Incredible how consistently poor our guards play.

Before you skip everything I'm about to write and comment a one-liner about how so-and-so is responsible. I want you to know, this is just to give perspective on why the Shanahan offense is hard to install, why the Chargers suck, and how they can fix it.

Kyle Shanahan has made the biggest impact of any offensive coach in this era. There is a derivative of the Shanahan offense in a good chunk of the offenses in this league. Klint Kubiak installed it with the Seahawks. Sean McVay installed his own version with the Rams. DeMeco Ryans had Bobby Slowik integrate it in arguably the best offensive year for the Texans. Mike LaFleur used it to put belt to ass on us in Week 1.

But why are the Chargers finding it so difficult to install it? Is it Mike McDaniel? Is it the personnel?

Or does it take time?

KYLE SHANAHAN STRUGGLED INSTALLING HIS OFFENSE IN THE FIRST YEAR

FALCONS & MATT RYAN

When Kyle Shanahan took over at OC with the Falcons, they started out 5-0 before ending the season 8-8. Matt Ryan, much like Justin Herbert, looked like shit in the new offense, DESPITE having Julio Jones and Roddy White. Ended the seasons with 16 INTs and 21 TDs. Awful.

The fans petitioned for Shanahan to be fired and replaced at the end of the season. Roddy White was calling him out. The works.

2016 was when the offense figured it out. Reports of Shanahan spending the offseason hanging out with Matt Ryan to bridge the gap and get on the same page. That season:

• The Falcons averaged 33.8 points a game, having the 7th most point scored in a season
• Matt Ryan got his MVP, getting 38 TDs and 7 INTs and 4944 yards.
• Julio Jones hit 1400 receiving.
• Ending with a Super Bowl berth (28-3 game, thats a whole different thing)

NINERS & HANDLING BAD PERSONNEL

Shanahan left the Falcons and became the niners HC. They fucking sucked. Started out 0-9 with Brian Hoyer at QB, then CJ Beathard, before trading for Jimmy G who started in week 13. The Niners rattled off 5 straight wins to finish 6-10.

Okay, so 2018 had to be good right? FUCKING WRONG. Jimmy G tears his ACL in week 3. CJ Beathard is back at QB and Nick Mullens coming in to replace shit with shit. Niners finish 4-12.

2019 is when everything turned around. Niners finished 13-3 and went to the Super Bowl. But how? Jimmy G gets healthy (knowing the system in and out after spending one whole season injured) and they improved the personnel. An RBBC with Mostert, Breida, and Coleman (who Shanny coached in Atlanta). Kittle became a dominant passing threat on top of being an elite blocker. And Deebo produced as a Rookie.

SO WHY DO THE CHARGERS SUCK???

1. The Plays are a fucking mouthful to call. And the offense doesn't have enough vets to keep everyone accountable.

The playcall in the huddle isn't just a few words. Everyone, every motion, alignment, blocking shift is called. He may have the QB call:

Fox Left Clamp to Gun Right Y-Shift Z-Across 2 Jet Zebra Texas Scat

First and foremost, what the fuck does that even mean? Fox is the personnel call, Left Clamp is a bunch formation to the left, Gun right has the QB under center then dropping the shotgun with the RB shifting to his right side, Y-shift is a TE or slot motion across, Z-across is the Z receiver going across in jet motion before the snap. Zebra, Texas, and scat are then commands for after the snap.

Its chaotic. Versus say the Gruden "Spider 2 Y Banana" which pretty much sums of everything.

2. The personnel lacks discipline and most likely miss their calls, or timing, killing the whole play.

Best example is the 3rd & 2 jet motion with Tre Harris. Tre was a hair late or Slaughter was a hair early. Ball ends up clipping Tre, fumble.

Another example is the infamous 2 man pass rush straight to Herbert. Linemen thought they were supposed to shift protection to the right, with the left guard not picking up a pass rusher and Tre Harris ran an outside curl versus an inside for a quick dump.

3. Herbert's Lack of Trust in the Personnel Screws Up Timing (justified)

Justin Herbert is good. He's really good. But Herbert lacks trust in his personnel and Mike McDaniel to properly conduct the offense, and rightfully so. The Shanahan offense expects players to be where they are supposed to within 2.5 seconds of when the ball is snapped. As soon as the ball is snapped, Herbert needs to process his reads and throw, in some cases, just fuckin trust your guy is open and throw it at the spot.

If you watch the game versus the Bills, its obvious the guys are still learning. You'll see the receivers checking how everyone is lined up. Ladd will see if QJ is on the line or if Tre needs to move up. Any lapse in alignment will end in an incompletion or interception.

