The Los Angeles Chargers had high expectations coming into this season after hiring Mike McDaniel as their offensive coordinator. The pairing of McDaniel with Justin Herbert was supposed to lead to one of the best offenses in the NFL, but it has been anything but that so far in 2026.
Through three weeks, the Chargers have been a disaster. Los Angeles currently sits at 0-3 on the season, including losses to the Arizona Cardinals and Las Vegas Raiders. McDaniel's offense has been one of the worst in the entire NFL and Herbert is playing some of the worst football of his career to this point. Even with the Buffalo Bills handing the Chargers five turnovers on Sunday in Buffalo, the Chargers offense still couldn't get enough points on the board to get a win.
In Week 4, things certainly aren't getting any easier. In fact, things will get exponentially harder for Herbert and company. LA will travel to Seattle on Sunday afternoon for a date with the defending champion Seattle Seahawks. The Seahawks have arguably the best defense in the NFL again in 2026 after that side of the ball lifted it to a Super Bowl a year ago.
The Chargers have had just about no answers for even the weaker defenses on their schedule, and Seattle will provide no relief on Sunday.
Chargers' running game will be a nonstarter
The Seahawks have one of the best run defenses in the NFL for the last few years now, and it all starts with their defensive tackle duo in the middle. Leonard Williams is a negative play waiting to happen for opposing offenses, and Byron Murphy II is an immovable object in the middle. As a result, it has been nearly impossible to run the ball against the Seahawks this year.
The numbers back that up. Seattle ranks second in the NFL in EPA per rush allowed (-0.26), and all three of their opponents have logged rushing success rates under 36%, per Next Gen Stats. Seattle is one of seven teams with a stuff rate above 20% on the season, so not only is it difficult to generate successful runs against this group, but teams are ending up with negative runs on a frequent basis.
Now let's get to a Chargers run game that has been pretty ineffective so far. One of the selling points of hiring Mike McDaniel was the design of his running game, which produced efficient units during his time in Miami despite some average talent on the offensive line and at running back. That has not translated to Los Angeles, and it shows up in the numbers.
The Chargers, despite pretty average numbers in the counting stats department and a respectable 45.7% success rate, are averaging a whopping -0.29 EPA per rush this season. That is a bad sign going into a game against the Seahawks where you are going to have to earn every single yard.
Now let's get to the matchup, which isn't a good sign for the Chargers either. Los Angeles came into the season with a major weakness on the interior of their offensive line, and then injuries started to chip away at that group as well. Now, LA is back to a similar spot as it was in last season, when it had arguably the worst interior offensive line in the NFL.
Star tackles Joe Alt and Rashawn Slater, who missed most of last season with injuries, are back, but even they have been playing well below their standard and have struggled with penalties throughout the season. They could be in for a long day against Murphy, Williams and the rest of this Seahawks defensive line.
Justin Herbert will be behind the 8-ball
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Herbert hasn't been playing very well so far this season, and he looks rushed and is a bit more erratic than usual. In the past, even on teams with no running game and bad offensive lines, Herbert was able to put on his Superman cape and build a functional offense all by himself.
If the Chargers can't run the ball in this game, which feels like a certainty, Herbert will be tasked with putting on that Superman cape that has been nowhere to be found so far this season.
Obvious passing situations have not been kind to the Chargers so far this season. On third-and-long, classified as seven or more yards to go, Herbert has been pressured on more than half of his dropbacks and has a -0.13 EPA per dropback.
It's going to be very hard for the Chargers to protect Herbert on obvious passing situations of this deep Seattle pass rush is pinning its ears back and getting after him against this banged-up LA offensive line. Herbert is completing below 50% of his passes when pressured this season and it's going to be hard to find a lot of relief in those situations.
The Seattle secondary, which could be getting Julian Love back from injury this week, has also been dominating third-and-long scenarios this season. Despite the defensive line getting pressure on less than 40% of those dropbacks, the Seahawks are still allowing a whopping -0.64 EPA per dropback on those plays. It's a small sample, of course, but it's a number that shows that the Seahawks are suffocating receivers and not allowing explosive plays when offenses need them to move the chains.
On top of that, you have the problems with the Chargers' receiving core. Ladd McConkey is banged up and Quentin Johnston looks like the rookie version of himself that couldn't get out of his own way.
At the moment, this Chargers offense is a comedy of errors. The offensive line torpedoes most of the plays, but if they hold up for a snap, a receiver runs the wrong route or drops a ball. If that doesn't happen, a running back misses a hole or fumbles. And if everyone else gets it together, that's when Herbert has faltered so far this season.
That is a bad formula against a Seahawks defense that makes you earn everything and capitalizes on every mistake that an opponent makes. If the Chargers don't find some solutions this week, it could be an ugly Sunday in front of the 12s in the Pacific Northwest.