By the Numbers: L.A. Chargers
The Los Angeles/San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers have been playing professional football since 1960, and in that time have won just one championship, before the Super Bowl era, and are just one game over .500 as a franchise at 480-479-11. But the franchise’s history is loaded with some of the NFL’s greatest players, and coaches, over their 64 seasons. Here is a look at the Chargers by the numbers before Monday night’s game against Dallas.
2 – The Cowboys will face a pair of the best receivers in Chargers history – Keenan Allen and Mike Williams, on Monday night. Both receivers are in the top 10 in yards in team history, with Allen, who has 434 yards this season, checking in at No. 2 on the list with 9,721 yards and Williams, who has 249 yards this season, 10th with 4,806. Antonio Gates, the only player with over 10,000 yards, heads the list by going for 11,841 yards in his 16 seasons with the team. Between Allen and Williams on the Chargers list are, in order, Lance Alworth, Charlie Joiner, Gary Garrison, Kellen Winslow, Wes Chandler, Anthony Miller and Malcolm Floyd.
11 – Now in their 64th season, the franchise that spent most of its time in San Diego but now calls Los Angeles home, has put 15 players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and another 41 in the Chargers Hall of Fame. But only 11 of those players are in both Halls of Fame. Those players are wide receiver Lance Alworth, tackle Ron Mix, head coach Sid Gilman, quarterback Dan Fouts, tight end Kellen Winslow, wide receiver Charlie Joiner, defensive end Fred Dean, linebacker Junior Seau, running back LaDainian Tomlinson, head coach Don Coryell and executive Bobby Bethard.
106.3 – Just four games into the season and Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert is playing the best football of his career. His quarterback rating is third in the NFL, behind only Brock Purdy (123.1) and Tua Tagovailoa (111.9). It is a small sample, with 13 games left to play in the season, but it is the best he has been in his four-year career. He is seeing career best numbers in completion percentage (71.0%), average yards per catch (7.6 yards) and interception percentage (0.7%), while also being on pace for his third season over 430 completions, 4,700 passing yards and at least 30 touchdown passes.
299.8 – Four games into their season and the Chargers pass defense leaves little to be desired. They are the worst in the league, giving up just under 300 yards a game to opposing quarterbacks, despite having Asante Samuel Jr., Michael Davis and Derwin James Jr. in coverage. They gave up 466 yards and 246 yards in losses to the Dolphins and Titans, respectively, to start the season. They followed that up by allowing 367 yards and 238 yards in wins over the Vikings and Raiders. If there was ever a team that Dak Prescott needed to see after what happened in San Francisco, is a pass defense that has struggled against good passing games.
388 – In his 90 games with the franchise, running back Austin Eckler has been a scoring machine putting up 388 points. He is currently eighth on the Chargers all-time scoring list and climbing by the game. Depending on longevity, he has a chance to pass wide receiver Lance Alworth (500) and kicker Nick Novak (503) in as early as 2024 but will need several more years to move past tight end Antonio Gates (700) and into fifth, as everyone continues to chase kicker John Carney and his 1,076 points at the top of the list.
59,271 – This is the amount of passing yards by the leader in team history. No, it’s not Dan Fouts. Phillip Rivers threw for 63,440 yards in his 17-year NFL career, which is good enough for sixth all time in the NFL – behind only Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre and Ben Roethlisberger. But in his 16 seasons with the Chargers, Rivers threw for 59,271 yards, which is 16,231 more than Fouts, and would still be good enough for eighth all time in the league. Behind Rivers and Fouts on the San Diego/Los Angeles passing leaders list is John Hadl (26,398), Stan Humphries (16,085) and Justin Herbert (15,195). Rivers completed 4,908 of 7,591 passes and 397 touchdowns for the Chargers.