San Diego Chargers Daily Links: April 6, 2016

NFL: 3 Teams That Won't Make the Playoffs Next Season - Bob Garcia
The San Diego Chargers are coming off their worst season since 2003, finishing with the third-worst record in the league. Outside of the expected departure of Eric Weddle, the Chargers added a few notable players via free agency in defensive tackle Brandon Mebane, wideout Travis Benjamin, and safety Dwight Lowery, while retaining Antonio Gates on a two-year contract. However, the Chargers still possess a middle of the pack defense — at best — ranking 20th last season.

2016 NFL Draft: 3 Potential Draft-Day Trades - Jeff Smith
If the top two quarterbacks are already off the board at this point, then pretty much any team could move up to this spot. If for some reason the Titans can’t trade the No. 1 pick, then either the Eagles or Rams could absolutely jump to No. 3 to grab the other quarterback who the Browns don’t choose. So, this potential trade comes down to what happens with the No. 1 pick.

East Village residents oppose Chargers stadium - Steve Bosh
They call themselves "The Village People" and they are urging city residents to vote "no" because a "yes" means there's no turning back. "We think this conversation is so important to San Diego that we should really do some homework and do a critical analysis of any proposal that's made for East Village," said David Malmuth, who is part of the planning group. This group of locals, planners and architects said a better use of this 15 acres of urban space needs to benefit all of San Diego. "We thought that an innovation cluster driven by high wage tech jobs, and by education would be a better land use and a better neighbor than a football stadium," Malmuth said.

The Chargers' Plan Asks Too Much of Taxpayers - Chris Cate
The first concern I have is with the proposed tax hike for hotel visitors. The current 10.5 percent rate, plus an additional 2 percent rate for most hotels for funding tourism promotion, would be increased to a flat 16.5 percent tax. Only one percentage point of the new rate would be allocated toward promoting San Diego.

Telesco: Chargers still have 'work' to do at tight end - Marc Sessler
"It's only early April and we open up the weekend after Labor Day," Telesco said. "There is not a single team in the league who has their roster set right now. There is no team that looks at their roster right now and says they are ready to play opening day. Tight end is a position we know we still need to do some work with, but we have plenty of time to get that done."

What happens to Qualcomm Stadium? - Jared Aarons & Faris Tanyos
San Diego got a potential picture Tuesday when JMI Realty and Cisterra Development unveiled a proposal to turn the city-owned property into a second campus for San Diego State University. JMI CEO John Kratzer and a panel of business and community leaders released their plan at a news conference in a ballroom at SDSU’s Montezuma Hall.

Padres' irrelevance great for Team Spanos - Tom Krasovic (UT$)
A football palace downtown would further entice tourists. Getting there from Lindbergh Field would be a snap. Surrounding attractions -- Gaslamp Quarter, Balboa Park, Coronado, Little Italy -- would be easily reached. Trust me, there's a lot more hassle in other cities for out-of-towners who want to catch a game and see the sights. In the meantime, Spanos should be grateful for the Padres. Their chronic irrelevance on the homefront has buffered Chargers goofs.