They really miss Guyton. The lid is always on this offense without people who can stretch defenses.
IMO this really highlights bad roster construction decisions. In 2021, the Chargers had Allen at WR1, Williams at WR2, and Guyton at WR3, yet drafted WR Palmer in the 3rd round, despite the fact that his skill set doesn't really provide anything they didn't already have in Allen and Williams (e.g., deep speed, elite athleticism).
The only way that seemed to make sense was that the Chargers viewed him as a replacement for either Allen or Williams. So I expected they would let Williams walk rather than signing him to a big contract or franchising him. That plan would have Palmer slotting in for Williams in his second season, and Guyton would still have provided speed as WR3.
Then the team signed Williams for $20M/year. And Palmer surpassed Guyton to become WR3 entering the season. Meaning the team doesn't really have a deep threat among its top 3 WRs, who naturally get most of the WR snaps when healthy. I mean, Allen and Williams can go deep successfully, but neither has true deep speed, so neither is taking the top off the defense.
The team also chose to release Tyron Johnson in final cutdowns in 2021, which was a big surprise to me. He was another WR with great speed. He hasn't done anything since then, so maybe that was the right decision, but he sure seemed to develop strong chemistry with Herbert down the stretch in 2020.
This just seems like a poor allocation of resources, whether that suggests they shouldn't have drafted Palmer (or any WR in 2021) or that they shouldn't have allocated the cap space to re-sign Williams. I like Williams, and I root for him of course, but I did not think that was a wise decision to sign him, given what they had on the roster already and all of the others needs/priorities.
Seems like Carter doesn't even get to try deep routes though I'd think he's a candidate - is he incapable?
Carter has enough speed to get deep (4.44 at pro day in 2015), but a problem with him is he is small. He is listed at 5'8", 188 lbs, whereas Guyton is listed at 6'1", 212 lbs and has longer arms and bigger hands. Guyton is also faster (4.39 at pro day in 2019), despite being considerably bigger. So it stands to reason that Carter wouldn't be as good as a deep threat.