With the 2024 NFL schedule announced, I want to go through each of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ opponents and dive deep into the makeup of each team, including a recap of their offseason moves, key storylines to watch, and their series history against the Steelers. Today we will be looking at Week 3 against the Los Angeles Chargers.
The Chargers have been a team primed for a breakout for years now, but it has never quite happened for one reason or another. They now have an entirely new coaching regime with Jim Harbaugh coming on as head coach fresh off his National Championship win at Michigan.
In four seasons with Justin Herbert at quarterback, they have made the playoffs once and have yet to win a game and they have finished with a losing record in two of those years. Still, many agree that Herbert has massive potential and the Chargers agreed when they gave him a five-year $262 million contract last July. Brandon Staley never put the pieces together as head coach and he was fired along with GM Tom Telesco by the middle of December last season.
Sentiments are generally pretty positive on the Chargers right now with many analysts picking them as an AFC dark horse under Harbaugh’s leadership.
Here is a recap of their notable offseason roster changes:
Additions:
– TE Will Dissly
– TE Hayden Hurst
– C Bradley Bozeman
– WR D.J. Chark
– RB Gus Edwards
– OLB Bud Dupree
– LB Denzel Perryman
– DL Poona Ford
– RB J.K. Dobbins
– CB Kristian Fulton
Departures:
– WR Keenan Allen (trade)
– WR Mike Williiams
– CB Michael Davis
– DL Austin Johnson
– LB Eric Kendricks
– RB Austin Ekeler
– TE Gerald Everett
– LB Kenneth Murray
Draft Class:
– OT Joe Alt
– WR Ladd McConkey
– LB Junior Colson
– DL Justin Eboigbe
– DB Tarheeb Still
– CB Cam Hart
– RB Kimani Vidal
– WR Brenden Rice
– WR Cornelius Johnson
Quite a bit of roster churn for them which is to be expected with a new regime in town. Harbaugh is known for having a prolific ground game in his offenses, and he added Greg Roman who will fit that play style well. They did a pretty good job focusing their offseason additions around that, too. They added a pair of solid tight ends, and three new running backs with two of them being former Baltimore Ravens. Joe Alt will also be a significant addition along the offensive line.
They lost their two best wide receivers, so it is reasonable to assume their pass attack could take a step back, but they added four WRs to replenish the room.
Even on defense they did a nice job bringing in players to replace some of their departures. Denzel Perryman and Junior Colson will help replace what was lost with Eric Kendricks and Kenneth Murray Jr. Justin Egboigbe and Poona Ford will help replace what was lost with Austin Johnson, and they added some depth and competition to their secondary with one of my personal favorite mid-round defensive backs, Cam Hart.
And if their OLB tandem of Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack wasn’t good enough, they added Bud Dupree into the mix with the promise of 3 OLB packages. First-time NFL coordinator Jesse Minter will be tasked with coming up with creative ways to make that work.
The matchup that I am most looking forward to is seeing their OLBs against the Steelers young offensive tackles.
Chargers 2023 record: 5-12
Chargers three-year split: 24-27
Chargers-Steelers series record: 24-11-0 (Steelers)
Series record in Pittsburgh: 15-4-0 (Steelers)
Most recent matchup: 41-37 Chargers (2021)
Broncos 2023 by the numbers:
Offense–
Scoring: 20.4 PPG (21st)
Passing: 253.7 Yds/G (9th)
Rushing: 96.6 Yds/G (25th)
Defense–
Scoring: 23.4 PPG (24th)
Passing: 249.8 Yds/G (30th)
Rushing: 113.2 Yds/G (17th)
This game is a bit of a wild card on the Steelers’ schedule. Their 5-12 record last year probably isn’t an accurate indication of the talent level on the team. Their defense will need to show large improvements to compete, and the Steelers may be able to take advantage of that while they are still figuring things out early in the season.
The strongest part of their teams in 2023 was the passing offense, but things will look a lot different with a run-heavy scheme and an overhauled WR room.
Oddsmakers have the Steelers favored by two points in this game at home.
