2023 Official Roster Build Thread - The Initial 53 / Practice Squad

[chargeroo]

Understand. They got a 5th round pick for him

The key thing is for Telesco to really do his job - and replace Keenan Allen with a younger better player for the future. As noted above -t he Chargers put themselves in this position because of average results in drafting, failing to develop players so they went heavy in free agency.

They made the decision to pay really big money for Mack when REddick I htink got less money or even Nwosu
JC Jackson - I get he got hurt but the Niners paid Chardarvious Ward - much less

So they made decisions which - when it doesn't work, puts the possibility that Keenan Allen gets released. End of the day, Allen is not as good as the WRs on teh field Sunday - and thats the level the Chargers need to get too in my opinion. I am not comparing Allen and Williams to Josh Palmer and Michael Bandy. I am comparing to Stephon Diggs, Tyreek Hill, Jamarr Chase, Cooper Kupp - even a DJ Metcalf.

It sucks to lose yoru fan favorites: Rivers, Tomlinson,.Gates - but sometimes,. these are the decisions. But Telesco should not be afraid to get better.

Understand. They got a 5th round pick for him

The key thing is for Telesco to really do his job - and replace Keenan Allen with a younger better player for the future. As noted above -t he Chargers put themselves in this position because of average results in drafting, failing to develop players so they went heavy in free agency.

They made the decision to pay really big money for Mack when REddick I htink got less money or even Nwosu
JC Jackson - I get he got hurt but the Niners paid Chardarvious Ward - much less

So they made decisions which - when it doesn't work, puts the possibility that Keenan Allen gets released. End of the day, Allen is not as good as the WRs on teh field Sunday - and thats the level the Chargers need to get too in my opinion. I am not comparing Allen and Williams to Josh Palmer and Michael Bandy. I am comparing to Stephon Diggs, Tyreek Hill, Jamarr Chase, Cooper Kupp - even a DJ Metcalf.

It sucks to lose yoru fan favorites: Rivers, Tomlinson,.Gates - but sometimes,. these are the decisions. But Telesco should not be afraid to get better.

When KA is gone, we have two WRs left on the roster - two! You need to come up with three more WRs somehow. That's a tall hill to climb. They couldn't even use four WR sets this year, scratch Allen and the problem gets worse.
There has to be another way to fix this problem because we really can't spare another WR, especially our best one.

[SK21209]

The Ohio State WR is may target at 21

I really like him too, only reason I didn't list him specifically is I've been seeing him going earlier than our pick. But in the unlikely event all three of Flowers, Smith-Njigba and Addison are available, I might just take Smith-Njigba.

[charger1_sj]

You think so? Kiper's first mock that he released yesterday has them both going after our pick and PFF has Addison and Smith-Njigba going right around our pick (they have Flowers usually going a bit earlier). Receivers tend to rise in the lead up to the draft, that was definitely the case last year, but the consensus seems to be this year's WR class isn't as strong.

This year's class is definitely not as strong. BUT, it's a passing league so it's going to depend a lot on what teams need. When a class is not very strong top
candidates in that group tend to move up. Kind of the same can be said about TEs this year. There is the top 3, then it falls off. Kiper doesn't always get it
right. Mocks for the Chargers are all over the map. Usually this means we can take the best available and that can be at various positions. Some board have
Flowers ranked as the sixth or seventh best. Others have him as 2nd, 3rd best. So anybody's guess.

[cmplxgal]

As I wrote in the 2023 season topic, the Chargers are $20M over the estimated 2023 cap of $225M and actually need to clear about $40M in cap space: the initial $20M overage, plus about $11M to re-sign some of their own free agents (my estimate), about $3M to sign draft picks, and $5-7M in reserve that Telesco likes to keep. The only way to do that, it seems to me, is to release Mack with a post-June 1 designation. That will save $23M in cap space in each of 2023 and 2024, his last two contract years, even taking into account the $4.5M in dead money that would be owed to Mack for his prorated signing bonus in each of those two seasons. It would suck to do that, given that the Chargers are so thin at edge and just traded a second-round pick for Mack, but they have to do something, and they have to be cap-compliant by March 15. The only alternative is releasing Allen with a post-June 1 designation, which would save $17.5M this season and $23M next season, but then the Chargers would be down to Williams and Palmer as proven receivers. That's not tenable, and it wouldn't save as much money as releasing Mack. Maybe they could trade Mack and get something for him.

