THURSDAY TAVERN DRAFT TALKS….

*If you live in the Philadelphia area, be sure to watch Comcast tonight at 5:30pm eastern where I will be on to discuss the Eagles.

Thursday night means football, and here in the Tavern it means some draft study.  Today's target is the San Diego Chargers as they play the Hotel tonight in an AFC West game.  Mention the Chargers today and many will say they have the most talented team in the NFL and are underachieving this season.  Not sure if that’s true, but it seems to be the popular rhetoric being spread around on most talk shows.  Therefore, the team’s lack of success lies squarly on the shoulders of head coach Norv Turner, who is not the sole reason for their 4-8 record. 

The Chargers are one of the few organizations in the NFL  that have always maintained a GM/Coach structure.  Since the Spanos family has owned the team, they have always allowed a real football man to come in and run the football part of the business and then hired a coach.  There are clearly defined roles in the organization, and no matter what regime was in charge, they have always maintained this structure.  So from Bobby Beathard to John Butler and now A.J. Smith, the framework internally has stayed the same. 

WhenButler took over in 2001 after Beathard retired, he was faced with an older team in transition.  Under Beathard, the Chargers had only 2 first round picks from 1993 to 2000 and one of them was the infamous Ryan Leaf.  They kept trading down or trading away future first-round picks for a player in the second round.  They had no quarterback as the centerpiece of the team, and other than Junior Seau, there were few quality players.  Butler believed in building through the draft but also had a very good pro personnel man and trusted aid in Smith to help plug some of the holes the draft could not solve.   Much like they did in Buffalo, Butler and Smith started to build the team around a running back and improve their offensive and defensive lines.  

For his first draft, Butler stayed with the trading-down tradition but kept the first-round pick, moving away from Michael Vick but getting a blue-chip runner in the first round in LT.  But the key to this draft was being able to come back at the top of the second round and get his eventual franchise quarterback in Drew Brees.  Admittly, Brees struggled to find his niche as a starter and had many bumps in the road that all quaterbacks must fight through -- but he proved in 2004 that he was the man who could carry this team deep into the playoffs. 

As for style, the Chargers are not married to a certain style of player -- but they are married to a certain scheme.  Since their Buffalo days of the 3-4 with Bruce Smith and Darryl Talley, the Butler-Smith team has always favored drafting players who fit that scheme.  And they also pay close attention to players who can help make a difference in the klcking game, clearly an influence from their time with Marv Levy. 

Here is the breakdown:                                                                         

1.  54 picks since 2002.  And remember, they got two blue-chip players from the 2001 draft, LT and Brees. 

2.  19 of the 54 are currently on the roster right now  (this counts the Manning-for-Rivers swap).

3.  Only 6 players currently on the team are from the fifth round or later, which makes sense as this is a very difficult team to make each summer. 

4.  35-percent ratio for their picks.  This appears to be a low number, but the Chargers use undrafted free agents to supplement their draft and also fill certain holes on their team with unrestricted free agents. 

5.  11 offensive linemen have been picked since ’02, and both of their starting tackles have come from the draft.  Jeromey Clary was a sixth rounder and was on the practice squad for some time. 

6.  7 linebackers picked since ’02, which makes sense since the team runs and 3-4. Added to the 5 DL they have selected, you can see the Chargers place great value in drafting and developing offensive and defensive lineman. 

7.  3 kickers and punters, and both starters came from the draft.  The Chargers pay attention to the kicking game. 

8  Because of their past success, the Chargers have been able to redshirt most draft classes, which will benefit their development in future years. 

9.  Chargers don't miss very often in the first round.  Other than the entertainer, Sammy Davis, all other 8 first-rounders are playing, and with the exception of Craig Davis, all are capable of starting and helping a team win.  Davis has shown flashes but is injury prone and inconsistent. 

10.  THE BREAKDOWN (YELLOW MEANS THEY ARE NO LONGER WITH THE TEAM)