Chargers make very questionable roster choice in Week 4 vs Texans

The LA Chargers are looking to bounce back from an ugly loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars against a different AFC South opponent in the Houston Texans. LA suffered an ugly loss to Houston last season, so there may be some extra motivation for the Chargers to get the job done.

Unfortunately, the Bolts are dealing with the worst injury luck in the league right now with both Rashawn Slater and Joey Bosa missing significant time, if not the entire season. Keenan Allen will miss his third straight game as he could not return from his Week 1 hamstring injury.

With all of this in mind, the Chargers have had to do some roster shuffling to decide who will be active on gameday for the team. However, it seems that the team may have overthought it, as Brandon Staley and co. made a very questionable roster decision for who will be active in Week 4.

The questionable roster decision that we are alluding to is listing Otito Ogbonnia as inactive, which makes absolutely no sense with how the rookie has played this season.

The Chargers are wrong to make Otito Ogbonnia inactive in Week 4 vs Houston Texans.

The rookie out of UCLA has played really well for the Bolts in the chances he has gotten this season. While his pass-rush presence has not been all the way there, he has made some really good plays against the run, proving that he has value as a run-stuffer.

Ogbonnia has certainly done more this season than Jerry Tillery, who continues to get a roster spot because he is a first-round pick and Tom Telesco simply cannot admit that he missed on the pick. There is no world in which Tillery has been better this season than Ogbonnia.

In theory, the Chargers are using the roster spot at receiver as the team would rather give snaps to someone who has more of a pass-rushing presence, like Tillery or Christian Covington. The problem is that neither of those players is particularly impactful, and on paper might be better pass-rushers, but in reality, they are not.

Will the Chargers outright lose the game because Ogbonnia is not playing? No. But this is yet another example of poor roster management by this coaching staff. Staley and Telesco selected mid-round rookies who are not even making the active roster this season because they drafted on traits, not ability.

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And the players that are earning the playing time, such as Ogbonnia, Breiden Fehoko and even Joshua Kelley, are not getting the playing time for reasons that are beyond us.