Injuries are an unfortunate part of the game. They happen every year without any real way to avoid them. But having them happen before the regular kicks off is even worse.
In 2018, the Chargers lost tight end Hunter Henry, cornerback Jason Verrett and tight end Austin Roberts throughout the course of the offseason. A year prior to that, the team lost offensive guard Forrest Lamp before he was even able to take a professional snap.
Injuries like that are truly heartbreaking for the player, the fans and the team. It’s exactly why coach Anthony Lynn is thinking about possibly resting the majority of his starters throughout the entire preseason.
When talking to the media on Monday, Lynn said that he’s been taking note of Rams coach Sean McVay when it comes to his strategy during preseason play. McVay is notorious for resting his starters throughout the course of the four weeks, ensuring that they will be completely healthy for Week 1 of the regular season.
Los Angeles is among the very few teams that hardly showcases their starters during preseason action. They’ve allowed their defensive starters to play more than the offensive starters, but it sounds like it could be taken into action on both sides of the ball.
If this is taken into effect this year, the Bolts may elect to rest their starters completely in Week 3 as well, which marks the most significant game because starters typically play a full half.
For a team that has been hindered with injuries throughout the course of the past few seasons, Lynn appears to be taking the best approach possible to ensure this isn’t the case anymore by making sure they’re all healthy.
With this, you’re obviously risking players going into regular season action rusty with no live game under their belt prior to. But that’s when the joint practices come into play, and it sounds like the Chargers might be doing so with the Rams within the next couple months to make sure they are going up against competition other than themselves.
