The Los Angeles Chargers, needless to say, are in dire straits as they enter their Week 4 matchup against the Seattle Seahawks with an 0-3 record.
They're already on the outside looking in of the playoff picture, but with matchups coming against the Seahawks, Denver Broncos, and Kansas City Chiefs prior to their Week 7 bye, there's very little margin for error here if they're going to turn things around. Still, there's a chance for them to finish their pre-bye slate with a 3-3 record, somewhat salvaging this abysmal start to the season.
But if they're going to accomplish that, they need to turn things around quickly on the offensive side of the ball. Trevor Penning's newfound place as Los Angeles' starting left guard certainly won't help that effort.
Apparently, the plan was to start Penning prior to the drafting of Jake Slaughter and the establishing of Kayode Awosika as a real option in camp. But Penning's injuries quickly took him out of the competition, and even if he had been healthy, it seems likely that he would've been outplayed by, at the very least, Awosika.
But with Pipkins on IR and Awosika out for the foreseeable future, the Chargers are left with Penning as their protection solution on the left side of the line. His performance in Week 3 against the Buffalo Bills didn't do much to inspire confidence in his ability to hold that spot down—even temporarily.
The Chargers simply can't afford for Trevor Penning to take extensive snaps this season
In light of the trade the Chargers made for Penning at last year's deadline, bringing him back on a one-year, $3.5 million deal made sense. But there's certainly room to argue that the move for Penning was one of desperation—and that it never should've been made in the first place.
Sure, Penning has a first-round draft pedigree. But he hasn't truly put up any sustainable stretch of performance during his NFL career, and the Chargers now have some flexibility between guard and tackle (barring any more injuries) that theoretically should have made Penning a disposable asset. If either Awosika or Pipkins were healthy, Penning would have essentially no path to snaps on this Chargers offensive line.
In an ideal world, that's the way it should be. Penning was clearly the least effective protector for the Chargers against Buffalo. He allowed five pressures on 43 pass-blocking snaps, posting a grade of 24.6 in the passing game according to Pro Football Focus's system. No other Chargers lineman outside of Rashawn Slater allowed more than one pressure over the course of the matchup.
Perhaps this was a temporary setback for Penning. After all, he didn't enter the season fully healthy, and he's adjusting to an entirely new blocking scheme under Mike McDaniel and Butch Barry.
But the Chargers don't have much, if any, wiggle room here to give Penning time to find his footing. As the offense as a whole continues to claw its way out of the muck and mire that's held it back through the first three weeks of the season, Los Angeles needs its protection to, at the very least, give Herbert enough time to put the passing game in motion.
There's very little evidence on Penning's résumé that he's capable of accomplishing that, even in a scheme that supposedly works around any deficits in interior protection.
Pipkins is on the IR, so he won't be able to return for at least three more weeks. That leaves the onus upon Awosika, who was spotted in a walking boot in crutches after the Week 2 matchup, to return and set the Chargers' protection right again.
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