Keenan Allen is the key to the Chargers' success

For all of the bashing that we, at BFTB, do of Tom Telesco (Why the hell was he given a contract extension after trading up int he first round to draft a running back?!?), the one thing that he can clearly hang his hat on is draft Keenan Allen in the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft.

The San Diego Chargers' GM found a market inefficiency, a great player that was being undervalued because he was coming off of a knee injury that he was going to recover from, and exploited it. In the end, he found the key to his offense:

Eight games with Keenan Allen, Chargers offense No. 1 in NFL (423.3 yards/game). Eight games without, 24th (320.4): https://t.co/vcoor0MVER

— Michael Gehlken (@UTgehlken) January 20, 2016

Yards per game are not everything. The team went 2-6 with him this year and 2-6 without him. However, this is a good indicator that the offense was significantly less explosive without Keenan Allen, which we knew by watching the game with our own eyes.

It's worth noting here that 2016 is the last year that Allen is under contract with the Chargers. I suspect that we won't see the type of breakup between him and the team as we saw with Eric Weddle and the team this last season, because Allen is younger and his name is in big bold letters at the top of Tom Telesco's resume.

That being said, it's probably not wise to let Keenan Allen hit free agency next year, with everything else that could be going on around the team. Get him in now, offer him a long extension (he's only 23 years old!), and keep the offense explosive for years to come.