Welcome Brandon Mebane

[bonehead]

i
I'm concerned that he's small as a 5 tech and slow as an OLB. Not as a player, but as the #3 overall pick. If you compare him to Kerrigan, Kerrigan was pick 16. And I'd love Bosa in the middle of the 1st. At 3? I just don't know.

This is my exact sentiment.....if Bosa starts is he on the Dline or OLB....if he's OLB who goes to the bench? Attouchu or Ingram?

[Steve]

i
I'm concerned that he's small as a 5 tech and slow as an OLB. Not as a player, but as the #3 overall pick. If you compare him to Kerrigan, Kerrigan was pick 16. And I'd love Bosa in the middle of the 1st. At 3? I just don't know.

First, remember, JJ watt was chosen 10th in that same draft. It was a very, very good draft. We don't have the same deep pool of players to pick from.

Again, I don't see taking a base 34 DE with the 3rd pick. Not enough production unless the guy is a hall of fame quality guy (Watt) and I don't see anyone near that good. He is going to be an OLB if we take him. I don't know what yardstick you are using to decide his speed. You watch him play, he has good speed and quickness off the edge. Better than a lot of OLB do.

70 or 75% of the time, our OLB line up with their hands in the dirt, in a wide 5 technique (not anything like the 5 technique you hear with 34 DE), just like a 43 DE would. We play a 42 defense that occasionally lines up in a 34 (think 52) to play the run better. But most of the time we have an extra DB and 2 guys we call OLB who are really 43 DE. McCoy, TT and Pags all have said the same thing a lot of times, so I don't know why it is so hard for people to get it.

Ultimately, it is about getting a really, really good player. Do you think Bosa is going to be a good/great player? That is the question you need to ask. And not only is he a good player, does he fit the SD Chargers, and I think he is the kind of player. If you don't think he will, then you don't think we should take him. If you do, then we should take him (not that he is the only possible choice though). As far as the Kerrigan comparison, I am fine with it. Forget where he was picked, he is still by far better than anyone we have taken at OLB since the SB with the possible exception of Shawn Merriman, and he had a little (lot) of chemical help.

The 40 time, people need to get away from the comparison with Miller. He is currently the fastest OLB in pro football. Just because Bosa is not as fast really doesn't have anything to do with him as a good player. You also should keep in mind that there have been a lot of super fast guys (Jarvis Jones, 1st round OLB for Pitt a couple years back), who could fly off the edge. But that is all he can do is run fast, and he has 5 sacks in 3 years. Bosa may not have the speed (especially closing speed) but he runs through blockers all the time. He knows about moves and how to step up players. Those are skills that he is going to need. He doesn't have to be as fast as some other guy in the 40, which is a horrible way to measure speed. It is a convent abstraction or proxy to measure, that people use to approximate football speed. Running a good 40 doesn't mean he has or doesn't have functional speed. If you have trouble seeing how fast he is, try matching him play.

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=youtube%20joey%20bosa

[Formula 21]

I'm not against Bosa, I'm just disappointed that there is not a size, speed, production prototypical type of player at 3 that we can all drool over.

[richpjr]

ESPN grade on this signing:

Brandon Mebane (Chargers): B

The Chargers added to their defensive rebuild by finding some badly-needed defensive line help. With Kendall Reyes failing to live up to his early promise before leaving for Washington this offseason and Sean Lissemore unable to make an impact, the Chargers badly needed another lineman to pair with Corey Liuget. Enter Mebane, the veteran Seahawks defensive tackle, who will move from a 4-3 to play the nose in San Diego's 3-4 alignment (and in Nickel sets). At 31, Mebane doesn't offer the long-term upside of Hayward, and veteran linemen like Red Bryant and Chris Clemons have failed to make much impact after leaving Seattle, but Mebane's three-year, $13.5-million deal doesn't contain any guaranteed money after 2016, leaving it as a relatively risk-free endeavor.

No guaranteed money after this year - very smart.

[Steve]

I'm not against Bosa, I'm just disappointed that there is not a size, speed, production prototypical type of player at 3 that we can all drool over.

Speak for yourself.

I think that is because you are hung up on the label of OLB. He isn't going to be the next Lawrence Taylor, but that is good because we don't play our edge rushers like Lawrence Taylor. Our edge rushers are 43 DE and Bosa is the prototype for that. Back when I was a kid, the Chargers had the best pass rushing DL in football. Lee Williams, Leslie O'Neal and Burt Grossman. All 3 guys were 270-280 lbs and ran in the 4.8 range (all of them did get bigger, which Bosa may as well, most rookies do). Bosa is that kind of guy. He is already bigger, faster and a better player then any of those 3 Charger greats back in the day.

There is no such thing as a dominant pass rusher. Pass rush comes from multiple guys on D getting pressure. The best pass rushers ever have had what, 20 sacks in a year and like 40 pressures. Teams throw 600 passes in a season (these days). A single guy is only going to make an impact on something like 10% of the plays.

As far as Ingram and Attaochu go, is either one playing that well that we can afford to pass on a much better player? Between them, they had 16.5 sacks? THey both need a ton of work on their run D, because they are both responsible for a lot of the long runs that killed us in games we could/should have won (Cinci, GB, Minn.......)

I'm not against drafting someone at another position if the brass feels we need more help there, but the idea that Bosa isn't the prototype is really a lack of understanding about what our pass rush line (which plays 70% of our downs) is all about.

[6025]

Speak for yourself.

