Chargers Lose Njoku, Kolar to IR: What It Means for Herbert

The Chargers spent the offseason building a tight end offense. Two games in, they have one tight end.

Jim Harbaugh confirmed Monday that David Njoku and Charlie Kolar are both headed to injured reserve after getting hurt in Sunday’s 26-14 loss to the Raiders. Njoku has a fibula injury. Kolar has a forearm injury. Both must miss a minimum of four games.

That leaves Oronde Gadsden II as the only tight end on Los Angeles’ active roster, and it leaves Justin Herbert without the structural piece this offense was designed around.

Herbert Was Already Struggling

The timing could not be worse. Herbert has thrown for 401 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions through two games. In the Raiders loss he went 15 of 27 for 192 yards with a touchdown and two picks.

Those are not Justin Herbert numbers. They are the numbers of a quarterback whose reads keep coming back empty, and the tight end room was supposed to be the answer to that. Njoku was the veteran seam threat. Kolar was the blocker who let the run game breathe. Now both are gone for at least a month.

Harbaugh is putting a brave face on it. “A lot of confidence in Oronde’s game,” he said of Gadsden. “So many things that he does well.” Gadsden did catch Herbert’s 10-yard touchdown against Las Vegas, so the confidence is not invented.

But Gadsden is a young pass catcher being asked to be an entire position group on a team that is 0-2. That is not a plan, it is simply what is left.

The Offensive Line News Is Worse

Here is the part getting buried. Harbaugh also said left guard Kayode Awosika, who has a fibula injury, and defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson, with a hamstring, are both expected to miss time. Trevor Penning slides in at left guard.

Lose your blocking tight end and your starting left guard in the same week, and you have not lost two players. You have lost the left side of your protection scheme going into a road trip to Buffalo.

Josh Allen and the Bills do not care that the Chargers are shorthanded. Sunday at Highmark Stadium is a season-defining game for a team that has already dropped two at home, and Los Angeles will play it with a patched line and one healthy tight end.

Harbaugh said the Chargers are working with the personnel department on additions at the position. Expect a signing this week, and expect it to be someone who can block more than run routes.

The Honest Read

Los Angeles invested real money at tight end in the offseason specifically because Harbaugh’s offense runs on heavy personnel and play action. Strip that out and Herbert is throwing from empty backfields against defenses that know it.

The Chargers are not a bad team. They are a team whose design just got dismantled by injury in Week 2, and the four-game minimum means Njoku and Kolar are not back until late October at the earliest.

If Los Angeles wants to save this season, it happens through Herbert improvising, not through the scheme. That is a worse version of this offense, and everyone in that building knows it.