{"id":648393,"date":"2026-01-02T15:32:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T15:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/648393\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T15:32:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T15:32:16","slug":"3-chargers-players-to-watch-against-broncos-in-week-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/648393\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Chargers Players to Watch Against Broncos in Week 18"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Chargers will be on the road in Denver to end the regular season.<\/p>\n<p>The Bolts will face the Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High in Week 18. <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chargers.com\/news\/2025-week-18-broncos-where-to-watch-listen-livestream\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Kickoff is scheduled<\/a> for 1:25 p.m. (PT).<\/p>\n<p>Here are three players to watch on Sunday:<\/p>\n<p>\n  1. QB Trey Lance<\/p>\n<p>Lance is prepping for his first regular-season start with the Bolts.<\/p>\n<p>The Chargers backup will be up to <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chargers.com\/news\/trey-lance-justin-herbert-week-18-broncos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">start Sunday in Denver<\/a>, as Chargers Head Coach <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chargers.com\/team\/coaches-roster\/jim-harbaugh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jim Harbaugh<\/a> announced Monday <a class=\"nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline\" style=\"word-break: break-word\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chargers.com\/news\/justin-herbert-broncos-out-jim-harbaugh-week-18\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Justin Herbert will not play<\/a> in the regular-season finale.<\/p>\n<p>This sets up Lance to get his sixth career start. He&#8217;s appeared in 15 games throughout his NFL career, throwing for 1,153 passing yards, five touchdowns and four interceptions to go along with 292 rushing yards and a touchdown.<\/p>\n<p>With his limited playing experience across his five years as a pro, Week 18 could be a big chance for him moving forward.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been great. Really excited for him, great opportunity,&#8221; Chargers Offensive Coordinator Greg Roman said. &#8220;This guy is a great, great guy to work with. I feel like he does everything he can to support Justin and Justin is doing the same thing for him this week.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It will be fun to get out there and do some different stuff with him,&#8221; Roman added.<\/p>\n<p>Lance has appeared in three games for the Chargers this season, including a Week 13 game against the Raiders where he stepped in for eight snaps while Herbert was out.<\/p>\n<p>And Sunday will also be his first start since last year&#8217;s Week 18 game as a member of the Cowboys where he threw for 224 yards and added 26 on the ground.<\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old won the backup job after an offseason competition and now heads into Denver with a full week of preparation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think he&#8217;s going to play really well. It is a great opportunity,&#8221; Roman said. &#8220;What else could you ask for in his position, an opportunity to go out all week, be the starter, go out on gameday, lead us. Couldn&#8217;t happen to a better guy either.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Really excited for him, his diligence, he&#8217;s a team-oriented guy all the way. Very supportive of his teammates,&#8221; Roman added. &#8220;Very intent on the game plan this week, so really looking forward to it and excited for him.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chargers will be on the road in Denver to end the regular season. The Bolts will face&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2064],"tags":[86370,37,241,7,34,38,1014,262,77161,2444,2443,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-648393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-chargers","8":"tag-3-players-to-watch-ticketmaster","9":"tag-app-homepage","10":"tag-chargers","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-homepage-cp","13":"tag-homepage-headlines","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","16":"tag-los-angeles-chargers-at-denver-broncos-2025-reg-18","17":"tag-losangeles","18":"tag-losangeleschargers","19":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115826232475177593","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}