Rashawn Slater had surgery on his right ankle Thursday in Los Angeles and went on injured reserve Friday. He will miss at least four games. The Chargers are 0-4 and host Denver on Sunday without either starting offensive tackle.
Here is the number that matters. Slater signed a four-year, $114 million extension on July 27, 2025. He then tore the patellar tendon in his left knee in practice on August 7, 2025, and missed the entire season. He played four games in 2026 before a high ankle sprain at Seattle in Week 4 put him back on the operating table.
Four Games for $114 Million
That is the whole contract so far. One practice, one season lost, four games played, one more surgery. Slater is 27, he was the 13th pick in 2021, and nobody questions the talent. The question is whether the Chargers can keep building an offense around a player whose availability has stopped being something they can plan for.
The team statement said he “underwent successful ankle surgery yesterday in Los Angeles.” Nobody has named a replacement at left tackle, which is its own kind of answer.
The Line Is Gone, Not Just Slater
Joe Alt is ruled out with a neck injury. Kayode Awosika is dealing with a fibula issue. So the Chargers will block Denver’s front with neither of the two tackles they drafted and paid to protect Justin Herbert.
It gets worse from there. Safety Derwin James Jr. is out with a hamstring. Wide receiver Quentin Johnston is out with a chest injury. Ladd McConkey is questionable with a foot problem. Trey Lance is doubtful with a groin injury. Charlie Kolar is questionable with a forearm injury.
Denver, for its part, arrives without Pat Surtain II and Riley Moss, so both teams are playing a man down in the places that decide games. That is the AFC West in October 2026: two rosters held together with tape, trying to decide which one is less broken.
This Is a Roster-Building Story
The temptation is to file this under bad luck and move on. Resist it. The Chargers committed $114 million to a left tackle coming off nothing in particular, watched him miss a full season to a non-contact injury, and did not build enough tackle depth behind him to survive losing him and Alt in the same month.
Every team deals with injuries. Not every team spends top-of-market money at one position and then has no answer when that position empties out. An 0-4 start with this many starters unavailable is not a coaching indictment so much as a math problem the front office created.
What Happens Next
Slater began rehab immediately. The four-game IR minimum puts his earliest return in mid-November, and nobody has said whether the stint runs longer than that. By then the Chargers may be playing for draft position.
If there is a silver lining, it is that Slater is still 27 and still under contract through 2029. There is time for this deal to look reasonable. There is not much time for this season.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.