Heading into tomorrow's preseason game against the Cowboys, the San Diego Chargers are still relatively healthy but have some key injuries that they're dealing with.
- Jared Gaither is still considered the starting Left Tackle for the Bolts. He hasn't seen the practice field since the start of training camp, dealing with back spasms that don't appear to be getting any better. In the offseason, he was signed to a four-year contract worth $24.6 million. He will miss tomorrow's game.
- The Chargers signed Eddie Royal to a three-year deal ($13.5 million) in the offseason, but he also hasn't seen the practice field yet during camp. He is expected to be the team's Punt Returner and slot WR. He will miss tomorrow's game and the team is hopeful that his leg injury will be healed enough for him to start practicing next week.
- Ryan Mathews, the team's starting RB that was expected to have a larger role in the offense with the departure of Mike Tolbert, is healing from a broken collarbone suffered in the Packers game 8 days ago. He will miss the remainder of the preseason and possibly the early part of the regular season.
- Marcus Gilchrist is part of the team's shallow group of talented cornerbacks and has missed time here or there. He missed practice yesterday (I've yet to see a list of who missed practice today), so there's a decent chance that he will miss tomorrow's game.
- Antonio Garay, who has been the Chargers starting Nose Tackle for the last two seasons and was taking most of the first-team snaps at the position was carted off the practice field the other day and seemingly hasn't made it back since. Despite assurances that he'll be fine, it would be surprising if he played on Saturday night.
So, uh, yeah. Three "starters" and two guys that play very important roles on both side of the ball. It's not all sunshine and puppy dogs down in the Chargers training room.