LA Chargers: 3 reasons why the playoffs are out of reach in 2020

3. The LA Chargers’ offense is not going to be as good as expected

Everyone knew all throughout the offseason that the LA Chargers were going to be a defense-first team. And even though the team lost Derwin James for the season, they should still have a great defense in 2020.

My biggest concern is the offensive side of the ball. The Chargers lost games last year because of their inability to score points down the stretch and while they got rid of all of Rivers’ interceptions, I do not see how anyone can say that this offense is any better than last season.

Sure, they made moves to improve the offensive line but it still has the potential to self-implode. Sam Tevi at left tackle is a disaster, Dan Feeney and Forrest Lamp are who they are at this point and we have to accept that, Mike Pouncey is coming of neck surgery and has not been practicing and Trai Turner is coming off the worst season of his career and should not have been a Pro Bowler.

The receiver corps is still really thin behind Keenan Allen and Mike Williams. Yes, they drafted Joe Reed and K.J. Hill, but nobody behind Williams has NFL experience and Williams is already dealing with a shoulder injury.

The tight end position is really thin behind Hunter Henry. Virgil Green is a good blocker and Donald Parham has some potential but he also has no NFL experience. The running backs are the only thing that I do not find myself doubting and even they are an injury away from being in trouble.

Plus, it is a lot harder to run behind a bad offensive line.

The truth of the pudding is this: if everything goes right for the LA Chargers then the offense will be solid. The problem is that it is literally impossible for everything to go right for a football team.

There will be injuries, there will be underperforming (and hopefully overperforming) and this offense is not built to sustain those things. One long-term injury to the receiving corps and we are in deep trouble. If Henry misses time the tight ends are in trouble. If one running back gets banged up the team will only have two legitimate running backs.

And we are compounding all of this with a quarterback who has the natural talent to succeed but has not been a full-time starter in three years and did not get a preseason to ease back into that full-time starter role.

The LA Chargers only won five games last season because they could not score points, period. While the source of that was turnovers last season and that has (hopefully) been fixed, I am not convinced that this offense can be any better than it was last year.