COSTA MESA — The Chargers could be without wide receiver Mike Williams for Sunday’s road showdown against the Baltimore Ravens.
Williams was listed as questionable on the final injury report for Week 6 because of knee swelling he sustained after last week’s victory against the Cleveland Browns.
Williams missed every practice this week and wasn’t on the field during the open portion to reporters Friday.
“Mike just had some swelling from the game, just kind of normal football game stuff,” Chargers coach Brandon Staley said. “But we just tried to be careful with him this week at the beginning of the week (to) make sure that he’s feeling his best for Sunday. We’re going to know more later today, but we’re hopeful that he plays.”
Williams is in the midst of a career year as one of the most productive wide receivers in the NFL through five games. He has a league-high six receiving touchdowns and ranks fifth in receiving yards with 471.
If Williams is unable to play versus the Ravens, that could create an opportunity for rookie Josh Palmer, the team’s third-round pick this year.
“He runs some really good routes and he’s a guy that we really believe in,” Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert said about Palmer.
The Chargers won’t have linebacker Drue Tranquill versus the Ravens. He has been ruled out with a chest injury. Chargers safety Nasir Adderley was listed as questionable with a hip injury.
Staley said he plans to have rookies Amen Ogbongbemiga and Nick Niemann split snaps at the second starting linebacker position next to Kyzir White.
“I’m excited to see those guys compete,” Staley said about the rookie linebackers. “We have a lot of faith in them and it’s gonna be an awesome opportunity to showcase what they can do because this is a really good team that their first action is going to be going against.”
SLATER DECLINES HELP
Chargers center Corey Linsley jokingly shrugged when he was asked about his rookie teammate declining help last week against Browns star pass rusher Myles Garrett.
“Yeah, it’s all right,” Linsley sarcastically said.
At this point, Linsley isn’t surprised about anything Rashawn Slater does on the field. Slater started the season by shutting down the Washington pass-rushing tandem of Chase Young and Montez Sweat and didn’t allow his first career sack until last week versus Garrett, which probably shouldn’t have counted against him.
Slater asked his coaches to tell the running backs to avoid helping without notice because Joshua Kelley accidentally bounced Garrett off Slater and into Herbert for the sack late in the third quarter.
“Rashawn is a beast and he actually didn’t want us to chip because it was like helping them,” Chargers running back Austin Ekeler said. “It was bumping guys off of him. He’s like, ‘Hey, just don’t even chip.’ Hey, you got it. You got it, boss.’”
It wasn’t Slater’s best performance of his young career, but he did enough to not have Garrett wreck the game, which he’s done to many teams. Garrett recorded three hits on Herbert and had one sack with help from Kelley.
The two games prior, Garrett had five sacks and 10 quarterback hits combined against the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings.
Garrett praised Slater before and after the game, as the No. 13 overall pick in April’s draft has played well enough to request one-on-one matchups against the NFL’s best pass rushers.
“What we’ve tried to do is create real trust and communication with our guys,” Staley said about Slater’s request. “That they can speak up and have a voice to express themselves. In that particular instance, and if you talk to O-linemen just in general, sometimes a chip or a nudge can disrupt the timing of their set and actually change their set angle and their rhythm and timing.
“Rashawn just felt like, ‘Hey, I can block this guy. I can block this guy man-to-man.’ It says two things that stand out to me – maybe more – but the two things are the trust in the communication to talk to not only Austin, but our offensive coaching staff, and then, No. 2, the confidence that he has in his ability.”
Ekeler had no issue with Slater telling him to back off, especially after the video board at SoFi Stadium showed a clip of the rookie front-squatting an insane amount of weight.
“That guy, he’s special,” Ekeler said. “So, hey, he’s got it locked down.”
Slater will have another tough challenge Sunday against Ravens defensive end Calais Campbell, a six-time Pro Bowler.
KICKER TROUBLE
Staley expressed support for kicker Tristan Vizcaino after he missed two extra-point attempts against the Browns during the 47-42 win.
“With Tristan, we’re going to have to deal with this,” Staley said. “He’s a young kicker in the league. He has a fantastic kickoff leg, and as a kicker, he needs to be in a lot of those situations to make sure he gets his rhythm and timing. He missed two (Sunday), that was disappointing. But what we need him to do is bounce back. He’s a talented guy. He’s just like a lot of young players in the league. You have to stay patient because he’s good enough.”
Staley supported Vizcaino with his postgame comments and was prepared to have him possibly kick the game-winning field goal versus the Browns. Staley planned on running down the clock to the final seconds before Ekeler was pulled into the end zone by the Browns.
Vizcaino’s second missed extra-point attempt forced the Chargers to play catchup when the score was 42-41, but it might have helped the team because the Browns played conservatively with a one-point advantage down the stretch. The Chargers’ defense forced a three-and-out punt to pave the way for Ekeler’s game-winning touchdown.
Vizcaino is 6 of 7 on field-goal attempts and 10 of 14 on extra-point attempts this season.
“We’ve made some adjustments and we worked all week at it,” Chargers special coordinator Derius Swinton said about Vizcaino. “He didn’t keep his head down. Just trying to get back to the fundamentals.”