The Chargers’ 0-4 start feels loudest when Justin Herbert disappears beneath a collapsing pocket. On Sunday in Seattle, Los Angeles trailed by seven with barely a minute left and still had a chance to steal the game. Then Uchenna Nwosu came off the edge, knocked the ball free, and watched Derick Hall recover. The comeback died on the turf.
That final image makes the offensive line an easy scapegoat. Herbert has already taken 12 sacks through four games, including four in the 30-23 loss to Seattle, but he has also thrown six interceptions. Derius Davis handed the Seahawks a short field with a muffed punt, while injuries forced four rookies onto the offensive line by the end of Sunday’s game.
So the line deserves heat, just not all of it.
Los Angeles has created a chain reaction through four losses. One protection bust creates a long down, a forced throw creates a short field, and another slow first half leaves the offense chasing the game until the clock disappears.
The Offensive Line Has Earned Its Share of Blame
The broadcast camera makes blaming the line simple. Herbert takes a hit, five blockers fill the screen, and everyone knows where to point before the replay even finishes.
The evidence is not imaginary. Arizona sacked Herbert three times, Las Vegas got him three more, Buffalo added two, and Seattle finished with four. Pressure has followed Los Angeles every week.
That problem also carried over from 2025. ESPN reported during the offseason that Herbert faced a league-high 268 pressures last season and took 54 sacks. The return of Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt therefore looked essential to any meaningful improvement.
For stretches, they have helped. The Chargers have rushed for 486 yards at 4.3 yards per carry, while Omarion Hampton has produced 238 yards and three touchdowns. A completely broken offensive line does not consistently create that kind of movement.
Pass protection has been different. A sack costs more than yardage because it also shrinks the next call. Second-and-7 becomes third-and-14, play-action loses its teeth, and pass rushers stop worrying about anything except getting home.
Those situations have repeatedly dragged Los Angeles in the wrong direction.
Seattle Turned a Weakness Into an Emergency
By the fourth quarter at Lumen Field, the offensive line barely resembled the group that opened the game. Alt left late in the second quarter with a neck injury, Trevor Penning exited in the third with a head injury, and Slater went down with an ankle issue in the fourth.
Kayode Awosika had already missed the game with a fibula injury, while Trey Pipkins III sat on injured reserve. Suddenly, the reshuffle looked more like something from August than Week 4.
Rookie Travis Burke took over at right tackle. Sixth-rounder Logan Taylor entered at guard before moving to left tackle, Jake Slaughter slid to left guard, Jacob Spomer came in at center, and Cole Strange stayed at right guard.
By the finish, four rookies were protecting Herbert, yet that patchwork group still helped Los Angeles gain more than 200 yards after halftime. Herbert even credited the young linemen for stepping in and holding their own.
That matters. The final strip-sack belongs on the line’s ledger, but the emergency unit did not create the 21-point hole Los Angeles spent the second half trying to escape.
Justin Herbert Has Made the Problem Bigger
Criticizing a quarterback with Herbert’s arm talent and contract always gets uncomfortable, but the tape does not care.
Through four games, Herbert has completed 59.7 percent of his passes for 816 yards, four touchdowns and six interceptions. His 70.6 passer rating puts the spotlight on the franchise quarterback, not just the battered line in front of him.
Seattle made that clear immediately. On the Chargers’ first offensive snap, linebacker Drake Thomas dropped into the throwing lane, tipped Herbert’s pass and caught it himself. Tuli Tuipulotu gave the ball back one play later by intercepting Sam Darnold, sparing Los Angeles from the full cost of the mistake.
The second interception hurt much more. Herbert threw directly into the hands of Ernest Jones IV and handed Seattle another short field. By halftime, he had completed just five of 14 passes for 36 yards, with two picks and a 4.8 passer rating.
Afterward, Herbert owned it. He admitted that he had tried to make a play when throwing the ball away or scrambling would have been the better choice.
That admission explains another piece of the skid. When the offense falls behind, Herbert starts hunting for the throw that can fix everything at once. Sometimes his arm produces a highlight. Other times, he extends a snap that should already be dead and turns pressure into damage.
A shaky line can rush a quarterback’s internal clock, but Herbert can also make that line look worse once he slips into rescue mode. Los Angeles is living with both problems.
The Run Game Complicates the Case Against the Line
If the offensive line were losing every snap, Hampton would not be averaging four yards per carry, Keaton Mitchell would not be at 4.6, and Herbert would not have another 88 rushing yards of his own.
The Chargers can move people. Their problem is staying in games long enough to keep doing it.
Against Seattle, Hampton averaged five yards per carry and scored from two yards out in the fourth quarter. By then, Los Angeles had trailed 20-6 at halftime and 27-6 early in the third. Mike McDaniel could no longer use the run as the foundation of the offense.
