Every single NFL team enters training camp with a list of questions about the roster and the upcoming season. Some questions are more pressing than others, and for the LA Chargers, there is one question that stands above the rest.
It is the same question the team had exiting the embarrassing loss to the Houston Texans in the AFC Wild Card Round: can the Chargers adequately protect Justin Herbert and establish the run game with the interior offensive line?
To the dismay of many, the Chargers only brought in one external candidate to help answer this question, Mekhi Becton. He isn't the key player who has the ultimate answer, however. That honor instead goes to 2022 first-round pick, Zion Johnson.
Zion Johnson holds the key to the Chargers' biggest training camp question
The offensive line legitimately held the Chargers back in 2024 despite having one of the best tackle pairings in the entire sport. That is how bad the interior offensive line was and to the surprise of many, the Chargers only fixed one of thier three problems.
Jim Harbaugh seems intent on running it back with Zion Johnson and Bradley Bozeman on the inside but there is a twist. Johnson has been getting reps at center while Bozeman has been playing left guard. The Chargers are hopeful this switch can lead to the best results.
Whether or not it will work is a completely different conversation. Johnson has never played center and Bozeman has gone years without playing guard. And as hard as it is to believe, Bozeman has historically been far better at center than guard in his NFL career.
Alas, this is the experiment the Chargers are trying and whether or not it works hinders on Johnson. While he has been disappointing as a first-round pick, he harbors much more potential than his veteran counterpart simply because of his age and draft status.
Johnson has had spurts where he doesn't just look serviceable, he looks like a legitimate offensive line commodity. Unfortunately, those spurts have been counterbalanced by poor play, especially in key spots.
If Johnson can put it all together ahead of his fourth season then the math equation suddenly gets a lot easier for the Chargers. If Johnson can prove he is a viable starting center the Chargers can go out and acquire a guard option to replace Bozeman, which has already been floated out by those covering the team.
If Johnson struggles at center but takes a leap at left guard then the team could run Andre James at center. The Chargers signed James this offseason and while he had a bad 2024 season with the Las Vegas Raiders, his 2023 season was extremely promising.
Either way, Johnson turning a corner would be a huge development for the Bolts. If the opposite happens, the Chargers would be stuck with two struggling offensive linemen and not a lot of outs to improve the dynamic of the team.
As elite as Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt are, Johnson is arguably the most important offensive lineman heading into 2025 simply because of the vast swing one way or another his performance will cause. All eyes should be on him as Chargers training camp gets underway.