The Chargers took the field for the first time Friday without Rashawn Slater.
The team announced Thursday that Slater sustained a torn patellar tendon earlier the day in practice and will undergo surgery to repair the injury. He will miss the 2025 season and be placed on Injured Reserve.
Chargers Head Coach Jim Harbaugh gave his reaction to the injury for the first time on Friday.
"It's like a gut punch right to the solar plexus, takes the wind out of you," Harbaugh said. "Really can't even talk too much. Don't really have the words to think about anything else.
"Just feel bad for Rashawn," Harbaugh added. "I know how much he's put into it, how much he's trained and I also know how he'll attack the rehab and train. He'll be back, not this season, but I know he'll be back."
It was a similar feeling for his offensive line teammates, Joe Alt and Trey Pipkins III, who said Friday they had since talked to Slater since it occurred.
But even though it's a tough situation to go through, they have the confidence in their teammate to get through it.
"It's extremely tough. Rashawn is a tough guy, so he's going to get through it, he's going to come back stronger," Pipkins said. "The way he works, that's always how he's going to be so we can take solace in that. But it's always tough, you never want to see something like that happen."
Alt added: "Obviously it's tough, but we know Rashawn. He's going to attack recovery, he works incredibly hard. Our job now is go out there, do the best we can. That's our goal as an offensive line, grow closer together and really trust one another and move forward."
It's a similar message that Harbaugh echoed as the team moves forward without the veteran.
"I know my team, so I know they're going to step up," Harbaugh said. "I don't go with the cliché, would be embarrassed to tell them next man up or we all have to step up even more when you have a great player that is lost for the season.
"Wouldn't embarrass with telling them that because I know they're going to do it," Harbaugh added. "And that's what you do, you just do it. I know they will."
Of course, this now means the Chargers offensive line will go through a bit of a shuffle in the lieu of Slater's absence.
Harbaugh said Friday that the Chargers best five, from left to right, are Alt, Zion Johnston, Bradley Bozeman, Mekhi Becton and Pipkins.
It's the group they'll roll with as it stands from this point forward.
"That's where we'll start," Harbaugh said. "Nothing is set in stone, but that's where we're at."
With Alt shifting to the left tackle spot, he reverts back to the position he knows well.
The No. 5 overall pick in last year's draft spent his collegiate career manning down the quarterback's blind side before moving to the right side in his rookie season.
He impressed on the right side, posting a 94.3 percent pass-block win rate, according to ESPN, which was the fourth-highest mark among offensive tackles in the regular season.
Harbaugh had nothing but high praise for what Alt can do now switching sides in his second season.
"He's one of our top guys, elite player on the team," Harbaugh said. "Great player. He's been ascending as much as anybody on the team. People ask me, 'Who's the most improved guy?' It could be Joe Alt, and he was really good last year.
"He's really trained and doing a heck of a job," Harbaugh said.
Alt does also have some NFL experience at left tackle as he suited up at that position in Week 18 last year against the Raiders.
The result? A game where he allowed zero pressures and had the sixth-best Pro Football Focus pass blocking grade (83.7) of the week among all tackles.
"I've played both sides now, I've played right and played left, so I'm comfortable on both," Alt said. "It just breaks down to reps, repeated reps.
"Making sure muscle memory is there and really the quickness I got to do out of my stance is what I have to work on," Alt added.
The team has full confidence that Alt will continue to approach this task just like he has every step of the way in his young NFL career.
"Joe is a competitor, he's just like Rashawn," Pipkins said. "He'll attack any opportunity you give him. He's going to be great, he's as confident as he can be.
"He played it in college and he's just going to go back out there and get after it," Pipkins added.
On the other side, this also elevates Pipkins to a potential starting role after entering camp as the projected swing tackle.
Pipkins has played roughly 3,000 career snaps at tackle and returns to the right tackle after starting there for the Bolts in 31 games between 2022 and 2023, as well as two games last season.
"He really is one of our best guys that trains and plays," Harbaugh said about Pipkins. "Really glad to have him, he's here.
"His best position is tackle and that move was made earlier this whole offseason," Harbaugh added. "A ton of confidence, all the confidence in the world in Trey."
It doesn't change his mindset though, as he continues to attack it like he always would in his return to a position he's very familiar with.
"Just doing what I usually do, attacking it how I always attack it, working on things I want to work on," Pipkins said. "Just going out there and doing the best I can."
"I think I'll always have a chip on my shoulder, whether I come into a season starting, whether I come into the season as a backup. Whatever it is, I think that's just kind of how I am."
There's no doubt the loss of Slater brings adjustments, something the Bolts will have just under a month to make before Week 1.
But Alt, Pipkins and the rest of the offensive line are focused on uplifting Slater in the best way they can — by putting it out all there on the field.
"I think that's kind of a given within the offensive line room. We're brothers," Alt said. "You have someone go down and the goal is to play five as one and that's the only way we can do it and that's by moving forward and playing the best we can to do what he would want us to do."
Pipkins added: "Just honoring him with how we play, that's what he would want, that's what would make him proud. Give him comfort in how well we're going to play."
