Static from around the Web

by Brian (DaBolts) on Feb 3, 2009 7:43 AM PST

Revenge of the Birds has a video of James Harrison in the Super Bowl; the Cardinals fans thought he ought to have been tossed. Also a piece on the review that didn't happen near the games end.

Notes on a super Super Bowl. Cardinals fans welcome home their team. The Boss was playing half time.

Football Outsiders takes a look at who did what to whom.

Jamal Williams gets a DUI (HT Richard). I sure would like to see the Chargers sit these guys at least a few games at the beginning of the season. This is especially disappointing in someone with this much experience who ought to be providing leadership.

An in depth look at the 3-4 by someone with some coaching experience. Hoosier Teacher over at MileHighReport really knows football.

SBN is relaunching its own draft site, check it out. Apart from the fact they have us taking a running back, I like WalterFootball too. They have a nice database of mock drafts across the web too.

No way to get around it; San Diego's offensive line was average to bad. Guess what, so was the defensive line. If football gets won in the trenches; this has to get addressed in the off season.

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The Offensive Line

Although the offensive line wasn’t fantastic this year, there will be no huge changes. Dielman, McNeil and Hardwick are all former pro bowlers (im not positive about Hardwick). they’re all under contract for a few more years. now, i have a few ideas of why the o-line played so poorly and how they can improve, but that doesn’t matter.

what AJ is going to do is to try and fill at least one hole on the right side. if he can get a RG through the draft or free agency, he may keep Clary at RT or even put him in competition with Corey Clark for the job. in reality, Clary wasn’t THAT bad this year. sure the running game wasn’t what it once was, but when the running game was great it had more to do with us running behind Dielman and McNeil than anyting else. also, i don’t remember seeing Clary getting beaten an inordinate amount of times this season. now, if AJ finds a RT through the draft or free agency that he prefers (Shelton is an option) he’ll probably allow for Clary, Clark and Mruczkowski to battle for that spot.

i think as far as the line goes, the mentality of the team (and it’s one i agree with) is that we’re a player short on both sides. Castillo needs to get healthier and a 3rd good D-lineman would certainly take pressure off of the other two. a good RG or RT allows us to upgrade over Goff (who was getting paid too much also) and hopefully Dielman, McNeil and Hardwick all come back healthy next year.

by John Gennaro on Feb 3, 2009 8:10 AM PST reply actions

Castillo

Has needed to “get healthier” for 4 years. I think the only way to get that position healthier, is to have someone else play it.

1-10-DEN 18 (9:52) (Shotgun) 6-J.Cutler pass short right intended for 19-E.Royal INTERCEPTED by 93-L.Castillo (95-S.Phillips) at DEN 18. 93-L.Castillo to DEN 14 for 4 yards (62-C.Wiegmann). 6-J.Cutler pouts ob to DEN 25 for 11 yards.

by Wonko on Feb 3, 2009 9:41 AM PST up reply actions

maybe, but...

in the 3-4 the linemen are key. do you really think there’s a way we could upgrade BOTH defensive end positions this offseason?

my stance right now is to try and replace Igor and give Castillo one more year to live up to what he showed us in 2006 (9 starts, 7 sacks, 1 int) and to stay healthy. Keep in mind that he’s still only 25 years old. If he could find a way to stay on the field and be the pass-rushing force he can be, we could have a rock in a very important position for 5-10 years.

Igor is only 26, but has never shown that he’s capable of being an exceptional pass rusher or run stopper. He’s mediocre and would make for an OK backup, but there’s nothing that makes me think that he could start on this defense for 5-10 years.

by John Gennaro on Feb 3, 2009 10:20 AM PST up reply actions

I agree we can't replace him this year because of Igor leaving

But expecting/hoping him to stay healthy is foolish. Because he can’t do it. The fact that he’s 25 years old is all the more reason why. His body is only getting older so its less likely to get healthier.

by Wonko on Feb 3, 2009 11:48 AM PST up reply actions

you can't crush my optomism with your FACTS!

i’ll come back at you with this…..up until this point his body has still been growing. around 25 is right when it stops. maybe that’s been the problem all along, hmmm?

there have been some cases where players who were injury-prone suddenly became drastically less injury-prone. it’s rare, but it happens. it’s usually attributed to finding a new doctor or training technique. two examples off the top of my head (that i’ll probably regret in 5 minutes): Jody Gerut and Shaquille O’Neal. i know, i know, they’re not football players, but it’s happened in football. i just know it has.

