What Danny Woodhead Injury Means for San Diego Chargers' Offense

The San Diego Chargers picked up a huge road win against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.

Unfortunately, the team lost a very important piece of its offense in the process.

Running back Danny Woodhead was carted off of the playing field in the first quarter against the Bills and did not return. It appears that he won't be returning at any point this season, either.

According to Fox Sports' Alex Marvez, Woodhead suffered a severe high ankle sprain and a fractured fibula. Surgery will likely end his 2014 campaign.

This is a significant loss for San Diego for a number of reasons, the first being that the Chargers are already without starting back Ryan Mathews. Mathews suffered a sprained MCL against the Seattle Seahawks a week ago and may be out for another three or four weeks, according to NFL.com's Gregg Rosenthal.

The good news is that the Chargers will play three of their next four games at home and will play two teams that currently sit without a win.

San Diego will host the Jacksonville Jaguars and the New York Jets before making a short road trip to face the Oakland Raiders in Week 6. They will then host the Kansas City Chiefs the following week.

The Jets field the most imposing defense of the bunch (ranked third in the NFL in yards allowed), and both the Chiefs and Jaguars rank in the bottom third in total defense.

This is a favorable stretch for San Diego. The team should have a realistic chance of coming out of it with a 5-1 or 4-2 record, even with Woodhead and Mathews out.

Of course, it is never good for a team to be down two players at the same position. It is especially problematic for the Chargers because Woodhead has proved that he can be a reliable safety valve for quarterback Philip Rivers.

The former New England Patriots standout hauled in an impressive 76 passes for 605 yards and six touchdowns last season. 

Att	Yds	Avg	Rec	Rec Yds	Total TD
387	1,731	4.47	181	1,708	8

According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Woodhead was the second-best pass-catching back in the league last season, behind only Darren Sproles. He was also third in the league among backs with an average of 2.02 yards per route run.

Through the first two weeks of this season, Woodhead was ranked as the seventh-best running back in the passing game by Pro Football Focus.

Woodhead's skill set makes him a dangerous weapon in third-down and passing situations. Trying to replace that weapon isn't going to be an easy task.

Former Indianapolis Colts starter Donald Brown will likely get the bulk of the work with Mathews and Woodhead out. While Brown has shown flashes of greatness at times in his career, he isn't the same threat as a pass-catcher as Woodhead.

Including Sunday, Brown has logged just 96 career receptions. That's only 20 more than Woodhead racked up in 2013.

Undrafted rookie Branden Oliver saw little action (three carries, 11 yards) after Woodhead's injury, even though Brown averaged just two yards per carry on 31 attempts.

It's hard to imagine the young Buffalo product stepping up and filling Woodhead's role. The Chargers shouldn't expect to just find a player of Woodhead's caliber on the free-agent scrap pile either.

Adjusting the playbook to rely less on receptions coming out of the backfield seems like the better option for San Diego. Rivers can turn to tight ends Antonio Gates and Ladarius Green as his safety outlets. Rivers has excellent chemistry with both players and shouldn't have much trouble trusting them in critical situations.

However, the threat of having a playmaking receiver in the backfield is a valuable tool that the Chargers are definitely going to miss for what will likely be the remainder of the season.