LA Chargers News: Bolts offense outrageously ranked in bottom five

LA Chargers News: The Bolts offense is not ranked favorably.

The biggest LA Chargers news of the offseason, aside from the recent five-year extension given to Joey Bosa, was that the team would be moving on from long-time quarterback Philip Rivers. It was expected after the 2019 season that the Chargers had, but it is was still huge news nonetheless.

Rivers has moved on to the Indianapolis Colts and the Chargers drafted Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert with the sixth overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. However, all signs are pointing to Tyrod Taylor being the starting quarterback in 2020.

The narrative around Taylor being the starting quarterback is that he has never had the kind of weapons that he has on the Chargers and certain fans are optimistic that he has a higher ceiling than most expect because of it.

However, despite all of the weapons on the Chargers, Taylor is seemingly going to have a very negative impact on the Bolts’ offense, at least in the eyes of those that cover the sport.

Sheil Kapadia of The Athletic (subscription required) ranked all 32 offenses heading into the 2020 season and the Chargers were one of the biggest droppers, going from the 12th-ranked offense last season to the 28th-ranked offense this season.

The Chargers are ranked as the fifth-worst offense in the league.

This should not come as a surprise to those that follow the LA Chargers news cycle!

Those that follow the LA Chargers know that the team is always criminally overlooked. The most recent example of this was NFL Network’s Top 100 players list, which had NFL players rank the best players in the league.

Keenan Allen made headlines after being ranked 77th on the list while other players, such as Casey Hayward, where not included on the list altogether.

Charger fans have heard this same old song and dance time and time again, but this ranking, in particular, seems outrageous. This is coming from someone who is very critical of Tyrod Taylor being the starting quarterback: the LA Chargers are FAR better than the 28th-best offensive team in the league.

The Chargers have a top-five RB/WR/TE combination with Austin Ekeler, Keenan Allen and Hunter Henry. Ekeler is the second-best pass-catching running back in the league, Allen is a top-seven wide receiver (at worst, I would put him fourth) and Henry is a top-eight or so pass-catching tight end.

Keep in mind that the Chargers had another 1,000-yard receiver in Mike Williams as well.

I get that Taylor is a downgrade and they are changing the scheme and I get that the offensive line has some huge question marks. All of those are legit concerns and I am by no means saying that the Chargers have an elite offense, or that they should even be ranked as high as last season.

But the fifth-worst in the league? That is criminal. Here are some teams that rank ahead of the Chargers on the list that absolutely shouldn’t:

• Cincinnati Bengals (26th)
• Carolina Panthers (25th)
• Chicago Bears (24th) — Really!?
• New York Giants (23rd)

You could make the case for several other teams as well. Those are the ones that do not even need to be explained.

Where would I put the LA Chargers? Probably around 20th. And again, that is because I am critical of Taylor. If you like Taylor then a higher ranking is easy to justify.