Coach: Antho­ny Lynn. A for­mer Bron­cos play­er (1997–99) and assis­tant coach (2000–02), the 56-year old Lynn worked on the staffs of six teams before the Charg­ers hired him in 2017. In three years, he is 26–22 with Los Ange­les (1–1 playoffs).

Last year’s record: 5–11 (fourth in AFC West). A 12-win team in 2018, the Charg­ers tum­bled to the bot­tom of the divi­sion thanks to three los­ing streaks of three games and an inabil­i­ty to win close games (2–9 in one-pos­ses­sion contests).

Offen­sive play-caller: Shane Ste­ichen. He was pro­mot­ed from quar­ter­backs coach to inter­im coor­di­na­tor last Octo­ber to replace Ken Whisen­hunt and received the full-time job after the sea­son. The Charg­ers went 2–6 after the switch. The 35-year-old Ste­ichen has spent nine of his 10 NFL sea­sons as a coach with the Chargers.

Quar­ter­back sit­u­a­tion: Equal parts cer­tain and uncer­tain. The Philip Rivers Era end­ed when the Charg­ers decid­ed to let him sign with Indi­anapo­lis. Tyrod Tay­lor is cer­tain to start in Week 1 but uncer­tain is when first-round pick Justin Her­bert will debut.

Tay­lor, 31, backed up Joe Flac­co in Bal­ti­more, and went 23–21 (0–1 play­offs) for Buf­fa­lo before the Bills draft­ed Josh Allen. He was 1–1‑1 for Cleve­land before it moved to John­ny Manziel as the starter and was the Charg­ers’ back­up last year.

Tay­lor is smart with the foot­ball (54 touchdowns/20 inter­cep­tions) and will get all of his skill play­ers involved.

Her­bert, the sixth over­all pick in April, was 29–14 as the starter at Ore­gon (95 touchdowns/22 inter­cep­tions). It’s only a mat­ter of time before he takes over.

Help­ing the quar­ter­back: Tay­lor and Her­bert can lean on two sol­id receivers — Keenan Allen had 104 catch­es for 1,119 yards last year and Mike Williams aver­aged 20.1 yards on 49 catch­es (1,001 yards).

Tight end Hunter Hen­ry returned from his 2018 knee injury to catch 55 pass­es for 652 yards and five touch­downs. He is play­ing on the fran­chise tag.

The Charg­ers acquired Pro Bowl right guard Trai Turn­er from the Car­oli­na Pan­thers to help solid­i­fy the offen­sive line.

Three key questions

1. Is Austin Ekel­er ready for a prime-time role?

For­mer start­ing run­ning back Melvin Gor­don is now with the Bron­cos, allow­ing Ekel­er to be the lead rush­er in addi­tion to one of the league’s top pass-catch­ing backs. Ekel­er, a Col­orado native, rushed 132 times for 557 yards (three touch­downs) and caught 92 pass­es for 933 yards (eight touch­downs) last sea­son, after which he signed a four-year, $24.5 mil­lion contract.

2. How does cor­ner­back Chris Har­ris fit in with the defense?

Har­ris cit­ed “fit” as the main rea­son he signed with the Charg­ers. It will be bizarre to see Har­ris in a Los Ange­les uni­form against the Bron­cos. Har­ris made four Pro Bowls with the Bron­cos and start­ed 121 games.

Har­ris joins a Charg­ers defense that will have him line up oppo­site Casey Hay­ward on base downs and then move inside to cov­er the slot receiv­er on sub-pack­age downs. The Charg­ers had only 11 inter­cep­tions last year, tied for 22nd in the league.

3. Will the offen­sive line addi­tions make a difference?

As long as every­body stays healthy, the line should be improved.

Last year, the Charg­ers start­ed three left tack­les, two right guards, three cen­ters and two right tack­les. Only right guard Michael Schofield start­ed every game and he wasn’t re-signed (now with Car­oli­na). Rebuild­ing the line began by trad­ing left tack­le Rus­sell Okung to Car­oli­na for Turn­er (right guard) and con­tin­ued by sign­ing Green Bay right tack­le Bryan Bula­ga and get­ting cen­ter Mike Pouncey back from neck surgery.

The Charg­ers will keep Dan Feeney at left guard and have sec­ond-year man Trey Pip­kins start at left tackle.