Herbert tried that versus the Bills. It's why his throws were off. Justin has needed time to throw his whole career because he's had coaches that call play that take time to develop. Any time the play lasts longer than the expectations, you have guys like Gadsden sitting and doing nothing at the top of their routes watching Justin scramble to find someone open.

The personnel don't know how to improvise when shit goes south and that includes Justin Herbert.

4. Zone blocking falls apart if one person doesn't do their job, no matter how good they are (Joe Alt)

Well that sounds stupid. No, I just made it sound stupid. Let me explain. The OL is expected to master zone-rushing with reach and cut track rules.

On a run to the right outside, the RG, RT need to seal the defenders from the outside edge, but if they get beat they have to run the defender as far outside as possible.

On the backside of the run, the LT, LG are expected to cut block to stop any backside pursuit.

We suck at this because:

• the frontside of the play (in this example the right side of the line) cant decide to push out or hook in. (surprisingly, looking at you Joe).
  • If Joe chooses to seal, he pushes the defender into Cole's guy and allows to cluster the block. If he chooses to push out, he needs to tell Cole he's getting beat so he can expect to seal or push out.
• the backside, is not cut blocking allowing the defender to blow up the play in the backfield (looking at you Trevor).

5. Justin Herbert can't sell a play action because he doesn't trust the running backs, and the running backs can't sell the play action because they aren't careful with the handoff (looking at you Omarion)

Hand-offs have been atrocious. Even worse if you can't sell it in a play action. This team has the laziest play-actions and it's 75-25 blame Herbert and the running backs. Herbert is actively protecting the ball, if Hampton runs too fast into the hand off, FUMBLE. So Herbert is doing play action from like a foot away from the running back. It's so easily diagnosed.

SO, if the blocking scheme is designed to fake a run, SELL the play action. Too many times, the play action is slow and the backside edge is free and not biting on the run and goes straight for Herbert.

How do they fix it?

Eh. It's going to take a lot of trust and communication to be built to get this offense rolling. This system requires guys to not play as individuals but as a singular unit. Here's the fixes:

1. WRs need to improve their timeliness. QJ sucks. But Tre and Gadsden need to run hard on their routes to get open early for a quick look. Ladd already does this. Tre is getting there.

2. O-line needs to communicate with each other on when they are losing and adapt throughout the game. I cannot say this enough - this includes Joe Alt.

3. Herbert needs to build more trust in his teammates and they need to do a better job at earning it.

4. Herbert needs to trust the plays.

In that order. That's how this system gets fixed. And it probably won't happen this season unless Herbert and Mike McDaniel do something drastic to build up team chemistry. But if everyone can just know their roles, the season won't be at a complete loss if they just show some fucking progress.

There's gonna be people that say, Mike McDaniel is not Kyle Shanahan, he is not that guy. Trust me when I say, I'll have a post for that if we lose against the Jets. lol

The last time the Chargers lost a game in which they forced five turnovers was a decade ago, when they were still in San Diego. Their disappointing 2016 regular season concluded with a 27-20 defeat to the Denver Broncos. They went 4-12 that year.

Sunday was the kind of loss that can deflate hope, the kind that you feel you should’ve won but didn’t. Several players echoed the sentiment that they should have a better record than they do.

“Honestly, we came in underdogs, we came in against the No. 1 scoring offense, and we played our ass off,” Henley said. “We played to win. And so, when you don’t win, it’s a shock.”

Don’t get me wrong, we need a WR1 but this group would have been above average for what Phil had to endure. He just had a gift for throwing the ball to absolute nobodies, and I definitely didn’t appreciate that part of his game as much as I do now looking back.

Herbert should be doing more with what he’s got, but his confidence is shot thanks to having 5 OCs and the worst OL I’ve ever seen. I think continuity with McDaniel is the answer, but it’s going to be a rough season whilst they iron everything out.

Get this clown off the football field

In spite of the bleakness of falling to 0-3, I wanted to give COL his props for the gameplan today. His play calling was fantastic, and I think the D played about as good as they possibly could’ve. Turnovers (which were amazing obviously) aside, the scheme to limit Josh Allen and keep the Bills in check was amazing. All the players too, credit to them (except a certain rookie cornerback) because they were flying all over the place, getting pressures, making tackles, looking good in coverage. James Cook even with a big day on the ground, got most of his yards in the 4th when the D was tired, and they made a lot of good run stops in the first half too.

Congrats to Genesis Smith on his first career interception(s) and to Mesidor for his first career full sack too. Genuinely a great game from the defense all around, and starts with COL as the DC.

