And With The 5th Pick Of The NFL Draft Chargers Select....Discussion

[BigBad]

How many times have we seen a TE take over a game? If they are doubled teamed the wrs are left open, if they aren't doubled teamed they wreak havoc in the secondary. If you can one that blocks that is the cherry on top. We don't have a TE that even comes close to that and we need one biggly.

Very true.

And the whole don't take a tight end in the top 10 is because 95% of the time a team picking in the top 10 doesn't have a good QB.

I'll be happy with Nabors or Bowers.

[CanadianBoltFan]

How many times have we seen a TE take over a game? If they are doubled teamed the wrs are left open, if they aren't doubled teamed they wreak havoc in the secondary. If you can one that blocks that is the cherry on top. We don't have a TE that even comes close to that and we need one biggly.

And I would just like to point out that the 4 finalists to win the Super Bowl ALL have a stud TE

[dmac_bolt]

The big thing is we aren't going to fill all of our long-term needs or wishes in this draft.

As far as the OL goes, Cooper Beebe would be a nice fit. I am not sure I know where he fits best, but he is the kind of player who can probably play RT, LG, RG and maybe C in a pinch. He is a hard player not to like. For a team like us, he is the kind of player who might be ideal, since you can put everyone else in a more natural position, and then he could play wherever else you need him.

Bowers is a good blocker and a great receiver. He can play FB because of his ability to be a lead blocker. He can line up split out as a receiving TE, and inline TE, put him in motion .. he can do it all. Bowers is a good receiver who can line up all over and challenge secondaries. Traditional NFL defenses cover TE with LB. If a TE or Hback can beat LB coverage, they force defenses to use a S or NCB on them. If they can use their size well enough to beat those guys, now DC have to come up with ways to cover them that make alter the structure of the D. Their usual rules don't work, so you have to learn new coverages and adjustments and learn them for the week, which leads to a lot of breakdowns in coverage. If that same guy can block like a regular TE (not be just a receiver type), defenses are forced to make uncomfortable personnel group choices as uncomfortable coverage choices as well.

I could live with Kincaid or Pitts type of TE. We need offensive weapons, and they fit that, even if they have limitations as blockers. But when a TE has abilities beyond just receiving or just blocking, then it makes them even more valuable.

At some point soon, we are going to have to address WR with a quality pick. Allen is nearing the end, whether we keep him for 1 more year, extend him or not. I hope QJ develops but I am not sure he will develop into a pure #1 WR, and even if he does, Herbert needs at least one #2/#3 WR type who can beat single coverage and abuse any D that is doubling Bowers and QJ. Remember the days when we had Gates and Floyd both playing very well ... with no one around them... teams would double them, leave every other receiver singled, and Rivers kept running out of options. We need 3 good receiving options (maybe more).

Watching every playoff game I'm absorbing a couple big lessons

1. EVERY OT gets beat on a couple plays every game.
2. Good TEs are making a huge difference in every game, often the winning difference
3. Interior DTs that disrupt both pass and run throw the whole fucking offense off kilter. Great teams have this central anchor.
4. Receivers making huge impact are not Top 5 Rd1 superstars

My Charger Analysis
1. Pipkins is not elite but we can survive
2. We do not have a TE like this
3. We do not have an Interior DT player that does this
4. We don't have a true Elite #1 WR (KA does that job within his physical limitations, imagine if he was #2)

So ... TE, DT, and WR are more likely to improve the 2024 Chargers than OT with R1 pick. Plus I'm not convinced Alt or Fashanu are really top tier OTs that are that much better than the next tier.
Question will be are they aiming for 2024, or 2025?
If building the trench - trade down and go DL with R1 pick
IF adding a weapon, I'd go Bowers then Nabers, but can see B, N or Odunze all as viably too close to really nitpick about.

[Boltjolt]

The Bills failure last night should prove to EVERYONE here that Nabors must be the pick.

Allen was not sacked and they ran the ball for 180 yards. They lacked explosive playmakers. Gabe Davis was out and Diggs is 30 and not the same.

DRAFT EXPLOSIVENESS!!!!

But maybe having a Kelce type in Bowers opens things up for average WRs...
LOL who knows.

Not what what i came away with but ok.

[BigBad]

Not what what i came away with but ok.

Bills message boards complaining about their WRs lack of separation ALL YEAR.

[DerwinBosa]

Josh Allen had 72 of the Bills' rushing yards. The Bills' running backs ran for 101 yards on 25 carries. The Chiefs' running backs ran for 128 yards on 17 carries.

In case you're wondering, that means the Chiefs ran the ball better on designed runs.

[wu-dai clan]

@ #5 overall, do we take
Orlando Pace
or
Rod Bernstine
??

The Chargers need the right array of weapons, including TEs, WRs and a running attack.

[AK47]

Josh Allen had 72 of the Bills' rushing yards. The Bills' running backs ran for 101 yards on 25 carries. The Chiefs' running backs ran for 128 yards on 17 carries.

In case you're wondering, that means the Chiefs ran the ball better on designed runs.

