3 players who have gone missing at Chargers training camp

Dustin Hopkins

This is a situation where Dustin Hopkins has literally gone missing and it is not entirely his fault. Hopkins dealt with some kind of undisclosed injury that has kept him from participating in the kicking battle during the first three weeks of training camp.

Hopkins finally returned to the fold on Wednesday, three weeks after camp started. However, it may be too late for him to make up any potential ground that he has lost to Dicker in the race.

In theory, we could argue that every single player who is not active in training camp because of an injury has technically disappeared. That would not be fair to the likes of Jalen Guyton and Austin Johnson because this situation with Hopkins was different.

The kicking battle between Hopkins and Cameron Dicker was legitimately one of the most "up-in-the-air" battles on the entire roster heading into camp. Both players had strong cases to make and it was always going to come down to what happened in camp and the preseason.

And with Hopkins missing significant time to start camp it may be hard for the team to not go with Dicker. It isn't like Dicker is struggling, either, as he has been pretty solid and consistent thus far in camp. This very well could cost Hopkins his job.

There are added benefits of going with Dicker as well, such as the cost and the cap space it would create. With potential concerns for Hopkins' long-term health (and age), this battle may have already been decided.