The Los Angeles Chargers should have a path to a relatively clean win in Week 1 against the Arizona Cardinals.
Even with some of the talent the Cardinals have available to them on the offensive side of the ball, there's still enough uncertainty surrounding their quarterback play and the cohesiveness of their defense to project them as one of the NFL's bottom-feeders again in 2026. But the key word here is should.
Week 1 comes with plenty of variance, especially for teams working out new coordinators on both sides of the ball. All eyes will be on McDaniel's implementation of his West Coast-style scheme within the context of the Chargers' offensive arsenal, but there will be plenty of attention on Chris O'Leary and the Los Angeles defense as well.
The Chargers, frankly, can't simply seek out a narrow win in this Week 1 matchup. With an incredibly difficult slate looming over the rest of the season, they need to set the tone with a resounding victory.
As counterintuitive as it may seem given the hype around McDaniel, that starts on the defensive side of the ball. O'Leary needs to successfully stifle whatever Arizona is able to throw at the Chargers from a schematic perspective.
With first-round pick Jeremiyah Love fully available heading into the matchup, the onus will be upon O'Leary to showcase his new-look run defense—and that will represent the first true test of his scheme after Jesse Minter's departure.
Chargers need to stifle the Cardinals on the ground if they want to come away with a resounding victory
The Cardinals offense made its living through the air last season. We know that Jacoby Brissett is willing to air the ball out whenever possible, and he was actually pretty solid across a large sample size in 2025—posting 3,366 yards and 23 touchdowns to just eight interceptions. Arizona finished the season as the league's seventh-most prolific passing offense, keeping company with the Cincinnati Bengals and Seattle Seahawks.
Their ground game, meanwhile, lagged behind, finishing just barely above the league-worst Las Vegas Raiders in total yards. But their backfield has been completely revamped this offseason, and it's almost certain that new play-caller Mike LaFleur will look to establish the run in Week 1.
Last season, the Cardinals' leading rushers were Michael Carter and Emari Demercado—both of whom barely cracked 300 yards. They now have Love, the third-overall pick in this recent draft, and noted redzone threat Tyler Allgeier, who signed as a free agent this offseason, to help keep that portion of their offense afloat.
If there's any room for improvement for the Chargers defense under O'Leary, it's their consistency against the run. They put up a solid campaign on the whole last year, allowing the eight-fewest yards on the ground over the course of the season, but there were certainly games where opposing backfields got the better of them. Just think of the Week 11 defeat at the hands of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The absence of Denzel Perryman (who's out until at least Week 5 with his placement on the IR) certainly won't help. But the Chargers have capable tacklers still in the fold in Daiyan Henley, Marlowe Wax, and Troy Dye, and their addition of nose tackle Dalvin Tomlinson should help cement their depth along the front seven.
O'Leary has experimented with new run fits and variable looks along the defensive line this offseason. While it was thought for much of training camp that Love could be forced to miss Week 1 with a high-ankle sprain, his availability in this matchup with the Chargers will put these adjustments immediately to the test.
This is amplified by the fact that O'Leary's defense can't afford to simply limit what Arizona accomplishes on the ground. If they're going to come away with the sort of victory they need in Week 1, O'Leary's run defense is going to need to nip any rushing momentum in the bud.
Love's availability doesn't make that task impossible, but it does make it much tougher.
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