Chargers Thread

Justin10

AJ hasnt had a losing record since 2004, year before we had the 1st pick.

Only 2 other teams match this record and im sure you can guess them. So we are in good company just without the Rings

Leslie91

Rochey18 wrote: »

Leslie to say its AJ fault to let go Brees Welker and VJ is crazy
No one in the league wanted Brees not even Miami.

JJ has been fantastic imo, when he is in the game the run D is brilliant.
He was never going to get a pass rush.

We are getting much better pressure this year, even if we aint getting sacks.

Our draft picks are in a difficult situation. Ingram I think will be number 1 OLB next year because I doubt Philips gets paid.

Reyes is behind Lugit who has been fantastic and Martin.

Taylor had to be drafted because of the depht in the draft and also in our roster. We wanted Smith but went way to early for us. No one knew if Bigby would make it through the year either.

Green was clearly an experiment which looked good when he played.
AJ can be criticised for many things but one thing he cannot be criticised for is his drafting.

Look at other teams, imagine having Ireland as our GM :eek:
Look at how the millions the Eagles invested turned out.
AJ is top notch and ive never had a problem with the money he gave to players or let go. Only problem I have is his backing of Norv.

I also can dont understand the picking on Vasquez. Been a really solid pick. We lost two pro bowlers last year. Clary is poor but not much we can do about that now.

Have to disagree Rochey.

Re Brees, AJ drafted his boy Philip, if he was to be the longterm answer he should have traded Brees. Instead Marty had Brees play in a meaningless game against the Broncos where he got injured and so his stock took a huge drop. Rivers should have played that game and Brees traded in that offseason (if not earlier than that).

Ref VJ, he could have been had for a cheaper long term deal way before he got real good and greedy. Instead AJ whiffed for a few reasons, one was his DUIs the other the tightness of the Spanos. I mentioned Welker but by no means was he his biggest miss/error.

AJs drafts have been as bad as they've been good (especially recently). For each Merriman (not many of these), theres a Buster Davis, Larry English, Sammy Davis, Antoine Cason, Cro (all 1st rounders!!).

I reckon AJ got away with being in Butler's and Buddy Nix's shadow. He's an egomaniac who needs to be cut loose with his boy Norv.

Butler drafted LT, Brees and Nix was there when we drafted Merriman and VJ and McNeill. Who has AJ picked since he has been on his own!?.

OAOB

In fairness there's pretty valid points for and against AJs draft history.

He started off good but had a few shockers. 2010 & 2011 are looking pretty good at this stage (Matthews, Butler, Thomas, Liuget, V Brown, Wright, Gilchrist, Stuckey, Gachkar). If Taylor and Green from this years draft can become starters and Wright nail down a corner position then I think it is 3 very good drafts in a row.

And i think we were all happy with the FA performance by AJ this year even though they haven't performed to expectation. Franklin has been very good, JJ solid, Bigby OK. Meachem has been a disaster so far, Royal injured, McClain & Battle making no real difference. Ronnie Brown is starting to really contribute, more than i thought he would.

Not saying AJ is a perfect GM but I can't really complain about his recent performance and as Rochey points out there is definitely a lot worse out there. I think the real issue is Norv not getting the players to perform

Leslie91

OAOB wrote: »

In fairness there's pretty valid points for and against AJs draft history.

He started off good but had a few shockers. 2010 & 2011 are looking pretty good at this stage (Matthews, Butler, Thomas, Liuget, V Brown, Wright, Gilchrist, Stuckey, Gachkar). If Taylor and Green from this years draft can become starters and Wright nail down a corner position then I think it is 3 very good drafts in a row.

And i think we were all happy with the FA performance by AJ this year even though they haven't performed to expectation. Franklin has been very good, JJ solid, Bigby OK. Meachem has been a disaster so far, Royal injured, McClain & Battle making no real difference. Ronnie Brown is starting to really contribute, more than i thought he would.

Not saying AJ is a perfect GM but I can't really complain about his recent performance and as Rochey points out there is definitely a lot worse out there. I think the real issue is Norv not getting the players to perform

It's great that we can air our different opinions....

Ref the above I'd argue that the only players in your list that look to be any good are Mathews, Butler and Liuget. The rest are unproven for me.

Certainly I'm looking forward to seeing both Wright and V Brown getting game time to see what they've got but the others have underwhelmed me thus far.

Having said that, at the positions/slots they were drafted, I'd rate Cam and maybe Stuckey as value picks, perhaps Gach too but will he only ever be an option for STs?

So, in summary.

