The Los Angeles Chargers, obviously, didn't see the sort of improvement many expected from them in their Week 8 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
After the bye, the thought was that there would be at least some sort of shift in the team's offensive approach—or, at the very least, some additional cohesion in the gameplan given the time the coaching staff had to reset. That didn't come to fruition.
Los Angeles found some momentum in the first half with a couple of chunk-yardage passing plays, but outside of that, it seemed like the same offense we've seen struggle to put up points on a weekly basis since the beginning of the season. The Chargers now have not scored a single touchdown since Week 5. Against the Rams, they managed to amass 295 total yards, but their complete lack of a run game and continued loss of momentum in positive territory doomed the offense from the start. The pair of interceptions by Justin Herbert certainly didn't help, either.
But as the team continues to re-hash its mistakes and its failures, it's important to keep seeking out silver lining—and areas of improvement—along the roster. It's the only thing that might make the rest of this season tolerable.
In that light, the return of Joe Alt, who had been out since Week 4 with a neck injury, at least provides a semblance of hope for the offensive line as the Chargers' schedule lightens up.
Joe Alt is the piece that can help stabilize the Chargers' protection as the season wears on
The ceiling for this Chargers offensive line isn't anywhere close to where we thought it would be this offseason. That, of course, is partially a result of the season-ending ACL tear that Tyler Biadasz suffered in the preseason. But Cole Strange hasn't looked like a real starting option at any point in this campaign, and Jake Slaughter has come with the normal struggles that anyone could've predicted a rookie center would face.
That's been compounded, also, by the inconsistent play of and injuries to Alt and Rashawn Slater. Slater was likely still finding his form after missing all of last season with a torn patellar tendon, and he allowed eight pressures and one sack across his first 152 pass-blocking reps this season. The high ankle sprain he suffered only served to derail any progress we saw across those last couple of appearances. Alt's raw pass protection numbers were solid across his first few games—he allowed just three pressures in that span—but the penalties and miscues were concerning.
When Alt went out in Week 4, he had already been flagged for six penalties—just two less than he accrued in his only fully healthy season in 2024.
That can likely be blamed on his slow acclimation to Mike McDaniel's scheme. He simply didn't seem like he was fully in touch with what was being asked of him in terms of the snap count and the protection plan. But in Week 8 against the Rams, Alt was far and away the Chargers' best lineman. He allowed zero pressures on the night across 39 pass-blocking snaps and put up solid numbers in the run game when he was called upon. More importantly, though, he didn't get flagged for a single penalty over the course of the matchup.
That's a low bar, I know. But it's an encouraging sign nonetheless.
The Chargers, moreover, were only flagged for three penalties, costing them 20 yards, on the night. For a team that's continuously been cost by false starts and miscues on the offensive side of the ball, that's one change that the bye week perhaps has brought on.
In a more tangible sense, though, it seems like Alt is back at the top of his game now that he's returned from injury. Travis Burke, even after his move to right tackle last night, was still inconsistent in pass protection, but he's at least a viable game-to-game option there over Alex Harkey. The looming return of Kayode Awosika, who was off the IR but did not practice ahead of this matchup, likely grants Los Angeles some additional viability on the left side of the line as well.
This isn't to say that the Chargers' offensive line will suddenly become one of the best rooms in the league. We saw what they looked like when they were relatively healthy at the start of the season, and the product simply wasn't good.
But any turnaround for this Los Angeles offense starts with better protection for Justin Herbert, and if Alt is truly back and clicking within this scheme, that represents a major boon in that effort.
Add us as a preferred source on Google