For quite some time now, Los Angeles Chargers fans haven't been overly thrilled with the play of center Bradley Bozeman. Truth be told, many haven't been happy with him since the moment he joined the team ahead of the 2024 season.
And that group may, at least to a point, include head coach Jim Harbaugh, who clearly wasn't overly confident in keeping Bozeman at center, as he experimented with flip-flopping Bozeman and left guard Zion Johnson during training camp, an experiment that ultimately went nowhere.
Plenty of Bolts fans didn't want to see Bozeman in the starting lineup in Week 1, as there were all kinds of calls for Harbaugh to roll with Andre James, who signed with Los Angeles back in March after spending the first six seasons of his professional career with the Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders, the last four of which saw him start 59 of the 61 games in which he appeared after moving from tackle to center.
And those calls got louder and louder as the season progressed, with Bozeman continuing to struggle. Of 37 centers who've taken enough snaps to earn an overall PFF grade, the soon-to-be 31-year-old (his birthday is on Monday) ranks dead last with a mark of 47.6. His run-blocking grade of 48.3 also ranks 37th, as does his 42.9 pass-blocking grade, which is one of the reasons why Justin Herbert has taken the third-most sacks (35) in the entire league.
So, it's easy to see why fans have been hoping to see James take some offensive snaps instead of simply lining up for extra-point and field-goal attempts.
And this past Sunday, they got their wish, albeit under unfortunate circumstances, as the Chargers were being brutally beaten by the Jacksonville Jaguars, thus prompting Harbaugh to yank the majority of his starters in the fourth quarter.
Andre James got his chance with the Chargers... and failed
Sadly, however, it didn't take long to understand why James hadn't taken a single snap with the offense up until that point. On the Chargers' first play from scrimmage with the second unit, Trey Lance handed the ball off to Amar Johnson, who made his way toward a decent-sized hole to the right side, only for James to be pushed back into said hole, thus causing Johnson to run right into him.
And on the second play, after a bit of a low shotgun snap, James failed to hold his position, thus allowing the Jags to get easy pressure on Lance, resulting in a fumble that was ultimately overturned, as it was ruled that Lance's arm was moving forward when he was hit, thus resulting in an incomplete pass. Nevertheless, it was an abysmal start, and things didn't get much better from there.
All in all, James ended up taking 13 offensive snaps (nine passing, four rushing) and received a 56.4 overall PFF grade for his efforts. Yes, that's obviously better than what Bozeman has been doing, but it's likely not enough to get James into the lineup when the Chargers return to action in Week 13 against the Las Vegas Raiders, even if it might be nice to see James get a crack at his former team.