/crosses fingers

by John Gennaro on Feb 3, 2009 12:39 PM PST up reply actions

Fair Enough

But Castillo did end up playing 15 games last year. The other two injuries were high ankle sprains; I don’t think they tend to recur like knee or groin injuries do. Bad backs can go either way; but I’m like obviousman and hoping for the best. They have too much guaranteed money invested to think about letting him go before at least two or three seasons I think.

"Football is a physical sport, sometimes you have a disagreement on what's going on, and you have a discussion about it." Kris Dielman

by Brian (DaBolts) on Feb 3, 2009 4:58 PM PST up reply actions

Actually

You’d save a lot of money if you cut him now (not that I’m saying we should). His contract was 5y/$43.1M with $17.5 in signing bonuses and roster bonuses. So that makes the real contract $25.6M over 5 years. The original signing bonus was $6.15M, a sunk cost, already paid. He’s due another roster bonus before the 2009 season and the 2010 one. If we assume that he made $5M in 2008 (although he probably made less than that since these contracts are usually backloaded), then the Chargers have only paid $11.15M of the $43.1M. They could save at least $32M if they cut him today. It would affect the cap, but by no means would cutting him hurt the Chargers financially as wasimplied.

by Wonko on Feb 4, 2009 8:46 AM PST up reply actions

I think what he meant is....

we’ve given Castillo a lot of money thusfar with hopes that he’ll eventually reach his potential. We’ve technically overpaid him in hopes that he eventually gets rid of the injury bug and becomes a force. Because we’ve overpaid him for something that’s not yet happened, we’ve “invested” quite a bit in him to just give up now.

Remember again that he’s 25 and a lot of people criticize the Chargers for giving up on Seau and Harrison too early (different situation, but still). If we cut him, then he signs with the Broncos and tortures us for 10 years, we’re screwed.

by John Gennaro on Feb 4, 2009 10:49 AM PST up reply actions

In finances

If you’ve already spent the money, its a sunk cost. You can’t agree to pay more money just because you’ve already paid a certain amount. Think of it like gambling, you shouldn’t continue to gamble just because you lost money. You should only continue if you are willing to lose the future money based on the odds of the gamble.

So, basically, the only reason to keep Castillo is if you can afford to spend the money you have promised and you believe he will fulfill the expectations that come with it. You don’t keep him just because you’ve already spent money on him. Since NFL contracts don’t guarantee future money, the Chargers have nothing “invested” in Castillo. They will never see a return on that money so they should only evaluate based on the future money they will spend on him.

by Wonko on Feb 4, 2009 11:23 AM PST up reply actions

Right

You don’t throw good money after bad, but the contract has 18 million in money he will get no matter what; I think about 5 million is owed next year, 2 the year after that. So you could save 25 million by cutting him, the question becomes can you get a better Free Agent 3-4 lineman for 5 million/year for the next five years; and actually the next two years are probably less with the guaranteed money.

"Football is a physical sport, sometimes you have a disagreement on what's going on, and you have a discussion about it." Kris Dielman

by Brian (DaBolts) on Feb 4, 2009 1:09 PM PST up reply actions

I don't think you are interpreting the guaranteed money correctly

Most of that money is roster bonuses where he would have to be on the roster to get it. If he’s cut, he doesn’t get that money. The reason they call it “guaranteed money” is for cap purposes. For cap purposes all guaranteed money is split evenly amongst the years of the contract. In Castillo’s case $17.5 over 5 years, so each year $3.5 is counted for him against the cap. If he were released that would get accelerated to the current cap year, so he would count at least $14 million in cap space for the 2009 season. So that’s why you wouldn’t release him. But, like I said before, they wouldn’t owe him another dime if they released him today, so they would still save at least $32 million from their payroll. It’s just that those salary cap implications would cause a lot more problems than just replacing at 3-4 DE at less than $8 Million a year (you said 5, I think it’s 8).

by Wonko on Feb 4, 2009 5:01 PM PST up reply actions

Not Sure

For instance here is something on Derek Anderson’s contract that says the roster bonus is guaranteed even if he is cut. It might depend on how Castillo’s contract is written. Of course they use the term ‘fully guaranteed’ when talking about Anderson; maybe that’s the difference.

"Football is a physical sport, sometimes you have a disagreement on what's going on, and you have a discussion about it." Kris Dielman

by Brian (DaBolts) on Feb 5, 2009 8:11 AM PST up reply actions