Right before the trade deadline buzzer, Joe Hortiz and Jim Harbaugh sent the Saints a 2027 sixth-round pick for Trevor Penning. Getting Penning in the fold earlier in the week meant that he would get a chance to get at least a few practices in before Sunday's game vs. Pittsburgh.
But at least for this week, the Chargers will opt against starting their new trade acquisition. Daniel Popper of The Athletic first posted the primary offensive line arrangement from Friday's practice. From left to right-LT Austin Deculus, LG Zion Johnson, C Bradley Bozeman, RG Mekhi Becton, and RT Trey Pipkins III. This week of practice represents the first time in over two weeks that Deculus was able to practice without appearing on the injury report. In Weeks 8 and 9, he was only a limited participant in practice.
Jim Harbaugh and the Chargers give the nod to Austin Deculus over Trevor Penning (at least for this week's game).
Harbaugh said that Penning is getting acclimated well. His work throughout the practice week was, "mostly at tackle".
When asked about who would get the start at the tackle spots, Harbaugh rather bluntly pointed to the rotation in practice of Deculus at LT and Pipkins at RT. In previous weeks at his final pregame media availability periods, Harbaugh has typically avoided revealing who the starters were going to be if there was any level of doubt. But giving Deculus the nod at LT and calling Jamaree Salyer "another option" was rather telling.
Harbaugh said that Salyer played well last week against the Titans. He got the nod to go into the game after Joe Alt went down with an ankle injury. Pipkins was already in the game following the earlier injury to RT Bobby Hart.
When asked what separates Deculus as the starter over Salyer, Harbaugh refused to say anything negative about either player (as he usually does). The Chargers HC just stated that he likes both players a lot.
Penning not being in the starting lineup isn't particularly surprising as both OC Greg Roman and Harbaugh indicated there were a lot of things he needed to get up to speed with in order to get on the field. But for the time being, Deculus holds the top spot when healthy over Salyer and the teams' other options in the absence of Hart.
Hopefully, Deculus and Pipkins can hold up well enough in pass protection to hold off a Steelers defense ranked third in pass rush win rate. The Chargers will kick off against the Steelers in primetime at 5:20 PM PT on NBC on Sunday.