Fantasy Preview: Training Camp
With training camp still a few weeks away, the news mill has ground to an almost complete stop in the land of the National Football League. As such, we are forced to look in new and interesting places for our football news. Luckily, fantasy football has come along and saved us from at least a day of quiet around here. This ESPN fantasy football training camp overview has plenty of quality information for any football fan who can’t get enough of their NFL news, even in the offseason. Even if you’re not a fantasy football expert, you can still get some good information from this article.
For starters, the article gives an overview on much of the activity (or lack thereof) during the Chargers offseason. Its seems like a long time ago, but it bears noting once more that the Chargers did let go of Lorenzo Neal, so it will be interesting to see how LT runs without his lead blocker for the first time in 11 seasons. Beyond that, look for the Chargers wide receivers to step up this season, and look for all of their banged-up offensive pieces to be fully recovered by the time training camp begins. It should be a very interesting year for the Chargers.
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Keeping you Busy Until Training Camp
If you thought the offseason for the Chargers has been dull up to this point, then you just ain’t seen nothin’ yet. The next few weeks should likely be as quiet as a mouse in San Diego, at least as far as professional football is concerned. People in San Diego will be keeping themselves busy by talking about the recent U.S. Open at Torrey Pines and watching the San Diego Padres play some baseball. However, football will likely not be the number one priority for San Diego sports fans as the summer wears on. After all, we all have to go to the beach, right?
However, the good people at the Union Tribune know that some of us still need our daily football fix. For those people, the UT has put together this collection of pre-training camp Charger videos in an effort to help all the diehard Bolts fans get to know their team before the preseason finally begins. So far there are nine videos, and more should be added soon. The videos are informative as well as entertaining, with plenty of bruising Chargers action on the field being accentuated by the constant flow of information via voice over. Very solid job by the Union Tribune.
You can get all your San Diego Chargers tickets at www.stubhub.com.
LT Ready for the Hall of Fame
Ah the Chargers quiet offseason. Though I have complained greatly at times for the lack of legitimate news to report as it pertains to the Chargers, at this point there doesn’t seem to be any more use in griping about that. The offseason is nearly at an end. July is nearly upon us, and July brings with it the promise of training camp. Training camp means pads and hitting and players being cut and starting jobs being earned and lost. Training camp means the season is just around the corner. But before training camp, we still have one more month to kill.
We can expect to kill that time with stories like this one about the fact that LaDainian Tomlinson may soon find himself enshrined in the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in Waco, Texas. While LT is not yet even on the ballot, there are people who have begun to toss his name around when the subject of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame comes up. LT has yet to amass the resume he would need to put his bust in Canton, but his work in high school and college in the state of Texas makes him a prime candidate for his home state’s HoF. LT would love to see himself in those halls. He may be there sooner than he thinks.
You can get all your San Diego Chargers tickets at www.stubhub.com.
Chargers O-Line Rates High
For long-suffering fans of the Chargers, these years right now must be like a breath of fresh air. For the longest time, the Chargers had to deal with any number of jokes at their expense. I still remember when the one bright spot for the Bolts was Junior Seau. Of course, there was the the trip to the Super Bowl as well, but even that doesn’t come close to the seeming indestructibility of this particular San Diego team. They just seem built to win big the next few years, with their insane blend of youth, character and vicious talent.
So it should come as no surprise to anyone that the San Diego Chargers offensive line is rated sixth in the entire NFL by ESPN.com. This is one of the very few categories in which the Chargers are not rated top five. They were certainly top five last year, so this may come as a surprise to some fans who haven’t been paying attention to the rest of the league this offseason. It’s not that the Chargers got worse. It’s just that a couple of other teams made some moves that have the football pundits excited. But don’t worry. The Chargers are still one of the very best teams in the NFL.
You can get all your San Diego Chargers tickets at www.stubhub.com.
Chargers Rookies Learning Schemes
As the Chargers concluded the last round of their full team practices before the last vacation until training camp, another lesser known and lauded set of practices began. The Chargers young players went to work learning their assignments in yet another camp to get rookies (and a few second- and third-year guys) better acquainted with the Bolts’ play book. Now that this final camp - even for the youngest of the new Chargers - has finished, it is time to look forward and take a little time to possibly reflect and relax, before training camp starts.
