The LA Chargers schedule for the 2021 season has officially been announced and if you have not seen it already, please allow the Chargers’ social media team to fill you in on who the team is playing and when in 2021.
should we REALLY make our schedule release video a powerpoint?
yes yes yesyesyesyes yes yes yesyes yes yes yes yesyes yesyes yes yesyes yesye yes yesyes yes yesyes pic.twitter.com/ePBMGFNJz1
— Los Angeles Chargers (@Chargers) May 12, 2021
They made a PowerPoint presentation fun to watch! I definitely was never able to do that in grade school, although I do appreciate them using the same cool fonts that I would throw into my SlideShows as a distraction from my fear of public speaking when I was a kid!
Let’s move on.
The Chargers schedule is leaning on the tough side of things but it is not as tough as some people make it out to be. Warren Sharp of Sharp Football Analysis ranks the strength of schedule for each team every single year based on projected win totals, not last year’s win totals. The Chargers have the 19th easiest (or the 14th hardest).
There are no international games, no three-game road trips and the Chargers only have to play one team coming off of a bye. In that regard, the Chargers were fairly fortunate.
We already predicted every single game for the 2021 season (go check it out) but we wanted to go deeper than that. What predicates every single matchup is the quarterback play, and as we know, the LA Chargers have a fantastic quarterback in Justin Herbert leading the way.
But what about the quarterbacks on the LA Chargers’ 2021 opponents?
To have some fun, I decided to rank all 14 quarterbacks that the LA Chargers will face in 2021 and break them down into tiers. It technically is 15 quarterbacks, as one team could have someone else starting at QB by the time the Chargers play them, but we will simply group them together.
That is their problem, not ours.
I am also assuming that Deshaun Watson is not going to be the quarterback of the Houston Texans when the LA Chargers are in town.
Without further ado, let’s get into the 2021 opponent quarterback tier list, starting with the crème de la crème.
The “Let’s hope they have a bad game against the LA Chargers” tier:
1. Patrick Mahomes
I mean c’mon. He is the best player in the NFL right now and is on pace to put up truly historic numbers. It sounds silly to say that about a guy who has only been a starter for three years but he is a Dee Ford offsides penalty and offensive line injuries away from being a three-time Super Bowl Champion… already.
Mahomes is the gold standard in the NFL. Sure, Aaron Rodgers beat him out for the MVP last season but that is because we are already getting Mahomes numbness (see: LeBron James, Mike Trout, etc.) and he did not play in Week 17 against the Chargers.
He is the best quarterback in the world and the Bolts have to play him twice a year for the next lifetime. Fun.
2. Lamar Jackson
Lamar Jackson is seriously disrespected. Sure, he really struggled out of the gate last season and the offense can get predictable in the playoffs but he has already set NFL records and like Mahomes, also had an MVP trophy on his mantle.
A “bad year” for Jackson last season still resulted in 33 combined touchdowns, 3,762 combined passing and rushing yards and an 11-4 record as a starter. Keep in mind that Baltimore’s best receiver last year was Marquise Brown. They had Dez Bryant playing!
These are the only two quarterbacks that the LA Chargers face next season that I would rank higher than Justin Herbert, for what it’s worth.
The “This guy is pretty good but not as good as Justin Herbert” tier:
3. Dak Prescott
Dak Prescott does not get the credit he deserves as one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL. In fact, Prescott should be considered a top 10 quarterback when healthy and is probably going to be one in the 2021 season.
Now, the big question is how he comes back from injury. Is he the same Dak that can go air-raid with his multitude of weapons? Will he be hesitant to extend plays and get out of the pocket? The Chargers play him early, so that is a plus.
4. Kirk Cousins
Kirk Cousins is also pretty disrespected. Yes, it is funny to make fun of him because he is usually pretty bad in primetime and has not made a deep run in the playoffs but he was really good for the Minnesota Vikings last season.
Granted, he benefitted from having the ball a lot from having a bad offense as well as having the second-best running back in the league to bank on, but that is okay. We do not discredit Ryan Tannehill for having the exact same benefits.
