We’re grouping outside linebackers and off-the-ball (inside) linebackers together in this recap, which means there are numerous players to get to.
Let’s start on the edge, where the Bolts boasted one of the league’s top duos in Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa when the season began.
The two looked lethal in training camp and in the early portion of the season, but a Week 3 groin injury sidelined Bosa for nearly the entire season. He eventually returned in Week 17 and recorded just 2.5 sacks on the season.
Mack posted 8.0 regular-season sacks, the seventh time he’s hit that mark in his career. But half of Mack’s sack total came when Bosa was on the field in Weeks 1 and 2, meaning opposing offenses shifted their entire protection plan Mack’s way after Bosa went out.
Kyle Van Noy, initially brought in to add depth at inside linebacker, shifted outside and took on a starting role for most of the season. And while he was effective throughout the year, things clicked late as he ended the regular season on a five-game sack streak.
Second-year edge player Chris Rumph II recorded a pair of sack in 2022 as he played in 15 games in a rotational role.
Derrek Tuszka and Jeremiah Attaochu were both added midway through the season as depth players, mostly contributing on special teams.
Chargers Head Coach Brandon Staley praised the leadership of Van Noy and Mack during the season.
The guys leading the way, the leaders up front — Kyle and Khalil — they’re keeping everybody together,” Staley said. “When we onboard these new guys, they are teaching the guys and taking it even further. I think that those guys deserve so much credit for being able to do that.
“We’ve adjusted our gameplans to play to the strength of the group that we have, and not ask them to do things that, maybe, we would ask some of the other guys that we started the season with,” Staley added.
On the inside, Drue Tranquill and Kenneth Murray, Jr., handled nearly the entire workload at those spots.
Tranquill was anywhere and…
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