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Schedule drops next week. Here’s a guess at how it may look. I see a few slugfests here.
Is this the year we dethrone KC? Not overly concerned about the Raiders…yeah, they got Jeanty but their oline is still sketchy. Don’t sleep on Denver….and I truly hate saying that. 🤮 AFCW looks to me to once again be the most competitive division in the league.
https://www.chargers.com/news/schedule-release-prediction-2025
I think the Chargers, Raiders, and Broncos will finish behind the Chiefs in the division, but that could be in any order.
The Raiders should be much better. Replacing Telesco and adding Carroll, Geno, and Jeanty was huge. And they presumably get Wilkins back healthy.
@tau837 I agree with the Chiefs winning the division again. The competition wasn’t even close last season even with a below standard offense for the Chiefs, a bad OL all year long and injuries at WR. So far, I don’t think our Chargers has gained any ground on the Chiefs yet going into a new season. While our offense looks better than last year on paper, I don’t believe it’s nearly enough, and that the defense could regress this year without any real meaningful upgrade to that side of the ball.
Ortiz’s philosophy at the WR position could hurt this team. To rely on rookie WRs to play up at the WR2 & WR3 spots is a bit reaching, IMO. The reluctance to trade for a WR like George Pickens who the Cowboys just traded for has caused me to worry about how Ortiz and Harbaugh value the WR positions.
@tui1hit If I had to bet on one team to win the division, I would have to bet on the Chiefs. So, I agree on that point.
Not sure I agree on the WR point. I was kind of hoping the Chargers would make a move for Adams, but that was the only available vet WR I was interested in. Expensive, arrogant divas are not something this team is going to tolerate. Good luck to the Cowboys with Pickens. I don’t see that working out well for either.
@kevdiego Not so much on Pickens to be a Charger, that I agree. But if Hortiz and Harbaugh really wanted Adams, they would have made it happened. My point was about their philosophy at the WR position. Not wanting to spend at market value for an impact veteran WR or to overdraft at the position either. Would they choose not to resign McConkey for a second contract when his rookie contact ends bc it will be too expensive? I just hope they value the position just as much as its values to the offense itself.
To rely on rookie WRs to play up at the WR2 & WR3 spots is a bit reaching, IMO.
I don’t think Hortiz is planning to do this. As of right now, IMO this is the 2025 WR plan if everyone is healthy:
- Slot – McConkey, Davis
- X – Williams, Harris
- Z – Johnston, Harris, Lambert-Smith
This is oversimplified (e.g., McConkey will presumably take snaps at Z), but it shows that the team is not counting on any rookies to be the lead at any particular WR position.
I expect the team hopes for Harris to show enough that they can let Williams walk next offseason and make Harris the full time X WR. But that is next season, not this season.
Tau. In this lineup at WR, the rookies have to play up otherwise there isn’t much improvement at all at WR. Hortiz and Harbaugh expect the rookies (Harris and Lambert-Smith) to contribute significantly in year one, not necessarily holding down a starting spot at X or Z. I’m doubtful QJ would get close to the number of snaps he had last season at the Z spot. I don’t believe Harbaugh is going to trust him again after such inconsistency from him. He was completely a no show in big games beside his drops.
MW has his own issues with consistency and being injury prone. When he was on new offenses with the Jets and Steelers last season, he played like a rookie himself not knowing which spot to be, which route to run, and not being physical enough. While he is back with Herbert, he’s going to play in a different offense than the one he played in when he was a Charger. For these reasons why these two rookies are expected to significantly contribute right away. I hope they will hold up and live up to their potential, but to think they won’t play much until year 2, I disagree.
I respectfully disagree with a lot of this.
Williams’ injury history aside from one ACL tear is overblown. Other than 14 games missed after the ACL tear, he has missed 7 of 106 possible games over the past 7 seasons.
Sure, he didn’t play great or a lot for the Jets, but he was coming off the injury in an Aaron Rodgers offense with Rodgers favorite targets. Then he was in a Steelers offense he transitioned into midseason with no prep. IMO none of that has much to do with how he will play in the 2025 Chargers offense.
I expect him to get the most snaps at X. IMO Williams will be a healthy upgrade over the 2024 X WRs.
That in turn allows Johnston to get most of his snaps at Z, which is a much better fit for his skill set. He will get fewer snaps, but should hopefully be more effective.
Yes, of course Harris will play. He will play snaps behind Williams at X and presumably will play snaps behind or similar to Johnston at Z. But he has a lot of learning to do coming out of an Air Raid college offense.
I expect Lambert-Smith to also play Z snaps, but behind Johnston and Harris. I don’t expect him to play many X or slot snaps.
@tau837 Roster construction is interesting. Who’s active on game day will also be a difficult decision. While the Chargers will keep 6 -7 WRs on the roster, how many will be active on game day?
Barring injury, the most likely scenario is that early in the season, MWill is active and plays, while one (or both) of the rookie WRs will be inactive. As the season wears on, I expect the rookie playing time will increase.
@kevdiego I’d be shocked if Harris is healthy but inactive in any games this season. Maybe Lambert-Smith, but not Harris.
I seem to recall you being skeptical last offseason that Ladd would play much, but obviously he did, and he thrived.
I’m not expecting anything like Ladd’s performance from Harris, but I am expecting the team ideally wants him to be the starting X in 2026, and he isn’t going to get prepared for that if he is inactive.
In this day and age, you also don’t draft a player as high as 55 and make him a healthy inactive unless the pick was a bust. I see no reason to believe that right now.
The Chargers being the dedicated home team away in Brazil is losing a real home game against the Chiefs at SoFi, but I would welcome the opportunity to face the Chiefs with a complete healthy team, unlike both games last year.
Dubious record. Hopefully they’ve learned something by now about how to manage this.
And this history kinda stinks. Past time to even these records.
Just putting this out here for discussion. I don’t have time right now to make a prediction.
@buck-melanoma Maybe its all the scars from season’s past, but no matter the HC and GM until I can see a few straight seasons of competitive football strung together, I will be pessimistic on my predictions of a successful season. I haven’t felt like the team was a perennial playoff contender since the LT/Rivers/Gates/Norv years. It’s been a long time since those days and I’m a lot older now. I’m closer to “get off my lawn” territory than I was then, so I need to see to believe. My main hang up is still Roman. I have little faith that this guy can take this offense where it needs to be to contend. If we went just off of OC to judge the division we are squarely behind Reid and Payton and you could make an argument that Chip Kelly is ahead of us as well. Not exactly making me feel all that confident that we won’t see another year of Herbert wasted watching Roman try to turn a Ferrari into a pickup truck again.
@evolz3737 I’m squarely in the “get off my lawn” years and right there with ya regarding Roman. Probably should be living in Missouri cuz show me.
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