2024 Chargers Draft Superthread - Prospect Discussion - Draft Has Started

[Boltnut]

According to OTC, We can trade Pipkins post June 1st and save 6.25 m

Trade him to the Telesco Raiders for Zamir White if they resign Jacobs. Or just trade him there for a 2025 pick.
Or somewhere else for a player we might need.

Telesco's gonna triple-down, eh?

[DerwinBosa]

^ This...okay, Derwin, it's me, Wu and u and the faithful few banging the table to FINALLY end our O-line woes by taking Alt @#5 and JPJ with our next pick...do we really want to go through ANOTHER year of seeing Herbie get hit and sacked time after time, then injured again, because our O-line stinks? I don't. Let's finally put an end to the pitiful parade of OT JAGS and busts, including Pip, Storm, Clary, Barksdale, Fluke, etc. etc. etc...and choose ALT @#5...PROTECT THE FRANCHISE!!!

I'm with you! Lol.

[CanadianBoltFan]

Bowers would make the team better... just not as good as a real OT... or the #10,11, or 14 pick with the additional picks.
Do you think Bowers would make the team better than say RT Fuaga + an extra 2nd round pick...? Or RT Mims and an extra 3rd and 4th round pick...?

Whether one is smitten with Bowers or not..and i am...it is hard to ignore the many needs on this roster...and not see the advantage of trading back

But I would rather get Herbert a special weapon at 5 like Bowers, Nabers, Odunze than Alt at 5 if you are going to use the pick. Alt doesnt play RT, though is is assumed he could, it is not his position and there are about 7 other first round tackles, some of them RT like Fuaga. If Hortiz and Harbaugh want to go OL, fine then trade down to do it.

[blueman]

Keep saying, Salyer is our RT. Bank it.

[Boltnut]

Whether one is smitten with Bowers or not..and i am...it is hard to ignore the many needs on this roster...and not see the advantage of trading back

But I would rather get Herbert a special weapon at 5 like Bowers, Nabers, Odunze than Alt at 5 if you are going to use the pick. Alt doesnt play RT, though is is assumed he could, it is not his position and there are about 7 other first round tackles, some of them RT like Fuaga. If Hortiz and Harbaugh want to go OL, fine then trade down to do it.

I would rather get Herbert the protection he deserves. This kid has a rocket for an arm... and never gets to use it.
I want to see us go deep off play-action. That's not going to happen without a run game. I haven't seen anything out of Pip in the run game. As for Alt's never played RT... there are plenty of college LT's that switched to RT in the pros. A couple of your best OT's (Joihnson, Sewell) are an example of that. I'd rather trade back to #10 or #11 (get some extra picks) and draft Fuaga there.

My main focus is building a whole team. Right now, our defense is a long way from being respectable. We're going to need some players on that side of the ball. I know it's not sexy. My ball-watching brother kept complaining about how boring the SB was at halftime... LOL! I loved watching the #2 and #3 defenses.

[blueman]

Pip has had a few good run game blocks that I’ve seen. But way too few and far between. Upgrade.

Salyer did very well at LT when Slater went out, but RT is his best position. Put him there.

[charger1_sj]

No, we don't have a starting right tackle. Trey Pipkins sucks, so we need a right tackle. Do I think the right tackle spot is more important than tight end? Absolutely. Add in the reality that right tackle has been a tremendous weakness on this team for the last 15+ years, which you are not acknowledging, and I think it would be very nice if we would FINALLY get that spot straightened out.

That said, we have the fifth overall pick, which you don't hope to be in position to have quite often. At fifth we're not going to take the player based on the greatest need we have. That would be incredibly stupid. We're going to take the best player available, in hopes that he will have a Hall of Fame career--or close to it. As of right now I think the best player available with the fifth overall pick will be Joe Alt, whom we would play at right tackle. That would hopefully set us up to have one of the top offensive tackle tandems in the NFL (Detroit is currently there now, after taking Penei Sewell seventh overall in 2021 to play right tackle) and be a huge step in our offensive line becoming elite. As I said earlier, if the medical professionals at the Scouting Combine say Laiatu Latu is at no greater risk than anyone else to injure his neck, I'm all about him with the fifth overall pick. Latu would hopefully form a very nice tandem with Tuli for quite a long time.

That's just me, though. I have faith in whatever Harbaugh and Hortiz decide to do.

