The LA Chargers have a very talented roster heading into the 2022 season that is poised to make a deep playoff run. Ranking the most talented players on the team is already a hard thing to do, so what if we raise the bar and try to rank the most important players on the roster?
Our friends over at the Guilty as Charged Podcast recently did this thought experiment with the 10 most important Chargers on a recent YouTube live stream. Old Bolt Beat writer Steven Haglund had a shocking inclusion at no. 1 that you must check out and it inspired us to put together our own list as well, narrowing it down to the five most important players on the Chargers in 2022.
Let's start with no. 1, as he is the most obvious on this entire list.
The 5 most important players for the Chargers' success in 2022:
1. Justin Herbert
Justin Herbert is the rightful no. 1 when it comes to being the most important player on the LA Chargers. Granted, the quarterback position naturally is the most important on the entire roster, so just being a QB does a lot of the heavy lifting for Herbert's case.
The Chargers are a Super Bowl contender because of Justin Herbert. The front office went all in because of Justin Herbert. If Herbert would have been a bust then there are guys on this list that might not even be on the Chargers as the Bolts would not have been as aggressive, and instead would have looked towards the future.
If you take Justin Herbert off of the 2022 Chargers and replace him with Easton Stick or Chase Daniel then the team, despite having a lot of talent, would win five games at the absolute most. The Bolts will only go as far as Herbert will take them.