LA Chargers: Grading the dismal 2020 offensive line
LG Forrest Lamp
Forrest Lamp’s health was the big question mark heading into the season. We knew he could compete for the left guard job with Dan Feeney, but it was important to stay healthy if he got the job.
Unlike my preseason expectation, there actually wasn’t an offseason competition with Lamp and Feeney. This was due to Mike Pouncey’s season-ending hip injury. Anthony Lynn and James Campen decided to shift Feeney to center, which effectively gave the left guard spot to Lamp.
For his first healthy season of his career, I guess it wasn’t terrible. As a pass blocker, he was decent. He actually ended up grading slightly higher than Tevi in that regard. However, his run blocking was just as bad, if not worse.
Lamp allowed five more pressures than Tevi which is sort of what I used as a tiebreaker. Quarterback hits were almost doubled in his case as well.
Up through the Miami game, it felt like Lamp was actually having a good season. Not just Chargers’ offensive line good either, I mean actually good. Through the first nine games, Lamp allowed zero sacks and just twelve pressures.
Over the next three games against New York, Buffalo, and New England, Lamp’s blocking ability dropped like a rock. In just those three games, Lamp allowed 17 pressures and two sacks. I won’t pin the New England game completely on him because there were a lot of problems with the offensive line that day. Tevi missed the game for the birth of his child in addition to the injuries of other Chargers’ linemen. But seven pressures, two hits, and a sack allowed against the Jets was unacceptable.
The first half of Lamp’s season was actually decent, but the second half fell off hard. What’s the reason for that? It’s hard to not think about the fact that Lamp had not played anything close to a full season of NFL football before 2020. If you’re not used to the constant grind that is a 16 game season, it might be pretty difficult to maintain the same production level through all 16 games.
Like I said, the goal for Lamp in 2020 was to just stay healthy, which he did. Through the first eight or nine games, he showed off his potential. Lamp has to get better at maintaining that level and his conditioning throughout the season though if he wants to be a consistent fixture on the offensive line. I wouldn’t really bet on that happening.