Chargers say Mike Williams may miss entire season

The Chargers will be without rookie wide receiver Mike Williams for all of training camp, but he may be sidelined much longer than that.

After being injured during rookie minicamp, there has been conflicting reports Los Angeles Chargers rookie wide receiver Mike Williams will need back surgery or not. The team has already ruled him out for training camp, and head coach Anthony Lynn did not seem incredibly optimistic beyond that.

"“He’s doing well in rehab, and when he’s healthy, he’s healthy,” Lynn said. “We can’t control that.”"

When asked more specifically about Williams possibly having a season-ending injury, Lynn was honest.

"“I’m hopeful that it’s not, but who knows?” Lynn said. “It could be. I don’t know. You’d like to have him out [there], but fortunately we have depth at that position and we’re going to be OK.”"

The Chargers drafted Williams seventh overall in April’s draft, but as Lynn alluded to they have good depth at wide receiver. Assuming Keenan Allen is all the way back from a torn ACL and can resume his role as a top target for Philip Rivers, the Chargers have Tyrell Williams, Dontrelle Inman and Travis Benjamin to further fill out the depth chart. So Mike Williams was going to have an uphill battle to earn a prominent and consistent role anyway, and his back issue is delaying the start to that process.

Williams was actually on the field Sunday, and he was captured doing some light post-practice work on a JUGS machine.

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Williams being on the practice field at all is a good sign, even if he’s a long way from putting on pads and being a full participant. His status for Week 1 is even more up in the air than it was before though, and Williams seems sure to at least start the regular season on the PUP list.