The Chargers will play their second straight game without their top tackle duo of Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt on Sunday. Slater hit IR after undergoing a tightrope procedure for his high ankle sprain. The first game he'd be eligible to return for is in Week 10 against the Ravens. While Alt has not been placed on IR to this point, his path forward remains hazy.
Against Seattle, Alt was declared questionable to return after a second quarter collision with S Nick Emmanwori. He did not return to the game after it was revealed to be a neck injury. Rookie Travis Burke took over at right tackle for the remainder of the game. In Week 5, he flipped over to left tackle following Slater's ankle sprain vs. Seattle.
The updates (or lack thereof) on Chargers RT Joe Alt are not sounding good.
Alt has missed six straight practices over the last two weeks. He did not play vs. Denver and was ruled out for Sunday's game at Kansas City. Unlike Slater, he was not placed on IR. But his status and when exactly he might return remains unclear.
On Monday, Harbaugh said that Alt (neck) would meet with a specialist. "We'll see how the week goes," Harbaugh said. "I think there's testing going on. He'll meet with a specialist."
But by Friday, there was still no news on Alt or how that testing went. Asked if he had an update yesterday, Harbaugh said he did not.
Alt allowed just three pressures on 130 pass blocking snaps when he played from Week 1 to Week 4. LT Travis Burke and RT Alex Harkey gave up a combined five pressures and two sacks last week vs. Denver. Relatively speaking, their performances were about as good as you can expect from backup rookie linemen given the circumstances. But there's obviously a noticeable drop in QB Justin Herbert's protection quality without Alt and Slater.
With it being a neck injury specifically, I'm not sure that no news on Alt should be taken as good news. The Chargers have not placed him on IR as mentioned earlier, but he also doesn't seem close to returning to practice. Even if Alt himself isn't placed on injured reserve, the absolute earliest that the Chargers could see Alt/Slater back on the field together is about a month from now for Chargers @ Ravens.
It's disappointing that we finally got to see Alt and Slater healthy again until we didn't. In addition to the interior offensive line struggling with quality and injuries, the Chargers don't really have an answer for losing their top tackles either.
Also, where are the Chargers record-wise when they can bring their tackles back? Considering the upcoming schedule of @ Chiefs, @ Rams, vs. Texans, there's a realistic chance the Chargers are 0-8 by the time Slater can return. Would they bring him back at that point? Does Alt's neck injury get right without a procedure? Either way, they might be starting this line composed of rookie backups for a while.
In what feels like a lost season, the hits keep coming for the Chargers' offensive line. While the Slater and Alt injuries are unfortunate, it's clear that the front office and coaching staff did not do enough to boost the interior offensive line in the offseason. And we saw ample evidence of that in the 3.5 games or so before Alt was injured.
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