As the winless Los Angeles Chargers travel to Arrowhead Stadium to take on the 4-0, well-rested Kansas City Chiefs team, the two teams find themselves in very different places roughly a month into the season. KC has gotten off to a perfect start, record-wise, but still has things to clean up on all three phases of the ball.
As for LA, there's more than just a few things to clean up. What they would certainly want to do is clean the slate of injuries that have rattled this roster and put them in an impossible position for Sunday afternoon's matchup.
Let's start with the Chiefs, who are really just missing a few key cogs in the lineup. Despite taking hisfirst practice reps of the regular season this past week, left tackle Josh Simmons will sit out his fifth consecutive game with a back injury. Wide receiver Rashee Rice was also ruled out due to the hamstring injury he suffered against the Raiders in Week 4 on his catch-and-run of the game.
That's really it for the Chiefs. Sure they have their nicks and bruises here and there, and are still awaiting the season debut of last year's second-round pick Omarr Norman-Lott, as he eases back from a torn ACL. The Chargers, however, are not so lucky.
Kansas City cannot afford to falter against battered and bruised Los Angeles team
full game status for week 6 at KC pic.twitter.com/2zjcmrfKS7
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) October 16, 2026
Massacred and searching for any kind of answers are the Chargers. For starters, head coach Jim Harbaugh is set to start a five-man offensive line, where not one of them is expected to be this early in the season.
Both starting tackles, Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt, are out, as they are known to be. Starting center Tyler Biadasz is on IR, and starting guard Kayode Awosika was ruled out with a fibula injury. In short, the Chargers are starting three rookies along the offensive line, along with failed draft pick Cole Strange at guard and whoever else they can find.
Another area of major weakness is in the secondary. Superstar safety Derwin James is out, along with starting cornerback Donte Jackson. So yes, the Chiefs' loss of Rashee Rice will hurt, but it definitely evens the playing field with no James or Jackson in the game.
I could rattle off another 20 or so players before we reached the end of the Chargers' injury concerns, but it's pretty simple from a Chiefs perspective. They are at home, coming off a bye, relatively healthy, facing a team with no o-line, protecting a quarterback playing the worst football of his career, throwing to a crew of pass-catchers who can't get open, and a defense that has a mangled secondary and is 24th in rushing defense.
Not to mention, at this point, Harbaugh is just completely overmatched from a coaching and motivation perspective by Andy Reid, who has been at the top of his game so far this year. This is a game the Chiefs should win and can't afford to lose.
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