Tuesday's joint practice between the Chargers and 49ers in advance of their preseason game turned into another injury report nobody in Los Angeles wanted to read. Center Tyler Biadasz went down during an 11-on-11 period after 49ers defensive tackle Sebastian Valdez fell on his left knee, and he needed nearly 5 minutes of attention before being carted off. Rookie Jake Slaughter stepped in to take his snaps, and the early word is Biadasz could be out for a while.
GET THESE CURSED 49ERS THE FUCK OUR OF HERE HOLY SHIT
That wasn't the only body on the ground. Adam Schefter reported that during the same practice, linebacker Kyle Kennard and wide receiver Quentin Johnston also came away banged up — Kennard limping off with a trainer, Johnston pulled aside after coming up sore on a contested catch. Neither looked as severe as Biadasz's, but stacking 3 injuries in a single practice against the same opponent is exactly the kind of thing that sends a fanbase into a spiral.
RT @AdamSchefter: During one practice today against the 49ers, Chargers center Tyler Biadasz, linebacker Kyle Kennard and wide receiver Que…
The reaction online wasn't really about Valdez or the 49ers specifically — it was about pattern recognition. Chargers fans have already watched this offensive line get gutted twice in the last calendar year. Rashawn Slater, fresh off signing a 4-year, $113 million extension, tore his patellar tendon in a non-contact pass-pro rep during camp and missed the entire 2025 season. Joe Alt, the team's other franchise tackle, went down with a high-ankle sprain in-season and eventually needed season-ending surgery on it. Both losses gutted a line that was supposed to be a strength.
So when Biadasz went down Tuesday, one fan ran with the dark joke that's been building in Chargers group chats for a year: that the team's left guard spot is somehow cursed, personally responsible for throwing bodies into Slater's knee, then Alt's ankle, and now Biadasz's leg. It's a bit, not a police report — Slater's injury was a freak non-contact fall and Alt's ankle happened in a regular-season game, nowhere near a joint-practice pileup. But it's the kind of gallows humor that spreads fast when a team's O-line room keeps ending up on a cart.
So to keep a running tab, in the last 12ish months the Chargers starting Left Guard has: - Thrown a defender into Rashawn Slater's knee, rupturing his patellar tendon and ending his season. - Thrown a defender into Joe Alt's ankle, ending his season. - Thrown a defender into Tyler Biadasz's knee, potentially fucking up his season.
None of that changes the real problem in front of Jim Harbaugh's staff: a Chargers offense that has now lost its starting left tackle, its starting right tackle, and possibly its starting center inside of 12 months, all without a snap of regular-season football played this year. Preseason joint practices exist to get teams reps against unfamiliar looks before the games matter — they're not supposed to be where the depth chart gets shredded before Week 1.
The Chargers now have to figure out how much of the line Slaughter and the rest of the backups need to be ready to hold down if Biadasz's leg is as bad as it looked. With training camp winding toward roster cuts, the timing could hardly be worse — and after two straight years of joint practices turning into injury reports, don't be surprised if L.A. starts rethinking how much contact it wants against outside opponents before the games actually count.