Cousins put up similar numbers to Justin Herbert last season. I would definitely rather have Herbert as he is more athletic and the ceiling is much higher, but that does deserve credit.
5. Joe Burrow
This is a tough one to judge because we only have 10 games to work with but Joe Burrow was really good last season. He was on pace to be neck-and-neck with Justin Herbert in passing yards (with one more game started) before getting injured.
Burrow could either fall to number seven on this list if he does not rebound or could shoot all the way up to third.
6. Derek Carr
Another disrespected quarterback in this tier, Derek Carr is a solid quarterback. Is he elite? No. But he has consistently put up solid numbers despite having to play on the dumpster fire that is the Las Vegas Raiders.
He is Tyrod Taylor with a higher ceiling. Efficient, does not turn the ball over much but is better than just being a game-manager.
7. Baker Mayfield
Baker Mayfield is really hard to gauge as well because he really stepped his game up down the stretch last season after being rather hit or miss the rest of his career. He also benefitted from an elite running game and one of the best offensive lines in the league.
Baker has to prove it some more in 2021 to get past guys like Carr and Cousins. The highs are certainly much higher with Baker but the lows have been much, much lower.
The “Good enough to date, not good enough to take home to your parents” tier:
8. Ben Roethlisberger
It feels criminal to even rank Big Ben this high but it also shows that the Chargers are not playing very many good quarterbacks. Ben is old, his arm is shot and he refuses to hang it up. This is the AFC equivalent of Drew Brees deciding not to retire after last season, and to the delight of Saints fans, he did.
By the time the LA Chargers play Big Ben on Sunday Night Football, I would not be surprised if he is considered one of the worst quarterbacks in the league.
9. Tyrod Taylor
Tyrod Taylor: the ultimate game manager. Tyrod won’t do anything to lose games for the Houston Texans but the problem is that there is not much talent around him, so the Texans are not going to win many games, either.
The organizational culture is simply off in Houston and if Watson does not start a single game in 2021 then I legitimately think that the Texans could be the first-ever 0-17 team… in the first year that the NFL moves to 17 games.
10. Teddy Bridgewater*
If the Denver Broncos were smart then Teddy Bridgewater would be the starting quarterback in Denver from day one. However, I do not think they are ready to give up on Drew Lock just yet. This is the one team where we truly have no clue who is going to start but my money is on Teddy B.
11. Ryan Fitzpatrick
Ryan Fitzpatrick is the ultimate NFL journeyman but really isn’t that good of a quarterback. Sure, he will dazzle with some Fitzmagic time and again but there is a reason why he has never played in the NFL Playoffs.
12. Jalen Hurts
I’m going to be honest, there is a really good chance that Jalen Hurts could wind up in the lower category. He did not look that great last year but he was in a terrible situation from start to finish.
This is a guy that could either move up into the next tier as the eighth-best quarterback that the Bolts play or could fall into the lower tier and be one of the worst quarterbacks that they play. Time will tell.
The “Would have been better off playing European football” tier:
13. Cam Newton
I feel bad putting a former MVP winner in this tier but it is the truth of the reality in 2021 and this is coming from someone who wanted the LA Chargers to bring Cam Newton in as insurance for Tyrod Taylor last season.
Thank goodness they didn’t. Cam would have taken over for Tyrod in Week 2, Herbert probably would have never played and Anthony Lynn would probably have been given a pass.
He just isn’t the same guy. His arm is shot and his athleticism at his age can only take him so far.
14. Drew Lock
As already stated, Teddy Bridgewater should be the starting quarterback of the Denver Broncos and maybe he is by the time they play the Chargers. That is because Drew Lock was terrible last season and could continue to be terrible.
15. Daniel Jones
Daniel Jones is a terrible quarterback and that is an argument that I will never concede. Would most people have Drew Lock lower than him on this list? Probably, but Jones was such a bad pick when the Giants selected him and has proved all of the doubters correct. He had 12 combined touchdowns and 21 turnovers in 14 games last season.
I do not foresee a Josh Allen year three breakout for Daniel Jones. I foresee the New York Giants drafting a quarterback in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft.