Scifres – I counted alternates
Pinnock – updated
Krause – right you are, even started a single game
Dobbins – technically started 8 games (according to nfl.com) – updated
Tucker – missed three games mid season and seemed to share time a lot. I’m leaving him
Applewhite – how could I have missed him???

It’s really too bad Shane couldn’t have kept himself together. He was an above average RT when he had his wits about him. We wouldn’t be talking about taking an OT with our #1 pick this year if he hadn’t melted down.

*Doesn’t count

Signing old guys who their original team no longer wants and thinking that they will fix the team is less arrogant than trying to bring in young talented guys to learn your system while they are still in their prime?

Signing marginal players to long terms isn’t arrogance either. These are the guys that add depth to your roster. By signing them to long term deals you keep them from becoming free agents, which would make the team either start over with building depth through the draft or go get expensive free agents to be backups.

This isn’t arrogance. It’s cap management. Pay your star players premium. Pay your other starters and backups a pittance.

Missing on a draft pick isn’t arrogance. It happens. As long as he hits more than misses, you’re in good shape. We had a need for a pass catching fullback (wathcing LoNeal block was great, but watching him try to catch the ball out of the backfield was painful) so we drafted Hester (I thought his blocking was coming around in the last few games). We had a need at safety so Weddle was chosen. I think the jury is still out on both of them, but they are promising. I don’t think there is any question that we gave up a lot for them. Whether it is too much will be judged in a few years.

Do we have holes? Sure, everyone does. I don’t know that I would call LT and Sproles a “gaping” hole, in fact it is probably one of our strongest positions. LB is fine, Merriman, Cooper, and Phillips are pro bowl caliber and we just got a promising FA. So we have holes at OL, DE, and Safety. We can deal with those.

But I think the lack of production last year was due more to bad OL play and LT’s injuries than a lack of talent. I think 75% of the league would swap their RB situation for ours in a second. I don’t know that I would call it a “hole”, and I think its probably upside is pretty high.

I don’t think that anyone disagrees that we gave up too much for Hester and Weddle. That being said, Hester was a rookie and Weddle was in his first year of starting (second year overall) on a defense that underperformed everywhere. I’d give them one more year before writing them off.

I’d even go so far as to say that if AJ continues to trade multiple picks to move up in the second and third rounds, we’ve got a problem. I start to have Beathard flashbacks. Even the Cromartie pick was a little Beathard-esque, but it worked out.

Olivea ($3.2 M/year) and Castillo ($8.9 M / year) and Wilhelm ($3M / year) were all starters when given their contracts. Castillo’s seems a bit ridiculous and he definately underperformed last year. The other two are reasonable numbers for starters (Olivea’s looks worse since he melted down). Tucker was signed to a $3M/year contract as Merriman’s backup after stepping in nicely two years ago during Merriman’s suspension and as insurance against Merriman leaving. Despite Tucker’s poor year, I still think its a relatively good risk mitigation signing.

Rivers and Merriman are both going to get big contracts when they get them (whoever gives them to them). It makes sense to try and wait until the last year for these two. I bet Rivers is signed before camp. And I think the franchise tag gets used on Merriman. If we don’t get a new CBA, he’ll actually be a restricted free agent, so we can tender him at a relatively low number.

If the Chargers could have signed these guys to long term deals, they would have. Their agents are smart and are trying to get maximum value out of these guys. It’s a gamble because they have to perform in their contract years, but it if they do then it will mean huge paydays for both. I guarantee you that the Chargers have tried to tie these guys up with contracts that would be nothing to sneeze at. Their agents (and the players they represent) just think they can get more and at some point the Chargers will pay it.

In both cases the players were backups that the team saw promise in. They signed them to small money contracts in order to guarantee that they would develop as Chargers. In Wilhelm’s case he earned a starting job and got paid less than starter money. Turns out, the team can probably upgrade his position and not have to worry about cutting or trading him because he’s very affordable. That provides depth. Is it an awesome, team-defining, championship winning move? No. But it was a quality move. Tucker has the same scenario, only instead of earning a starting spot, he was thrown in there and isn’t quite ready for prime time. That’s fine. He’s not breaking the bank either.