LA Chargers: 5 players who absolutely can’t afford to get hurt

The LA Chargers’ season could go haywire if certain players get hurt.

The LA Chargers seemingly have an injury bug curse that follows them every single season. That, mixed with the team’s awful luck/performance in crunch time, has been why the main reason for the overall lack of success in the last 10 or so years.

There are always certain players on the roster that it would hurt to lose more than others. And these are not always the best players, either, they are players that come from a position group that would be painfully thin without them.

Thus, if we look at the five Chargers that the team absolutely cannot afford to get hurt, it might not be the outright five best guys. For example, with safety depth, the Chargers could manage without Derwin James. With Melvin Ingram, they can manage without Joey Bosa.

They obviously would be worse off, but losing James or Bosa might not be as dire as losing any of the following five players.

LA Chargers that cannot afford to get hurt: Hunter Henry

This goes both ways. Not only would this hurt the LA Chargers next season, but it would also hurt Henry’s stock as well as he is currently playing on the franchise tag with the one thing that potentially stopped an extension being his injury history.

If Henry suffers another injury, especially if it is one that holds him out for more than a quarter of the season then his market value is going to drop. However, there probably will be some team willing to overpay for him, but it won’t be the Chargers.

The Chargers’ tight end group is rather thin behind Henry and it would hurt the team to lose him to injury. Virgil Green is a fine backup but he is a blocking specialist and is not suited to be a significant option in the passing game.

Donald Parham is an intriguing option that some fans might be optimistic about taking over for Henry, but he is not a guarantee for success. Sure, he put together good tape in the XFL but he is yet to prove it in the NFL.