SAN DIEGO — Rashawn Slater was back on the field Wednesday as the Chargers held their second training camp practice in their former home city, and the collective sigh of relief stretched from Coronado Beach to Los Angeles.
Disaster averted. Crisis avoided. Everyone could exhale.
For now.
Slater sent a jolt through the organization a day earlier when he retreated to the medical tent with an undisclosed injury during an 11-on-11 period. Though he returned a short while later, he spent the rest of practice watching from the sideline.
To say hearts were in throats would be an understatement. The memory of last year’s ruptured left patellar tendon injury, and an entire season spent navigating life without him, remains fresh. So when Slater walked off Tuesday, you could feel the panic ripple through everyone from the locker room to the stands.
“Here we go again” was the polite version. The unfiltered reaction ranged from disbelief to outright anger at the football gods.
All of it justified.
There are countless variables that will determine the Chargers’ fate this season, from the obvious to the subtle. But one reality stands above the rest: They need their left tackle on the field. And just as importantly, they need his right-side counterpart, Joe Alt, there with him.
Between Slater’s injury and the high ankle sprain that limited Alt to just six games, the Chargers never once fielded what many believe is the NFL’s best tackle tandem.
The consequences showed up everywhere.
The run game suffered. The pocket collapsed far too often. And quarterback Justin Herbert paid the price, absorbing a staggering 54 sacks.
An offense that ranked 11th in scoring in 2024 (23.6 points per game) slipped to 20th in 2025 at 20.6.
The season ended the way it too often felt, with Herbert getting dropped six times in a 16-3 playoff loss to the Patriots.
You don’t need to be Bill Walsh to connect the dots. Without Slater and Alt, everything else becomes exponentially harder. With them, everything the Chargers want to accomplish suddenly feels possible.
“Unfinished business” is how Alt described it.
So, yes, there was a sense of panic Tuesday when Slater left practice.
By Wednesday, that anxiety had given way to relief. Slater was back at left tackle. Alt was anchored on the right side. And Herbert operated with a visible sense of ease, knowing his two perimeter bodyguards were once again in place.
Now comes the hard part: keeping it that way.
A big piece of that falls on the calculated approach Jim Harbaugh is taking with the Chargers’ training camp workload.
What was billed as the team’s first fully padded practice Tuesday quickly turned into something more measured. Players took the field in helmets and shoulder pads, but without the usual leg pads. Many wore shorts. Contact was limited.
Rather than fully unleashing his team, Harbaugh is choosing to ramp things up deliberately.
Wednesday followed much the same script.
The Chargers are scheduled to return to their El Segundo facility on Thursday for what is expected to be a fully padded practice. Whether that means true, full-contact work or a more measured version like Tuesday remains to be seen.
Either way, it feels intentional.
After enduring the kind of debilitating injuries that derailed last season, a calculated approach isn’t just understandable; it’s necessary.
As Harbaugh put it, the Chargers are like a car merging onto the freeway. But instead of flooring it, they’re easing into traffic, gradually building speed as they move from the right lane toward the fast lane.
If that approach helps keep their most important pieces intact, it’s more than justified.
Because if Slater and Alt aren’t in that fast lane in January, it won’t just be about missed opportunities, it’ll be about Herbert back on the ground again and a season going with him.
