{"id":142468,"date":"2023-06-28T14:00:39","date_gmt":"2023-06-28T18:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=142468"},"modified":"2023-06-28T11:48:06","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T15:48:06","slug":"los-angeles-chargers-players-needing-to-break-out-improve-in-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023\/06\/28\/los-angeles-chargers-players-needing-to-break-out-improve-in-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Chargers Players Needing to Break Out\/Improve in 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each season, there are always some NFL players who end up surprising and playing above expectations \u2013 or alternatively, finally living up to the expectations they originally had. This doesn\u2019t refer to rookies, but incumbents who have been around two or three years but have yet to really make their mark. The Los Angeles Chargers have a handful of players in this position, and some of them stand to impact the team more than others with their success or failure. Let\u2019s take a look at the Los Angeles Chargers that are most in need of a breakout season or otherwise taking a big step forward in 2023.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Chargers Players in Most Need of Improvement\/Breaking Out in 2023<\/h2>\n

Alohi Gilman<\/h3>\n

With the retirement of Nasir Adderley (who was probably not going to be re-signed anyway), Alohi Gilman has become the lock-in starter at free safety opposite Derwin James. He looked promising late last year when filling in for injured players, but the question does remain if he can handle being a full-time starter.<\/p>\n

The Chargers seem to think so<\/a>. For a while, it was heavily rumored that the team would go after free agent safety John Johnson, who played under Brandon Staley before. However, that never formulated, and while it could still happen, it becomes less and less likely with each passing week. It may signal that Staley and the coaching staff have the confidence in Gilman to be the guy they need at free safety. Time will tell if they are right. Out of all the Chargers players in need of a breakout year, this one stands to impact the team the most, because as things currently stand, there is not a suitable backup on hand. It\u2019s also a contract year for Gilman, so he has plenty of personal motivation regardless.<\/p>\n

Isaiah Spiller<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s not all that common for a second-year player to fall into this category. But when you get drafted with the expectation of being RB2 and you end up being a healthy scratch most of the year instead\u2026 well, he needs to turn things around quickly. Complicating matters is the fact that Austin Ekeler will likely be gone after this season due to the contract dispute, and the Chargers need to start thinking about a potential replacement.<\/p>\n

This was covered at greater length elsewhere<\/a>, but Spiller definitely needs to have a much better season this year. It may not necessarily make or break the Chargers running game this year if he doesn\u2019t, but if he does not show promise now, he may not get as good of an opportunity again.<\/p>\n

Kenneth Murray<\/h3>\n

This is a bit of a different case because Murray did get his career off to a strong start in his rookie season. The problem is, he has regressed since then (though injuries in his second year didn\u2019t help) and become rather inconsistent, not living up to his first-round billing. It\u2019s telling that in his contract year, the Chargers drafted a new inside linebacker in the third round (Daiyan Henley) \u2013 who could very well end up replacing Murray if he does not have a \u201cbreakout season,\u201d in the sense of proving that he should remain a starter.<\/p>\n

Tre McKitty<\/h3>\n

This one affects the success of the Chargers the least because they are already pretty set at tight end for 2023 with Gerald Everett and Donald Parham. As such, the extent to which this player can \u201cbreak out\u201d will likely be limited, barring injuries. But the Chargers do need to start seeing something from Tre McKitty soon. He was a third-round selection but has only 16 catches through two seasons and no touchdowns, and hasn\u2019t proved to be good enough of a blocking tight end to stay consistently on the field for that reason either. If we don\u2019t see a step forward from him this year, he may find himself at risk of getting cut before his contract is up. Even if it\u2019s just as an extra red-zone threat, that would be something that could justify keeping him around if McKitty can prove himself.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These are the Los Angeles Chargers players that most need to have a breakout season or otherwise take a big step forward in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2355,"featured_media":142471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[54,18],"tags":[7642,9097,6098,7377],"class_list":["post-142468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","category-chargers","tag-chargers-featured","tag-isaiah-spiller","tag-kenneth-murray","tag-los-angeles-chargers-roster"],"modified_by":"Will Noltie, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2355"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}