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Looking Back at the Chargers' 2018 Offseason - What Went Wrong

The Chargers were a bad game in Denver from being the top seed in the AFC, which meant they had to go to Foxboro in January. It didn’t work out so well. As the 2019 offseason rolls on, here’s a quick look back at last year’s offseason happenings and a check-in on what those moves mean now.

Linebacker Vacuum

The Chargers set out on the season with Kyle Emanuel, Denzel Perryman, Jatavis Brown, Hayes Pullard and Nick Dzubnar. The hopes were that Perryman would stay healthy, Brown would return to form (and stay healthy), Emanuel would be his old workmanlike self, and Pullard would go in as relief. Things didn’t go as planned. No mention of Kyzir White or Uchenna Nwosu? Hang on.

Now: Thomas Jones was brought in to teach Perryman and Brown to stay off the injury report. Not a lot of change here, which is worrisome.

Defense Over the Middle

In addition to the thin linebacking group, Telesco entrusted an aging Brandon Mebane and a suspended Corey Liuget to man the interior of the line and left Jahleel Addae out of position at free safety.

Now: Addae is gone and the team still doesn’t have a proven free safety. The interior line is likely to be addressed early (and often?) in the draft.

Re-Signing Jason Verrett

It wasn’t a bad idea, per se, but it turned out to be a lot of money for nothing.

Now: Good luck, Jason. Don’t spend all $8 million in one place—though knowing rents in San Francisco…

Drafting Out of Position

It’s tough to argue with Gus Bradley and the way he constructs a defense, but Nwosu played on the line at USC and White was a safety. Then they both became linebackers. Bradley loves these tweener players, but at some point these players are going to have identity crises.

Now: Just get players, we can figure out what position they’ll play later.

Drafting Justin Jones

He was hurt through training camp, and actually played ok when he did line up. However this seemed like a reach in round 3. He was the least member of a great line in college. There had to be more value available at this spot.

Now: It will be great to see what he brings with a year of experience and better health.

Not Extending Darius Philon’s Contract

This seemed like something that could have been done rather easily. Tough to speculate why Telesco declined.

Now: Another gap along the defensive interior. Good luck, Darius. Arizona looks like it might be the Kingsbury Karnival for a year or two.

No Plan to Replace Travis Benjamin or Jahleel Addae

Going into the 2018 season it was clear that these players were not great fits for the team’s needs. And they were expensive.

Now: Benjamin is back, and with each day that passes it looks more likely that he’s WR3 to start the season.

Cornerback Regression

This wasn’t really an offseason problem, but man did Trevor Williams fall off a cliff. Casey Hayward wasn’t up to his 2017 self. On a positive note, Desmond King looked great.

Now: The dreaded duo of age and injury are creeping around the secondary.

Offensive Line

It’s hard to say that Telesco didn’t address the offensive line in 2018. He brought in Pouncey whom he surrounded with two young guards from the 2017 draft. Perhaps it’s his evaluation skills with lineman or perhaps it was simply bad luck with Lamp’s lingering injury, but this group had some tough times.

Now: Joe Barksdale is off to hopefully happier places. Tevi, Schofield, and Feeney took nearly all the snaps for a 12-4 team, so they did something right, didn’t they?

How do you see this offseason playing out? Thoughts?


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.