The Los Angeles Chargers’ bye week has to bring something more than rest. At 0-6, they’ve spent six games looking broken on offense, sitting dead last in the NFL in EPA per play and third-worst in scoring. Now, with the break in Week 7, the question is whether the staff finally makes a real adjustment.
The clearest sign of that possibility would be a change at starting right guard.
Los Angeles has been battered up front all year, and for the second straight season, the offensive line has taken the worst of it. Against division opponents in Weeks 5 and 6, the Chargers were forced to start four rookies on the offensive line. The result has been a run game that never really found traction.
The team was supposed to look different after hiring Mike McDaniel as offensive coordinator. A wide zone rushing attack was expected, with some mix of gap and zone concepts, but that vision has not translated. The Chargers’ current EPA per rush is -0.18, which ranks 28th in the league.
The injury that changed everything was the one to starting center Tyler Biadasz, who went down in training camp with a season-ending knee injury. That loss has left the interior of the line exposed, especially when defenses attack the B-gap and force movement inside.
Right guard Cole Strange and rookie center Jake Slaughter are both smaller, quicker linemen, but they are not built to create much vertical push on their own. That makes them better fits for wide zone and the quick passing game if they were aligned differently. Instead, the two have been placed next to each other, and that has created a weak spot the Chargers have not been able to hide.
The numbers back it up. The Chargers have been least effective running into the A and B gaps on the right side, while the left A and B gaps have been the most successful. Runs off the left tackle, however, have been awful.
There is also a broader issue with the way McDaniel’s offense is being built. Other coaches from the Shanahan tree, including Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan, have leaned more heavily into gap-rushing concepts in recent years.
San Francisco, through six weeks, has run significantly more gap or inside zone plays, with 67 percent of its runs coming between the tackles. The Chargers, by comparison, have done that on only 48 percent of their runs.
McDaniel has wanted speed and spacing to stress defenses, but that approach depends on having the right personnel. Without it, the Chargers may need to borrow more from McVay and Shanahan than they have so far. Even with several starting offensive linemen back at practice, a meaningful shift would probably require a bigger and stronger right guard.
If Los Angeles comes out of the bye with a new starter at that spot, it would be the clearest sign yet that a pivot is coming. Strange is not the problem by himself, but the pairing with Slaughter has not worked, and Slaughter still needs to remain the starting center.
Such a move could also help Justin Herbert and the play-action game. Right now, Herbert is getting pressured at nearly a 60 percent rate on play-action dropbacks. If the Chargers can start moving defenders downhill again, the traditional play-action looks should open up the middle of the field and give Herbert a better chance to work the intermediate areas.
That is the challenge in front of McDaniel and the offensive staff over the bye week: tweak what they have without rebuilding the whole thing. The motion, the misdirection and the constant ball-handling behind the line have led to too many mistakes. Whether the Chargers change course or simply hope healthier bodies solve the problem will tell the story when they return.
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