Rashawn Slater injury could have ripple effects across Chargers, AFC

Yahoo

2 days ago

Yahoo Sports' Jason Fitz reacts to the Chargers offensive lineman's torn patellar tendon suffered in Thursday's practice and how it will impact the outlook for Los Angeles and the rest of the conference this season.
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Video Transcript
We have a staggering injury of massive consequence for the Los Angeles Chargers.
Rashawn Slater is out for the season at this point with a torn patellar tendon that, uh, he suffered in practice on Thursday.
As you see there on the screen, he just signed a 4-year, $113 million contract extension.
That is massive money for a player that was worth absolutely every penny.
And now you have to talk about the trickle-down effect that this has to the rest of not just the Chargers, but the entire AFC.
The Chargers are expected to take a leap forward this year and be a team that can compete for a Super Bowl.
They are expected, especially because they were ahead of schedule last year in Harbaugh's offense, to be able to come in and be that sort of team that can challenge the Chiefs, which means by default that they're also challenging the Ravens and the Bills.
That puts them in that conversation.
Without Slater, I'm not sure it does.
This is a team that we know wants to run the football and they want to run the football often.
And it's a team that has to figure out how to protect the best.
That they have on offense, which is a quarterback that we're still waiting to have his superstar, massive breakthrough moment the way we think they can.
I still believe that the Chargers are an incredibly well-coached team.
And look, this is part of what the identity of the Chargers has been for a decade.
Key injuries to superstar players, for whatever reason, seem to be the beast that haunts this franchise.
I don't know how you fix that, but importantly for this season, in a year where there were expectations that maybe they could even try and compete with the Chiefs for the AFC West.
I don't know how you do that when we say all the time, there are not 32 great left tackles in this league.
There are not 32 great guards in this league.
Go up and down.
The trickle-down effect to this entire offensive line, the way they're going to have to rework the line and what they're going to have to do now to make the most without Rashawn Slater is just enough to make a difference that I lose some of my confidence in the Chargers' ability to compete for a Super Bowl.
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