The best news for the Chargers is there's still time.
Time to heal up.
Time to rest up.
And when the Chargers come out the bye refreshed, lesser teams will roll into Mission Valley.
Beat the Raiders (0-8) and Rams (3-5), and the Chargers would be 7-4 with five games to go. They were 5-7 last year, you'll recall, before they climbed into the playoffs.
But there are problems to fix.
Of utmost concern, I think, is how the team's bigger investments have gone sour.
Time to recover
It may be just a blip. Football careers are like the stock market. Every player, like every stock, gets knocked around. Time is the tell. A player like Ryan Mathews, for example, went from bust to bull last season and may do so again.
The big investments are more important because that's where teams expect to get impact performances.
Of late, the Chargers of Telesco and McCoy are receiving negative returns from their bigger investments. While that's not as concerning short term where rookies and sophomores are involved, you hope they don't signal long-term lag.
Donald Butler's $51.8-million extension is the biggest contract Tom Telesco has issued as General Manager. Butler, who signed the pact in March, hasn't looked right physically to me this season. His body just doesn't seem to have the life it had. You don't see the explosiveness, the change of direction, the balance. He's upright and less supple.
The contracted guaranteed him $11.1 million and mandates raises the next two years. Better play from the defensive line would help Butler, 26. He more than others may benefit from the rest time. But if his work doesn't improve, it's a triple-whammy, hurting the team on the field, crimping future payrolls, and causing the Chargers to invest in a replacement.
Draft update
Telesco's biggest investments in two drafts were the first-round picks in D.J. Fluker and Jason Verrett, and the two picks in both Manti Te'o and Jerry Attaochu.
The results sparkled at times.
Fluker, I thought, was a top-15 right tackle entering the season. He started 17 games as a rookie last year for a playoff team while outproducing five blockers taken before him. Verrett, taken 25th in May, played well in Games 1 and 2 despite a shortened preseason due to recovery from March shoulder surgery. Attaochu made big plays in Game 1 while Te'o, a 15-game starter last year, held a starting job.
Then the injuries struck.
The concern with Verrett and Te'o is they were recurring injuries. One year after his right foot was fractured, a fractured left foot has sidelined Te'o the last six games. Te'o brought borderline speed to the NFL. Losing burst to injury and inactivity would be career-threatening.
Verrett sat out Game 4 with a hamstring ailment. That wasn't worrisome, though he missed three games in junior college with a hamstring ailment.
Shoulder injuries are the worry. Where in 2013 he played through a torn labrum in his right shoulder, in Game 6 this season Verrett tore the labrum in his left shoulder. Worse, it's torn in three places including one spot that ex-Chargers doctor David Chao yellow-lighted (in the other shoulder) last March as trickier.
Verrett will need surgery. Considering he was in a no-contact jersey for most of training camp, his preparations to the 2015 season could be limited.
Fluker has stayed in the lineup despite a Game 5 ankle injury that slowed him in following weeks. Overall, he's having a decent season. The recent schedule, though, has trained a bright light on his heavy feet. Elite pass rushers such as Justin Houston, Von Miller and Cameron Wake have beaten the 340-pounder. Ryan Mathews returning to full speed and teaming up with Branden Oliver would suit Fluker, but it's concerning that Fluker is getting beaten off the snap on run plays as well (including Sunday's failed fourth-and-1 at Miami's 23).
It's hoped that Attaochu will return against the Raiders. Other than a career-high 35-snap outing at Oakland, where he apparently aggravated a hamstring injury, he's been out since Game 3. He's raw, but healthy, he would be of help somehow.
Can the Chargers count on Butler, Te'o, Verrett, Attaochu and Fluker to get back on track? Will the defense receive another late-season lift from Melvin Ingram, the top draftee in A.J. Smith's final draft?
Resilience is part of what led the team to invest heavily in them.
Time to heal up.
Time to rest up.
And when the Chargers come out the bye refreshed, lesser teams will roll into Mission Valley.
Beat the Raiders (0-8) and Rams (3-5), and the Chargers would be 7-4 with five games to go. They were 5-7 last year, you'll recall, before they climbed into the playoffs.
But there are problems to fix.
Of utmost concern, I think, is how the team's bigger investments have gone sour.
Time to recover
It may be just a blip. Football careers are like the stock market. Every player, like every stock, gets knocked around. Time is the tell. A player like Ryan Mathews, for example, went from bust to bull last season and may do so again.
The big investments are more important because that's where teams expect to get impact performances.
Of late, the Chargers of Telesco and McCoy are receiving negative returns from their bigger investments. While that's not as concerning short term where rookies and sophomores are involved, you hope they don't signal long-term lag.
Donald Butler's $51.8-million extension is the biggest contract Tom Telesco has issued as General Manager. Butler, who signed the pact in March, hasn't looked right physically to me this season. His body just doesn't seem to have the life it had. You don't see the explosiveness, the change of direction, the balance. He's upright and less supple.
The contracted guaranteed him $11.1 million and mandates raises the next two years. Better play from the defensive line would help Butler, 26. He more than others may benefit from the rest time. But if his work doesn't improve, it's a triple-whammy, hurting the team on the field, crimping future payrolls, and causing the Chargers to invest in a replacement.
Draft update
Telesco's biggest investments in two drafts were the first-round picks in D.J. Fluker and Jason Verrett, and the two picks in both Manti Te'o and Jerry Attaochu.
The results sparkled at times.
Fluker, I thought, was a top-15 right tackle entering the season. He started 17 games as a rookie last year for a playoff team while outproducing five blockers taken before him. Verrett, taken 25th in May, played well in Games 1 and 2 despite a shortened preseason due to recovery from March shoulder surgery. Attaochu made big plays in Game 1 while Te'o, a 15-game starter last year, held a starting job.
Then the injuries struck.
The concern with Verrett and Te'o is they were recurring injuries. One year after his right foot was fractured, a fractured left foot has sidelined Te'o the last six games. Te'o brought borderline speed to the NFL. Losing burst to injury and inactivity would be career-threatening.
Verrett sat out Game 4 with a hamstring ailment. That wasn't worrisome, though he missed three games in junior college with a hamstring ailment.
Shoulder injuries are the worry. Where in 2013 he played through a torn labrum in his right shoulder, in Game 6 this season Verrett tore the labrum in his left shoulder. Worse, it's torn in three places including one spot that ex-Chargers doctor David Chao yellow-lighted (in the other shoulder) last March as trickier.
Verrett will need surgery. Considering he was in a no-contact jersey for most of training camp, his preparations to the 2015 season could be limited.
Fluker has stayed in the lineup despite a Game 5 ankle injury that slowed him in following weeks. Overall, he's having a decent season. The recent schedule, though, has trained a bright light on his heavy feet. Elite pass rushers such as Justin Houston, Von Miller and Cameron Wake have beaten the 340-pounder. Ryan Mathews returning to full speed and teaming up with Branden Oliver would suit Fluker, but it's concerning that Fluker is getting beaten off the snap on run plays as well (including Sunday's failed fourth-and-1 at Miami's 23).
It's hoped that Attaochu will return against the Raiders. Other than a career-high 35-snap outing at Oakland, where he apparently aggravated a hamstring injury, he's been out since Game 3. He's raw, but healthy, he would be of help somehow.
Can the Chargers count on Butler, Te'o, Verrett, Attaochu and Fluker to get back on track? Will the defense receive another late-season lift from Melvin Ingram, the top draftee in A.J. Smith's final draft?
Resilience is part of what led the team to invest heavily in them.
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