Eric D. Williams 9y

Bolts take the weekend off, look to get healthy

The San Diego Chargers have several players at different stages of working their way back to the field. Head coach Mike McCoy did not provide reporters at his Friday afternoon news conference much clarity on when any of those players will return.

After watching film on Friday, the Chargers will take the weekend off before returning to the practice field Monday.

After sitting out the loss to Denver on Thursday with a concussion, cornerback Brandon Flowers has a chance to clear the NFL protocol process and get back on the field at Miami.

Running back Donald Brown missed the past three weeks because he has not cleared the NFL protocol process for returning to the field from a concussion.

Fellow running back Ryan Mathews missed six games with an MCL knee sprain, but was seen running sprints during pregame workouts in Denver, and appears close to a return to the field.

Initial reports had Mathews returning in four to six weeks from his knee issue.

Inside linebacker Manti Te’o, out for the past five games with a broken foot, is walking without a limp and working with trainers on the field.

Fellow linebacker Melvin Ingram is on the injured reserve/designated to return with a hip issue. The earliest Ingram can return to the field is after the bye week against Oakland on Nov. 16. Ingram appears on track to meet that goal.

And rookie edge rusher Jeremiah Attaochu missed four games this season with a lingering hamstring injury, but with more rest and rehabilitation should be closer to being fully healthy.

The Chargers play just one game in the next 23 days, giving McCoy the prospect of having a healthier team down the back stretch of the season as his Chargers try to stop a two-game losing streak.

“I think the past couple weeks we just haven’t played well enough to win against two good football teams,” McCoy said. “Give Kansas City and Denver all of the credit. They beat us. We didn’t play good enough to win. But I think we’ll bounce back. We’ll have a great week of practice next week. We’ll put together a great plan and find a way to go down to Miami and win.”

McCoy addressed safety Jahleel Addae’s injury concerns from Thursday night’s game again on Friday. Addae twice went down during the Denver game with what appeared to be a shoulder stinger. McCoy confirmed that Addae suffered a stinger, not a concussion.

Addae said he went through a concussion test during the game and passed. McCoy said the team’s training staff and doctors monitored Addae throughout the game and believed there were no safety issues with the hard-hitting safety returning to the field.

“Like every player, regardless of what the injury is, you monitor him throughout the game,” McCoy said. “And that’s exactly what they did with Jahleel. From the first injury he was checked out and throughout the game, like every player. When something happens, every time you come to the sideline, there’s certain things.

“There’s a number of people in the medical fields, not just our training staff and our doctors. There’s someone up in the press box watching everything. There’s someone on our sideline that evaluates everybody. So he did like every other player does during the game.”

McCoy would not say if Addae will be healthy enough to play against Miami on Nov. 2.

McCoy also said he has not met with the training staff, so could not provide an update on the status of cornerback Jason Verrett. The former TCU standout re-injured a shoulder injury he suffered against the Raiders, and watched from the sidelines in the second half.

Verrett was questionable heading into the Denver game, but wound up starting. McCoy was asked if it was a mistake to play Verrett because of his shoulder issue.

“If he wasn’t ready to go, we wouldn’t have put him in there,” McCoy said. “So the answer is he was ready to go.”

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