The Los Angeles Chargers finally brought their competition for the starting left guard spot to an (at least) temporary end yesterday, naming Kayode Awosika as the starter on the offensive line between Rashawn Slater and Jake Slaughter.
This doesn't come as a major surprise. Awosika seemed to be in the lead in the competition through much of the offseason program and training camp. Tyler Biadasz' season-ending ACL injury, which pushed Slaughter over to the center position, cleared the path for him to finish the job. But even with Week 1 rapidly approaching, the Chargers coaching staff had held fast to their pronouncement that veteran lineman Trey Pipkins III was still in the mix at the position. Jim Harbaugh even teased a potential platoon between the two players across the first few weeks of the season.
If we're taking Harbaugh's words at face value, it's hard to know how significant Awosika being named as the starter truly is. Is it just a formality, and will we see Pipkins take some snaps there in Week 1? Or is this constant infusion of Pipkins in the conversation merely a ploy to keep their opponents on their toes ahead of Weeks 1 and 2?
We won't know until we see it unfold on the field. But with essentially five new starters along the offensive line compared with who Los Angeles trodded out there late last season, there's going to need to be an adjustment period even if the current rotation is set in stone.
Thankfully, a pair of matchups against the Arizona Cardinals and Las Vegas Raiders to start the season will grant the Chargers some reprieve as they sort out any lingering confusion.
The Chargers have time to sort out the O-line before they enter the thick of their schedule
At minimum, the floor of this offensive line should be raised exponentially. The return of the Chargers' star tackles in Slater and Joe Alt should ensure that, and Mike McDaniel and Butch Barry's zone-blocking scheme should be able to maximize the talent Los Angeles has on the interior.
If Slaughter is able to perform like a top-15 center and Awosika and Cole Strange can play at a replacement level, this offensive line, while not among the league's elite, will be able to hold its own even as the Chargers enter their gauntlet of Week 3 through 10.
In those weeks, they'll face off against a host of the league's most formidable pass rushes—including the Seattle Seahawks, Los Angeles Rams, Denver Broncos, and Houston Texans. Each of those matchups will represent a major test of the organization's faith in McDaniel to identify and maximize the O-line talent on this roster.
Even with an entire offseason to implement the new offensive scheme, though, there are still certainly going to be some kinks in the early portions of the season. Both the coaching staff and Los Angeles' protectors will need to make tweaks and adjustments as protection issues crop up, making the Pipkins/Awosika snap distribution just one among a number of storylines still hovering around this offensive line.
But before Los Angeles has to go face a murderer's row of pass rushes, they'll have a bit of time to get these things sorted out. The Cardinals finished last season with the fourth-fewest sacks and pressures in the NFL, and they didn't add enough to the edge this offseason to believe that the result will be any different. The Raiders, of course, still have Maxx Crosby in the fold, and their addition of the veteran Kwity Paye should help solidify some of their depth across from him.
But Las Vegas finished last season with the fifth-fewest pressures in the NFL, and Paye is not quite the major pressure-producer he needs to be to help maximize Crosby within the Raiders' pass rush scheme. Neither team has anything particularly formidable along the interior of their defensive lines, either, apart from Arizona's 6'4" behemoth Walter Nolen.
If the Chargers want to keep experimenting with Pipkins and Awosika, so be it. But these first two weeks represent their grace period.
After that, the stakes will get a whole lot higher.
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