San Diego Chargers Sign MLB D.J. Smith

I know it's draft day and everything, but the San Diego Chargers don't care. First, Danario Alexander signed his tender and now the team has signed themselves an Inside Linebacker that could potentially replace Takeo Spikes as the starter next to Donald Butler.

Former Packers LB DJ Smith signed with the San Diego Chargers.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 25, 2013

That's fun. Let's see what we can find out about D.J. Smith.

• He turned 24 years old two months ago.
• Played his college football at Appalachian State.
• Was drafted in the 6th round of the 2011 NFL Draft by the Green Bay Packers.
• Has started 9 games in two seasons, including 6 in 2012 before suffering a season-ending knee injury.
• He was released yesterday by the Packers and their fans are not happy about it.

Does signing Smith mean that the Chargers are not going to draft an Inside Linebacker? Maybe, maybe not. I imagine the Packers released Smith for some reason, and I'm willing to bet that reason is a poor recovery from injury.

This seems like your pretty standard "low risk, high reward" signing. However, the quickness of it is interesting and leads me to believe that either Smith really wanted to come to San Diego or Tom Telesco has had his eye on the young Inside Linebacker for quite some time.