Answering your Chargers Questions

1. Do not forget that in 2008 Philip Rivers was coming off knee surgery and had recovered ridiculously fast. The same thing that Brady has had a year to recover from, Rivers did in essentially 6 months. Although he was great in 2008, he seems to have a little more zip on his passes this season.

2. They are not 7’ tall, but close. Malcom Floyd and Vincent Jackson are both 6’5" (and fast). Kassim Osgood is too, but you won’t see him. Antonio Gates is 6’4" and finally 100% after being hobbled all of last season with a toe injury. Legedu Naanee is also 6’2" with blazing speed. The Ravens fans were left scarred because they don’t have a CB over 5’11". Jackson and Floyd had fun going against that.

3. Philip Rivers is a workaholic. He spends his offseasons analyzing tape of himself, finding weaknesses and improving them. Somehow this offseason he developed an incredible touch on deep throws. Through the first 3 weeks of the season he’s definitely had the best “deep ball” in the league. Even better than Manning or Brady. It’s always strong, it always hits the WR in stride. It’s an incredible thing to watch.

4. The reason the deep passing game is being used more this season is because there is no running game at all. The offensive line is decimated by injuries and LT is not there. Without being able to churn out long drives, the Chargers have had to rely heavily on big plays.

Some of us are actually trying to have discourse here. Go away.

If Woodley is going up against the RT, he’ll be at a disadvantage. Jeromey Clary, who was a weak-link on the line last year, has been a stud this season. If you’re going to get sacks they’re probably coming from Rivers’ blind side or up the middle. The weakness up the middle has also created a lot more sacks for 3-4 defensive lineman (as opposed to LBs) as the pocket is collapsing in front of Philip.

If differs from fan to fan. Some are true believers that think he’ll get healthy and be the MVP again. Some think he’s done even if he gets healthy. Some think he’ll never be healthy again.

Personally, I think he’s done as a top-flight RB and possibly even as a starter (although he’ll get his chance again in week 6). I think after this season he either becomes a backup (as in splitting carries, getting 10 touches per game) or is released and signs elsewhere. I also think the Chargers will draft a RB in the first round to be the new starting RB.

I think LT is a top 5 all time RB. I DO NOT think he is done, as most network type analysts seem to think.

I assume he’ll take some time to get back up to speed, but if he plays, he’ll go all out. Yes, late stages, but he can still be a top 5-10 back in this League, and with our passing game, fewer teams than in past years will commit 8 in the box.

I’m putting my 2 cents in as a Fan. I do not claim to have John’s knowledge of LT’s condition. Only answered because it was asked of fan’s views. Mr. Obviousman and I disagree about LT’s future. I don’t see him playing for anyone else. His pride may say he has more to give after the Chargers say he doesn’t, but money won’t make him go elsewhere. He breaks his records as a Charger, or he retires. He won’t get to Emmitt, but he isn’t done.

I love Naanee. He catches EVERYTHING (I swear he has something illegal on his gloves), in a straight line he must run a 4.3, he’s one of the hardest workers on the team and he’s only been a WR for a few years (he started as a QB at Boise State). This kid is a future star and a project pick that will pay huge dividends.

and most of the local beat reporters feel the same way.

Which isn’t to say the team won’t keep him if it’s easy. If there’s no new CBA in place by free agency he becomes a RFA and the Chargers could get him for cheap. If they have nobody else they’d want to franchise, they might do that as well.

They’re not kicking him out the door, but they don’t trust in him enough to give him the 100 million dollar contract he’s going to demand.

I don’t remember them having words last year, honestly. I can only think of three instances where Rivers has really opened his mouth, and none of them are against the Steelers (once against the Raiders this year, once against Indy and once against Cutler & Denver in 2007). Maybe I’m missing something.

Philip doesn’t really predict whether or not he’s going to “just play”. If he’s getting into it and feels like talking some smack, he’ll do it. The same way you would if you were playing football in your front yard with your buddies. It’s not some choreographed gimmick. So yes, I guess that means there’s a chance Philip talks some trash at Woodley.

Shawne actually hurt his groin in the Baltimore game. He gave it a go against Miami and couldn’t do what he wanted to do, so he came out. There’s some strong talk swirling around Chargers camp that LT & Merriman will sit out this game and come back healthy after next week’s bye. Expect that to happen.

How ready for the loss of Jamal Williams was your depth chart?
As least ready as possible. Ryon Bingham was supposed to work as the backup DT this season, but went on IR during training camp. With that, J-Will’s backups became two projects: Ogemdi Nwagbuo (who worked at the San Diego Airport last season) and Vaughn Martin (who played college football in Canada last season).

Luckily, Nwagbuo has answered the call. They’re both very raw, but they’re growing at a pace or two steps forward and one step back. Ogemdi is the starting DT and plays most of the time. Against Baltimore he looked serviceable. Against Miami he looked like a beast and a future star. We’re not sure who we’ll see against Pittsburgh, but it certainly won’t match Williams’ output.

Are the improvements in the pass defense a function of the QB’s and game situations you’ve faced or do you think they’ve taken a legitimate step forward?
A little of both. Russell is anything but an NFL QB, and Chad Henne looked like a kid playing in his first Pop Warner game when he got in. Pennington played alright, as did Bruce Gradkowski and Joe Flacco, but nobody blew the defense away.

The biggest change I see is health. Clinton Hart is healthy and appears to be less of a weakness. Antonio Cromartie is healthy and dangerous as ever. What’s been interesting to watch is QBs try to avoid throwing at Jammer and Cromartie. Outside of two blown plays in which WRs were left completely uncovered, I don’t know that the Chargers have allowed any passes for more than 20 yards to any WRs. When the QBs look downfield you can tell there’s great coverage because they’ll typically dump it off to the check-down guy.

The only thing that kept Oakland in the game was a blown play and Baltimore would’ve lost without that blown play as well. I said last week that if the Chargers could avoid blowing coverage like that, they’d beat Miami. I feel the same way against Pittsburgh. Ben will probably throw a couple of balls deep that he shouldn’t and that could be the difference.

Aside from just sack numbers, how’s the pass rush looking?
Let’s not forget about the sack numbers, because they tell a good story. The Chargers are tied for 25th in the league with 3 sacks in 3 games. By comparison, the Steelers are tied for 14th with 5 in 3 games.

The pass rush is a confusing topic because there’s no consistency. It was non-existent against the Raiders and after talking all offseason about being blitz-happy Ron Rivera called a very vanilla scheme. In the second half of the Ravens game (we’re a great second half team), the pass rush seemed to turn on and Shawne Merriman seemed to be creating good pressure. Against the Dolphins, there seemed to be some blitzing going on but there wasn’t a ton of pressure. After Pennington and Merriman left the game, the defense seemed content with trying to confuse Henne in cover into throwing a pick and they accomplished that.

Do I think the Chargers will have much of a pass-rush against the Steelers? Not really. Merriman is probably going to be out and if FWP is too the defense will gameplan to stop the pass with it’s tremendous CBs and coverage LBs. I’d bet on one sack, maybe two if a d-lineman gets one.