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The San Diego Chargers are losing one of their starting WRs, Malcom Floyd, to retirement this offseason. Their other WR entered the league with some injury concerns and missed a chunk of last year with an injury as well. There is no "starting WR in waiting" per se on the roster, so many believe that the team will have to find a replacement for Floyd via free agent or during the first two days of the 2016 NFL Draft.
First, as an aside, allow me to say this: Hogwash! Stevie Johnson would (probably) make for a fine starting WR and Dontrelle Inman would (probably) make for a fine slot WR. The main reason for adding a WR to this team would be for depth, but they don't necessarily need to add a starting WR.
With that said, there may be a starting WR on the market....
Seahawks WR Jermaine Kearse reiterated Thursday that he does not plan to return to Seattle and is looking forward to finding a new home.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 3, 2016
This sounds like it came straight from Kearse's agent, fresh out of a contract negotiation meeting with the Seattle Seahawks that he wasn't too happy about.
However, we're going to ignore that and pretend that Kease is serious about changing teams.
Credentials
Over the last two seasons, Jermaine Kearse has started 30 games. And, take a look at how he improved his numbers from one year to the next:
- 38 catches (69 targets), 537 rec yds, 1 rec TD
- 49 catches (68 targets), 685 rec yds, 5 rec TDs
So, with less targets, Kearse's catches, yards and receiving TDs all went up. Not terrible.
At 26 years old, and 6'1" and 212 lbs. with a 4.43 40 times at the NFL Scouting Combine, Jermaine Kearse is about as protypical as it gets.
The Fit
This isn't a full film breakdown and the only game action I've ever seen of Kearse is what I've watched live, but I've always thought that he does a tremendous job of shielding the defender with his body and winning jump balls as a result. In that respect, he may help fill a need with Floyd's departure.
I don't think anyone is convinced that Kearse is a deep threat, despite his good 40 time, which means he's probably not the right guy to boost the Chargers offense.
The Contract
Can anyone name a WR that switched teams when he was 26 and had a bigger impact on his second team than his first?
I can only think of a handful, and just about all of them can be boiled down to "switched to a team with a better QB." In that respect, Kearse might actually want to come to the Chargers. However, it'll be hard for him to live up to whatever money the market determines he is worth and the team has bigger needs elsewhere.
One issue with determining his value is that there really aren't any WRs that hit the FA market this young. Jordy Nelson is the same age and made $4.6m against the cap last year but that jumps to $8.3m this year and against to $11.5m the next year. Where the hell does Kearse fall in there? Especially when there's no proof he's the type of player Nelson is?
My vote on this one is "No", for a number of reasons. What's yours?