Want AJ to stay - Rochey and OAOB
Can't wait to be rid of him - Leslie91

(we're all agreed Norv should be gone yesterday right?)

What about our other posters?, nail your colors to the mast lads.

OAOB

Just to be clear i'm not even sure if i want AJ to stay or not, if he goes then i just hope we get a good one but don't even know who the candidates might be for it, hopefully external an not someone promoted from within.
If he stays i'd only give him 2 years max and see how close we are then, if not right on the cusp then give him the boot.
Get rid of Norv anyway and not too worried about AJ, I think the current roster is short of about 4 players and a decent coach/leader.
AJ isn't our biggest problem but i hope his ego doesn't get in the way of who we choose as our new coach.

Ronaldinho

My tuppence worth: We had a narrow window of opportunity to make/win a Superbowl the year the Jets beat us in the playoffs. I'm afraid the overall roster has now deteriorated to the point where we're no longer capable of making a deep run into the playoffs. Norv definitely needs to go. He's a good OC (although some of the playcalling this year has been strange) but I think we now need someone to come in and clean shop. Someone in the Coughlin mould that will push the players to their limits.

As far as AJ goes, the last 3 drafts have been reasonably good, apart from Matthews IMHO. I have a fundamental problem with taking RBs that early in the draft. I don't want to go off on too much of a tangent but look at the production from guys like Alfred Morris or DeMarco Murray, or Michael Turner :rolleyes:. When Matthews was drafted Rivers was in his prime. You would have called him "elite". I would argue we would have been better off getting a lineman to help keep him upright. Of course AJ never takes O-Linemen in the early rounds... We could have had Iupati/Pouncey/Bulaga that year.

The 4 drafts prior to that... English, Cason, C. Davis, Cromartie, Merriman, Castillo all drafted in the first round. Compare that to what the Packers http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/gnb/draft.htm or Giants http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/nyg/draft.htm got out of those drafts. Maybe, just maybe if we have good drafts for the next few years then we will become contenders again. To be fair, there are some pieces there to build a roster around, but it's going to take another few successful offseasons to get the roster up to scratch.

Finally,, you look at some of the players we've let go over the years... Brees, Turner, Sproles, Jackson... We ship out Turner and then Sproles (who was a massive part of the offence) instead of paying them and saving a 1st round pick that could have been put to better use.

Molly

Talib would have been nice

OAOB

Molly wrote: »

Talib would have been nice

He would have been but don't think we've strong enough leadership to control him. Contract year too and i presume he'll be getting a big contract

Molly

Who knows what our leadership will be next year :P

Regarding the contract year, could have been working on locking him up straight away. He's way better than anything we've got

Molly

Also,

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2012/11/01/cap-hit-bad-value-for-money/

Doesn't make for the best reading :pac:

OAOB

Molly wrote: »

Who knows what our leadership will be next year :P

Regarding the contract year, could have been working on locking him up straight away. He's way better than anything we've got

Miles better than what we have but not the type of guy to get a big long term contract off AJ.
How come it always seems to be other teams pulling off these great value trades and never us:(

OAOB

Molly wrote: »

Also,

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2012/11/01/cap-hit-bad-value-for-money/

Doesn't make for the best reading :pac:

Just confirms what we know really, (supposed) playmakers on offence not performing

OAOB

Not much to be said really, played well but against a really bad team. Good to get the win but these are the types of games we should be winning.Donald Butler is some player, anyone watching the Chargers for the last year can see he's pro-bowl caliber. Defence was getting pressure but not sacks, if we could make a few more plays here it'd be great.Rivers had a brilliant game but there's only one throw of his that we'll remember from that game.Great having Tutu back!!!

Justin10

So excited about the Tampa game watching them against Oakland.
Be great test especially for our great run defence and then putting our corners up against VJax and Williams

Their interior line looks really poor without Nicks, be looking forward to see Luigit up against that.

Must win game before the Denver game.

OAOB

I hope the Bucs come at us all guns blazing, i want to see us beat a good team and hopefully put together a game winning TD drive to do it. Fed up with us looking good against bad teams and bad against good teams

Leslie91

Morning lads, been away from the board all w/e.

Watched the game friday nite, I'd avoided internet all day and then a fecker I met in the pub earlier who I thought would not be noticing Charger results (even though he knows I'm a fan) tells me, 'and the Chargers won eh?'. Ragin. Went home and watched it, at least it wasn't a close one!.

Just a quick comment on Talib going to Pats. Players like him (good experienced players, who would improve us) seem to always goto NE, why, because the Org/HC up there is a great place to go. Lots of players who had issues elsewhere seem to embrace the Belichick way and perform. He'd have come to SD and not changed a bit so no loss for me.

