LA Chargers: Six overreactions from Week 1 win over Bengals

Overreaction 4: Shane Steichen is worse as an offensive coordinator than Ken Whisenhunt.

While much of the blame for the offense’s lapses can be placed on the shoulders of Tyrod Taylor, the offensive coordinator needs to put his players in the best position to succeed in order to have an efficient offense.

This is particularly true when you are working with unique players. Tyrod Taylor is unique for his ability to throw on the run, Austin Ekeler is unique for his ability as a receiver, and Keenan Allen is unique in his ability to create separation.

Each of these unique attributes to these key players were essentially ignored throughout the game.

For much of the game, Taylor was confined to the pocket. Rarely did he have designed plays in which he rolled out of the pocket with a receiver moving with him. When he did, there were promising results, such as a third-down conversion to Jalen Guyton (which was not created by design).

Despite being a uniquely talented receiver, Austin Ekeler was targeted a grand total of one time. That is an immense waste of talent.

While Keenan Allen was involved, four receptions were far less than we should expect for one of the best route runners in the game who could have been an excellent consistent target for Tyrod Taylor.

Clearly, Shane Steichen did not do enough to put his offense in a consistently good position to win the game.

Despite this, Steichen did make some adjustments in the second half that were particularly useful in the run game. While it is easy to be critical of his play calling, we need to remember that this was Steichen’s first game calling for new players in a new offense and some adjustment period is to be expected.

Still, when it is clear to each of us that key players were not utilized well, there is some reason for concern. Therefore, I will call this a slight overreaction.

Verdict 4: Slight overreaction