LA Chargers: Grading the dismal 2020 offensive line
RG Trai Turner
There was real excitement to see what Trai Turner could do on the offensive line. Tom Telesco got him in the deal to get off of Russell Okung’s contract with his health concerns. I viewed Turner as a clear upgrade over someone like Michael Schofield personally. Despite some signs of decline, Turner had high upside potential.
Some credit has to go to our site expert Jason Reed for his skepticism on Turner. Ultimately, Turner was closer to a steep decline than he was to a resurgent season, at least statistically speaking. That’s something that I’ll admit to not quite fully grasping last offseason.
In 2019 at the right guard position, Schofield allowed one sack and 26 pressures. That came on a total of 1077 snaps. On just 536 snaps, Turner allowed a sack and 19 pressures. In not even half the snaps, Turner was approaching Schofield’s total pressures allowed numbers. It was a truly unthinkable decline at the position.
Even though Turner showed signs of decline in Carolina, there was nothing that would make someone believe that he would be quite this bad. His pass blocking grade dropped nearly 30 points while his run blocking grade was cut in half on PFF.
Turner’s groin injury that caused him to miss half the season should be considered here. It’s never easy to come back from a lower body injury like that. At the same time, Turner did not look any better than he looked in Week 2’s game against Kansas City when he was fully rehabbed. 16 of those 19 pressures we talked about came from just Week 10 to Week 17.
It’s crazy that it’s so easy to look at the salary cap table now and say that Turner is an automatic 2021 cut for Los Angeles. He should’ve still been an upgrade over what the Chargers had on the line in 2019. His decline was so steep that he may not even make it to a second year with the Chargers.