The Los Angeles Chargers essentially rebooted everything aside from Justin Herbert in 2024, and it worked. The Chargers enjoyed a six-win increase in Jim Harbaugh’s first season with the team, setting a high bar for 2025.
With a potential make-or-break season coming for the Chargers, there are plenty of questions, however. Here’s a look at some of the biggest for the franchise heading into the year.
Will Justin Herbert Finally Have His Playoff Breakthrough?
What started as an apparent Patrick Mahomes 2.0 career for Herbert has found itself getting stuck. There’s been plenty of success and good months, but the question for 2025 is whether Herbert can turn it up a notch in the playoffs.
He has a Super Bowl coach and is surrounded by plenty of exciting players, so the expectations will rise in turn.
Herbert is still chasing his first playoff win after five seasons. If he can’t knock out a team in January this year with Harbaugh on the sideline, his ceiling might be etched in stone.
Can Herbert deliver after Week 18? If he can, one can’t instinctively write off the Chargers as Super Bowl contenders.
Will Omarion Hampton Or Najee Harris Rule The Backfield?
The Los Angeles Chargers put a significant chunk of their resources into remodeling the running back room this offseason.
Where Baltimore Ravens transplants J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards stood is now Najee Harris and Omarion Hampton.
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There is surely going to be a battle for the starting role in training camp and in the preseason, but this could be a competition that continues into the regular season, even after Harris’s near-catastrophic accident on the 4th of July.
Harris has the experience, but Hampton has the youth. The Chargers will most likely win in the running back room no matter who takes the cake, but fans may want to see Hampton’s untapped potential more than anything.
Who Will Emerge As Herbert’s Bonafide WR2?
The narrative surrounding the Los Angeles Chargers’ offense in 2024 was that their receiving room needed some work. Ladd McConkey is a stud, but the question is, who else can step up to truly open up defenses for Herbert?
Quentin Johnston appears to be the front-runner, but Herbert simply needs someone who can get over the 1,000-yard mark.
Will it be Johnston or someone else?
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Mike Williams is back with the team and has gotten over 1,000 yards in his career with the Los Angeles Chargers, but it has been a few years. At 30 years old, he still theoretically has enough gas in the tank, but is coming off a couple of down seasons. Can he rebound?
Can The Los Angeles Chargers Defense Put The NFL On Notice?
In 2023, the Chargers’ defense finished near the bottom of the league at 28th overall in average yards per game. In 2024, Jesse Minter’s first year with the team, the unit did a complete 180, jumping to 11th overall.
If the unit can hit the next level, the running game can also hit another gear, and Herbert can cash in, the team will be dangerous in 2025.
However, it will take the defense to become an asset over a liability. They appear to be on the precipice, but the defense needs to put the league on notice if the Los Angeles Chargers want to be feared in 2025.
Will Minter’s second season with the team be the one that breaks everything open?