{"id":165047,"date":"2025-09-24T01:14:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T01:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/165047\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T01:14:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T01:14:08","slug":"nfl-power-rankings-los-angeles-chargers-crash-into-top-5-following-3-0-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/165047\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Power Rankings: Los Angeles Chargers crash into top 5 following 3-0 start"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/ca\/nfl\/los-angeles-chargers\/news\/examining-los-angeles-chargers-options-edge-after-placing-khalil-mack-ir\/4bc2e5b10d355791ca8ba068\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Los Angeles Chargers<\/a> had a shaky offseason and the season-ending injury to Rashawn Slater in training camp seemed like an incredibly bad omen before the season even started. But Jim Harbaugh&#8217;s team is rolling through the first three games.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In three games, the Chargers have accomplished much more than a 3-0 start. It&#8217;s the <a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/ca\/nfl\/los-angeles-chargers\/news\/when-was-last-time-los-angeles-chargers-started-season-3-0\/3f5100c0ffe315b6bbe63437\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">first time the team has started 3-0 in 23 years<\/a> and, perhaps even more impressively, they are the first team since the <a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/ca\/nfl\/los-angeles-chargers\/news\/los-angeles-chargers-are-great-company-after-pulling-rare-feat\/54e945ef044665be99f56b42\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">2006 Chicago Bears<\/a> to start 3-0 with all three wins coming against divisional opponents.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Led by early MVP candidate Justin Herbert, the Chargers look like one of the best teams in the league and <a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/ca\/nfl\/news\/nfl-power-rankings-49ers-chargers-colts-packers-broncos\/045100e30e15c4afd1d2d2a0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Vinnie Iyer of The Sporting News<\/a> is taking notice. Iyer left the Chargers outside his top 5 last week, but couldn&#8217;t ignore their Week 3 victory over the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/ca\/nfl\/denver-broncos\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Denver Broncos<\/a>. That vaulted them into the No. 4 spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The\u00a0Chargers\u00a0are a complete, balanced team with all the mental and physical toughness working at a high level for Jim Harbaugh. Between Harbaugh, (Justin) Herbert and (Omarion) Hampton, their H on offense also stands for heart&#8221;, wrote Iyer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The only teams that were ranked ahead of the Chargers were the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/ca\/nfl\/philadelphia-eagles\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Philadelphia Eagles<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/ca\/nfl\/buffalo-bills\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Buffalo Bills<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/ca\/nfl\/san-francisco-49ers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">San Francisco 49ers<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Harbaugh will help keep his team grounded while pursuing the ultimate goal of winning the Super Bowl. In addition to Slater, the team has some early injury concerns that are fairly significant with Khalil Mack and <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NFL\/status\/1970226728925847726\" rel=\"nofollow\">Najee Harris<\/a>. If the team can properly navigate those, they could get to the top spot in these rankings&#8230; and the top spot in the league.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>MORE CHARGERS CONTENT<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/ca\/nfl\/los-angeles-chargers\/news\/najee-harris-injury-should-bring-2024-draft-pick-back-forefront-chargers\/a7142b6e9f4f7102812176d9\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Najee Harris injury should bring 2024 draft pick back to forefront for the Chargers<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/ca\/nfl\/los-angeles-chargers\/news\/los-angeles-chargers-top-takeaways-week-3-win-over-broncos\/a4ee486d22bf41687fe511f1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Los Angeles Chargers: Top takeaways from Week 3 win over Broncos<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/ca\/nfl\/los-angeles-chargers\/news\/los-angeles-chargers-sitting-2-0-despite-perceived-strength-being-biggest-weakness\/ec700dc6ddaafbe5305f717e\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Los Angeles Chargers sitting at 2-0 despite perceived strength being biggest weakness<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/ca\/nfl\/los-angeles-chargers\/news\/nfl-power-rankings-new-rankings-show-la-chargers-be-legit-contenders\/fd4c3dd18a061635304bb001\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NFL Power Rankings: New rankings show L.A. Chargers to be legit contenders\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/ca\/nfl\/los-angeles-chargers\/news\/los-angeles-chargers-fans-urged-sell-playoff-odds-due-rough-luck-past\/856d1330e355a71edac21b55\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Los Angeles Chargers&#8217; fans urged to sell playoff odds due to rough luck in the past<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Chargers had a shaky offseason and the season-ending injury to Rashawn Slater in training camp&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":["post-165047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}