The LA Chargers are coming off of a 10-7 season in which the entire deck was stacked against them. No team in the NFL dealt with worse injury luck than the Chargers, who also had to deal with two separate injuries to their star quarterback, Justin Herbert.
With most of the same roster intact in 2023, the Chargers have a really exciting ceiling if the team can stay healthy. Granted, every year is different and health is far from a guarantee but it feels like a safe bet to say that the Bolts will at least be in the playoff conversation.
But not everyone seems to think that. In what has become a yearly tradition, USA Today has released their record predictions for the 2023 season only for the NFL world to dunk on them. This year, Nate Davis did the honor and had some laughably bad predictions with the Chargers being one of them.
The #NFL is back in full force this week, so here's what you've been waiting for! https://t.co/g2eWXEJjMa pic.twitter.com/2sCzRgh5PZ
— Nate Davis (@ByNateDavis) July 24, 2023
It would take some horrible injury luck for the Chargers to only finish with seven wins in 2023. If Justin Herbert is starting every single game and has at least some of his supporting cast around him then there is no chance that the Bolts only win seven games.
The Chargers aren't the only team with a horrible record prediction
Of course, these are all subjective and someone straying away from the norm should be celebrated. It is easy to predict for chalk to happen and simply agree with the rest of the NFL world. That being said, some of these predictions are so bad that they are easy to dunk on before the season even begins.
The New York Giants finishing 6-11 (below the Washington Commanders, nonetheless) after making the playoffs last season is quite the bold choice. The Giants have only gotten better talent-wise. Not sure how the record shifts that much.
The Cardinals at 2-15 seems a bit extreme considering the team still has Kyler Murray and a new head coach calling the shots. Minnesota going from 13 wins to seven is a massive decline, even if they are prone to win fewer games in 2023.
The worst of all might be the 10-7 Broncos. Sean Payton definitely is a massive improvement from Nathaniel Hackett but he is not going to fix all of the other problems the Broncos have. Again, unless the Chargers get injured, it is really hard to see a reality where Denver wins three more games than LA.