The Revamped San Diego Chargers Offensive Line

Last year's San Diego Chargers had a poor offensive line. In fact, according to Football Outsiders, only the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (who earned the #1 pick in this year's NFL Draft by being terrible last year) had a worse performance by their offensive line than Mike McCoy's guys.

While the team's top priority this offseason was to re-sign CB Brandon Flowers (done!), a close second and third items on that list were to re-sign King Dunlap (done!) and strengthen the offensive line around him...which is also now done.

Getting Philip Rivers some strong protection and providing more running lanes for the team's running backs are key to the success of this team over the next few seasons, and Tom Telesco has just one piece left before he can be totally confident in his starting five. Which piece? Well, that's almost irrelevant....

Mix and Match

Each of the following starting offensive lines are things that could happen....

LT Dunlap
LG (Mystery Player)
C Chris Watt
RG D.J. Fluker
RT Franklin

LT Dunlap
LG Franklin
C Watt
RG Fluker
RT (Mystery Player)

LT Dunlap
LG Watt
C (Mystery Player)
RG Franklin
RT Fluker

LT Dunlap
LG Franklin
C Watt
RG (Mystery Player)
RT Fluker

LT (Mystery Player)
LG Franklin
C Watt
RG Fluker
RT Dunlap

That last one is the least likely of the bunch, but I included it because I wanted to show that the Chargers could literally add another offensive lineman at any position and slide him in without forcing someone to play a position that they're ill-suited to play.

So, what now?

Who will the Mystery Player be?

Well, Chad Rinehart and Johnnie Troutman are still on the roster (for now) and have starting experience at the Guard spots. They could certainly fill one of those roles.

My guess is that Tom Telesco and his group of scouts will keep Troutman as a backup plan, and use a first or second-day draft pick on an interior lineman that will be given a chance to win the job opposite Fluker.