2012 NFL Draft - Scouting for Future Chargers: Early Declarations

Last year, the Chargers drafted DE Corey Liuget. The Illinois defensive lineman made an important decision last January that affected not only his life, but the future of the San Diego Chargers. In 2010, Fresno State RB Ryan Mathews made a similar decision. Both decided to forgo their senior season and declare for the NFL draft. Yesterday was the deadline for prospects to decided if they should do the same. Here are some of the names of the players that we've scouted here at Bolts From The Blue that could interest the Chargers in the draft and have declared:

• Dwayne Allen, TE, Clemson
• Vontaze Burfict, ILB, Arizona St.
• Orson Charles, TE, Georgia
• Fletcher Cox, DT, Mississippi St.
• Dont'a Hightower, ILB, Alabama
• Ronnie Hillman, RB, San Diego St.
• LaMichael James, RB, Oregon
• Alshon Jeffery, WR, South Carolina
• Ronnell Lewis, DE/OLB, Oklahoma
• Whitney Mercilus, DE/OLB, Illinois
• Donte Paige-Moss, DE/OLB, North Carolina
• Nick Perry, DE/OLB, USC
• Mohamed Sanu, WR, Rutgers

Plenty of other players have also declared for the draft, but a few I'm projecting to go too high for us to worry about or I haven't published scouting reports like I did with the players above. You can peruse a complete list by clicking here and checking out Draftcountdown.com. Also of interest are some players who didn't declare that would have been likely Chargers targets. That includes Georgia OLB Jarvis Jones and two LSU DEs that project as 3-4 OLBs in Sam Montgomery and Barkevious Mingo. Jones is interesting because he has experience as a 3-4 OLB and Montgomery and Mingo both had a lot of upside despite only a couple years of college ball.