As we enter Week 3 of training camp and the start of preseason action, the Los Angeles Chargers have one glaring storyline lingering over each of their practices. Who will win the starting left guard job, and will any player be able to instill enough confidence between now and the start of the season?
Although Mike McDaniel's zone-blocking scheme can make up for certain deficits in guard talent, we've seen what sub-par interior protection can do to an offense. As of now, the Chargers have five players still in the mix for left guard— Branson Taylor, Kayode Awosika, Jake Slaughter, Trevor Penning, and Trey Pipkins III.
To this point, most of Chargers' fans anxieties have centered around whether Slaughter will be able to seize the job. He's seen as the highest-upside selection at the position, and the fact that Los Angeles spent a second-round pick on him only ramps up that pressure even higher.
But Los Angeles has also taken a gamble at right guard by signing Cole Strange, and that's not a storyline that can simply be cast to the side at this point in training camp. The success of the offensive line as a whole will hinge, in part, on Strange's ability to carry over the momentum he gathered at the end of last season under Mike McDaniel.
Until he proves himself as a starting-caliber interior protector, that's not something that can just be taken for granted.
The Chargers need Cole Strange to hold down the RG position— and it's impossible to know until we see it on the field
In theory, McDaniel should be trusted to select who he wants along the offensive line. His scheme emphasizes vertical athleticism and physicality, and he has a very specific archetype he seeks out— especially on the interior.
Tyler Biadasz should represent a major upgrade over Bradley Bozeman at center. Strange, even by pure virtue of the Chargers' schematic shift, should represent an upgrade over Mekhi Becton at right guard. If Los Angeles is able to improve at four of their five offensive line spots while only seeing moderate gains at left guard, that's an acceptable scenario for singular offseason.
But if both the left and right guard positions remain shaky, that could spell trouble for the offense as a whole.
Strange doesn't have the most inspiring résumé across his four NFL seasons. He fizzled out rather quickly with the New England Patriots even after the previous regime spent a first-round pick on him. A torn patellar tendon caused him to miss the end of 2023 and the start of 2024, and he was traded to the Miami Dolphins last offseason, where McDaniel and offensive line coach Butch Barry aimed to give him a chance to revive his career.
His early-season performance was rough. He allowed 12 pressures across the first five games, and he was one of the least effective guards in the league according to Pro Football Focus's grading metrics. Over his final five games, though, Strange started to figure things out— allowing just seven pressures and one sack on 152 pass-blocking snaps. He also took visible strides as a run blocker in that span.
But that's what the Chargers are betting on in 2026— that Strange can carry over the momentum of those five games into an entire season.
There's reason to have faith in McDaniel on this one, since it's likely that Strange is who he hand-selected to carry over from his time in Miami. But we can't operate as though Strange's viability in 2026 is already guaranteed. He needs to prove it on the field first.
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