Tomlinson Says Chargers Must Remain Focused
According to an AP article I found on BoltTalk.com, Ladainian Tomlinson is preaching caution against looking too far ahead in 2007. He states that he believes the Chargers lost in the first round of the playoffs last year because they were looking ahead to the next game, and not focused enough on the task at hand. Though everyone in Chargers camp expects the Bolts to be playing deep into the playoffs again this year, Tomlinson is taking a very “one game at a time” approach to the season.
Tomlinson is being a bit kind to his former coach, it would appear. While perhaps it was a lack of focus that kept the Chargers from pushing through to the second round of the playoffs, one cannot ignore the fact that some late game “Martyball” didn’t help the Chargers to beat the Patriots in the 2006 playoffs. However, under a new coach, all the preseason articles about the Chargers seem to point to one thing - a team on a mission to win a Super Bowl. Look for San Diego to come out swinging early and to not let up all year.
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Chargers Back New Coach
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Chargers are 100% behind new head coach Norv Turner as they head into their 2007 preseason training camp. The Chargers had nothing but glowing things to say about their new coach, and also had a few not-so-positive things to say about ex-coach Marty Schottenheimer. While nothing they said about Marty was particularly negative or offensive, they certainly seem to be embracing a new coach.
From the quotes and comments in the article, it would simply appear that the Chargers as a team had perhaps grown a bit tired of Schottenheimer’s demeanor as a coach. Marty has long been regarded as an oldschool guy, but also as a player’s coach. Many have said that he would be better served to coach at the college level, as his motivational style may no longer be well-suited for the Pro level. Indeed, to some of the players, it would appear that Marty’s old schtick was no longer getting through to them. It will be interesting to see how a new coach is able to motivate this team in 2007.
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The Chargers Sell Out
According to a report on signonsandiego.com, the San Diego Chargers have sold out their entire regular season for 2007. If you waited to get your tickets, sorry to be the one to break the news. Luckily there are other ways to get your hands on tickets, but if you were planning on running to the box office, then you should probably start making new plans. This shouldn’t particularly surprise anyone, as the Chargers are coming off their best season ever and are looking to improve upon their successes in the 2007 season.
The Chargers took 4 hours to sell the last 10,000 available tickets. This marks the first time in 20+ years this has happened. The Chargers fans are sending a loud and clear message that they love and support this team and do not want to see it moved anywhere outside of the San Diego area. Recently a lack of municipal support for a new stadium for the Chargers has sparked rumors that the team may move. Their most likely destination would be just 2 hours up the road, to Los Angeles, which would basically be like death to San Diego sports fans.
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Chargers Aiming High in Training Camp
The San Diego Chargers began their training camp on Wednesday with all the rookies and few notable veteran players showing up, and with plenty of expectation go to around. Sportsbooks.com has run an article detailing just exactly where the Chargers feel they stand and what their expectations are for their 2007 season. The Chargers can still feel the sting from last season’s early playoff exit, and they don’t plan on settling for anything less than a Super Bowl win in ‘07. This should come as great news to Chargers fans. Your boys are back, and they mean business.
Last year was a great regular season for the Chargers, and everyone had a wonderful time watching it. It was a very fun season. This year, expect the Chargers to be a bit more “all business.” They won’t be doing any big experimenting on the field or trying anything screwy. This will be a team that punches people in the mouth on defense and pounds them with the run on offense. And once they start getting teams to committing to stopping the run, look for them to try to get the ball to some of their young talented receivers. And also, look for them to store a bit extra in the tank for the post-season this year. This Chargers team is focused on the Super Bowl.
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San Diego Heavily Favored to Win AFC West
NFL preseason predictions are sprouting up left and right, and today nflgridirongrab.com has posted its prediction that the San Diego Chargers will once again be crowned AFC West champs. The boys at nflgridirongrab have San Diego going 12-4, with the next closest team in the conference being Denver, who they suspect will end up 10-6 at season’s end. They also state, quite astutely, that the Chargers’ early games will really give fans a feel for what kind of season they can look forward to.
Though many people are talking about the first few Chargers games and how they’ll set the stage for the season, I’m not sure I fully agree with the sentiment. While I do understand that the Chargers face some very tough games early in their schedule, and they will need to come out swinging to make a real statement, I believe that there is really only one game that will truly matter in the early goings of 2007 for the Chargers - The New England game. If the Chargers win three of their first four, but still lose to the Patriots, what have they gained? The knowledge that they can still beat up most of the league, but the Patriots still have their number? The Chargers need to beat the Pats and prove that they are a different team than the one that was knocked out of the playoffs in the first round last year by those Patriots. If they can’t do that, no amount of regular season wins will help to ease the pressure they’ll face in the playoffs.
