One lingering issue has followed the LA Chargers from what was an otherwise great offseason. The Chargers didn't do enough to address the interior offensive line and as a result, the team geared up to start the two worst members of the offensive line for a second year in a row.
Not only did the Chargers refuse to upgrade from Bradley Bozeman and Zion Johnson, but the team also offered a solution that no fan thought would work: swapping the positions. Johnson has never played center and Bozeman hasn't played guard in a half-decade. Somehow, this was meant to fix the issues from last season.
it didn't work, mostly because Johnson was awful at center. As a result, head coach Jim Harbaugh has ended the experiment and confirmed Monday what fans were fearing all along: Johnson will start at left guard, and Bozeman will start at center.
The Chargers' complacency on the offensive line will come back to haunt them
As a whole, the Chargers' offensive line will probably look pretty solid throughout the 2025 season. That is what happens when you have the best young tackle duo in the sport and a solid right guard that, to the Chargers' credit, the team signed this offseason.
However, the exciting tandem at tackle made the Chargers way too comfortable. It kept the team from adding on the interior offensive line even though Justin Herbert so desperately needed it. As great as Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt are, they can't block for Johnson and Bozeman.
Just look at the team's beatdown in the NFL Playoffs as evidence of that. Slater and Alt held their own but Herbert was pressured drop back after drop back because of the poor play of the offensive line. It looked like the Chargers has turnstyles starting at center and left guard at times, and the team did nothing to fix that.
According to Pro Football Focus, Johnson allowed 37 quarterback pressures in 660 pass-blocking snaps last season, good for a pass-blocking efficiency rate of 96.4. To put that into perspective, Johnson ranked 44th among 53 guards with at least 500 pass-blocking snaps last season.
Scarily enough, Becton had the exact same pass-blocking efficiency rate as Johnson and Trey Pipkins, who Becton is replacing.
Bozeman didn't fair much better, turning in a 97.3 rating last season. This put him 19th among 24 centers with at least 500 pass-blocking snaps last season. His 30 pressures allowed were the fourth-most of any center in the league.
What makes all this even more frustrating is the fact that the Chargers had (and still have) the resources to improve the offensive line. Heck, the fifth-largest cap hit on the entire team is Pipkins, who serves as the team's swing tackle.
Los Angeles could have waived Pipkins, saved $6.75 million against the cap, and used that money to improve the interior offensive line. Instead, the team is okay running back the same duo that resulted in Herbert getting mauled time and time again in 2025.
And because of this short-sighted decision-making, the Chargers are also one injury on the offensive line away from the entire house of cards caving in.