Chargers 2025 Season in Review

Justin Herbert took 54 sacks this season and the Chargers still won 11 games. Let that one breathe. Here's how Los Angeles built a top-10 defense, why the run game quietly carried the offense down the stretch, and the one red-zone number that cost them in January. 11 six, a seven-seed wild card, and a season that ended with a thud — three to 16 in New England, zero offensive touchdowns. The Chargers smashed the regular season. The postseason muffed them.

Start with the team-level portrait, because the splits tell a specific story. The defense was the engine — −79.2 total expected points added allowed, and remember, big negative is elite on defense. Seventh in the league, 80-first percentile. The offense? −25.4 expected points added, 20-fifth in the league, bottom quartile. This was a defense-and-special-teams operation: Cameron Dicker hit 38 of 41 field goals, 93 percent, fifth in the NFL. Third-down offense was genuinely elite — 46.4 percent, third in the league, 90-fourth percentile. The variance read is fascinating. Steady against good teams: beat the Chiefs twice, beat the Eagles in overtime, won at Dallas by 17. But three full no-shows — 10 to 27 against Washington, six to 35 at Jacksonville, three to 19 at Denver in the finale. When this team got muffed, they got muffed badly.

Now let's talk about the passing offense. The headline: −35 total passing expected points added on 629 attempts — 20-sixth in the league, 20-second percentile. Bottom-of-the-league efficiency. The reason sits right there in the protection data — 60 sacks allowed on 681 dropbacks, an 8.8 percent sack rate, fifth-most sacked in football. Herbert was running for his life. And yet — here's the wild part — his completion percentage over expected was +3.3, eighth among qualified starters. 3727 yards, 26 touchdowns, 13 interceptions, eighth in the league in passing scores. Accurate. Productive. Constantly on the ground. Boom-or-bust by necessity: explosive when protection held, disastrous when it didn't. Ladd McConkey led the room with 66 catches for 789 yards and six touchdowns. A productive aerial attack hiding inside a broken pocket.

Now let's dig into the rushing offense. This is where the Chargers actually outperformed expectations. 2069 rushing yards on 467 carries, 4.4 a pop — twelfth in the league, 60-sixth percentile. Rushing expected points added at −6.3 sounds rough, but it's still twelfth in the NFL, and the identity tightened late in the year. The lead back was rookie Omarion Hampton — 545 yards on a hundred and 24 carries with four scores across just nine games, +81.6 rushing yards over expected. That's how much more he gained than an average back would have given the same blocking. Trended up late. The Dallas win in Week 16, 34 to 17, was the ground-game showcase.

Next up, the pass defense. This is the unit that defined the season. 3314 passing yards allowed across 17 games — under 195 a game. Total passing expected points added allowed: −50.25, 70-fifth percentile work. 45 sacks, eleventh in the league. 19 interceptions, three fumble recoveries, 22 takeaways total — eighth in the NFL, 70-eighth percentile. And the takeaways came in bunches when it mattered. The Week 14 overtime win against Philadelphia was a three-interception game against Jalen Hurts, sealed when Tony Jefferson picked him off at the one-yard line in overtime to set up the winning field goal. Game-sealing turnovers all year. Third-down stop rate landed in the 80-eighth percentile — boom-or-bust elsewhere, but on third down, automatic.

And the run defense — this was the best unit on the team, full stop. Total rushing expected points added allowed: −28.98, 90-fourth percentile. 106 rushing yards allowed per game. 16 rushing touchdowns surrendered — solid — and the front consistently won the leverage battle on early downs. Steady floor, high ceiling. There was no week this group got gashed for 200 on the ground. The foundation everything else was built on. The pass rush got home, the takeaways followed, and the run defense never let games tilt sideways. Bottom-line: a defense-first 11-win team that finally ran into a wall it couldn't outscore in Foxborough.