FanPost

Mocking the Draft Live Mock Results

Greetings, Chargers fans! This past weekend I selected for your Bolts in the 2015 edition of SB Nation's Live Mock Draft that was hosted on Music City Miracles (the Titans' blog on SB Nation). I figured it would only be right to post the results of said draft and my rational behind the picks on your site for opinion and criticism. Now, please take into account that I am a Rams fan and was too late to pick for my team, thus I had to do some research on the Chargers to determine needs. That said, my picks and opinions of the team's areas of need may differ from the consensus here. For that I hope you will bear with me and not crucify me too much. Anyways, here we go!

To start off, I was in extensive talks with the GM for the Vikings regarding a trade for Adrian Peterson. I was hoping to use that swap as a catapult to shore up the running back position and then perhaps use the 17th overall pick to draft Landon Collins, Danny Shelton, or whoever was the best player available. Unsurprisingly, as soon the tampering period began, I received about five emails from GM's wondering about the availability of Phillip Rivers. I was unwilling to trade him because, as a Rams fan, I've seen how an offense works when Kellen Clemens is your starting quarterback and I would never want anyone subjected to that kind of torture ever. While things progressed fairly well over the few days of talks on the Peterson front, nothing came to fruition before the Mock Draft's commissioner shut down all player trades and we were stuck in the same position we started in.

I did however, make a trade with the Bengals GM, swapping the Bolts 1st round, 3rd round and 5th round picks in exchange for the Bengals 1st rounder, 2nd rounder and 7th rounder. I figured it was a good move so that I could use the two second round picks to gain some Outside Linebacker depth and help out the defensive line.

With all that said and done, here are my Chargers picks for the 2015 NFL Draft:

Round 1 Pick 21 (From Cincinnati):

Melvin Gordon, Running Back, Wisconsin

This one I think is pretty self-explanatory. San Diego has been consistently mocked at picking a running back, whether it be Gordon or Todd Gurley, to solidify the running game and take some pressure off Phillip Rivers and the passing attack. Gordon is a hard runner and has arguably the best vision in the class and was actually my top rated back. I felt especially comfortable seeing that Brandon Oliver and Danny Woodhead could help ease Gordon into the three down back role rather than throwing him into the fire from the outset. Had Danny Shelton fallen to me, I likely would have selected differently and given the Chargers a big body to plug up the holes of the defensive line, but he went to the Browns two picks before me. Thus, the Bolts have their rusher of the future.

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Round 2 Pick 48:

Shaq Thompson, Outside Linebacker, Washington

In a perfect world, Grady Jarrett or Preston Smith would have fallen to me, but alas, it was not to be. With those two gone, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to assuage the defense's losses of linebackers Reggie Walker and Andrew Gachkar. Shaq Thompson out of Washington was not only one of the best players available at the time, he was also arguably the best linebacker still available. He has the versatility to play safety if need be, but I look at him as a rising player as an outside linebacker so I pulled the trigger immediately.

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Round 2 Pick 53 (From Cincinnati):

James Sample, Safety, Louisville

If there's anywhere in this mock that some eyebrows are going to be raised, it's probably going to be here. It may be a reach to some people, but I felt that this was the perfect opportunity to snag one of my favorite players in the draft and my top-rated safety. Where Landon Collins is more of a box safety, Sample is a terrific coverage safety who can immediately slide in opposite of Eric Weddle and should amply hold down the position for some time. A lot of people expected him to go in the third or fourth round, but I saw a need in for a Free Safety on the Bolts and knew I would have to reach a bit to grab a player I felt would best fit the mold and need for this team.

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Round 4 Pick 117:

Mitch Morse, Guard, Missouri

I know there are a lot of mock drafts that have the Chargers picking up an offensive lineman in the first round of the draft, but it was an overstated need to me. I understand the need for depth and the guard position for NFL offenses (the Rams don't really have an o-line right now after all) but there seemed to be more pressing needs at running back and on the defensive side of the ball to go after one in the first two rounds. For a time I was salivating at the prospect of being able to select the extremely underrated receiver Justin Hardy, but the Rams got to him before me. Thus, it turned into the perfect opportunity to select Mitch Morse to help provide depth and even compete for that starting spot. He's a good pass protector, but could use a little work improving his run blocking but should be an ideal player to rotate into the fold and learn before being fully cast into the fire.

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Round 6 Pick 192:

Wes Saxton, Tight End, South Alabama

At this point, I was hoping to pick a potential successor to Rivers in Shane Carden, but he went a round earlier to the Broncos. So another player in need of a back up plan occurred to me. The ageless wonder of Antonio Gates is unlikely to continue his current rate of production for much longer, so it seemed to be a good idea to draft his successor. Saxton is a underrated receiving tight end who has gone largely under the radar due to coming out of a smaller school from the Sun Belt Conference. He's not a great blocker but has a big frame and great speed for the position to make big plays. If he can pick up a thing or two from AG over the next season, the Bolts may not even notice Gates has retired.

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Round 7 Pick 238 (From Cincinnati):

David Parry, Nose Tackle, Stanford

With the final pick of the draft, I decided it was time to grab some depth for the defensive line. I was actually pretty surprised that Parry had dropped this low into my lap. He's a big body defensive tackle who can definitely help to plug up the holes and prevent the run. He's not much of a pass rusher, but he's got a non-stop motor and seemed like a perfect man to stack up against the run.

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Well, there you have it Boltheads! I feel like I actually did an adequate job for a draft for a team I knew very little about before this past weekend, and I hope I did your team some justice. Please feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments below! I welcome all opinions to be opined and sarcasm to whittle away at whatever moral I have left!

If nothing else, please take solace in the fact that I did not do what the Browns GM did and draft Bryce Petty with the 32nd pick of the 1st round. So, you know, there's that... I mean, c'mon. That's just plain... Aww hell, I don't know how to describe it! It was totally a Browns-like move, I'll give them that much credit.

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This FanPost was written by a member of the Bolts From The Blue community and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Bolts From The Blue editors or SB Nation.