See ya Annie

[Steve]

Remember, they aren't really doing a lot of nickle at this point. That takes time and it always lags the base D stuff. But even the 1st couple of weeks, you see teams playing way more base D, mostly vet DB, and they put more and more in as they go, giving the rookies and youger guys a chance to catch up. Plus, they probably are more worried about the S thing, so even if Gilchrist is going to get moved to play CB in the nickle, they won't make the move yet.

[Beerman]

Remember, they aren't really doing a lot of nickle at this point. That takes time and it always lags the base D stuff. But even the 1st couple of weeks, you see teams playing way more base D, mostly vet DB, and they put more and more in as they go, giving the rookies and youger guys a chance to catch up. Plus, they probably are more worried about the S thing, so even if Gilchrist is going to get moved to play CB in the nickle, they won't make the move yet.

It's been more of the 7 on 7 drills that have me worried. Pretty much any of the DB's that have been matched up inside in the slot has gotten torched. It's more their man coverage than anything. Patrick in particular is getting juked out of his socks. Allen and Royal have both beaten him badly.

[Steve]

Patrick is not much of a man guy anyway. He is a pure zone CB, so that is not a suprise.

I'm not saying everything will be fine, just that I have seen tons of camp reports, and the backup CB always lag at this point. The few camps I have attended, it always seems that way too. It's basically a man on man drill, and if you aren't an elite athlete, you are going to look a bit foolish at this point. But most of the things that lesser athletes do to compensate, tenancies, reading the offense, game planning, and such, just don't help them, so the O has a big advantage at this point.

I think the nickle coverage will work itself out in time, but everyone needs to be patient. We knew we were thin there and it will probably take several weeks into the season to really get things to where they need to be. Maybe we will get lucky and things will work out quickly and everything will be fine right off the bat. Probably not, but it's not like our nickle coverage has been anything but what you just described. We were 7-9 last year, and our nickle D was really bad, with only a few moments of average-ish play. I don't think it can be much worse then last season, and if we can find a good mix, it could develop and be much, much better.

[Beerman]

I definitely see your point Steve, but putting what little I've seen of Patrick and his horrid coverage grades from last season just paint a bad picture. When it comes down to it, a CB needs to be able to stay with a WR. He hasn't shown that ability in the NFL so far.

My #1 priority would be to try to bring in another CB to compete for that position if I was Telesco looking at these early tapes of camp.

There is some hope with Williams and potentially Josh Johnson maybe developing enough in the coming weeks though. We'll see.

[SDFan]

I definitely see your point Steve, but putting what little I've seen of Patrick and his horrid coverage grades from last season just paint a bad picture. When it comes down to it, a CB needs to be able to stay with a WR. He hasn't shown that ability in the NFL so far.

My #1 priority would be to try to bring in another CB to compete for that position if I was Telesco looking at these early tapes of camp.

There is some hope with Williams and potentially Josh Johnson maybe developing enough in the coming weeks though. We'll see.

personally, I hope Stuckey steps up and takes the SS starting spot while they work Taylor in so Gilchrist moves to nickle where he's played before. Not so worried about the 4th & 5th CBs in that scenario. That leaves us with pretty decent starters, but thin for depth, especially at S. Can't fix everything in 1 off season.

[QSmokey]

Trying to evaluate an entire team during TC, playing against themselves, is sort of a no-win proposition. If the WRs are making all the catches, then the DBs suck; if the DBs are making all the plays, then the WRs suck. Repeat for every other (opposite) position. Personally, I don't even put too much stock in how a team performs in pre-season games. Even if a guy seems to be tearing it up, he's playing against questionable competition so, again, it's hard to evaluate.

[SDFan]

agree Q. And even MORE so this year. In the past Chargers used to tip their hand stressing "continuity" as a positive and the advertising would tout "AFCWest champs returning all 22 starters", etc. Norv would says the same crap every year how it would be awfully hard for more than a handful of new guys to make the roster or "just a few spots open". This year there may be 10 or more new starters and though not all of them are immediate obvious upgrades over the departing "name" vet they replaced- there was no other choice but to go this route if they wanted to get the franchise moving in a positive direction again with younger players.

[Coachmarkos]

Trying to evaluate an entire team during TC, playing against themselves, is sort of a no-win proposition. If the WRs are making all the catches, then the DBs suck; if the DBs are making all the plays, then the WRs suck. Repeat for every other (opposite) position. Personally, I don't even put too much stock in how a team performs in pre-season games. Even if a guy seems to be tearing it up, he's playing against questionable competition so, again, it's hard to evaluate.

Who are you, and what have you done with QSmokey?

Seriously guys, we don't have a week of training camp in. It's a bit early to project who is going to play what. Remember the year we beat the Colts in the playoffs (in SD...the 8-8 season?) Our Nickel back that year was picked up from the Colts, after the cuts were made by other teams. (But I'm drawing a blank on his name...and it's a common name...darnit)

[Steve]

There are a lot of zone coverage CB who don't look very good in TC. Then the season starts, they get to do their thing, doing what they do best, they are fine. Ronde Barber was never able to run a lick with WR like ours, but in the Tampa cover 2, he was fine. Zone cover guys use their knowledge of their own D, know where their help is, how the offense is going to attack it, offensive tendencies, and reading routes to know what to do. This time of year, first week of camp, they don't have any of those things working for them. It is just pure physical talent, which puts smart players at a disadvantage.

Now, Patrick isn't the best of the zone CB in the world. He may not be able to hack it, we will have to see. He didn't in NO, although they were in a blitz happy scheme last year, and sticking to a similar scheme this year.

Williams is the guy I want to see how he develops. He is not a press CB, but the guy is a good man off coverage guy in college. He is going to need some time to step up.

I think at this point, unless Stuckey really blows Gilchrist away, Gilchrist is probably the starting SS. We ask a lot of our S to read and stick their noses in the middle in run support, and I am not sure it that is ever Stuckey strong suit.

If Stuckey plays well in coverage, then he can come in on passing downs to play SS, and Gilchrist moves up to the NB spot when we go into our nickel packages. Weddle has played nickle back some even when he has started at S, and even did some of that last year in specialty packages. If Stuckey contniues to play well, or a CB gets hurt, then we can switch and put Gilchrist back to CB.

[oneinchpunch]

Who are you, and what have you done with QSmokey?

Seriously guys, we don't have a week of training camp in. It's a bit early to project who is going to play what. Remember the year we beat the Colts in the playoffs (in SD...the 8-8 season?) Our Nickel back that year was picked up from the Colts, after the cuts were made by other teams. (But I'm drawing a blank on his name...and it's a common name...darnit)

The NB that year was Cason who was replaced by Gregory

[Steve]

We signed Hughes from Indy, but he didn't develop into our nickle back until a season or so later.

[oneinchpunch]

We signed Hughes from Indy, but he didn't develop into our nickle back until a season or so later.

He didnt develop into a NB at all.