Antonio Gates Injury: Chargers Will Be Fine Without Dynamic TE

The San Diego Chargers are facing a good news-bad news situation with the loss of star tight end Antonio Gates.

According to custom, we’ll start with the bad news first.

The bad news is that it looks like Gates will not be playing this Sunday against the Chiefs because of a foot injury, according to Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk:

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Not every high-profile player listed as questionable this weekend is a lock to play.  Per a source with knowledge of the situation, Chargers tight end Antonio Gates, officially questionable with a foot injury, will not play against the Chiefs.

Gates did not practice on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.

The “questionable” designation literally means that the player’s availability is a 50-50 proposition.  For Gates, it’s currently more like zero.

Gates missed six games last season due to injury.  Before that, he had played four full seasons without missing a single game.  Through the first seven years of his career, Gates played in all but three games.

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That’s the bad news, Chargers fans, and don’t get me wrong: It’s pretty bad news.

Anytime your star tight end goes out that has to be cause for concern, especially considering the fact that he missed a good chunk of the season last year with injury.

The good news is the Chargers aren’t going to need his services against a horrible Chiefs team.

The Chiefs have lost both their best offensive and defensive players in Eric Berry and Jamaal Charles.

They are decimated on both sides of the ball and just can’t seem to get anything going.

It’s simple equation for the Chargers; all they have to do is get ahead, and they should stay ahead.

The Chiefs defense is anemic so far this season. They’ve allowed an NFL-high 89 points in the first two games.

Week 1 brought on an apparent upset by the Buffalo Bulls, who rushed for 163 yards. The next week at Detroit they allowed 322 yards and four touchdowns from Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford.

Simply put, the Chiefs have problems on both sides of the ball, and the Chargers should have no problem getting an easy win, even without Gates.

The best thing the Chargers can do right now is keep Gates on the sideline and let him rest. They will need him healthy against much better teams.

They’ll be fine without him against the Kansas City Chiefs.