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Head Coach Turner Expected to Succeed Immediately
ESPN.com’s John Clayton has posted his AFC Stories to Watch for heading into training camp. He outlines a solid story line or two for each team in the American Football Conference from top to bottom, division by division, until he has made sure that every one of us NFL junkies has plenty to chew on heading into the final weeks of practice before the preseason games finally start. According to Clayton, the big story for the San Diego Chargers heading into the 2007 season is their new head coach, Norv Turner.
Clayton points out that this will be Turner’s third head coaching job, and it’s a significant step up from his last two. Though Turner is most likely very excited at the prospect of coaching a team that is stacked at almost every position, top to bottom, he must also understand that a very significant amount of expectation is applied to his position as well. San Diego is a city in dire need of a championship, and they feel the Chargers are the team that should bring one home sooner rather than later. They fired their last coach for losing in the playoffs after taking the Chargers to their most successful regular season ever. Turner will most certainly be on a short leash, as it pertains to Wins and Losses.
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Chargers Sign First Round Draft Pick
ESPN.com is reporting that the San Diego Chargers have reached an agreement in principle with first round draft choice out of LSU, wide reciever Craig Davis. Financial details of the deal are unavailable, but it is reported to be a five year contract. Davis was very productive for the LSU Tigers last year, and San Diego expects him to compete for playing time immediately this season.
This signing helps the Chargers in that they should not have any prominent distractions heading into camp now. It should also help them to sign any more draft picks that remain unsigned as of yet. In the long run, the Chargers are hopeful that their young receiver corps can rise to the challenge and play much better than their expectations. For many pundits, the lack of a credible marquee wide receiver threat is all that is keeping San Diego from being at the top of the list of Super Bowl contenders.
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Bolts Loving Unpopular Trade More and More Everyday
Very few people outside of San Diego probably remember, but there was quite the unpopular trade made by the Chargers that gave away the 2001 #1 pick to the Atlanta Falcons, who used that pick to draft Michael Vick. The Bolts ended up with some dude named Tomlinson. You might have heard of him. At the time this trade nearly caused riots in the streets. A record-setting MVP season for Tomlinson, and some rather ugly allegations being lobbed at the former number one pick have changed the way everyone views that trade these days. There’s a great article about the 2001 Vick/Tomlinson trade in the Union Tribune.
The situation smacks of another trade of high draft picks the Chargers made, this one out of pure necessity, when Little Eli Manning decided he needed a big market city to play in, just like his bro- oh wait, no. Eli was just kind of being a jerk about the whole thing. He forced the Chargers’ hand, and they ended up with some guy named Rivers. I think he played pretty well last year too. Twice, the Chargers have made some moves that have been unpopular among the locals, and twice, the trades have worked out in their favor. Kinda makes my questioning of them not bringing in marquee wide receivers seem a little shortsighted, I guess.
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Lucky Number Seven Today for Chargers
ESPN.com released their list of the top 10 special teams units today, and the San Diego Chargers landed themselves at number seven. Teams finishing ahead of the Chargers were the Bears, Bills, Jets, Titans, Browns (not joking), and Lions (again, not joking). Rounding out the list were the Seahawks, Saints, and Bengals. This marks yet another one of these lists in which the Chargers cracked the top 10. In fact, i just double checked, and the Chargers made the top 10 in every listen except wide receiver, a position at which the Chargers ranked 23 out of 32 teams.
And that pretty much sums up the Chargers in a nutshell. Their lack of wide receivers (not Coach Marty) cost them a deep playoff run. It’s the same reason a lot of pundits aren’t high on the Chargers going into this season either. For all their work spent keeping a nucleus together, the Chargers might have been well-served to splurge on a wide receiver or two while they were at it. It will be interesting to say the very least to watch and see if the Chargers can overcome such an offensive deficit and still make the deep playoff run their fans are expecting of them.
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Chargers Number One Yet Again
Espn.com has released its daily top 10 list and today it’s linebackers. For those who are unfamiliar, this system takes into account the opinions of a few men over at ESPN.com’s “insider” division, who when rank each team 1-32 at all the positions. The top 10 picks are then made available to the general public for free in an effort to entice readers to get an ESPN.com Insider account (which you should get, by the way, because it’s awesome, especially if you play fantasy leagues in any sport). The San Diego Chargers ranked number one on the list.
The Chargers rank so high on every one of these lists, it’s amazing that almost no one is picking them as a Super Bowl Contender. Everyone still has a really horrible taste in their mouths from last year’s first round playoff exit. However, the simple fact of the matter is the Chargers didn’t do anything to really address their glaring need at wide receiver, which is where they were ripped apart last year in the playoffs. For all the re-signing the Chargers have done lately, they may still find themselves one piece away from a title.
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