With the Chargers still winless through five weeks, it's getting more and more difficult to find players to stick in the winners column. Surprisingly, this week was arguably the easiest week to find such players.
Interested to see who stood out despite another loss? Let's go ahead and check out this week's winners and losers.
RB Kimani Vidal
Vidal authored the longest run of the season for the Chargers when he broke off a 42-yard touchdown at the end of the third quarter to give the Chargers a seven-point lead in a game where points were at a premium.
On the play, Vidal broke multiple tackles within the first 10 yards, then bounced to the outside and hit the sideline. Thanks to massive efforts by wide receiver Theo Wease and fullback Scot Matlock who provided a caravan down the field, Vidal was able to dance his way into the end zone for his team-leading second score on the year.
With two consecutive weeks of seeing an increased snap share, Vidal's latest performance should earn him even more looks if he's going to prove to be the most explosive back on the team.
FB Scott Matlock
Matlock was activated off of IR this week and he returned a whole new player.
After a preseason where he looked completely out of place at tight end, he looked slimmed down and much more confident in his abilities this week. When used as an extra blocker in max protection looks, he earned the highest pass block grade on the team (82.5), per Pro Football Focus.
After a month of underwhelming play from Alec Ingold at fullback, Matlock has a chance to come right in and earn a massive snap share after just one performance.
OT Travis Burke
Burke and the rest of the Chargers offensive line struggled to bottle up the pass rush of the Broncos, but it was the ground game where the rookie tackle looked phenomenal.
The 6'7 Burke earned an 84.2 in run blocking by PFF, the highest grade on the team by an offensive lineman by 37.4 grade points. That's a huge gap and shows just how lackluster the rest of the line was when the Chargers tried to get the ground game going.
I don't know if Burke has been good enough to warrant any changes up front, but I think it may be tough to argue that Burke isn't already one of the Chargers' best five offensive linemen.
EDGE Akheem Mesidor
The Chargers' 2026 first-round pick may have had his best game as a pro against the Broncos.
Per Pro Football Focus, Mesidor earned a career-high fives "stops" against Denver, which is a play that constitutes a failure by the Broncos offense. That also led to a single-game high of five tackles, as well.
Mesidor's overall game grade was an 89.6, just 0.04 away from earning an "elite" mark by the grading service. It didn't matter if he was rushing the passer or defending the run, Mesidor was impactful in all phases of the game, even when he was in coverage (76.9).
S Genesis Smith
Those two interceptions against Josh Allen and the Bills seem like ages ago.
Smith posted a team-low 35.5 game grade by Pro Football Focus in Week 5, including a coverage grade of 36.7. That's his second-lowest mark of the year, behind only the 29.8 he posted against the Raiders in Week 2.
The fourth-round rookie continues to be extremely boom-or-bust for the Chargers defense. Some weeks he looks like the game speed as caught up to him, while in others he looks utterly lost on the back end.
In the fourth quarter after yet another sudden change turnover by the offense, Smith found himself lined head-up over Broncos wideout Courtland Sutton in the slot. At the snap, quarterback Bo Nix faked a handoff to his running back while the receiver outside Sutton moved laterally on a bubble screen. Smith immediately took a hard jab towards the receiver as if he was his responsibility, allowing Sutton to run right past him and catch the wide open touchdown.
Smith had cornerback Cam Hart to his outside. Hart would have been responsible for the bubble. When a 6'4 receiver runs towards you within the 10-yard line, it's probably smart to acknowledge him before he's just about past you. With everyone manned up, Smith was truly about to let Sutton go untouched into the end zone just to have a shot at tackling the receiver running horizontal to the line of scrimmage.
One was much more of a threat than the other. Smith picked wrong and was unfortunately the author of another head-scratching lowlight.
HC Jim Harbaugh
Good on Harbaugh for truly taking the blame and acknowledging just how bad his fourth-down decision was.
The whole thing was made so much worse due to him torching his two challenges for the game all in the first half.
Justin Herbert was spotted nearly an entire yard back from the chains despite what the review showed of his third-down scramble. Even with a blatant shot of it on camera, the Chargers were helpless to do anything about it. That was tough, but the choice to roll with a quarterback sneak with a hobbled quarterback and a front five that featured four rookies?
I cannot express how little sense that made. And for the cherry on top, it wasn't even a good sneak! No one pushed Herbert from behind. Guys just stood around instead of contributing to the potential success of the pivotal play.
Top to bottom, one of the ugliest debacles under Harbaugh in his 2+ seasons.
