Chargers need more from big investments

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  • oneinchpunch
    Registered Charger Fan
    • Jun 2013
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    Chargers need more from big investments

    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.
    Hashtag thepowderblues
  • Sec-E4
    Registered Charger Fan
    • Sep 2014
    • 729
    • Arizona
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    #2
    **Butler looks uninterested & doesn't have his game face, Like he use to......something is wrong with him, Either mentally or physically ?? Is he butt hurt because JJ took the C from him ?

    **Fluker is looking like an overgrown baby out there & isn't completing his assignments...Was Clary his football dad ? Did Clary make him play better ?

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    • richpjr
      Registered Charger Fan
      • Jun 2013
      • 21036
      • Nashville
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      #3
      I find it kind of creepy that Tom Krasovic thinks Butler is less supple.

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      • oneinchpunch
        Registered Charger Fan
        • Jun 2013
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        #4
        McCoy says Donald Butler appears healthy to him.
        Hashtag thepowderblues

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        • richpjr
          Registered Charger Fan
          • Jun 2013
          • 21036
          • Nashville
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          #5
          UTKevinAcee ‏@UTKevinAcee 2m2 minutes ago
          Mike McCoy continues to refuse to single out Donald Butler. But he has to know his credibility is on the line -- in the locker room.

          Comment

          • Geezbolt
            Registered Charger Fan
            • Jun 2013
            • 1086
            • Sun Valley, ID
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            #6
            Originally posted by Sec-E4 View Post

            **Fluker is looking like an overgrown baby out there & isn't completing his assignments...Was Clary his football dad ? Did Clary make him play better ?
            I think it's hard to under-estimate the impact Hardwick had on the cohesiveness of the o-line. And there is probably no single unit on a football team where cohesiveness is more important than on the o-line. I'm sure not having Clary next to him is hurting Fluker too.

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            • oneinchpunch
              Registered Charger Fan
              • Jun 2013
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              #7
              Originally posted by Geezbolt View Post
              I think it's hard to under-estimate the impact Hardwick had on the cohesiveness of the o-line. And there is probably no single unit on a football team where cohesiveness is more important than on the o-line. I'm sure not having Clary next to him is hurting Fluker too.
              Maybe in the run game sometimes. But in pass protection he's getting straight up beat one on one.
              Hashtag thepowderblues

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              • longhorn
                SD NOT LA Charger Fan
                • Jun 2013
                • 77
                • Tucson, AZ
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                #8
                Originally posted by oneinchpunch View Post
                Maybe in the run game sometimes. But in pass protection he's getting straight up beat one on one.
                But, on pass plays the guards and center are losing worse, limiting Rivers ability to rely on the certainty of a pocket. An offensive tackle will never be as fleet-footed as a pass rusher - they rely on guiding the pass rusher past the passer

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                • oneinchpunch
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                  • Jun 2013
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                  #9
                  The entertainment network where videos and personalities get really big, really fast. Download Vine to watch videos, remixes and trends before they blow up.
                  Hashtag thepowderblues

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                  • oneinchpunch
                    Registered Charger Fan
                    • Jun 2013
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                    #10
                    @hacksaw1090: Jason Verrett...3-tears in labrum-should have surgery now..takes 5-months minimum to recover...
                    Hashtag thepowderblues

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                    • thelightningwill
                      Go Aztecs and Pads
                      • Jul 2013
                      • 4645
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                      #11
                      Originally posted by oneinchpunch View Post
                      @hacksaw1090: Jason Verrett...3-tears in labrum-should have surgery now..takes 5-months minimum to recover...
                      Then why not wait 'til the end of the year? Five months after January would be June. It's not like we're going to need him in May.

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                      • oneinchpunch
                        Registered Charger Fan
                        • Jun 2013
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                        #12
                        Originally posted by thelightningwill View Post
                        Then why not wait 'til the end of the year? Five months after January would be June. It's not like we're going to need him in May.
                        5 months minimum is the claim

                        Once again risking Verrett being able to take part in any part of offseason
                        Hashtag thepowderblues

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