I do not look at tight end as a huge problem for us to fill, though. I look at what the Ravens have done with John Harbaugh as head coach, in which he has had the most success with his general managers using multiple picks on the position in the mid-rounds. This past season he lost his STUD tight end, Mark Andrews (a third-round pick in 2018), and replaced him with a 2022 fourth-round pick, Isaiah Likely, and went 6-1 in those games, with Likely playing very well while Andrews was out. I have the utmost confidence in Harbaugh taking a tight end in the mid-rounds and molding him into a starter or even STUD.

We lost Hunter Henry (second-round pick) after the 2020 season and replaced him with Jared Cook, who caught 48 passes in 2021--a year in which Herbert threw for 37 touchdowns and over 5,000 yards. We lost Jared Cook after the 2021 season and replaced him with Gerald Everett, who had 58 receptions in 2022 and 51 receptions last year. We've had a lot more success finding tight ends than we have had getting a stable right tackle. It's gone from Jeromey Clary to D.J. Fluker to Joe Barksdale to Sam Tevi to a washed-up Bryan Bulaga (for 10 games in 2020) to Storm Norton to Trey Pipkins. Knowing this, I don't understand why you don't think right tackle is a high priority this offseason.

On a side note, last fall you snapped when I wrote that we should let Austin Ekeler go after this season--because you said he was our best offensive player after Herbert. What do you think now?

Yes we do in fact have a starting ROT. He started last year. You don't like him, that's fine, but it doesn't change the fact. Now there is this, we have a new coaching staff. Sayler played LOT when
we had injury there and he played pretty well. So how about this we move Sayler over to ROT and draft an OG in the 3rd or later rounds. We see how that plays out.

We always take the best player available at the position of most need or impact. And that's pretty much what the rest of the league does every single year. Or maybe you believe that every
year a QB is the best player in the draft. I don't. Maybe we should draft a QB @5 if he's the best available. You would do that according to your theory.

We do not have a starting TE. It is a huge need. As are a few other positions. We wouldn't take one with the #5 pick unless he graded out as a top 5 pick, in most peoples eyes Bowers does.
He grades out better than Latu.

The year you refer to we had a healthy Allen and Williams. Since then we have not. Everett is a free agent. Doubtful we re-sign him. Parham too.


I did not snap at letting Ekeler go for this coming season. That was last year. Ekeler sucked but so did Kelly and Spiller. So what would you have done? Cut Ekeler and then what?
He was the best offensive player outside of Herbert the year before. I don't have a crystal ball do you?

[Topcat]

Pip has had a few good run game blocks that I’ve seen. But way too few and far between. Upgrade.

Salyer did very well at LT when Slater went out, but RT is his best position. Put him there.

As soon as Slater was back at LT, the Bolts should have moved Salyer to RT...but NOOOO...the Bolts signed Pip to that generous extension and apparently felt they HAD to play Pip...call it the "Franklin Syndrome"...
MM and BS: "It's out of my hands!"

[blueman]

As soon as Slater was back at LT, the Bolts should have moved Salyer to RT...but NOOOO...the Bolts signed Pip to that generous extension and apparently felt they HAD to play Pip...call it the "Franklin Syndrome"...
MM and BS: "It's out of my hands!"

Another TT/Staley disaster…this from the duo who brought you Storm Norton.

[beachcomber]

According to OTC, We can trade Pipkins post June 1st and save 6.25 m

Trade him to the Telesco Raiders for Zamir White if they resign Jacobs. Or just trade him there for a 2025 pick.
Or somewhere else for a player we might need.

if so, would target Cincy's fourth rounder @116 for Pips....

[beachcomber]

if we don't somehow maneuver for extra picks, don't see too many ways around not drafting OC/RB day two ??

[dmac_bolt]

100% truth. The #5 pick should be used to protect the franchise and help us run better. Joe Alt could/should make that happen better than any other player. Many mocks have him going before #5. IMO, the best course of action is to trade back and accumulate picks. I'd feel comfortable going all the way back to #14. Chance are, you'd still get a stud RT or CB. Fuaga, Mims, Kool-Aid, or Quinyon would make this team better... day 1.

I get the fascination with Bowers. All I can say is that I'm glad to finally have a GM that enjoys trading back... and still makes great picks.

Fuaga is the best RT in the draft if you want to run the ball better (posted for discussion)