As for us (apologies in advance for the novel).

it's funny, I kinda felt underwhelmed after watching it. yes it was a win but I can still see this team is going nowhere fast under the present regime. sure philip did some good things but the INT he threw, WTF was that?. tutu made an unreal catch to keep that drive alive and alexander looked decent. wasn't meachem playing all thru training camp?, what the F was he doing/were the coaches doing? Alexander is here, what, 8 days? and he already looks better than him. all this getting in sync with philip is bollix obviously. u really have to wonder what the so called offensive playcalling genius is doing/has done when our 29m dollar receiver had about 10 catches all season long.

another thing I'm bearing in mind is KC are muck, esp at QB. I cannot believe how bad Cassell has become. I thought he was gona be a good un but it looks like he can forget it. Our defensive front 7 look decent but can't seem to get to the QB which is a worry. Butler looks to be our best player on D now, he and Weddle seem to be streets ahead of the rest (excluding Liuget perhaps, who has come on lots). Spikes might be a great presence and all that but I don't see him doing it any more on the field, I wanna see more Demorrio or Mouton even (who is inactive every game it looks like). Larry English was inactive I see, I say let's cut this waste of space, this draft pick is right up there with Leaf for me, he is supposedly 100% now and cannot do ****. So annoying that we've waited this long for nothing.

Our corners have to be the joke of the NFL. Cason has no right to be on the field unless he is returning punts, the guy seemingly has no idea what to be doing. On that note, Bisaccia, WTF are u doing having our best defensive player back there esp when he starts muffing them/fumbling. Have Cason return punts and stick Wright in at RCB. Also, I'd like to see Gilchrist on kick returns now that Goodman is done (thank god for that). I see we had all 5 RBs active, and had Brinks returning kicks. Waste of time imho. McClain has been a huge disappointment, he's at best as good a blocker as Hester. I note that Hester is still sitting at home, shocker. Heard the poor lad on the radio the other day and he was saying he was v surprised that he was still scratching his ass. Another AJ bigtime miss.

Vincent should eat us alive in Tampa. As for that young RB Martin wow. Hopefully this will be the game that ends Norv. Don't get me wrong I'm pulling for us to win but I don't see it. Tampa's D is poor but ours is much worse and our O is struggling unlike theirs. The new era starts next monday. I want AJ and Norv gone, saw some rumblings about Sean Payton being a FA, and some fans shouting for us to go get em. We haven't a hope in hell, either he stays in NO or ends up in Dallas or Philly. No way he comes to work for the eejit that is Dean. Having said that I hear he'd like to be a GM/HC double act. I'd welcome him with open arms. He could handpick his own OC, having him also call plays would be too much. We can be dreamers.

OAOB

Real good post there Leslie and i'd share those sentiments for the most part. A few points i'd make

• You can see that Tutu and Alexander are playing for their jobs, they're trying their hardest to make plays and fighting for yards after, Meachem and to a lesser extent Royal haven't shown that hunger
• English will get a chance to impress for the next few weeks with Barnes injured, it's likely the last chance he'll get with the Chargers
• I'd cut McClain and re-sign Hester right now, McClain offers nothing and is more expensive
• We all have our hopes pinned on Wright that he will be a starting caliber corner even though we only have a good off season to go by. And even if he does become one we're still left with one bad CB because neither Jammer or Cason are good enough now
• I've given up hope of Norv/AJ being fired mid-season, the time to do it was either bye-week or directly after the Browns game and the trigger wasn't pulled on them
• Payton would be a real coup to get but we haven't the money to match Dallas. Our only bargaining chip is the GM position to go with HC and i doubt that's enough

Two asides your post brought up, really disappointing not to see Mouton being active and is it just me or does Gilchrist seem to be giving up a huge number of catches when he plays Nickel

Leslie91

OAOB wrote: »

Real good post there Leslie and i'd share those sentiments for the most part. A few points i'd make

• You can see that Tutu and Alexander are playing for their jobs, they're trying their hardest to make plays and fighting for yards after, Meachem and to a lesser extent Royal haven't shown that hunger
  
• English will get a chance to impress for the next few weeks with Barnes injured, it's likely the last chance he'll get with the Chargers
• I'd cut McClain and re-sign Hester right now, McClain offers nothing and is more expensive
• We all have our hopes pinned on Wright that he will be a starting caliber corner even though we only have a good off season to go by. And even if he does become one we're still left with one bad CB because neither Jammer or Cason are good enough now
• I've given up hope of Norv/AJ being fired mid-season, the time to do it was either bye-week or directly after the Browns game and the trigger wasn't pulled on them
• Payton would be a real coup to get but we haven't the money to match Dallas. Our only bargaining chip is the GM position to go with HC and i doubt that's enough

Two asides your post brought up, really disappointing not to see Mouton being active and is it just me or does Gilchrist seem to be giving up a huge number of catches when he plays Nickel

I concur. Cannot believe McClain is no better than Hester. Scary thought.

