3 Chargers who disappeared in Week 1 win over the Raiders

3. Kyle Van Noy

There were two players that were considered for this third and final spot as Jalen Guyton was also a candidate. Guyton was only targeted once in the game and only played five total offensive snaps in this game.

However, that was kind of expected out of Guyton after training camp. It became clear during camp that Guyton was sliding down to being the WR5 on the depth chart and that is exactly what he was in this game for the Chargers.

Instead, Kyle Van Noy got the nod despite getting more playing time. The veteran linebacker played 28 defensive snaps, which were 48% of the total snaps in the game. This was surprising as it seemed like the Chargers were gearing Van Noy up to be the starting linebacker when instead he got fewer snaps than both Drue Tranquill and Kenneth Murray.

Van Noy also had one of the worst plays on defense in this game, getting absolutely shook and then burnt by Brandon Bolden for a receiving touchdown. That was an ugly play by Van Noy and highlights some of the potential concerns about him.

When Van Noy was signed, it was expected that he would mostly add to the EDGE rotation and sprinkle in some snaps as an inside linebacker. Instead, Van Noy has primarily been an inside backer for the Chargers, and in this game, was the third ILB.

While Van Noy does add some value in that regard, he has also lost his athleticism at this point in his career and is not the guy you want manning up a talented pass-catching back, as we saw with the Bolden play.

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It will be interesting to see what his role is moving forward and how the Chargers utilize him on passing downs. Hopefully, he can turn it around and make me eat crow, I am just not sure if the athleticism is completely there anymore.