Chargers Clips
Raiders tight end Brock Bowers will not be on the field to start the practice week, but he may be on it soon.
Head coach Klint Kubiak told reporters in his Wednesday press conference that Bowers (knee) is not yet ready to practice. But Kubiak said he’s hopeful that Bowers will be able to return this week.
Bowers underwent a meniscus trim last week. He’s still considered day-to-day.
In 12 games last season, Bowers caught 64 passes for 680 yards with seven touchdowns.
Additionally, cornerback Darien Porter (foot) is not slated to practice on Wednesday and is considered day-to-day.
The Raiders will issue their first injury report for the Week 2 matchup against the Chargers later on Wednesday.
The Chargers are signing wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling to their practice squad, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports.
Valdes-Scantling, 31, spent training camp with the Cowboys, but they released him on cutdown day.
The Chargers needed help at the position after injuries to wide receivers Ladd McConkey (rib), KeAndre Lambert-Smith (hamstring) and Derius Derives (undisclosed). Lambert-Smith landed on injured reserve Tuesday.
The Chargers replaced Lambert-Smith on the active roster by signing wide receiver Gary Jennings from the practice squad.
The Packers selected Valdes-Scantling in the fifth round in 2018, and he spent his first four seasons in Green Bay. He has also played for the Chiefs, Bills, Saints, 49ers and Steelers.
Valdes-Scantling has totaled 219 receptions for 3,686 yards and 21 touchdowns.
Linebacker Kenneth Murray has found a job.
The former first-round draft pick is joining the Texans’ practice squad, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports.
The Texans needed help at the position after they placed Henry To’oTo’o on injured reserve.
Murray, a Houston native, visited the Texans on Tuesday before agreeing to terms.
He worked out for the Giants and Dolphins this offseason, but had remained a free agent since March.
Murray started at middle linebacker for the Cowboys last season, finishing with 81 tackles, four tackles for loss, three quarterback hits and two pass breakups.
The Chargers made Murray the 23rd overall pick in 2020, and he spent his four seasons with the team. He played one season with the Titans before the Cowboys acquired him in a trade with Tennessee.
Wide receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith injured his hamstring in Sunday’s loss to the Cardinals and he’s going to be out of action for at least the next month as a result.
The Chargers placed Lambert-Smith on injured reserve on Tuesday. Lambert-Smith played two snaps on special teams against Arizona.
Lambert-Smith was a fifth-round pick last year. He had five catches for 51 yards and a touchdown in 10 games as a rookie.
The Chargers filled the open roster spot by signing wide receiver Gary Jennings off of their practice squad. Jennings played in one game for the Dolphins in 2019 and more recently saw action in the UFL.
Cornerback Isas Waxter was signed to the practice squad to complete the day’s moves.
The Chargers had one of the most disappointing debut performances and it left head coach Jim Harbaugh with some second thoughts about how the team prepared for the start of the regular season.
Harbaugh played the team’s starters for brief stretches in the team’s second and third preseason games. During a Monday press conference, he said that Sunday’s 26-14 home loss to the Cardinals made him think that may not have been enough time.
“We made some preseason type of mistakes,” Harbaugh said. “Now in retrospect, I wish we’d played our guys a little bit more in the preseason and given them those reps.”
The Chargers can’t change course now, which means they’ll have to make improvements on the fly as they try to rebound from a poor start to the year.
The Chargers have an injury concern with one of their key offensive players.
Via multiple reporters, head coach Jim Harbaugh said in his Monday press conference that McConkey is day-to-day with a rib injury.
McConkey took a hard, legal hit from Cardinals linebacker Mack Wilson to break up a pass late in the third quarter. He went down after the hit and did not return. to the game.
Though he didn’t get a target in the fourth quarter, McConkey led the team with 82 yards on five receptions with a touchdown.
A second-round pick in 2024, McConkey had 66 receptions for 789 yards with six TDs in 16 games last season.
Additionally, Harbaugh noted Elijah Molden (hamstring) is day-to-day while KeAndre Lambert-Smith (hamstring) will miss time.
While Raiders tight end Brock Bowers underwent a knee procedure last week, there appears to be a real possibility that he could play in Week 2.
Head coach Klint Kubiak told reporters on Monday that Bowers is characterized as day-to-day.
Via Sam Warren of TheAthletic.com, Kubiak added that Bowers is “working his tail off to get back out on the field,” and that it’s “really important to him to play as soon as possible.”
“We’re gonna be smart with him,” Kubiak said, “but if he’s ready to play, he’s gonna play.”