The Bills' LB corps was decimated. Pacheco ran as hard as he did knowing full well he'll run into 185lb DBs as opposed to 240lb LB's.

During halftime I was wondering why KC wasn't running up the gut. True enough their coaching staff did so with great results.

[DerwinBosa]

Not a fan of Peter King, but this was in his column today:
The DPOY Dilemma


The day my NFL awards ballot was due to the Associated Press 12 days ago, I finished seven categories, knowing for a couple of weeks I’d struggle on the eighth. In very few cases over the years filling out this ballot have I agonized the way I did this year on Defensive Player of the Year. I’ll take you into my deliberations.

I thought there were five strong candidates, all edge players: Maxx Crosby, Myles Garrett, Khalil Mack, Micah Parsons and T.J. Watt, in alphabetical order. (Four very good ones didn’t make my cut in Josh Allen, Nick Bosa, Danielle Hunter and Aidan Hutchinson).

This contest, as has happened with many of the awards now, has been impacted by advanced metrics. It used to be, maybe 15 years ago, that you’d look at the sack leaders or the interception leader and give the nod to one of them. But times have changed, with deeper dives into numbers and pass-rush metrics from Next Gen Stats and PFF. This one number illustrated how close this contest was: Garrett and Watt, the front-runners in the eyes of many, each had 86 regular-season quarterback pressures (sacks/QB hits/hurries), per PFF.

My criteria is not precise. Which player lifts his defense the most, perhaps making a good defense great? Which player both masters the new-age metrics and passes the eye test for major impact all season? How do players and coaches and GMs I’ve spoken with during the year rate the best players?

The cases for all five will show you I could have picked any of them and had a strong argument:

Crosby, Las Vegas: For my money, the highest-energy defensive player in football. Best run defender of them all, with 42 run stops and 18 run stuffs (rushers tackled for zero or negative yards). Played every snap in 10 Raider games this year, a rarity; four other players with one each were the only others to do that. Had more overall pressures (94) than Garrett and Watt. His negative is time to pressure—3.19 seconds per pressure, per Next Gen Stats. That’s almost a full second slower than Parsons and Garrett.

Garrett, Cleveland: Heartbeat of his team. “I’ve coached three players who made every coordinator who ever played us say, ‘That’s the guy we’ve got to account for on every play,’” Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz told me. “Ray Lewis, Calvin Johnson and Myles Garrett.” Average time to get to the quarterback: 2.32 seconds, which was second only to Parsons’ 2.31 seconds. His most impressive metric: PFF rated Garrett number one in pass-rush grade and pass-rush win rate—how often the pass-rusher is judged to have beaten his blocker on pass-rush snaps. His win rate of 27.3 percent was significantly better than Watt’s 16.9-percent win rate.

Mack, L.A. Chargers: Sneaky excellent season, including against the run, with the same number of tackles behind the line (38; 21 tackles for loss and 17 sacks) as T.J. Watt. More passes batted down (10) than any edge player, and the most forced fumbles (five) in this group. He forced his way into this group despite his team being the worst among the top candidates.

Parsons, Dallas: There’s a stat Next Gen uses called “quick pressure.” It’s a measure of how many pressures a rusher gets in 2.5 seconds after the snap or less. Parsons had 62, Garrett 54 and Watt 37. Parsons had the highest average pressure rate (pressures divided by overall rushes) at 21.4 percent, 4 points ahead of Garrett, 8 points ahead of Watt.

Watt, Pittsburgh: This year became the first player to win the NFL sacks a third time with 19.0 sacks. That’s 4.5 more than Crosby and five more than Garrett and Parsons. That matters, getting home more than anyone else. It matters a lot. Per Next Gen Stats, though, Watt had a pressure rate of 13.7 percent per rush—good, but down the list from the best edge-rushers. Watt would have won it in bygone years because of his sack numbers, and his terrific overall play could win it this year when the awards are announced in Las Vegas on Feb. 8.

I almost thought: Flip a five-sided coin.

I picked Garrett. In order, my top five were Garrett, Parsons, Watt, Crosby and Mack. Garrett was high in both PFF grade and Next Gen pass-rush metrics, and his team was the number one defense in football. More than that, I kept thinking of one play—amazingly, not a pass-rush or strip-sack or some great spin move. Here it is, from week seven at Indianapolis.

This is why players such as Latu, Turner, and Verse should not be overlooked.

[AK47]

Very true.

And the whole don't take a tight end in the top 10 is because 95% of the time a team picking in the top 10 doesn't have a good QB.

I'll be happy with Nabors or Bowers.

Hmmm. I've never thought of it like that.

[Boltjolt]

Bills message boards complaining about their WRs lack of separation ALL YEAR.

And we got people complaining about Keenan lol. It always looks better when they arent on your team. I think Diggs and Gabriel Davis are good recievers. They have more speed at WR than we have.

You know damn well when we hire Harbaugh there will be complaints about him at some point.

[KrazyLegs]

Bills message boards complaining about their WRs lack of separation ALL YEAR.

Part of the lack of explosive plays were due to drops and missed passes.

Bills WRs dropped at least 2 deep balls and Allen missed on at least 2-3 big throws.