Justin Herbert's Offensive Line Is Back - And the AFC Should Be Worried
The Los Angeles Chargers just got their best offseason news yet, and training camp hasn’t even started.
On Wednesday, head coach Jim Harbaugh confirmed that both starting offensive tackles Joe Alt and Rashawn Slater are on track to be ready for training camp.
That’s massive news for a team that spent most of 2025 watching their franchise quarterback get destroyed behind a patchwork offensive line.
Justin Herbert was sacked 54 times in the 2025 regular season. That’s second-most in the entire NFL.
He still managed 3,727 yards, 26 touchdowns, and a career-high 498 rushing yards, earning the second Pro Bowl nod of his career while leading the Chargers to an 11-6 record and a second straight playoff appearance.
The ending, however, exposed the biggest issue the team had dealt with all year. The Chargers lost the Wild Card to the New England Patriots 16-3. Herbert finished with just 159 passing yards and was sacked six times in that game.
Six. Times.
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On August 7, 2025, just eleven days after signing a four-year, $114 million extension that made him the highest-paid offensive lineman in NFL history, Rashawn Slater went down in practice with a torn patellar tendon.
He was carted off, and just like that, his season was over.
A first-round pick in 2021, Slater had developed into one of the league’s best tackles, with two Pro Bowls and a Second-Team All-Pro honor to his name.
So the Chargers turned to Joe Alt, the No. 5 overall pick from the 2024 draft, sliding him from right tackle to left to fill the void.
Alt was voted captain before the season and moved to left tackle when Slater sustained his season-ending injury.
Then Alt went down too.
Alt started the first four games before a high ankle sprain held him out for the next three. He then suffered a second right high ankle sprain in Week 9 against the Titans before the team announced that he would undergo season-ending surgery to stabilize the ankle.
Within the span of three months, the Chargers lost both of their starting offensive tackles to season-ending injuries.
But with Harbaugh now confirming both are on track for training camp, that changes everything.
Herbert already led the Chargers to two straight 11-win seasons and back-to-back postseasons, and did much of that without either of his tackles. If Alt and Slater take the field by Week 1, the rest of the AFC should be very, very nervous.
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This story was originally published May 27, 2026 at 1:02 PM.