Draft day dealing with the Chargers

[Valuist]

I think anybody who wants to draft day trade with San Diego is out of their tiny minds. Lets see what the Chargers have done in recent years.

1. Atlanta was desperate to get the number 1 pick to draft Michael Vick. So they trade several picks, one of whom was Drew Brees. Brees has been very solid, and been a part of the Saints improvement. But one of the other picks turned out to be for a guy named Tomlinson, which I hear can play a bit.....

2. Eli Manning was annoited the prize of the 2005 draft. But in his wisdom, he decided he didn't want to play in that awful environment of San Diego.....weather was too nice, the coach was a QB killer, the RB was too good. So the Giants bundle several picks to get the rights for Eli. The Chargers take Philip Rivers, who right now looks far ahead of Eli. One of the other picks? None other than Shawne Merriman, who's one of the top defensive players in the NFL. I guess Marty hasn't been a QB killer for Rivers.....as for Eli, he's killing the Giants.

[ghostyapper]

In retrospect, the giants probably should have traded down and taken rothlesberger. He would have been a perfect fit for the giants.

Its still too early to tell but eli has definitely given the other 2 a major head start.

As crazy as it may sound, when all 3 qb's are on their game, I still think eli is the best. Problem is he plays great in spurts. That won't cut it as a an nfl qb in ny or the #1 pick overall.

[Valuist]

Its possible. I think he's got a strong arm; ironically, his decision making has been very shaky. He's never had the confidence of his older brother. I still think Rothlesberger is messed up from the two surgeries. He supposedly lost 25 pounds after the appendectomy and he was throwing short earlier in the season. He's been better lately but still throwing INTs. Have to admit Rivers has surprised me. I didn't expect this much from him.

[rastajenk]

Big Ben's big problem is that his team isn't as good as the last two years. They have lost Bettis, Burris and Randel-El the last two years, and haven't replaced them very well. I don't doubt that his off-season misadventures led to a slow start, and there have probably been at least a couple games where using C-Batch would have had longer term benefits, but basically, they're inferior to the offenses of the recent past. So the QB gets all that blame.

As to the original post, yeah, good points. Chargers have been very shrewd in some big personnel decisions. If you don't have a "system," like New England, where players are interchangeable parts, then you need to draft well, and they sure have.