Chargers who should get playing time slashed after Week 4 win

2. Sony Michel

Sony Michel did not make the Miami Dolphins' 53-man roster and the Chargers opted to bring him in on a waiver right before the season started. To be fair, Michel was a far better option than Larry Rountree, who subsequently was waived and placed on the practice squad.

But just because he is better than Rountree does not make him great. Chargers fans totally bought in on Michel being this big difference maker to this running back room when the results from previous years were not good. At the end of the day, though, taking a flier on someone with worse options was not a bad idea.

Now we have seen four weeks of that flier and it is clear that he is the third-best running back on the active roster. Austin Ekeler is obviously the RB1 but Joshua Kelley has arguably been the best runner of the trio. Just look at Week 4: as soon as Kelley came into the game he provided a jolt and simply looked far better than Michel.

Michel received six carries in the second half against Houston and picked up a grand total of 11 yards. With the rushing game being important to this offense, the Chargers cannot afford to keep giving him carries that very obviously should be going to Kelley, who had just four carries in the first half.

Not to mention that the team still has a rookie running back in Isaiah Spiller that they took earlier than they needed to in the 2022 NFL Draft.