LA Chargers training camp is officially in full swing and fans are starting to get an idea of how this team will look in Jim Harbaugh's first season as head coach. There is still a long way to go until the start of the 2024 season but Harbaugh has already changed the culture of the organization and it shows.
For the most part, there have been positives coming out of training camp thus far. While some players are seemingly struggling in camp, this looks like a hungry team that is ready to completely flip the script in 2024.
There have been several promising standouts on an individual level who should have fans excited. The biggest standout, though, is not someone on the offensive or defensive side of the ball. Although he plays a usually scarred position for the Bolts, Cameron Dicker has undoubtedly been the biggest standout of Chargers training camp thus far.
Cameron Dicker just hit 9of 9 FGs in team drill.
— Eric Smith (@Eric_L_Smith) July 30, 2024
He’s 20/20 so far in camp.
Cameron Dicker being the biggest star of Chargers training camp should surprise no one
While the kicker position is not one that your mind may instantly jump to when thinking about training camp standouts, Dicker is clearly standout out through the blanket of noise that is escaping El Segundo this summer.
There have been a lot of great takeaways for the Bolts but there is no better takeaway than the fact the team has an elite kicker. The Chargers have been cursed as the kicker position for the history of the franchise and Dicker may break that curse.
Chargers fans absolutely have the right to be over the moon about Dicker's success as this is not just a flash in the pan. It would be one thing if Dicker was an unproven commodity and he was just having a good camp. That is not the case at all. Dicker is only cementing his status as one of the best kickers in the entire sport.
In his first full season as the team's kicker last year, Dicker made 31 of 33 field goals while making all 35 of his extra-point attempts. Both of his misses were from 50 yards out as he missed a 53-yarder against the Minnesota Vikings and then had a 50-yard attempt blocked against the Denver Broncos.
No kicker is perfect and only having one true miss all season, and it coming on a 53-yard attempt, is a great sign for Dicker and the Chargers. He was perfect inside of 50 yards in his sophomore season and is continuing that perfection in training camp this year.
With a new head coach who is not going to aggressively go for every fourth down like it is going out of style, expect Dicker to get even more field goal chances and cement himself as one of the best kickers in the entire league.
Dicker's success in training camp is not a small-sample-size mirage. It is foreshadowing what it to come in 2024.