The Chargers head into their toughest five-game stretch of the season with the wind at their back, and the team getting healthier and playing better each week. As the team prepares to run through this gauntlet, a few questions remained unanswered that drive some interesting storylines through the rest of the season.

How will Jim Harbaugh handle the return of Trey Pipkins, Asante Samuel Jr?

Football is a dangerous sport, and injuries are a part of the game. Many coaches believe a player’s “job” should be waiting for them post-injury, when they’re able to get back in the action, even if their reserve filled in admirably. Charger fans saw this mindset firsthand in 2020. When Tyrod Taylor suffered a punctured lung from a pre-game rib injection, Anthony Lynn reiterated multiple times that Taylor was still the team’s starter despite Justin Herbert’s exceptional job filling in. It took three games for Lynn to acknowledge that the team would be shifting to Justin for the remainder of the season.

Although Asante Samuel Jr is a solid ball-hawking cornerback, he’s hardly been missed during his IR stint thanks to the amazing play of both Cam Hart and Tarheeb Still. Hart has been a physical presence, regularly jarring would-be completions loose and even forcing the occasional fumble, while Still has shown exceptional ball skills and inside/outside coverage ability as well.

Trey Pipkins is another interesting case. Pipkins is a career offensive tackle, pushed into a transition to guard after Joe Hortiz drafted generational prospect Joe Alt. He hasn’t shown the strength to hold up in the interior, and the line has been allowing inside pressure fairly consistently all the season. The Chargers faced a legitimate defensive front last Sunday, and the offensive line played by far their best game, but did so with Jamaree Salyer filling in for the injured Pipkins. Salyer has the functional strength and anchor necessary for a guard, and projects to have a better career than Pipkins on the inside despite also being a converted tackle.

How will Jim handle both of these injuries? Both players have been seeminglyout performed by their reserves, but does Jim believe in the old adage that players shouldn’t be replaced once they’ve returned from injury?

There’s one pretty significant example that my indicate where Jim leans. Harbaugh was the coach of the 2012 San Francisco 49ers when Alex Smith led them to a 6-2 start before going down with a concussion in Week 10. Colin Kaepernick filled in as a dynamic dual-threat quarterback, winning a few more games for the 49ers before Harbaugh was forced to decide between the two. Jim said he would ride the “hot hand” of Kaepernick, and the 49ers ended their season 11-4-1 and lost to John Harbaugh’s Ravens in the Super Bowl.

The sample size may be too small to remove Pipkins in favor of Salyer if Trey can return to play this week, but if he’s sidelined for another Sunday and Salyer has another excellent showing, Pipkins would very likely be sliding back into a depth position.

Samuel Jr’s availability is murky, as Harbaugh has been especially vague about his shoulder injury, referencing whether Asante would play again this season as a “family decision.” Cam Hart and Tarheeb Still have earned the starting job whether Zont returns to action or not, but there also may be some tension between Zont and the coaching staff behind closed doors.

Will Gus Edwards keep Kimani Vidal shelved?

Gus Edwards came back with a vengeance, showing more explosiveness and power than he’s displayed thus far in a Chargers uniform. To the untrained eye, his recent performance begs the question of whether he was healthy and should have been playing early in the season.

With J.K. Dobbins staying healthy and playing better than expected, and Hassan Haskins serving as a sneaky goal line specialist and special teams demon, Kimani Vidal is the odd-man out. The team has yet to carry four running backs in a game (fullback/defensive tackle hybrids not included), but Vidal has shown enough flashes of ability to justify the team’s consideration. He’s likely the best receiving threat of the group, and he seems like a player eagerly waiting his opportunity to break out.

Can the offense sustain without a true redzone threat?

The offense has done an amazing job of protecting the football, but early in the season they had many drives stalling once they entered the redzone. The receivers have begun to develop their roles in the offense, but there still isn’t a clear red zone threat amongst them or any of the tight ends.

There have been some spectacular scoring plays, with everyone chipping in to get the job done, but Herbert is still clearly lacking a go-to big-bodied guy for this role.

The touchdown to Ladd McConkey is a great example. Herbert play-actioned and went through every read before landing on a covered Ladd, but an absolute bullet of a pass an amazing back-of-the-endzone grab gave the team six points.

Most of Quentin Johnston’s touchdowns have been explosive deep balls, but against the Titans he earned himself a redzone score. This one appeared to be a scheme-win, as Kenneth Murray was left chasing a receiver, yielding an unsurprising result.

Likely the most telling of all – when Jim gave Greg Roman the green light on 4th and 1 from the four yard-line, Roman didn’t cook up a play to a preferred target or even use a dominant receiver as a decoy to draw coverage away from someone else. He just gave Justin the ball on a QB Power and told him to get it done himself.

Can Justin Herbert can keep willing this team into the endzone, complimented by the dynamic rush attack of Dobbins and Edwards, or will this team’s ceiling will be limited due to the absence of a true redzone threat?

What do you think, StormCloud? What questions do you have headed into Week 11?