OAOB

Leslie91 wrote: »

I concur. Cannot believe McClain is no better than Hester. Scary thought.

I don't think AJ's ego would allow him to cut McClain for Hester, it would show him up for making 2 mistakes this off season

Molly

Hmm, if we were offered stanford routt with his form from last season I'd jump at it but not sure what to make of him this year, being picked on badly but I wonder is that because he's across from flowers or he's just having a bad year. Could we get something good from Kansas two years running ?

Justin10

I did totally agree regarding McClain, but last three games he has impressed me, has been much better.

No need to cut English, his contract is tiny for a 1st round pick.
We will see how he does now that Barnes is out.

Cason is so annoying because he can be great and has been. Maybe time back at nickle might suit him, in saying that his stats are pretty impressive.

Our run D is fantastic and I would expect them to try and run the ball after lasts night performance and then wont be able to.
I expect us to spank the Bucs and then go on to beat Denver

jester1980

Not A hope you will spank us on Sunday, if the run is stopped which I seriously doubt, freeman will go long, he has some potent weapons this year who are beating everyone 1 on 1. Our pass defense is just sooooo bad so this could be a good aul shoot out.

By the way, I'm going to this, go bucs

OAOB

Anyone know what Routts contract is like? I'd presume its pretty high and thats one of the reasons he's being cut. If it was cheap he'd be worth a shot, replace Carr.

OAOB

jester1980 wrote: »

Not A hope you will spank us on Sunday, if the run is stopped which I seriously doubt, freeman will go long, he has some potent weapons this year who are beating everyone 1 on 1. Our pass defense is just sooooo bad so this could be a good aul shoot out.

By the way, I'm going to this, go bucs

I'm pretty sure Freeman is going to look like a MVP this weekend. We've had a very good run defence this year, attacking our secondary is the easy way to score on us

Molly

From pro football focus

'He signed a three-year, $19.6 million deal with Kansas City, pocketing a $4 million signing bonus. He’ll be entitled to receive the balance of his $1.8 million base salary as termination pay — unless someone claims him on waivers. Either way, Routt will get the rest of his 2012 pay.'

spiralism

OAOB wrote: »

I'm pretty sure Freeman is going to look like a MVP this weekend. We've had a very good run defence this year, attacking our secondary is the easy way to score on us

VJ has a point to prove imo. Martin may not run the yards but he's a Ray Rice-esque double threat, he could as easily put up the numbers through the air.

Justin10

Routt is horrible no need for him here.

If we don't shut Martin down and win this game il join the negativity bandwagon.

Actually if we let big numbers to Vjax and Williams il jump on board.

Josh won't have the time to throw the ball deep with the pressure we will get on him.

Leslie91

jester1980 wrote: »

Not A hope you will spank us on Sunday, if the run is stopped which I seriously doubt, freeman will go long, he has some potent weapons this year who are beating everyone 1 on 1. Our pass defense is just sooooo bad so this could be a good aul shoot out.

By the way, I'm going to this, go bucs

I agree with OAOB. The Bucs passing O will be far too strong for out D backfield and we are not getting to the QB and Freeman is a big strong guy anyway. Our O is far too inconsistent to take full advantage of TBs poor pass defense.

This will be like the Detroit game in 2011 and will hopefully stick that final nail in Norv's coffin.

Enjoy the game and thanks for stopping by in our thread!.

Leslie91

Rochey18 wrote: »

Routt is horrible no need for him here.

If we don't shut Martin down and win this game il join the negativity bandwagon.

Actually if we let big numbers to Vjax and Williams il jump on board.

Josh won't have the time to throw the ball deep with the pressure we will get on him.

So glad we have you on our board Rochey!, trying to keep our chins up. Don't join the negativity bandwagon!!, Norv will be gone soon and the rest of us will be jumping off that bandwagon then!.

Justin10

And this game Harris turns up as a pro bowl type LT.
Rivers to Meachem is on all day, Mathews breaks the rushing record.

Broncos turn into Donkeys.
We go on to Super Bowl.
Wait and see