks, according to TruMedia. Only the Seattle Seahawks have produced more pressure on third downs in that span. On third downs, Minter has gotten Mack, Oweh and Tuipulotu all on the field at the same time. This allows Minter to scheme up one-on-ones for his edge rushers. In particular, Tuipulotu can move inside and take advantage of matchups against guards.
Because of this, the Chargers will try to keep this trio together. Tuipulotu can return on the final year of his rookie deal. The Chargers will have to iron out extensions with Oweh and Mack.
The Chargers moved on from Joey Bosa last offseason. They brought back Mack and Tuipulotu. They hoped either fourth-round rookie Kyle Kennard or veteran Bud Dupree could fill the role as the third edge rusher. But that did not materialize, forcing the Chargers to make the Oweh trade. I do not see them entering another season without a clearly defined edge-rusher trio.
