2022 Chargers Defensive Stats

The entire Chargers 2022 season felt like a rollercoaster ride.

The same can be said of the Bolts defensive performance this past season, as it featured ups, downs and almost everything in between, too.

The Chargers tied for 11th in the leaguer with 22.6 points allowed per game and finished 20th overall with 346.1 yards allowed per game.

On a more analytical level, the Bolts were 23rd in EPA per play allowed.

There were bright spots, such as the overall play in the final month of the season. But there was also some frustrating moments, too, especially as different players shuffled in and out of the lineup due to injuries.

Key players such as Joey Bosa, J.C. Jackson, Derwin James, Jr. and Austin Johnson combined to miss 36 games. Bosa and Jackson missed a dozen games apiece.

Chargers Head Coach Brandon Staley summed up the state of the defense in his year-end press conference.

“I think down the stretch those last six games that we were the No. 1 defense in the NFL and it allowed us to get into the tournament,” Staley said. “You measure yourself on how you’re playing against the best people in the NFL. Certainly, when we played Miami and how we played against San Francisco and Kansas City, I think you saw like at the beginning of the year when we had our full team in those first two games, what that looked like.

“That next stretch where you kind of get cleaned out, I thought we made a lot of adjustments that allowed us to hang in there and play well enough to give us a chance to win,” Staley continued. “I thought, when things settled down at the end of the season, we were playing at a high level and the way that we expect to play, the standard of performance that we expect. I thought there were a lot of good takeaways from the way we finished the season.

“We got contributions from a lot of guys. I thought we developed guys well,” Staley added. “I think with as many new guys as we brought in the offseason, defensively, I’m excited for them to get a full offseason…