Albert Breer admits Chargers Super Bowl hype feels crazy. But the roster might back him up.

Training camp is almost here, and Albert Breer has spent the last few weeks trying to sort out what he actually thinks about every NFL team. He got to the Chargers and apparently surprised even himself.

In his latest piece for Sports Illustrated, Breer laid out a case for Los Angeles as a legitimate Super Bowl contender. And he knows how that sounds for a franchise that has been on the verge before, only to fall short. But he thinks this time might actually be different.

“Would I be nuts to pick the Chargers to go to the Super Bowl?” Breer wrote. “I know, I know. The Chargers have had these sorts of teams for a quarter century. Still, last year, they won 11 games, mostly without the two tackles that are the center of the team’s identity; they’re upgrading in a big way at tight end; they have young, rising talent at tailback and receiver; and the talent level on defense is really, really good.”

He also went big on Justin Herbert. Like, MVP-candidate big.

“I think Justin Herbert, with all this around him, should be an MVP candidate,” Breer wrote. “And that leaves me with replacing Jesse Minter with Chris O’Leary as DC as the biggest question going into camp. Health-allowing, the Rams won’t be the only team threatening to make Super Bowl LXI a home game.”

The Chargers went 11-6 last season in Jim Harbaugh’s second year. And yeah, injuries wrecked the offensive line at times, making life harder than it should have been for Herbert. That health issue is something Breer didn’t mention as a potential red flag, but it’s real. Losing tackles for stretches hurt them.

Now the offensive line is healthier. They added help at tight end. The skill positions have young guys who look ready to take another step. And the defense? Breer called it “really, really good.” Hard to argue with that.

The biggest question mark might be replacing defensive coordinator Jesse Minter with Chris O’Leary. That’s a significant change for a unit that played well last season. But if the defense holds up and Herbert stays upright, this roster has top-end talent at almost every spot.

Los Angeles opens the season at home against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 1. That’ll be the first real look at whether the hype is real or just another case of Chargers optimism getting ahead of itself.