EL SEGUNDO — The rain began to fall Wednesday, just as the Chargers ended the second of their two bye-week practices, a cool, refreshing shower that couldn’t wash away all that’s gone wrong for the players, coaches and executives through the season’s first six games.
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But perhaps it was a sign of a fresh start for a team that never expected to be in this position when the season began on Sept. 13. The Chargers (0-6) are one of the NFL’s biggest surprises to date, and not in a good way. They appeared broken and beyond repair after six weeks.
The Chargers’ goals going into the season were contending for their first AFC West title since going 13-3 in 2009 under Norv Turner, securing a third consecutive playoff berth in the Jim Harbaugh Era and maybe playing in the Super Bowl with a home-field advantage at SoFi Stadium.
Now?
How do the Chargers approach their final 11 games?
What sorts of adjustments do they have to make to their expectations?
“It starts with just getting the next game in front of us and then going from there,” Pro Bowl safety Derwin James Jr. said. “You can’t trick yourself into getting 11 wins until you get one. We’re oh-fer right now. We’ve got to get one, and once we get that one, I feel like we’ll just go from there.”
The Chargers next play against the Rams on Nov. 1 at SoFi Stadium.
“As a player, you’ve got to approach it with the mindset of caring about your teammates, right?” linebacker Daiyan Henley said. “You would hate to be a guy who uses this as a cop-out or an excuse to give in to whatever circumstances. When you’re out here, you’re a part of a team and when you’re a part of a team, you care about these guys and you go out there and you play for them. You find purpose, you find a reason. Right now, we’re trying to get a win.”
The Chargers haven’t won since Dec. 21, a 34-17 victory over the Dallas Cowboys in Week 16. They ended the 2025 season by losing their final two regular-season games to the Houston Texans and the Denver Broncos plus their AFC wild-card game to the New England Patriots.
Pundits from near and far expected more from the Chargers going into the 2026 season, but they have been surprised by the team’s downward spiral. The union between quarterback Justin Herbert and offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel promised so much but has delivered so little.
Herbert has completed 59.4% of his passes, down from his career completion percentage of 66.1%. He has thrown five touchdown passes with eight interceptions. He has been sacked 21 times, the second most in the NFL, including nine times over the past two games.
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The Chargers lost to the Arizona Cardinals and Las Vegas Raiders at SoFi Stadium to start the season rolling in the wrong direction. Next came defeats to the Buffalo Bills and Seattle Seahawks on the road, followed by a home loss to the Broncos and a road defeat to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Injuries to Pro Bowl tackles Joe Alt (neck) and Rashawn Slater (ankle) and guard Kayode Awosika forced Harbaugh to start four rookies on the offensive line for the past two games, leaving Herbert every bit as vulnerable in the pocket as he was last season when Alt (ankle) and Slater (knee) sustained season-ending injuries.
The Chargers listed 20 players on their injury report to start Week 6, including Alt and James (hamstring). Slater and guards Trevor Penning and Trey Pipkins III were among eight players on injured reserve. Pro Bowl center Tyler Biadasz suffered a season-ending knee injury during training camp.
The good news for the Chargers was that Alt joined his teammates for individual drills during the portion of practice open to reporters. He later said he was aiming to return to the starting lineup for the Chargers’ game against the Rams, with the bye giving him an additional week to mend.
It’s possible Alt could flip from right tackle to left when he’s sound again. Rookie Travis Burke, who was the Chargers’ fourth-round draft pick from the University of Memphis in April, has served as Slater’s replacement at the left tackle spot, playing the all-important role as Herbert’s blind-side protector.
“The way I look at it is, it hasn’t started the way we wanted it to,” Alt said of returning for the final 11 games and finding ways to chart a course correction. “Now the bye is here and it’s a break. It’s a mental clear for everybody. We come back with 11 games and we make the most of those 11 games and we take it one week at a time and take what we can and attack. If we continue the progression we’ve been on, I think that we’ll be really happy with where these last 11 games end up.”
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