Going back to the first two games as well, I think O’Leary has done really good to start. Giving up 26 to the Cards and Raiders and then 24 to Buffalo is more than plenty good to win those games, all 3 of them. I know a lot of people were harsh on him especially game one, but the Cardinals only scored a TD on one full field drive (the opening one) and then were gifted their second off the blocked punt. Got a lot of stops, especially in the second half. Same for the Raiders game, where only once did they allow a full field TD drive. The rest of their points came off of turnovers or miscues from the offense giving them the ball in the near Redzone.

Once again, if not for out genuinely bottom 3 offense in the league, we would be 3-0 with our defensive performances. Not to mention the fact that most of the points given up have been directly caused by miscues on offense. As far as getting help goes, our D has had basically 0. Are they perfect? No, but Minter had several bad games here and there too. I truly do think that Chris O’Leary will be a good coordinator, and was a good pick by Harbaugh. Something positive in a long list of negatives at least!

1. He's great. A great person, a great teammate, a great football player

2. His relationship with Madison Beer is likely the only true happiness he's had since joining our Titanic with palm trees. She's not a problem, even if she was telling him to get the fuck out, that would just make her a very solid partner.

3. He's suffering from legitimate prolonged PTSD with this team. At this point, he's just been gaslit into thinking it's his responsibility - he basically threw nothing but perfect spirals into numbers on every throw for years, knowing he'd immediately be pancaked by a 300lb DE right after and never hesitating a second, all while his own incompetent gaurd also falls with all his body weight onto his Achilles before he hits the ground. And he still keeps showing up. It's atrocious that they make him stand for press every week and just shit on himself publicly.

4. We likely ate his career and confidence, all so dean spanks could get his cut of merch sales. Justin deserves a luck-esque retirement more than luck did. But he probably loves football too much to ever leave until forced.

5. When you see him chuck a fuck it ball, that's our fault, we did that. This team broke him so that every second, of every game, he lives on the razor's edge - if he doesn't win it all on the next throw, we lose and he lets everyone down.

https://amp.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/bills-stay-undefeated-while-chargers-look-defeated-3-takeaways-from-buffalos-win

Had to repost this because the mods needed article link.

I wanted Justin Herbert to be our Josh allen. I wanted him to be everything we thought he would be. But he's not. He's just not. Our franchise needs to realize this, sadly.

This article clearly holds accountable the things outside of Herbert that can be very clearly blamed.

But at the same time is enough is enough with the excuses. He is coming up short where other great QBs don't.

Quote from the article sums it up well, "None of that describes Herbert and we can't keep pretending that it does"

Clean pocket. In field goal range. Wide open bubble route. I am sure this is somehow McDaniel's fault though.

On the other side of this turnover, Allen leads a drive where he completes a pass to his running back while being sandwiched by defenders...

S/O Danario Alexander (all time what if player for us AND the Rams) and my goat Gerald Everett. I don’t know what it was about Everett but it seemed like every time he caught the ball he would break 2 or 3 tackles and drag defenders with him. Who even cares about run blocking at that point?

Can someone who actually understands offensive line play more deeply please explain why Joe Alt is having these penalties at such a high rate?

Is something we’re doing presnap more complicated than before?

Is he being asked to cover for a bad IOL thats making him jumpy? Too much being left on an island because no one can help him?

Or could it be a post injury issue? He doesnt feel 100% confident yet?

We know he can be great and hasn’t had these problems before (that I know of) so trying to understand the root of the issue

What I am about to say is not copium, I acknowledge that we have stunk MASSIVELY all season, except for the defense against the Bills. This is just a post to bring a little positivity and positive outlook for the rest of the season and into next year.

1. We are (only :/) 3 games behind first place in our division, crazier things have happened.

2. The defense looked A LOT better, if they can shut down the top MVP candidate they can stop a lot of teams.

3. Besides our poor catching ability the offense did look better than the week before. Hampton was averaging like 3.5 yards when they would run up the middle, it’s not a lot but it did set us up for better 2nd and 3rd downs. If they can get to being a middle of the pack offense, we could win a few games.

4. DJ said that he thinks the team could be 14-3, not a lot to unpack there but I’m grateful he is on our team.

5. If we do lose most of the rest of our games, we are in a position to either take Jeremiah Smith, or what is more likely we pick in the second half of the top 10 and that is a great place to be able to take an Edge, we will need one with Mack maybe being done, and a high end guard at the top of the 2nd round.

6. Besides maybe QJ’s 18 million guaranteed, Hortiz has done a good job not taking on any bad contracts (I recognize that it would have been nice at this point to be riskier with the contracts for IOL and WR). So salary cap wise the team will be in a decent spot to compete next year with Alt, Slater, Bidasz, and a lot of second year OL rookies.

I don’t even think it’s too crazy to think that if the Chargers offense gets their act together in the second half of the season, we keep McDaniels and the offense actually starts strong next year.

