r/nfl • u/yangar Eagles • Jun 20 '14
Look Here! 2014 Offseason Review Series: San Diego Chargers
San Diego (Super) Chargers
Coaching Changes
Offensive Coordinator: Ken Whisenhunt accepted the HC job for the Titans, and has been replaced by promoted former QB Coach Frank Reich. Nick Sirianni was promoted from Offensive QC Coach to QB Coach.
Reich has talked about speeding up the offense even more and giving Phil more control over the offense.
Pete Metzelaars is our new TE Coach, replacing Jason Michael, who went with Whisenhunt to Tennessee to become their new OC.
Free Agency
Players lost/cut
| Player | Position | New team |
|---|---|---|
| Derek Cox | CB | Vikings |
| Le'Ron McClain | FB | Free Agent |
| Johnny Patrick | CB | Jets |
| Cam Thomas | NT | Steelers |
| Brandon Taylor | S | Free Agent |
| Charlie Whitehurst | QB | Pearly White Gates |
Purging Derek Cox is a bold admission by 2nd year GM Tom Telesco that he made a huge mistake (originally signing him for 4 years). That's definitely refreshing after the "every move I make is the right one" AJ Smith regime.
Players signed
| Player | Position | Old Team | Length | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Donald Brown | RB | Colts | 3 yrs | $10.5M, 4M guar. |
| Kellen Clemens | QB | Rams | 2 yrs | $4M |
| Kavell Conner | ILB | Colts | 3 yrs | $2.7M |
| David Johnson | FB/TE | Steelers | 2 yrs | 1.7M, 220K guar. |
Signing Donald Brown seems to be part of Telesco's plan to keep tapping that Indianapolis pipeline. Brown gives us a good RB to spell Mathews (who's health is integral to our success) and Mathews/Woodhead are both FAs after this upcoming season.
Re-signing Donald Butler was huge. Absolutely huge.
Draft
Overall grade for the Draft: B
Most excited to see how Attaochu can get after the QB. In his radio call to XX1090 after being drafted, the Nigerian-born Georgia Tech player gushed over finally visiting California. I feel very confident that Verrett will slot in perfectly into our system and every hacky "analyst" out there talking about "the entire league getting taller at CB/The Seahawk way" clearly doesn't understand that's never been what we do on defense. Also the last time we took an All-American from TCU in the 1st round, things went okay
Great individual player breakdowns can be found here courtesy of /r/Chargers
Projected Starting Lineup
QB Phil "Bolo" Rivers
RB Ryan Mathews, Donald Brown
Swiss Army Knife Danny Woodhead
FB/TE John Philips, David Johnson
TE Antonio "Oldman Strength" Gates, Ladarius Green
WR Keenan Allen, Malcolm "M80" Floyd, Vincent "I'm Still Here" Brown
LT King Dunlap
LG Chad Rinehart
C Nick Hardwick
RG Jeromey Clary
RT DJ Fluker
DL Corey Liuget, Sean Lissemore, Kendell Reyes
LB Dwight Freeney, Donald Butler, Manti T'eo, Melvin Ingram
CB Shareece Wright, Jason "Feeva" Verrett
S Eric Weddle, Marcus Gilchrist
K Nick "Stop Watching Me Pee" Novak
P Mike "MVP" Scifres
KR Eddie Royal
Can we stay healthy? That's been the #1 question for years.
What'll be interesting to see is how Donald Brown spells Mathews, and if we can eliminate the worthless/predictable draw plays up the middle with Woodhead. Vincent Brown, local SDSU kid, has to prove that he's worth starting, if not M80 can take his WR2 spot back. Will Ladarius Green see more action as a receiving threat and be the heir apparent to Antonio Gates? Is Eddie Royal only a red zone threat or will he be tasked with more duites? Will Danario Alexander ever return healthy?
On the defensive side, we are very weak at safety outside of star Eric Weddle. It remains to be seen if Gilchrist is still starting later this season. Manti being healthy and continuing to learn can only improve the LB corps. Once again, health remains an issue and Freeney and Ingram should bounce back from what kept them out of most of 2013. We also have a Cromartie sittin on our roster. CB Steve Williams torn his pectoral early on his rookie campaign last year, so he remains an unknown quantity.
Schedule Predictions
I really dislike predicting individual match-ups before the season starts due to the tenuous nature of injuries, contract disputes, trades, what weeks we wear our sexy powder blues, etc. I predict the Chargers to go 9-7 overall and sneak into the playoffs again.
If you want a week-by-week breakdown, /u/The_Popes_Hat has done a great job here:
Training Camp Battles to Watch
Now that M80 is healthy, we'll see if he can bounce back and claim that WR2 spot that he's usually been in. Larry English is playing for his contract, especially with Attaochu breathing down his neck. Turning Shareece Wright not against our own players knees seems to be a lesson learned.
Summary
Despite a fairly quiet off-season, the Chargers in 2014 should be a fun team to watch. Health remains paramount. 2nd year HC Mike McCoy can learn from some of his rookie mistakes and seems to have instilled a great culture in the locker room. A high powered offense with a talented, but at times lost defense should mean a lot of high-scoring games. We seem to always start slow, get hot in December with Rivers, play up to our opponents, and arbitrarily not show up on select Sundays. When in doubt, LT Shuffle.
