San Diego Chargers Roundtable: Least Talented Team in Years

Thanks for letting us in the loop!

Something I wanted to add. I think San Diego has been adding middling talent to their roster, but are missing those big play makers that they had at the start of Norv’s tenure. I would consider them about the same in average talent (there is less of a drop-off than there was in years past, or at least it looks that way at first glance). The Chargers teams of the past seemed like it had a couple of superstars with a lot of stop-gap players in between. Now it seems that they have the opposite problem. They have a lot of solid players, but they lack the real playmakers that they had in the past.

I don’t know what they would do in order to get more “big” talent other than pull a move like what the Falcons did last year, which would pretty much bleed their draft dry.

just in fire Norv! Fire AJ! sorta’ way.

Is lack of speed on both sides of the ball. We have a bunch of guys who are considered smart players or are kind of good at a lot of different things, but don’t excel in any one area. We need some more speed in our WR corps, LBs and secondary.

Because it presupposes several things. First of all, there’s no accounting for the Chargers’ turnaround. The “likelihood” that Turner pulls his usual December Houdini act and salvages the season and his tenure as HC. When that happens, THEN how untalented is this roster? Do any of you have the balls to stick to your convictions they’re untalented??

Secondly, there’s no accounting for the rash of injuries that have plagued the team unlike previous seasons. Thirdly, there’s no accounting for the poor play of PR unlike previous seasons. Fourthly, there’s no solid barometer or measure for what “talent” is or isn’t. And finally, there’s no accounting for what it takes to acquire and maintain said “talent” (which is only an implied criticism of the roundtable). Or even the natural disolution of talent over the course of years. In other words, if this were the exact same roster as last year, would it be less talented?

Whatever. I’m hungry.

It’s not always the most talented team that wins the super bowl, but the team with the most will power. The Giants won there super bowl playing and beating the best team in football, a team that was undefeated through the regular season in the Patriots. The Packers won there SB last year after all the injuries they dealt with and them struggling, but finding the will when needed to make it to the post season and won the SB.

The Chargers are in the same boat as last years Packers. It’s not always the team that is expected to win the SB that actually wins the SB. If the Chargers peak at the right time, we have just as much chance as any team in the NFL to make it and win it all.

Hold out hope and enough with the BS excuses. We need to win a big game to give us a kick start.

There have def. been some moves that in retrospect look questionable. I think moving up as far as we did to take Matthews may have been a mistake. I think we actually moved up in every round of the 2010 draft and cost ourselves some picks. We’ve kind of made it a habbit to overpay for “our guy”, and it hasn’t always worked out. I think Matthews is good, and has potential, but the guy is hurt a lot. It reminds me a lot of the situation with Darren Mcfadden in Oakland. When guys like Ben Tate or James Starks would have been available where we were picking and wouldn’t have cost us the pick we acquired by shipping Whitehurst to Seattle.

Teams like NE and Philadelphia have done an outstanding job, particularly in recent years of stockpiling a ton of picks so they’re able to reload on talent even if they miss on their evaluations of some of the players they draft.

Additionally, it seems to be an annual occurrence that one or two ENTIRE positions on the team will be lost to injury during the course of the season. 2 years ago it was the DL and we went to the rotation, last season it was WR/TE. This year it’s DL/LB. When we get to a point where we lose 2 or 3 projected starters at a position it really exposes the lack of depth and makes some of the questionable draft decisions look worse.

I’d like to see us take more of the stay where we’re at approach or move down to acquire more picks approach in the draft. I think AJ does fine with respect to the guys he’s brought in via the draft and from stealing from other team’s practice squads (Barnes/Garay). But lets acquire a whole bunch of picks and then actually use them all instead of trading them away to move up.

Marty was the best coach to ever grace a sideline.

OTOH, the Charger’s have escaped the first 1/2 of the season at .500 despite a nasty string of injuries. If everyone gets or stays healthy for the next 1/2, things could look a lot better. Most of the defeats were close, and more a case of Charger mistakes than overwhelming opponents. We had to gift wrap the game to get the Packers to take it.

What’s wrong with Rivers? How about nothing? Biggest problem he has had that I have seen is nobody getting open, so he forces throws. Gates was obviously the healthiest he’s been against Green Bay, so Jackson got open a lot more than against New York or Kansas City. This has actually been the lowest number of decent targets he has had to throw to since he got here, but Matthews, Brinkley, and Brown are all effectively rookies playing without a training camp, they should improve as the season goes on. Dielman coming back will help a lot too, especially with the run.

The Defense has been up and down, but if Castillo can get in for a few games before the play-offs they could hold up their end of the game.

I don’t see them running the table, but everyone left on the schedule is beatable. 10-4 or 11-5 is not outside of the realm of possibility.

And No, I haven’t been smoking anything funny. today.

I said last year that he was in decline, and that we needed to draft a young TE to start grooming. But I was mocked here, and now it doesn’t seem so stupid huh? Like I have said before AJ seems to be drafting as a reaction to correcting holes he has not previously filled. Let LT go, then he HAS to blow 2 picks on RM. Let Sproles go, waste a pick on Todman. I am sure this year he will let VJ walk and be forced to move up to draft an elite WR prospect because our 8, 9, or 10 wins will put us out of range for such talent. And now he MUST address TE, CB and OL. Good luck filling those spots with our picks

And now that he’s unequivocally struggling like never before, all the warts and pimples and scars are out in the open. I can’t believe I’m saying this but not everything is Norv’s fault.

Not having injury issues in college ? Better go back and do some research . HS limited to 7 games his senior year due to ankle . freshman year RS after 1 game due to injury ( shoulder ) . 07 tore ACL in bowl game , 08 broken thumb , played with pins in . missed spring drills due to torn pec . He may not of missed many games due to the timing of his injuries , but make no mistake he was injury prone from his senior year in HS on .

Wonko would make that deal every time ? Good thing he’s blogger because that’s exactly the kind of ass backwards thinking that has diluted the talent level of this team to it’s present level . If AJ and co. thought so highly of Weddle they should of just taken him with pick 30 rather than give up a 2nd 2 3rds and a 5th to move up a mere 7 spots away from their first selection . It made little sense then and even less now and would of at least shown conviction at a reasonable price , rather than compromising the future . Drafting involves a failure rate that can be mitigated by improving numerical odds and trading draft picks away only reduces the odds of succeeding . Everyone knows that not all draftees pan out so the strategy in reducing the number of selections seems to fly in the face of logic . With a roster full of All-pros signed long term drafting fewer is a sound strategy , this roster however can not be considered as such .