LA Chargers: Glass-half-full and half-empty outlook of the offensive line
By Jason Reed
Glass-half-full outlook on the LA Chargers’ offensive line:
Left tackle: Outside of potentially signing Jason Peters, which I do not think will happen because it would have happened by now, the best-case scenario at left tackle involves Trey Pipkins, which some fans might not be pleased to hear.
Pipkins was a project selection in the third round of the 2019 NFL Draft and while he did have some bad mistakes, he was thrown into a situation he was not ready for. He put together some nice tape and with his rookie year behind him, Pipkins could absolutely be an average at-worst starting left tackle.
Left guard: The hope here is that the competition between Dan Feeney and Forrest Lamp will propel one of them to play better. Lamp has dealt with several injuries throughout his career and has never really gotten a fair shake.
One of these two guys, or even Scott Quessenberry, should be able to produce better at left guard than what the team had last season.
Center: Mike Pouncey returns from his neck injury and despite his age, thrives and looks more like his best self. Playing in a contract year will motivate him to his best season in quite some time and he will anchor down the middle of the offensive line.
Right guard: Trai Turner puts a bad season behind him (2019 was the worst year of his career) and not only looks like he did earlier in his career, but even better. He is only 26 years old and is playing under a great O-line coach in Campen.
Right tackle: Bryan Bulaga just continues to do what he does. It is unreasonable to expect him to get much better at this point in his career, but he continues to be a solid right tackle under his old O-line coach.