Disaster struck at the Chargers-49ers joint practice on Tuesday. Starting center Tyler Biadasz was carted off with what appeared to be a knee injury. Biadasz grabbed at his knee while remaining on the ground for a while before the cart came out. On the play that caused the injury, Kayode Awosika inadvertently threw a 49ers defender into the back of Biadasz's legs.
The Chargers will evaluate the status of Biadasz's knee, and we'll likely have an update within the next 24 hours or so. But until then, Jake Slaughter should probably be seen as the incumbent center. He replaced Biadasz in practice with the first line unit. Until today, Slaughter had only taken center reps with the second team offensive line.
It might be Chargers center Jake Slaughter's offensive line now.
It goes without saying that we all hope for the best for Biadasz's status. Maybe he did just escape with a knee sprain. But in all likelihood, not being able to apply pressure in addition to the cart coming out are not good signs.
If Biadasz does have a long-term injury, the Chargers will likely scour the market for center depth. But with roughly three weeks until the season, Slaughter would likely be the starter in any scenario. It's been a whirlwind 24 hours-just yesterday at the podium OC Mike McDaniel discussed the possibility of Slaughter losing the left guard competition. Now, he might be locked in as a 17-game starter.
In fairness to Slaughter's chances, he was a solid center in college. He gave up four pressures and a sack in over 400+ pass blocking snaps during his final collegiate season. But there's obviously a big development curve for rookie linemen making the jump to the pros.
Chemistry is also a question. For four months, Herbert and Biadasz have worked on calls and communications as if they were going to be the starters. Assuming it is a long term injury for Biadasz, Slaughter will have roughly 3 weeks to work with the Chargers' first-team before kickoff in Week 1. It's a daunting task.
Slaughter's mental game and athletic traits have always popped on tape. But physicality and bull rushes on true dropbacks gave him trouble in college. McDaniel will of course try to minimize the downs where Herbert is dropping back for an extended time relative to Greg Roman. That's part of his whole philosophy. But the question will be the ratio of Slaughter positive pass pro reps to how often the scheme may need to hide him.
Chargers fans should hope for the best for Biadasz, but contingency plans must be discussed. We could be looking at multiple months of starter Slaughter at center.
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