San Diego Chargers:

Using the power from their Rivers to get charged up

The San Diego Chargers have never enjoyed too much success in the NFL since the franchise started in 1960. The team has employed 12 different coaches and of those 12 coaches only three of them, Sid Gillman, Don Coryell, and Bobby Ross, ended their time with the Chargers with a winning record. The last time the team went won their division was in 1994 when they eventually went on to the Super Bowl. The Chargers barely got by the Dolphins in their first game, 22-21, and just slipped by the Steelers 17-13 to make their way into Super Bowl XXIX in Miami, Florida. In one of the more lopsided victories in Super Bowl history the San Francisco 49ers beat the Chargers by a score of 49-26. In that game, San Francisco quarterback Steve Young threw for a Super Bowl record six touchdowns on his way to winning the MVP of the game. Since that devastating loss the Chargers franchise hasn’t been the same. They have only made the playoffs once and that was their single season above the .500 mark. Since the ’95 season the team has a 44-92 record that earned them a .324 winning percentage. The team hit rock bottom during the 2000 season when they only managed to win one game on their way to a 1-15 record.

Last year the Chargers disappointed their fans once again, even after head coach Marty Schottenheimer informed the press that they were a “damn good football team,” and went on to open up the season 0-5 and finished the season with a 4-12 record. It hurt the team a great deal in their pocket books since fans weren't buying Chargers tickets like the teams needs them to to turn a good profit.

In the off-season the team had to make a number of moves to change the face of the team or be doomed to do the same things it had done in years past. They let go of key players like defensive end Marcellus Wiley, defensive end Raylee Johnson, wide receiver David Boston, tight end Stephen Alexander, offensive tackle Damion McIntosh, offensive tackle Vaughn Parker, guard Kelvin Garmon, and G Bob Hallen. The team did make some good additions by grabbing offensive tackle Roman Oben, wide receiver Kevin Dyson, guard Mike Goff, and linebacker Steve Foley.

The draft was a circus for the San Diego Chargers. The team had the dubious honor of making the first pick in the draft. The Chargers wanted Eli Manning who was the best quarterback in the draft but the Manning family let the Chargers know that Eli wouldn’t play for the Chargers even if that meant he had to hold out all year long and get put back into the 2005 draft. The Chargers then went ahead and used their number one pick on Eli Manning and let the bidding war for the rights to Manning begin. The Giants won the war when they gave the Chargers North Carolina quarterback Phillip Rivers, a third round pick in 2004 and a first and fifth round pick in 2005. The Chargers are confident that Rivers will be the next great quarterback in the organization and not the next Ryan Leaf who was one of the greatest flops of all time. With their second round pick the Chargers got Oregon defensive tackle Igor Olshansky. Olshansky is the type of defensive tackle that will not only push an offensive lineman over with his upper body strength (505 pound bench press) but he is a surprisingly fast guy (4.9 40-yard dash) for being 6’5” and weighing 309 pounds.

On the offensive side of the ball the Chargers weren’t too bad last year, but that’s because they have one of, if not the, best running back in all of the land in LaDanian Tomlinson or LT for short. LT will always be remembered for one of the guys that was traded for Atlanta quarterback Michael Vick. LT has rushed for over 1,200 yards in each of his three seasons and has surpassed 1,600 yards in the past two seasons. Tomlinson also brought in 100 catches for 725 yards while scoring 17 touchdowns in the 2003 campaign. If the Chargers offense were a car Tomlinson would be the motor the tires and the steering wheel of it.

The Chargers defense wasn’t quite as great as coach Schottenheimer thought they would be. The team finished 25 th against the run and 27 th in total defense. The team hopes that with all the new additions they will be able to improve on last years lack of defense last year.

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