We've made it, folks. The Los Angeles Chargers, after months of speculation and excitement about what this team can be in light of their schematic overhaul, have arrived at their first opportunity to put it on the field.
This matchup against the Arizona Cardinals, by all measures, should present a path to a relatively clean victory. But the Chargers need more than just a win to start the season on the right note.
With uncertainties still lingering on both sides of the ball, Los Angeles has some questions to answer before they enter their gauntlet of matchups between Weeks 3 and 10. There's certainly more to ask than the ones that are enumerated here—but these are the three most pressing ones facing the team as they kick off the regular season.
3 questions the Chargers will need to answer in Week 1
1. How will the interior of the offensive line hold up?
It seems like this is a question the Chargers will need to answer until the end of time, even with Mike McDaniel at the helm of the offense. As of now, they have a rookie and two players without extended pedigrees of NFL success taking on starting roles between their bookend tackles in Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt.
The upside here is clear. McDaniel's scheme can work around deficits in interior play through limiting true dropbacks, and all three have shown enough talent, either in training camp or in previous stints of regular season play, to have faith that things will turn out alright. The Cardinals also don't present a particularly imposing pass rush, so that should give the unit time to find their footing.
But until Kayode Awosika and Cole Strange, particularly, acquit themselves of any doubts surrounding their viability as pass protectors, this will be a question the Chargers need to answer on a weekly basis.
2. How does the new-look secondary unfold under Chris O'Leary?
The storyline surrounding a potential regression for the Chargers defense under new coordinator Chris O'Leary has likely been overblown this offseason. Los Angeles didn't truly lose any signficant talent on that side of the ball, and they still have their major contributors—including Derwin James Jr, Elijah Molden, Donte Jackson, Cam Hart, and Tarheeb Still—intact in the secondary.
But it will be interesting to see where O'Leary looks to replicate and where he looks to tweak Jesse Minter's zone-heavy scheme that led the Chargers to so much success over the past two seasons. How will he distribute snaps between Jackson, Still, and Hart? How big of a role will UDFA Rodney Shelley have to play?
We also exited training camp without a clear winner in the competition for safety snaps alongside Molden when James slides into his traditional nickel/dime role. With Tony Jefferson back on the 53-man roster, it will be interesting to see how snaps are split between him, Genesis Smith, and RJ Mickens.
This will be a storyline that unfolds over the course of the season, but Week 1 should at least present us with some solid answers on how O'Leary plans to tackle these questions.
3. Where do the focal points of Mike McDaniel's offense fall?
We know that McDaniel loves the ground game, and that should leave Omarion Hampton with a clear path to being among the league's leading rushers if he can stay healthy. But how does the rest of his offense unfold in Week 1?
Ladd McConkey should be in line for a major resurgence with the departure of Keenan Allen this offseason. He has the hands and the elusiveness in the open field to be a key cog of McDaniel's offense out of the slot. But if McDaniel is going to lean heavily into 12 and 13-personnel looks, snaps are going to be tightly distributed among the rest of the receiving corps. Do we see Quentin Johnston start to unlock some of his downfield explosiveness? What sort of role does Tre' Harris play when there aren't three receivers on the field? What will see, if anything, out of Brenen Thompson and KeAndre Lambert-Smith?
This matchup against a weak Cardinals defense provides a sort of sandbox for the Chargers' new offensive coordinator, and it will provide us with a glimpse at how McDaniel intends to leverage the Chargers' arsenal over the course of the season.
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