2009 NFL Preview: San Diego Chargers

By JFein:

Last year, the San Diego Chargers were as low as they could possibly be. The Broncos magic number was one with 3 weeks left in the season. All they needed to do was win one game or the Chargers lose one and the AFC West was theirs.........

Only that did not happen. Denver lost their last 3 and San Diego won their last 3 which included a Week 17 massacre of the Broncos to steal the AFC West, much to my pleasure and S2N's chagrin. This year, I don't see the AFC West being much competition and while the Chargers might not be a great team, they runaway with the West easily.

Philip Rivers: Philip Rivers is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, in my opinion. He has come into his own in a big way in the past few years and he definitley has to be considered one of the elite quarterbacks in the NFL. He has a great arm and is great at finding his receivers, no matter who they are. All this needs to make the playoffs this year is for this guy to stay healthy.

Running Back: Ladainian Tomlinson is now 30. Uh oh. The good news for the Chargers is is that they tagged Darren Sproles for one more year. Sproles is the man (and incidentally is now the favorite player of my 5'1", 50-some year old female Psych professor). The guy is fast. The guy is explosive. The guy is going to get one hell of a gig next year in a place other than San Diego. Which brings me back to LT. They say that once a RB reaches 30, he is past his prime. LT has certainly shown signs of that the past 2 years. Can he re-claim his greatness this year or will the trend of suckiness continue?

Shawne Merriman vs. Tila Tequila: Um......okaay....this story came out of nowhere. Look, Merriman claims his innocence and I for one am not going to categorize him in that role until he is proven guilty. This whole story just seems bizarre. Oh, and it appears that assuming some phantom injury does not pop up, as is frequently the case with Merriman, he will play Week 1.

Video: Super Chargers!



Prediction: 10-6, 1st Place AFC West. I don't expect great things from the Chargers and as much as I like them, I'm not even sure they will be able to make it past the wildcard round. A lot of that will depend on how well LT does. Oh yea, need I forget, Norv Turner coaches this team. They'll find away to lose that 1st playoff game.