San Diego Chargers 2010 Draft Grades

but that’s not my real point. Beathard was a moron. Beathard was a TERRIBLE GM. Beathard was the brainard behind the disastrous drafts of the mid to late 90’s. You might remember them—

Beathard’s first draft was in ’92: 1st rounder, unspectacular DE Chris Mims. He died a few years ago of heart trouble, was on welfare, and weighed 456 pounds. Second round: DB Marquez Pope, who went two picks before Darren Woodson. Third round— nothing special WR named Ray Ethridge. Next pick was in the 5th round, and it was center Curtis Whitley, who stuck for a few years and also died in 2008 of obesity-related causes. At the end of the 5th, we selected small-college TE Eric Jonassen, who was followed by DT Reggie White (not THAT Reggie White), unspectacular TE Deems May, DB James Miller, disposable WR Johnny Barnes, DT Arthur Paul, RB Keith McAfee, and kicker Carlos Huerta (who never played a down with the Chargers, but was excellent for a few years in the CFL) in the last twelve-round draft to date.

1993: First-rounder Darrien Gordon was a pretty good pick, but his best years came after he left the Chargers. In round two, we selected RB Natrone Means, who became a local legend. So it’s hard to quibble over those two. But in the third round, San Diego went with G Joe Cocozzo over future multiple-time Pro Bowlers Will Shields and John Lynch. We followed that pick with Raylee Johnson, who never really amounted to much, as did WR Walter Dunson, whom we drafted next. We rounded out the draft with mediocre DB Eric Castle, pedestrian LB Doug Miller (with stud Jessie Armstead going later to the Giants) and, surprisingly, Trent Green who saw no action in a Chargers uniform and did a stint in Canada before his first starting job.

1994, our greatest season, surely was begun with a great draft, right? Well… nope. We started the season by not having a first-round pick. At number 43, our round 2 pick, we brought in OG Isaac Davis; Larry Allen went at number 46. We also picked up guard Vaughn Parker at 63, when 65th overall pick Tim Ruddy was a solid starter for years in Miami and went to a Pro Bowl in 2001. In round three, we took WR Andre Coleman and DB Willie Clark, TE Aaron Laing in the 5th, and FINALLY connected on a pick when we took Rodney Harrison at 145th overall. He was easily the highlight of the draft— we picked up DE Darren Krein at #150, RB Tony Vinson at 160, and LB Zane Beehn at 207 (future Broncos stalwart Tom Nalen was still on the board, taken by Denver at #218). In the meantime, Kurt Warner, Jeff Garcia, and Rod Smith went undrafted.

In 1995, we didn’t have a first-rounder. Our first pick was in the second round at #34, with which we selected DB Terrance Shaw. Later in the round, we took RB Terrell Fletcher; Curtis Martin went two dozen picks later to New England. In the third, we took DT Don Sasa, followed by LBs Preston Harrison and Chris Cowart, and RB Aaron Hayden, WR Omar Ellison, G Troy Sienckiwicz, another WR named Brandon Harrison, and— at pick 197— famously awful QB Craig Whelihan. Guess who went before Whelihan? TERRELL DAVIS. We picked two lousy RBs, two scrub ’backers, a useless DT, an equally useless guard, and two bad recievers before a future Hall of Fame rusher. Beathard rounded out this symphony of idiocy by drafting DB Mark Montreuil in the 7th.

In 1996 we didn’t have a first-rounder. Shame, because we missed on an extremely deep class. With our second-rounder, we took WR Bryan Still— two picks ahead of Muhsin Muhammed. In the same round, we picked up linebacker Patrick Sapp; 11 selections later, Philly drafted Brian Dawkins. We followed that up with TE Brian Roche (8 ahead of TERRELL OWENS and 17 ahead of Donnie Edwards), WR Charlie Jones (who was drafted before Joe Horn), DT Junior Soli ahead of LaRoi Glover, OT Jim Mills ahead of OG Marco Rivera, and RB Freddie Bradley.