The Raiders defeated the Dolphins 27-13 to open the season on Sunday. Ashton Jeanty was the club’s leading receiver with six receptions for 45 yards with two TDs. That’s in addition to his 102 yards on 23 carries.
Tight end Michael Mayer was next on the list with six receptions for 32 yards.
Additionally, Kubiak said cornerback Darien Porter is day-to-day after suffering a foot injury during Sunday’s victory.
The Raiders will be on the road to face the division-rival Chargers in Week 2.
Jim Harbaugh attacks the day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind. Perhaps, in some situations, he should take a proverbial chill pill.
The relentless hype regarding quarterback Justin Herbert needs to stop. It’s too much. It’s over the top. And it puts too much pressure on Herbert.
Harbaugh’s latest comments were downright cartoonish.
“Allow me to call my shot, like Babe Ruth pointing his bat over to centerfield: Justin Herbert, when it’s all said and done, when his career comes to an end, I predict he will be known as the greatest, best ever to play the position of quarterback. When it’s all said and done, and his career is finished, we’re going to look back and say, ‘Yep, that’s the best that ever did it.’”
So if that doesn’t happen, whose fault is it? Harbaugh’s? Herbert’s? Someone else’s?
Yes, Harbaugh hopes to speak his prediction into existence. But the prediction needs to be plausible.
What has Herbert done in six NFL seasons to justify the suggestion that he’ll be remembered as better than Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Peyton Manning, Joe Montana, Terry Bradshaw?
Herbert’s 209 passing yards on Sunday made him the fourth fastest to 25,000. That’s good. Losing to the Cardinals is not.
And he hasn’t won a playoff game in six seasons with the Chargers.
So if the thing keeping Herbert from the GOAT farm isn’t Herbert himself, it must be the Chargers. Maybe that’s the answer. Maybe he needs to play elsewhere. And maybe, if he believes he has the ability to be an all-time great and his current employer is holding him back from that, he’ll eventually decide he wants to play for another team.
Herbert is one of the better quarterbacks currently in football. He’s not the best. And he’s got a long way to go to be a Hall of Famer, much less the “greatest, best ever to play the position of quarterback.”
Harbaugh is free to believe otherwise. In turn, everyone else is free to believe he’s wrong. Caught in the middle is Herbert, whom Harbaugh is doing no favors by making unrealistic proclamations that serve only to put more pressure on Herbert to perform at a higher level than he has.
Sunday night saw John Harbaugh win his first game as the head coach of the Giants, but it wasn’t a great day for the whole Harbaugh family.
Jim Harbaugh’s Chargers came into Week 1 as the biggest favorite in the league, but anyone who backed them at home over the Cardinals went home a little poorer. The Cardinals never trailed and shut the Chargers out in the fourth quarter of a 26-14 win that left Harbaugh to say that “quite a few things” went wrong for his team.
“Some uncharacteristic things happened. Give them credit for making them happen,” Harbaugh said at his press conference. “I would call it sloppy at times. Too sloppy. That’s something we need to get fixed.”
Harbaugh cited seven penalties, but there were also two turnovers, a blocked punt and the offense failing to convert multiple times on fourth downs. The offense was limited to 268 yards overall, which didn’t fit with the enthusiastic praise that Harbaugh lavished on quarterback Justin Herbert and offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel throughout the offseason.
That duo will have more chances to get things right, but the first look at this year’s Chargers looked a lot like the last glimpse of the 2025 version and that’s not where anyone with the team hoped to find themselves.
The Chargers were 9.5-point favorites against the Cardinals today in Los Angeles, the biggest betting line in the NFL for Week 1. No one thought this was a game Arizona would win.
But that’s why they play the games.
In a major upset that may force us to reassess what we thought we knew about both teams, the Cardinals went to Los Angeles and beat the Chargers 26-14.
First-year Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur deserves an enormous amount of credit for having his team ready to play, and Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh will face plenty of questions about why his team wasn’t. Harbaugh had previously been 6-0 in Week 1 in his NFL coaching career.
Cardinals quarterback Jacoby Brissett played well, completing 27 of 37 passes for 277 yards, with one touchdown and no interceptions. His favorite receiver was Trey McBride, who caught nine passes for 95 yards and a touchdown. The Cardinals surprisingly made Tyler Allgeier, not rookie Jeremiyah Love, their primary ball carrier.
Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert turned in a highly disappointing performance, completing 17 of 27 passes for 209 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. And the Chargers’ running game never got going. Also alarming for the Chargers is that wide receiver Ladd McConkey suffered a chest injury late in the game and went to the locker room.
The Cardinals also had a concerning injury when safety Kitan Crawford was carted off during the fourth quarter, but today was mostly great news in Arizona: This team looks better than anyone thought.