I think that is because you are hung up on the label of OLB. He isn't going to be the next Lawrence Taylor, but that is good because we don't play our edge rushers like Lawrence Taylor. Our edge rushers are 43 DE and Bosa is the prototype for that. Back when I was a kid, the Chargers had the best pass rushing DL in football. Lee Williams, Leslie O'Neal and Burt Grossman. All 3 guys were 270-280 lbs and ran in the 4.8 range (all of them did get bigger, which Bosa may as well, most rookies do). Bosa is that kind of guy. He is already bigger, faster and a better player then any of those 3 Charger greats back in the day.

There is no such thing as a dominant pass rusher. Pass rush comes from multiple guys on D getting pressure. The best pass rushers ever have had what, 20 sacks in a year and like 40 pressures. Teams throw 600 passes in a season (these days). A single guy is only going to make an impact on something like 10% of the plays.

As far as Ingram and Attaochu go, is either one playing that well that we can afford to pass on a much better player? Between them, they had 16.5 sacks? THey both need a ton of work on their run D, because they are both responsible for a lot of the long runs that killed us in games we could/should have won (Cinci, GB, Minn.......)

I'm not against drafting someone at another position if the brass feels we need more help there, but the idea that Bosa isn't the prototype is really a lack of understanding about what our pass rush line (which plays 70% of our downs) is all about.

He may be bigger and faster, but he ain't better than Leslie O'Neal.

[Steve]

We don't know how he will be as a pro, but Bosa is a far better college player then O'Neal was.

[Lightningwill_420]

When talking about Leslie O'Neal, nobody gives a shit about his college days. He's one of the greatest NFL players ever. The fact he's not in the Hall of Fame makes the Hall a bigger joke than the chicken crossing the road.

[6025]

We don't know how he will be as a pro, but Bosa is a far better college player then O'Neal was.

I won't profess myself to be a college football expert but Leslie O'Neal amassed 351 tackles in his college career, with 134 in 1984 alone. Bosa amassed 148 his whole career. I'm sure you'll point out criteria I'm not even remotely aware of but just by these stats alone I can't see how you could say Bosa was far better.

[Formula 21]

Now if you can say Bosa is the next Leslie O'Neal, I'd be all over him. He was the best Charger rookie I ever saw.

I remember when Coryell drafted him and said "I've dreamed about Leslie O'Neal."

[Steve]

I won't profess myself to be a college football expert but Leslie O'Neal amassed 351 tackles in his college career, with 134 in 1984 alone. Bosa amassed 148 his whole career. I'm sure you'll point out criteria I'm not even remotely aware of but just by these stats alone I can't see how you could say Bosa was far better.

Bosa was on a national championship caliber team loaded with talent, and was the featured player since late in his freshman year. This past season, every game that I have seen of his (several) the other team did everything in their power to game plan him out of their hair. O'Neal was a highly regarded DE coming out of college, but not near the level of Bosa. The very fact that teams didn't game plan around O'Neal every play says something. O'Neal played back in the triple option and Veer offense days, before a lot of college teams really knew anything about pass blocking. The those offenses send the ball carriers straight at O'Neal. And O'Neal played the strong side DE back in those days, so he was in the mix on almost every play. College DE simply don't make that many tackles anymore, for a whole host of reasons, but mainly because they have fewer opportunities. You just can't compare tackle numbers back then to now. The way they play is completely different.

I probably shouldn't have said far better, but he is better by enough of a margin to be noteworthy.

The real point however is, don't get hung up on the measureables. THEY DO NOT FUCKING MATTER AT ALL.

3 of the greatest players in charger history were not very special in terms of their draft measurables. That alone should tell you all you need to know about the NFL combine.

Being a great player (the point of the draft is to find good or great players) and doing great things at the underwear olympics have NOTHING to do with one another. The NFL network is making a big deal about all this to get idiots like us (yes, I watch their nonsense too because there is nothing else on TV) to get ratings, so their guys hype the combine and pro days and all the stupidity that goes on.

The NFL combine is about getting guys to Indy and given them physicals and letting the coaches and GM's meet with them. I heard/read somewhere that the combine scores are less than 5% of the draft process. And one guy texted an NFL network person and said he never let the combine change any of his grades. The workouts are still done because most coaches haven't seen a lot of these guys live because of the NFL season.

There are many different types of players in the NFL at any given position. Some of the best players are not going to be the prototype in terms of the labels we like to hang on them. But that is all these things are, labels. Do't worry about them. They don't matter. Worry about how they play. That does matter. And if nothing else, every college football team that played OSU this year was telling the rest of the world, we fear Bosa enough to not even allow him to be in the game against us. It is just not very often that I see any college team game planning more than a handful of plays around a single player. College teams just don't have the practice time and coaches who can devote that much time to film study. College teams run pretty simple, vanilla offenses. So, the fact that Bosa was game planned out, says that teams feel he is far more of a threat than all but a handful of players.

[6025]

I'm not going to question your expertise, well not too much. But even back then I knew that Leslie O'Neal would be great, was highly touted, and didn't have any real baggage other than his negotiating tactics with Spanos (he didn't flinch, which really was also an asset). I don't follow college football too closely so I'll have to take your word about Bosa and the strategies employed against him that makes his numbers an apples to orange compared to Leslie. That said, Leslie was all-world right from the get-go, just like I imagined he would be. I'm not getting that same feeling from Bosa. If they pick him (and in my mind, only if Tunsil is gone) I will be hoping for the best. The experts here are touting his intangibles so that's good enough for me.