How about 1997? Our first pick was in round 2, which we used on TE Freddie Jones. Freddie Jones! With Ronde Barber, Jason Taylor, and Darren Sharper still there. He was followed by Michael Hamilton (instead of the available Bert Berry, Derrick Mason or Mike Vrabel), then Raleigh Roundtree and Paul Bradford (who were chosen ahead of Al Harris), Daniel Palmer, Toran James, and Tony Corbin. We also missed the boat on Jake Delhomme, Jon Kitna, Priest Holmes, Pat Williams, and Sammy Knight, all of whom went undrafted.

In ’98 we drafted Ryan Leaf, TE Mikhael Ricks, DE Cedric Harden, CB Clifford Ivory, and LB Jon Haskins. These players ranged from average to Ryan F*cking Leaf.

’99: No pick, Jermaine Fazande, Steve Heiden, Jason Perry (by the way, Donald Driver and Aaron Smith were on the board here, among other future stars and starters), Adrian Dingle, Reggie Nelson, and Tyrone Bell.

2000: No pick in the first round, loaded with Pro Bowlers; Rogers Beckett, Damion McIntosh, Trevor Gaylor, Leonardo Carson (instead of SDSU alum and defensive lineman Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila), Shannon Taylor (taken two picks ahead of fellow LB Adalius Thomas, and 15 ahead of TOM BRADY), Damon Wheeler, JaJuan Seider, Jason Thomas.

BUTLER ERA

2001: LT, Drew Brees (who, I might remind you, was wildly inconsistent with the Chargers), Tay Cody, Carlos Polk, Zeke Moreno, Brandon Gorin, and Robert Carswell.

2002: Quentin Jammer, Toniu Fonoti, Reche Caldwell, Ben Leber, Justin Peele, Terry Charles, Matt Anderle, and Seth Burford.

Not great drafts, although LT is now a legend and Jammer a solid contributor (though not worth a #5 overall pick). Butler died a little more than two weeks before the 2003 Draft, bringing us into the AJ ERA

2003: Sammy Davis (one pick in front of Nnamdi Asomugha— whiff), Drayton Florence, Terrence Kiel, Courtney Van Buren, Matt Wilhelm, Mike Scifres, Hanik Milligan (a onetime Pro Bowler), and Andrew Pinnock. Not a great draft, but we also brought in a boatload of talent that year as UDFAs— Kassim Osgood, Antonio Gates, Kris Dielman, Jacques Cesaire, and Stephen Cooper.

2004: Philip Rivers, Igor Olshansky, Nate Kaeding, Nick Hardwick, Shaun Phillips, Dave Ball, Michael Turner, Ryan Krause, Ryon Bingham, Shane Olivea, Carlos Joseph, and Wes Welker as a UDFA.

2005: Shawne Merriman, Luis Castillo, Vincent Jackson, Darren Sproles, Wesley Britt, Wes Sims, and Scott Mruczkowski.

2006: Antonio Cromartie, Marcus McNeill, Charlie Clipboard, Tim Dobbins, Jeromey Clary, scrub kicker Kurt Smith, Chase Page, and Jimmy Martin.

2007: Buster Davis, Eric Weddle, Anthony Waters, Scott Chandler, Legedu Naanee, Brandon Siler, plus Paul Oliver in the Supplemental Draft and Jyles Tucker as a UDFA.

2008: Antoine Cason, Jacob Hester, Marcus Thomas, DeJuan Tribble, and Corey Clark. Mike Tolbert came in UDFA.

2009: English, Louis Vasquez, Vaughn Martin, Tyronne Green, Gartrell Johnson, Brandon Hughes, Kevin Ellison, Demetrius Byrd.

If you try and tell me that Beathard and Butler drafted better than AJ has— bearing in mind that these last few drafts still have time to shake out— I’ll happily call you either an idiot or a liar. Congratularions, you have just exposed yourself as a know-nothing at best and possibly a troll.