A nerve-wracking victory over one of the league’s worst teams, the Miami Dolphins, showed where the Los Angeles Chargers truly rank in the NFL hierarchy after their two disappointing losses to the New York Giants and Washington Commanders. They are a team that went from Super Bowl hopefuls to a real possibility of missing the playoffs. A major cog in this decline is injuries to important positions that lacked depth.
Sitting at 4-2, with their last four games being 2-2 since the first loss of one of their stars, 1-2 since the loss of the other. The Chargers are “treading water” until they can get their trench leaders back. That may come sooner rather than later.
Chargers Injury Report: 2 Superstars Soon To Be Returning
Khalil Mack was the first of the stars to get hurt for the Chargers, as he had a brutal-looking elbow dislocation against his former team, the Las Vegas Raiders, in Week 2. This injury was at first rumored to be possibly season-ending, prompting the Chargers to look into EDGE trade candidates. A trade that would later actually occur, and now creates an interesting conversation regarding Mack’s injury.
Even with the trade, Mack is eligible to return as early as Week 7, if he is healthy and ready to help this Chargers team get back to the team that was once 3-0.
Moving on to Joe Alt, arguably the injury the Chargers have felt “more”, he initially suffered an ankle sprain in Week 4 against the New York Giants. This injury surmounted quickly, disallowing the Chargers to have any semblance of protection for Justin Herbert, culminating in a loss that put an extremely sour taste in the mouths of fans.
His ankle injury was not severe enough for him to be placed on short-term injured reserve. This means the Chargers have confidence he will miss fewer than four games, with their victory over the Dolphins being the second game after the injury Alt sustained. With that mindset, Alt could be back this coming week against the Indianapolis Colts, a team that is red-hot and would provide major challenges for the Chargers if they do not come healthy and prepared.
The Impact Their Returns Will Make
Joe Alt Could Not Be Back Any Sooner
Joe Alt is arguably the most important player on the Chargers outside of Justin Herbert, due to his role being even more important after the brutal injury to Rashawn Slater. Alt was playing at an All-Pro level before his injury, and was a major key for the Chargers to have confidence in their normal game plan, which included a variety of run concepts to set up the deep play-action passing game.
Once Alt went down, the Chargers were forced to insert Austin Deculus, an offensive tackle the Bolts just traded for before the season started. A guy whom the Texans (a team with arguably the worst offensive line in football) wanted to get rid of. While a case could be made that Deculus has been dealt a poor hand. He was just learning the playbook, city, coaches, and teammates, and was then propelled in the most important spot of the offensive line.
However, he has also shown that he and the rest of the offensive line are simply outclassed in nearly every matchup they have seen action in since the Joe Alt injury.
What Do The Statistics Say?
Since Alt’s absence, Deculus has played 184 snaps at left tackle, giving up three sacks, six hits, and 15 pressures. That is not even including his poor play in the run game, where he has an average PFF run blocking grade of 49.0 since he has taken the role of the Chargers starting left tackle.
For reference, in three games, Alt has played 209 snaps, given up one sack, zero hits, and three pressures. The currently injured Chargers offensive tackle also recorded a 66.4 run blocking grade, a grade that is, at the very least, functional for what the Chargers are trying to achieve in their offensive attack.
It should be noted that Deculus played against three good defensive lines, two of which are elite (Giants & Dolphins) and one of which is performing above expectation (Commanders). Alt also had his fair share of difficulty playing against an average Chiefs defensive line, a Maxx Crosby-led Raiders defensive line, and the Broncos defensive line that is top of the league.
Austin Deculus … Everything wrong
High Hand Placement
High Pad level, Poor Leverage
Inefficient Footwork pic.twitter.com/gnRDo8KmLb— Bolt Blitz (@matushka1976) October 9, 2025
Khalil Mack – A Trade Has Opened The Door For Mack To Fully Rest
When Khalil Mack first went down with injury in Week 2, the Chargers were extremely concerned about how this could change the complexity for their defense, considering the Depth behind the Chargers injured superstar was unimpressive. Tuli Tuipolotu was already starting across from Mack, but was now asked to become the #1 guy, which Tuipolotu has done well enough to meet the expectations had for him.
The issue lies with the players playing across from Tuipolotu. That being Caleb Murphy and Bud Dupree. Both of these rushers were so unimpressive that the Chargers were heavily inspired to trade for Odafe Oweh, an EDGE rusher who made his debut Sunday against the Dolphins. His impact was immediately felt, as he recorded a sack and a team lead in pressures on limited snaps.
Now with Oweh in the building and producing, he and Tuipolotu could be a fine EDGE duo while Mack is rehabbing, giving the Chargers EDGE rusher time to not rush back from his injury.
#Chargers pressures generated vs the Dolpins:
Odafe Oweh – 4 (1 sack, 1 hit)
Teair Tart – 3 (1 hit)
Tuli Tuipulotu – 2 (1 sack, 1 hit)
*should have 2 more that drew penalties*
Caleb Murphy – 1
Justin Eboigbe – 1
Otito Ogbonnia – 1
Bud Dupree – 1
15 total pic.twitter.com/yNpMVVAO1I— Guilty As Charged Podcast (@GACPodcast17) October 13, 2025
What Do The Statistics Say?
Bud Dupree and Caleb Murphy took the majority of the snaps since the Chargers injury to Mack, giving the Bolts a combined nine pressures and one sack. This, coupled with their 58.8 combined rush defense grade (since Mack went out), shows that these two EDGE veterans are simply not enough to sustain success on defense. Hence why the Bolts traded for the aforementioned Oweh.
Mack has only played 56 snaps this season, but has recorded four pressures, one sack a 63.2 run defense grade. Nearly half the production on about a quarter of the snaps played.
Main Photo: [Brad Penner] – Imagn Images
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