Once the scoreboard forces that change, defenses attack differently. Edge rushers widen their angles, safeties threaten pressure, and interior linemen fire upfield instead of worrying about double teams and cutback lanes.
Those game scripts have magnified every protection flaw during the Chargers’ 0-4 start. The problems up front are real, but obvious passing situations keep putting them under stadium lights.
Mike McDaniel’s Offense Still Hasn’t Played a Full Game
This is McDaniel’s first season as the Chargers’ offensive coordinator after spending 2022 through 2025 as head coach of the Miami Dolphins. Los Angeles hired him in January to bring the motion, spacing and timing that defined his best Miami offenses.
Four games in, the flashes are obvious. The consistency is not.
The Chargers have scored 14, 14, 16 and 23 points in their four losses. Seattle offered the most extreme split. Los Angeles managed only 92 yards and six points before halftime, converting one of seven third downs, then topped 200 yards and scored 17 points after the break.
The difference finally looked tangible. Herbert hit Kimani Vidal for a 9-yard touchdown, Hampton finished another drive on the ground, and Quentin Johnston hauled in a 44-yard completion on fourth-and-7 when the Chargers desperately needed an explosive play.
Ladd McConkey provided the opposite image. He entered with a foot issue, aggravated it, and finished without a catch. That left Los Angeles without one of Herbert’s most trusted options in an offense built around timing.
Cole Strange captured the larger issue after the game: waiting until the second half to start making plays will not win many Sundays. That is less an offensive-line diagnosis than a description of an offense arriving late.
Seattle Showed How the Mistakes Feed Each Other
Sunday offered the clearest picture of why this slide cannot belong to one position group.
Herbert’s first interception should have hurt, but Tuipulotu erased it. Then Davis muffed a punt and Seattle scored on the next play from 23 yards out. Later, Herbert’s second interception handed the Seahawks another short field. Two Seattle touchdown drives covered 25 yards or fewer.
Meanwhile, the Chargers’ defense kept opening the door. Seattle finished with only 286 total yards and converted three of 12 third downs, yet Los Angeles still found itself buried by three touchdowns.
Pinning the collapse entirely on the offensive line ignores how Seattle actually built its lead. The line surrendered four sacks. Herbert threw two interceptions and lost the final fumble. Special teams gave away a possession, while Los Angeles committed 16 penalties for 130 yards.
Every unit left fingerprints.
The Next Two Weeks Will Decide What This Start Means
With four losses already banked, improvement cannot stay theoretical. Denver visits SoFi Stadium next, followed by a trip to Kansas City before the Week 7 bye. Two more defeats would turn a brutal opening month into a season on life support.
First, Los Angeles needs healthier tackles. If Alt or Slater misses time, McDaniel must protect the replacements with quicker throws, chip blocks and more movement. He also needs to lean on Hampton whenever the scoreboard allows it.
Herbert has to meet that help halfway. Six interceptions in four games is too expensive for a team playing with almost no margin. He does not need to become conservative; he needs to recognize when the defense has already won the snap.
The passing game needs dependable answers too. McConkey had zero catches Sunday, Johnston supplied one huge 44-yard grab, and Tre Harris has produced 209 receiving yards through four weeks. Herbert still needs a reliable outlet when the pocket starts to squeeze.
Most of all, the Chargers have to stop spending entire halves waiting to become themselves. The comeback in Seattle showed plenty of fight, but it also showed how exhausting football becomes when every good drive has to repair an earlier mistake.
The offensive line deserves blame for the Chargers’ 0-4 start. Twelve sacks make that unavoidable, and the injury pileup makes the problem harder to solve. Yet this slump belongs to more than five blockers. Herbert must protect the football, McDaniel must find answers earlier, special teams cannot keep gifting opponents short fields, and the line still has to hold when the final drive arrives.
If Los Angeles cannot clean up those failures together, the question will soon stop being who caused the slump and become whether the Chargers still have enough season left to save.
READ MORE: Which NFL Teams Spend the Most on Their Offensive Line—and What Are They Getting Back?
FAQs
Q1. Why are the Chargers 0-4 in 2026?
Protection problems have hurt, but turnovers, injuries, penalties, slow starts and special-teams mistakes have compounded the damage.
Q2. How many times has Justin Herbert been sacked this season?
Herbert has taken 12 sacks through four games: three against Arizona, three against Las Vegas, two against Buffalo and four against Seattle.
Q3. Is the Chargers offensive line entirely to blame for the 0-4 start?
No. The line has struggled in pass protection, but Herbert has also thrown six interceptions and Los Angeles has repeatedly fallen behind early.
Q4. What happened to the Chargers offensive line against Seattle?
Joe Alt, Trevor Penning and Rashawn Slater all left with injuries. Los Angeles eventually finished the game with four rookies protecting Herbert.
Q5. Who do the Chargers play next?
Denver visits SoFi Stadium next. Los Angeles then travels to Kansas City before its Week 7 bye.