With Herbert's cap number jumping in 2024, I don't see restructuring as a viable way to go to any significant degree, as the Chargers are going to be lacking cap space to accommodate restructured contracts.

Edited to add: The Chargers created Mack's guaranteed money when they restructured his contract last season after trading for him:

https://www.boltsfromtheblue.com/202...n-in-cap-space

They converted $13.5M of Mack's 2022 salary to a signing bonus, to be paid as $4.5M in each of 2022, 2023 and 2024. If they hadn't restructured his contract to gain 2022 cap space, they could have walked away from him with no obligation this season or next. Still, releasing or trading him is the way to go.

[SK21209]

I think with the roster we have right now - keeping all of the WRs - we are still short two WRs. After KA, MW, and JP we are out of WR's So now some of you are all in favor of releasing our best one, thus causing a bigger need at WR. Also, take notice of the salary of other WR's in the NFL and you see Keenan's salary is not that bad.

The problem is less with the talent of our WRs and more about the particular mix. Comparing us to the Bills, I think Keenan/Mike/Palmer is equally or more talented than Diggs/Davis/MacKenzie. However, they had a much more efficient and explosive passing offense for most of the year because their receivers compliment each other better. Davis is the burner who takes the top off the defense. Diggs works that middle-to-deep part of the field. MacKenzie, Beasley and Knox get a lot of the underneath stuff. Each receiver is taking some pressure off of the other to operate in their preferred areas. In contrast, our guys are pretty redundant. Keenan and Palmer like to run the same routes and both are best working out of the slot. Mike can be a downfield guy, but more so because of his size and contested catch ability. Defenses don't react the same way to Mike Williams running downfield that they do to Gabe Davis running downfield despite Mike being the better player.

Mike is a similar type of receiver to Tee Higgins. They also have an underneath slot guy in Tyler Boyd and he works just fine with Higgins. The difference is Chase's home run ability, he allows Higgins and Boyd to operate against single coverage in the areas of the field where they're at their best. I love Keenan, he's really the last guy left that I associate with the Rivers era of Chargers football, but he can't do that. Up until very recently I scoffed at the idea of trading Keenan for the reasons you articulated, but looking at the cap sheet, our list of FAs, the team's needs and the upcoming draft class, I think trading him and drafting a WR early (and maybe another in later rounds) is the most prudent path forward.

[Bolt4Knob]

The problem is less with the talent of our WRs and more about the particular mix. Comparing us to the Bills, I think Keenan/Mike/Palmer is equally or more talented than Diggs/Davis/MacKenzie. However, they had a much more efficient and explosive passing offense for most of the year because their receivers compliment each other better. Davis is the burner who takes the top off the defense. Diggs works that middle-to-deep part of the field. MacKenzie, Beasley and Knox get a lot of the underneath stuff. Each receiver is taking some pressure off of the other to operate in their preferred areas. In contrast, our guys are pretty redundant. Keenan and Palmer like to run the same routes and both are best working out of the slot. Mike can be a downfield guy, but more so because of his size and contested catch ability. Defenses don't react the same way to Mike Williams running downfield that they do to Gabe Davis running downfield despite Mike being the better player.

Mike is a similar type of receiver to Tee Higgins. They also have an underneath slot guy in Tyler Boyd and he works just fine with Higgins. The difference is Chase's home run ability, he allows Higgins and Boyd to operate against single coverage in the areas of the field where they're at their best. I love Keenan, he's really the last guy left that I associate with the Rivers era of Chargers football, but he can't do that. Up until very recently I scoffed at the idea of trading Keenan for the reasons you articulated, but looking at the cap sheet, our list of FAs, the team's needs and the upcoming draft class, I think trading him and drafting a WR early (and maybe another in later rounds) is the most prudent path forward.