I didn't say anything before when there was talk of him coming in as the OC. Personally, I felt like he was more of a salesman than a coach or some offensive mastermind. My opinion is that he could sell a freezing to death person, ice-cream, and make it seem like it was gonna save them. While others praised him as if he was the second coming of, Christ. I was sitting here thinking, "This guy is all talk and gimmicks."

I thought the offense looked flat under, Roman. This crap? This is flatter than a tire on a junked car that's been sitting for 30 years. The plays today (and previously) reminded me of that line about insanity. Doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. As an OC, he should know by now what he's working with in regards to player ability. Their strengths and weakness'. He SHOULD be calling plays that work to their strengths, while working on their weakness' in practice.

The players even look like their just going through the motions. Like, "Okay guys. Here's the play. Yeah, I don't know why we're running this play, either, but it's what was called." The red zone play calls? WTF was that today? 100% predictable. So many options (play calls) when you're less than 10 yards from the end zone, only to do what?

I'm sorry y'all, but this guy is a poser. He might have a top notch personality, but personality isn't gonna win you games. Don't even get me started on, Hortiz! This is all just my opinion.

Quentin Johnston, the Los Angeles Chargers' 2023 first-round selection, the last first-round pick by former General Manager Tom Telesco, is still haunting the Chargers franchise...four years later. Johnston was drafted due to his athletic traits of size, speed and yards-after-catch ability. However, he lacked one major skill for wide receivers: catching the football.

Year 1: Instant Regret

Johnston was plagued as a rookie by drops, the most infamous of which was his Green Bay Packers third-down drop that could have been a game-winning touchdown. With this poor rookie season, it was not looking good for Johnston's future, with even the most optimistic of fans hoping he could at least turn into a solid No. 2 receiver.

90 percent of the time, a first-round wide receiver is drafted to be the best receiver on the team. If they are not that, the team usually has another elite receiver on the roster...or the drafted receiver is bad.

Year 2: Improvement...But the Same Issues Prevailed

Year two for Johnston was a much-needed sign of improvement, quickly becoming a Jim Harbaugh favorite. He went from 431 receiving yards to 711. He also added eight touchdowns to his resume in 2024.

This improvement saw fewer drops for "QJ," but they still appeared, with a Monday Night Primetime drop against the Baltimore Ravens being the most scrutinized of all. It was early in the fourth quarter, with the Chargers trailing 23-16 on a third-and-6 play, another crucial moment that was not capitalized on.

Year 3: A Strong Weapon With a Questionable Future

2025 showed another year of growth for the former first-round rookie. In one fewer game, he had 735 yards and another eight touchdowns, showing that he can be a weapon in an offense. However, the issue of drops continued, and the lack of real first-round-level production continued to cloud Johnston's place on the roster.

The Bolts' front office decided to pick up his fifth-year option, allowing him to be on the roster for the 2027 season. A move that was highly scrutinized, but also one that many could get behind, considering his year-over-year improvements and now the opportunity to play under offensive "mastermind" Mike McDaniel.

Year 4: Team Going 0-3, Drops Still There, What is the Future?

The Chargers are 0-3 after losing to the Arizona Cardinals, Las Vegas Raiders and Buffalo Bills. QJ has recorded 64 yards on six catches, with two drops. His vertical ability in the passing game is completely missing; his yards-after-catch ability has yet to show under McDaniel and his improvement as a route runner has been completely nullified.

All of his strengths have been silenced, coupled with his issues with drops popping up, most notably in the Chargers' most recent loss to the Bills in Week 3. On a crucial third-and-nine, Justin Herbert delivers a perfect pass to Johnston on an out route, but Johnston allows it to hit his hands and drops the football. He was seen unhappy on the sideline after the play.

After the game ended, Quentin Johnston was on the bench with his head down. Tre’ Harris got him up and seemed like he was trying to cheer him up as they walked toward midfield to shake hands with the Bills.

Johnston had a drop at the end of the game on third down.

— Kris Rhim (@krisrhim1) September 27, 2026

Personally, I have been a Johnston believer and defender, with the understanding that he will never live up to the first-round draft billing he was given. I believed in him as a solid role player who can help this Chargers offense. But the unfortunate truth is that he has been given enough time and chances with the team. It is time for all parties involved to look for alternatives.

The Chargers have spent so much capital on receivers in recent years, with Ladd McConkey and Tre Harris being second-round picks who are currently contributing. With the team at 0-3, the Chargers could go full tank and look for the 2027 class of receivers, with names like Jeremiah Smith, Charlie Becker and Cam Coleman all being real prospects who could be weapons in the NFL.