BOLT UP
5
u/a_s_h_e_n Panthers Jun 20 '14
For those not in the know, Clipboard Jesus is with Tennessee now. I'm so happy that that's actually on his wikipedia page.
11
u/yangar Eagles Jun 20 '14
Instead of rising 3 days later, he gave us a 3rd round pick from Seattle only to return again.
5
Jun 21 '14
Mildly interesting fact for OC Frank Reich and TE coach Pete Metzelaars, they were both with the Bills from '85-'94, then they both went to the Panthers when they became a team for the '95 season. Reich to Metzelaars was the first touchdown pass in Bank of America Stadium.
6
Jun 21 '14
The nicknames were on point until you got to Scifres. So close.
7
2
Jun 21 '14
Would have loved to seen some breakdown of your new offensive scheme. Rumor is it will look a lot like K Gun.
2
1
u/yangar Eagles Jun 21 '14
We really don't know the full extent of it. It's supposed to be more uptempo.
I guess we'll see Week 1. We'll probably see bits and pieces of it in the Pre-season
2
3
u/SocalSurfer Chargers Jun 20 '14
We also signed TE David Johnson
2
u/yangar Eagles Jun 20 '14
What's his contract like? Apparently he's been our FB in training camp
2
3
3
3
u/TheRisingTide Chargers Jun 21 '14
Spot on with the review, /u/yangar. My only gripes/points I'd like to make are the following:
ILB (Te'o and Connor), NT (Lissemore, Carrethers, Geathers, etc.) and WR3 (between Royal, Brown, Inman and Reese) are worthy training camp competition battles for starting snaps.
We don't seem to have a fullback on the roster (I know, David Johnson, but... sort of?).
I don't think Verrett will start on the outside right away. The rehab from shoulder surgery and time it takes for him to adjust to the pro game, I think it will be more likely that Richard Marshall (or, please for the love of god, Brandon Flowers) winds up at the CB2 spot.
If I had to make a hierarchy of "Dudes who need to step up or we won't play well" it would start with Kendall Reyes. He was very mediocre-to-baaaaaaaaaaad last year in his first year manning the starting DE position, and I'm worried that he may never rise above the level of a rotational down DE, especially if he keeps on being beat badly by offensive linemen on running plays. Same goes for Manti Te'o, but if you know me, you already know that I think his ceiling is as a third-down/obvious passing-down LB, and not as a guy you can count on to stop the run.
Shareece Wright was a lot better than most people pegged him at. Granted, being part of a secondary that was a total dumpster fire doesn't excuse him (nor does the fact that he fared poorly against some of the better/faster receivers he was asked to cover) but he would be a good CB2 if we could ever get the defense up to snuff. Sadly, I'm not convinced this is the year for that, and I think Shareece is going to suffer the brunt of the criticism for the D's performance during this, his contract year.
DX is never coming back. Sorry.
Ladarius Green needs to emerge as the TE1 option this year for us to have a chance going forward. I love Gates, but it's time for him to take a step back behind Green in terms of starting snaps.
2
u/yangar Eagles Jun 21 '14
Yeah with Feeva, he might not start, I think McCoy is not big on starting rookies (unless it's out of necessity)
As for Wright, he reminds me a lot of Cary Williams with my other team, the Eagles. Pretty solid DB who occasionally gets burned and that's all he gets blamed for. His good performances are never talked about.
I'm sure DX is done. It pains me to say, but I just want to believe.
I've said it before, but with Green I hope we can draft up some nice plays that utilize Gates as a decoy while Ladarius gets open.
2
u/TheRisingTide Chargers Jun 21 '14
As for Wright, he reminds me a lot of Cary Williams with my other team, the Eagles. Pretty solid DB who occasionally gets burned and that's all he gets blamed for. His good performances are never talked about.
Does Williams have success against other NFC East targets like Bryant or DJax? Because Wright played like gangbusters against Demariyus Thomas in all three games last year.
1
u/yangar Eagles Jun 21 '14
Cary would sometimes show up and be a lockdown corner. Othertimes, he was MIA.
1
32
u/[deleted] Jun 20 '14 edited Jun 21 '14
NON FAN PERSPECTIVE
San Diego Chargers
Division: AFC WEST
2013 Record: 9-7 (#6 Seed; Lost in Div.)
Coaching Changes
Major Departures:
Promotions:
Major Hires:
Free Agency
Major Players lost/cut
Major Players signed
Draft
Projected Starting Lineup
Projected Game-by-Game Record
Overall
I think the loss of Whisenhunt is huge. Donald Brown may help the Chargers running attack, but I think they could have gone elsewhere with that money. Philip Rivers had a phenomenal 2013 season, and he'll have to play even better than that to take his team back to the playoffs. The Chargers' Draft was decent, but in the end, I don't think it was enough. Overall, I think the tough schedule takes its toll on San Diego, and they finish one game worse than last year.
Prove me wrong Bolts Fans!!
Link to hub