There is no doubt the team will need 2 WRs from the draft in addition to bringing back Guyton. I think you hit the nail with the way you describe the receivers, Allen and Palmer are redundant plus with a different option, Mike Williams probably becomes more valuable if somebody could open up the field

If there is way that it works that maybe KA takes a little less money and some dollars are moved in the future - that might make some sense. But teams get in trouble cap wise when they hold on to players too long, keep pushing cap and really get over a barrel. The Chargers window is Justin Herbert for the next 3-5 years - not just 2023. The Chargers were four wins from the Super Bowl - thats not close.

It sucks to have to move on from fan favorites - nobody wants that. But its also the reality of the league

[cmplxgal]

Listened to a little of teh Guilty as Charged crossover podcast with Popper and they asked about Allen back to the Chargers. Popper put the number 38.57% or something. So his thought was just follow the math. The Chargers are not a team to restructure and move money down the road like other teams. Plus Allen's age it doesn't make sense to move money for one year

I just ran across a video of this:

[Lone Bolt]

You think so? Kiper's first mock that he released yesterday has them both going after our pick and PFF has Addison and Smith-Njigba going right around our pick (they have Flowers usually going a bit earlier). Receivers tend to rise in the lead up to the draft, that was definitely the case last year, but the consensus seems to be this year's WR class isn't as strong.

I keep hearing how the class isnt strong, but that is probably because most of the best in this particular class are speedy guys who project mostly to the slot...save for Johnston...and pundits tend to value them less...but that is the type of WR we could use...both to stretch defenses, and eventually replace Keenan full time...so from my perspective, this class is plenty good.

[Fouts2herbert]

5 WRs were picked ahead of Zion Johnson
They didn't have a second rounder
Third rounder - -who was it - oh yes, the Safety that couldn't take - that was the spot Telesco screwed up. Drafting a safety that can't tackle

I’ll be honest, I might be one of the only people that loved the woods pick, he wowed at the senior bowl, had multiple picks during the week long practices and then did it in the game too…I still think he has bright future ahead of him if he can learn how to wrap up and take better angles…

[wu-dai clan]

I keep hearing how the class isnt strong, but that is probably because most of the best in this particular class are speedy guys who project mostly to the slot...save for Johnston...and pundits tend to value them less...but that is the type of WR we could use...both to stretch defenses, and eventually replace Keenan full time...so from my perspective, this class is plenty good.

They will be overdrafted.

[Fouts2herbert]

This year's class is definitely not as strong. BUT, it's a passing league so it's going to depend a lot on what teams need. When a class is not very strong top
candidates in that group tend to move up. Kind of the same can be said about TEs this year. There is the top 3, then it falls off. Kiper doesn't always get it
right. Mocks for the Chargers are all over the map. Usually this means we can take the best available and that can be at various positions. Some board have
Flowers ranked as the sixth or seventh best. Others have him as 2nd, 3rd best. So anybody's guess.

I agree it’s not as good on paper this year, but someone will hit on a guy in rounds 2-5 and everyone will be shocked, I hope it’s us, fingers crossed…

[21&500]

The problem is less with the talent of our WRs and more about the particular mix. Comparing us to the Bills, I think Keenan/Mike/Palmer is equally or more talented than Diggs/Davis/MacKenzie. However, they had a much more efficient and explosive passing offense for most of the year because their receivers compliment each other better. Davis is the burner who takes the top off the defense. Diggs works that middle-to-deep part of the field. MacKenzie, Beasley and Knox get a lot of the underneath stuff. Each receiver is taking some pressure off of the other to operate in their preferred areas. In contrast, our guys are pretty redundant. Keenan and Palmer like to run the same routes and both are best working out of the slot. Mike can be a downfield guy, but more so because of his size and contested catch ability. Defenses don't react the same way to Mike Williams running downfield that they do to Gabe Davis running downfield despite Mike being the better player.

Mike is a similar type of receiver to Tee Higgins. They also have an underneath slot guy in Tyler Boyd and he works just fine with Higgins. The difference is Chase's home run ability, he allows Higgins and Boyd to operate against single coverage in the areas of the field where they're at their best. I love Keenan, he's really the last guy left that I associate with the Rivers era of Chargers football, but he can't do that. Up until very recently I scoffed at the idea of trading Keenan for the reasons you articulated, but looking at the cap sheet, our list of FAs, the team's needs and the upcoming draft class, I think trading him and drafting a WR early (and maybe another in later rounds) is the most prudent path forward.

Agreed on all points.