Chargers Left Tackle Rashawn Slater Expected to Miss Weeks With High-Ankle Sprain After 0-4 Start

The Los Angeles Chargers are 0-4. Now they're about to be without their best offensive lineman too.

Rashawn Slater is believed to have suffered a high-ankle sprain during Sunday's 30-23 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, according to ESPN's Ian Rapoport. He'll have an MRI to confirm the diagnosis, but high-ankle sprains typically sideline players for several weeks. Rapoport called it "a hit to the LAC OL."

A Line Already Falling Apart

Slater wasn't the only lineman hurt Sunday. Right tackle Joe Alt left the same game with a neck injury. Left guard Trevor Penning was evaluated for a concussion. That's three starting offensive linemen with issues from a single game, according to Field Level Media.

New starting center Tyler Biadasz was already lost for the season with a knee injury suffered during training camp, Field Level Media reported. Per boltbeat, the Chargers had no healthy linemen left on their bench by the end of Sunday's game who weren't already on the field.

The team was also already missing Derwin James Jr., Dalvin Tomlinson, Charlie Kolar, David Njoku, Brenen Thompson, Trey Pipkins III, Denzel Perryman and Kayode Awosika heading into the Seattle game, according to boltbeat. Cornerback Donte Jackson and wide receiver Ladd McConkey added to the injury list during the loss itself.

Slater's History

Slater is 27 and a two-time Pro Bowler, earning the honor in 2021 and 2024, according to KELO-TV and NBC Sports. He missed the entire 2025 season after tearing his patellar tendon during training camp. Before that, he missed most of 2022 with a torn biceps, NBC Sports noted.

This year he'd started all four of the Chargers' games and had started in all 55 games he'd played since Los Angeles drafted him in the first round out of Northwestern in 2021, according to KELO-TV. That streak is now over.

A Season Already in Trouble

The injuries are piling onto a season that was already going badly. Quarterback Justin Herbert has completed 59.7% of his passes, ranking 24th in the NFL, according to KELO-TV and Field Level Media. He has four touchdown passes against six interceptions and has been sacked 12 times, one shy of the league lead entering this week.

History isn't on the Chargers' side either. Sporting News and boltbeat both note that only one team in NFL history has made the playoffs after starting 0-4. Boltbeat's analysis argues the Chargers haven't shown enough offensively through four weeks to believe they're built for that kind of turnaround, calling the team's playoff hopes effectively dead "for all intents and purposes." That's one outlet's read on the team's trajectory, not a settled fact, but the historical number itself is real and stark.

Sporting News raised a pointed question about what comes next: even if Slater returns healthy in a few weeks, the Chargers may already be far enough out of playoff contention that general manager Joe Hortiz could justify trading veterans before the NFL's trade deadline rather than keeping the roster intact for a long-shot run.

What Happens Next

Slater's MRI results will determine the exact timeline, but Rapoport's reporting suggests a multi-week absence is the expectation regardless of the final imaging. The Chargers have not announced corrections to the offensive line rotation ahead of their next game, and no corresponding replacement starter has been named publicly as of Monday.

How much worse this gets before the Chargers hit their bye week or start making roster decisions with an eye toward 2027 remains to be seen. With Alt's neck injury and Penning's concussion evaluation still pending results of their own, Los Angeles may be assembling a starting offensive line from scratch within a matter of weeks.