San Diego Chargers tight end John Phillips is going on Injured Reserve

John Philips went down after a 5 yard reception over the middle and didn't get back up. It's been a disappointing season for the 5th year veteran from Virginia., and a rough way to end the season.

Chargers TE John Phillips headed to injured reserve. Injured right knee Sunday vs. Raiders, Mike McCoy said.

— Michael Gehlken (@UTgehlken) December 23, 2013

Philips was one of the first couple signings by general Manager Tom Telesco. He was expected to come in and be a great run blocking tight end, as the team continued to groom Ladarius Green, and continued to feature Antonio Gates.

Philips was only targeted five times all season, and has seen his play dramatically decrease with the emergence of Green late in the season. Philips has only been playing about 16% of the snaps over the last half of the season. His saving grace was supposed to be his run blocking, and he hasn't really been all that good in that regard, either. In fact, Green has shown to be a better run & pass blocker than Philips throughout the season.

So while it's not a huge loss, it's unfortunate for any player to go down with injury. The injury hasn't been made specific at the time yet, so we'll be monitoring to see how long Philips is out for, and wish him a speedy recovery. The Chargers would eat $1.3 million to cut Philips next year, so you would imagine he's back with the team next year.

As a corresponding move, the Chargers signed TE Jake Byrne. Byrne has been active for 3 weeks this season on the Houston Texans and has played a total of 5 snaps. He was undrafted in the 2012 NFL draft. Byrne is 6'5, 260 pounds and ran a 4.85 40 yard dash. I wouldn't expect to see him very much this coming Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs.