Early predictions for the 2015 season

[Steve]

Stevie Johnson 980 yds and 8 TD's

I think it is unlikely that any individual receiver puts up great stats this season. It is clear that there is a much bigger emphasis on running the ball, which will hurt the passing game. We also have a lot of receivers who are going to get at least some action. Gates, Floyd both have great chemistry with Rivers. They won't have great stats, but they will get their share. Allen is the best of the bunch and caught a lot of passes against so many double teams last year. Now we are getting Woodhead back, Johnson steps into the 3rd WR role (maybe 2nd?). Then add in trying to get the ball to Green more, and maybe even get Inman into the action. A lot of bodies for fewer receivers doesn't bode well for individual stats.

The good thing is well balanced teams with a lot of weapons tend to be a lot stronger. While I wouldn't make the Chargers receivers the top picks on a fantasy team this year (well not a yardage league anyway), that doesn't mean our offense will be hurting. Gates and Allen got a lot of attention last year, and our inability to protect Rivers and lack of a running game prevented us from exploiting it. We need the balance and ability to force defenses to defend the width and depth of the entire field and that only comes with a stable of receivers and a running game.

Any D that is decent will have the ability to take out a single great, even dominant player. How much playoff success has Megatron had? His last playoff game (he has been in only 2), 5 catches for 85 yards no TD, and was only targeted once on the final drive (but he had a false start against him). The point is not that we wouldn't like to have great individual talent, but that great individual talent is far less important than having good team talent.

[bonehead]

I don't think they are great stats, just good stats....I stick by my "early" prediction. this O is gonna be good.

[blueman]

Yeah, the O will be good and hard to stop, just need some decent health and it will win games for us.

[Mister Hoarse]

Reich hasn't proven much and McCoy's conservative approach leads me to believe we will rely too much on D and not exploit the offense weapons as much as we should.

[Formula 21]

Rivers wins MVP.

[Steve]

I don't think they are great stats, just good stats....I stick by my "early" prediction. this O is gonna be good.

I'm not disagreeing with the sentiment, but it does depend a little bit on what you think makes a good offense. If you want our offense running up a lot of 40+ point games, you might be somewhat disappointed. But if you like to see our offense controlling the clock, scoring a decent amount of points (more like upper 20's to low 30's per game), and then us winning by a couple of scores, then I think we have that kind of group.

Reich hasn't proven much and McCoy's conservative approach leads me to believe we will rely too much on D and not exploit the offense weapons as much as we should.

I am not sure what you are getting at here. I expect that we will go for a large measure of ball control, if that is what you are bemoaning. And I think it is the right way to go. We aren't going to have a dominant D. But playing ball control puts the D in a much better position to stay off the field, and it is the easiest way to make another team one dimensional. Get a lead on another team, control the clock and they have to start passing to make sure they keep up. They just can't let a team that controls the clock to get the ball back with 10 minutes left and be a couple of scores down. You might score a TD, but if the offense plays like it did 2 years ago, being behind by 2 scores late was a death sentence, because we were likely to get at least 1 FG, and that is the game, because we would kill the clock and not allow the other team the time to score again.

I know it is not popular, but I find it hard to fault Reich too much with the amount of turnover on the OL. You can't run the ball or throw long, so defenses knew what was coming, and there are not a lot of options with guys starting games when they were watching games at home a couple weeks before. The playbook was compressed, the options in the playbook were compressed and the personnel was limited. Not sure how it was supposed to perform at a high level.

[blueman]

Wild guess: our W/L differential +7 points for season average. We will control games.

[Mister Hoarse]

I think we will have opportunities to ice games and instead of taking advantage, we will punt and trust our non existant pass rush to hold teams off late.

[Big Dog]

12-4 and + or - 1 game

I'm telling you, the OL is going to be HUGE and having 2 Super Melvins on the team is too much for the rest of the NFL ... injuries are the only thing that can stop us from reaching the Superbowl ...

[Formula 21]

12-4 and + or - 1 game

I'm telling you, the OL is going to be HUGE and having 2 Super Melvins on the team is too much for the rest of the NFL ... injuries are the only thing that can stop us from reaching the Superbowl ...

two thumbs up

[Panamamike]

I think we will have opportunities to ice games and instead of taking advantage, we will punt and trust our non existant pass rush to hold teams off late.

So, you are not confident we will be able to move the chains late in games? I disagree with that, but time will tell.

[blueman]

I like how TT has loaded the roster with his guys, time to see how they produce.