With Denzel Perryman slowly coming back from injury, Kyzir White will get the nod at MIKE to open the regular season.
The Chargers have a much deeper linebacker group this year than in 2018, as the team would prefer to not play all of their defensive backs in their place when the postseason rolls around.
Nick Dzubnar, a linebacker for the Chargers for many years, was oddly retained on the 53-man roster instead of better preseason players like Artavis Scott, Anthony Lanier, or Adarius Pickett. Why was he kept?
Turns out, Denzel Perryman is still trying to come back from an injury that forced him to miss the entire preseason. Anthony Lynn has stated the linebacker was getting late fourth-quarter reps because he was knocking the rust off still. It sounded like Perryman was going to eventually get his job back.
Or maybe, Kyzir White was just outright won the spot?
Sounds like Denzel Perryman isn’t ready to start and Kyzir White will get the start at MLB on Sunday. Lynn called it a battle between the two #Chargers
— Gilbert Manzano (@GManzano24) September 2, 2019
Inserting White over Perryman is an interesting choice considering they extended the latter to a two-year deal. Still, White has looked tremendous this preseason, and has had much longer to recover from his own injury which occurred weeks prior to Perryman’s. And many fans have started to consider the possibility of the second-year player actually being the true starter.
Is this a sign of things to come for the Chargers, or simply a temporary switch for a few weeks? Last year, White beat out Jatavis Brown for the WILL linebacker spot. This year, he beats out (a potentially still hurt) Perryman for the MIKE job. He’s big, he’s versatile, and he’s fully healthy. And he’s coming for Jacoby Brissett.