Bad news for Chargers
Linebacker Perryman will be out 2-3 months with ankle injury.
The Chargers put a heavy emphasis on injury prevention in the offseason — overhauling their strength-andconditioning staff, examining practice schedules, recovery techniques and nutrition, and consulting other professional and college teams for advice — after ending the 2016 season with 21 players, many of them key starters, on injured reserve. So far, well, not so good. The defense took a significant hit Tuesday when Denzel Perryman, injured in Sunday night’s preseason opener against Seattle, underwent surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left ankle, a procedure that will sideline the middle linebacker for two to three months.
The Chargers had lost starting right guard Forrest Lamp for the season when the second-round pick out of Western Kentucky tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in the first week of training camp.
First-round pick Mike Williams, the former Clemson wide receiver, is still recovering from a herniated disk in his lower back, an injury he suffered in May, though there was some encouraging news about him Tuesday.
Williams has increased his activity level, adding cuts and sprints to the running he began last week, and coach Anthony Lynn said the seventh pick of the 2017 draft could begin practicing in about three weeks.
“It’s always a concern when you lose a player, especially a starter, but it’s football, so you’re going to have injuries,” Lynn said. “We try to prevent them as much as we can, but they’re still going to happen.”
Perryman suffered his injury in the first quarter of a 48-17 loss to the Seahawks when he planted his foot in the StubHub Center turf and tried to change direction in pass coverage while Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson was scrambling.
Perryman, 24, had 72 combined tackles, two sacks and one interception in 12 games, 11 of them starts, last season. He missed four games because of hamstring and knee injuries.
The 2015 second-round pick out of Miami had 73 tackles and two sacks in 14 games, nine of them starts, as a rookie.
“It’s a blow; it’s a position where we need depth,” Lynn said. “These young guys are going to have to step up and play a little bit.”
Reserves Korey Toomer, 28, and Nick Dzubnar, who turned 26 Tuesday, will compete for the starting middle linebacker job and assume bigger roles. Both got reps with the first-team defense during Tuesday’s light practice in Costa Mesa.
The 6-foot-2, 235-pound Toomer, who had four tackles Sunday night, appeared in 13 games with eight starts last season, recording 75 tackles and one sack.
A fifth-round pick out of Idaho by Seattle in 2012, Toomer played for Dallas, St. Louis and Oakland in 2014-15.
The 6-1, 240-pound Dzubnar, who played at Mission Viejo High School and Cal Poly, was a special-teams standout in 2015 who worked his way into the defensive rotation in 2016 before suffering a season-ending knee injury in the fourth game.
“Nick is a tough kid — he can tackle in space, and he has a real good feel for the defense,” Lynn said. “Toomer’s strength is he may be a little better athlete in the passing game. We’ll see. It’s a competition there right now.”
Toomer appears to have a slight edge for the starting job, but he is not taking anything for granted.
“It’s still preseason, it’s still a battle at that position,” he said. “It’s not just handed to me. It was never handed to me when I got here last year. I still have to go out and earn a spot. I’ve
got to put the work in.”
Dzubnar is more of a runstopper who worked hard this offseason to improve his coverage skills, which he displayed breaking up a pass in the end zone Tuesday. He feels comfortable in new defensive coordinator Gus Bradley’s 4-3, zone-heavy scheme because he played it in college.
“This is in my wheelhouse,” said Dzubnar, who signed as an undrafted free agent in 2015. “There’s a lot of zone drops, you keep your eyes on the quarterback, break and play the ball.
“It’s less matching of routes and more get to your spot, read the quarterback, break and drive. It’s all about instincts, about want to. It’s who’s going to get to the ball first and make the play.”
Etc.
Lynn on rookie cornerback Michael Davis, who was beat for completions of 27, 18, 28, 34 and 29 yards Sunday night: “He kind of got baptized by fire. We fully expect Mike to bounce back, but it’s a great opportunity to grow. He was right there in position to make some of those plays, and he didn’t. So he can watch the tape and learn, and he’s doing that now.” … Reserve running back Kenjon Barner is going through concussion protocol and did not practice Tuesday. … Reserve defensive end Jerry Attaochu remains sidelined by a hamstring injury. Lynn listed him Tuesday as “week to week.” … The Chargers added linebacker depth by signing Kyle Coleman, an Arkansas-Pine Bluff product who had offseason and trainingcamp stints with Seattle over the last year. The 6-foot, 231-pound Coleman is the son of former Washington Redskins linebacker Monte Coleman. To make roster room, the Chargers waived linebacker Mike Moore.