The Los Angeles Chargers have a crisis on the offensive line in front of Justin Herbert right now.
After an offseason of criticism that featured them keeping struggling starters Bradley Bozeman and Zion Johnson, the Chargers have lost the other three starters to injury.
Rashawn Slater is out for the season, Joe Alt is out for an unknown amount of time and Mekhi Becton is only just working his way back from injury.
Bozeman and Johnson, unfortunately, as fans expected, have struggled, too. But when speaking with reporters ahead of Week 5, Chargers offensive coordinator Greg Roman had nothing but praise for the starters, especially for the center Bozeman.
“Bradley is a veteran presence,” Roman said, according to The Athletic’s Daniel Popper. “He’s a great leader. Makes all the calls for us. Understands the game plan like he wrote it up himself. And he’s a tough, hard-nosed player.”
Roman’s comments about Bozeman have earned a wave of negative reactions across social media, generally following a theme like this:
To be fair to Roman, he and Jim Harbaugh have innovated this year by going pass-happy and catching teams off guard, starting 3-0 in the AFC West.
But the carryover negativity from an offseason of not doing enough to project Herbert despite droves of assets sitting unused stings all the more now that the injury bug has hit. Coaches have to say what they have to say during media interviews, but fans don’t have to like it or agree, either.
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