Last year was a big step forward for the Bolts, but that was last year. It’s important to remember that no one is going to give the Chargers credit for what they did in the past. This team must press forward like there was no last year. And like there will be no next year. With all the quiet of this offseason, San Diego should likely hit the ground running when training camp starts. I expect them to run up into this season like a freight train. The Chargers, if they do things right next season, have a chance to really do something special.
You can get all your San Diego Chargers tickets at www.stubhub.com.
Parker Could be Leaving Chargers
Here’s a story for the Charger fans who didn’t just join the party last year. If you’re a bandwagon fan who didn’t really care about the Chargers until they started making deep cuts into the playoffs, then this story will likely not register much at all on your radar. However, for those of you who have been at least following the Chargers for the bulk of the 21st century, you will understand why the fact that Eric Parker may soon be traded is kind of a big deal. Since 2003, Parker is the Chargers’ third leading receiver, behind LT and Antonio Gates.
Parker missed the entire 2007 season due to injury, and during that time the Chargers built a new receiving corps from the ground up. As such, it seems now that there may not be a place for Parker on the roster. Parker is a very talented young man who could likely be very productive for another team. The Browns are reportedly interested, which is odd considering they already have quite the staunch receiving corps as it stands. However, perhaps they are interested in Parker as a potential backup receiver. More on this story as the information comes to light.
You can get all your San Diego Chargers tickets at www.stubhub.com.
Training Camp Schedule for the Chargers
Ah, the Chargers offseason. It’s been a tranquil time. Long gone are the memories of the coaching search from a year ago. Fans no longer recall the first round playoff exits of years past. Last year, the Chargers came within a game of the Super Bowl. And while they did not make it all the way to winning a ring, the deep playoff run was enough to satisfy fans (at least for now). Indeed, in San Diego since February, birds have been chirping. The sun has seemed brighter. The sky has been a little bluer. Indeed, not even an insanely dull offseason has taken any of the optimism away from Charger fans this year.
And so, it is with great pleasure that I can announce that the NFL preseason is just around the corner. As such, the NFL preseason training camp schedules have been released. You may not be able to glean much information from these schedules. Truth told, you pay much attention to the NFL, you likely have a very good internal clock that tells you when the preseason is starting. However, this is really more about what this schedule represents. It represents the return of professional football, every Sunday, until the Super Bowl. It’s almost here.
You can get all your San Diego Chargers tickets at www.stubhub.com.
San Diego Tops in AFC West
This is yet another non-story brought to you by the incredibly quiet Chargers offseason. According to ESPN.com, the San Diego Chargers are the best team in the AFC West by a mile. These analysts, pundits and experts say it’s not even remotely a question. There is barely any competition for the Bolts this year in the AFC West. The Oakland Raiders are still in rebuilding mode. The San Francisco 49ers are also still in rebuilding mode, though most expected them to have come out of that by now. The closest competition the Chargers have is the Broncos.
As for Denver, they are not remotely close to the elite level of the Super Chargers. The Bolts are on par with the Steelers, Colts and Patriots of the NFL. They are the cream of the crop in the AFC, which makes them an automatic favorite to win the Super Bowl this season. While the offseason has been an incredibly dull affair for San Diego, I honestly believe that’s a very good thing for this team. They will be well-rested and have all their energy stored up and ready to explode when the season finally comes around. It’s going to be a special year for the Chargers.
You can get all your San Diego Chargers tickets at www.stubhub.com.
Chargers Rookies Visit Canton
Every San Diego Chargers rookie recently checked out the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton. The young men were treated to a guided tour of every corner and hallway of the famous building in Ohio, and the young men seem to have come away from the whole thing feeling quite and affinity for the game of professional football. This was not just a Chargers event, however. This is a new program the NFL has begun this season on the advice of Michael Irvin. From now on, every NFL rookie will be treated to this guided tour of the hall of fame.
The reasoning behind such a field trip is simple. Michael Irvin had noticed in young players a lack of respect for the history of the game of professional football. He recommended the tour as a history lesson of sorts. By all accounts, this was a stroke of genius. The rookies are all raving about the experience. On a team like San Diego, we rarely worry about troubled rookies. But on other teams, this is a godsend. With the recent bad publicity of young players having trouble staying out of negative news stories, this could go a long way toward giving them the perspective they need to stay out of trouble.
You can get all your San Diego Chargers tickets at www.stubhub.com.
What of former Charger now?
What will become of Junior Seau? It’s an interesting question, and one that possibly few Chargers fans are thinking about right now. However, in this infamously dull Chargers offseason, we can even talk about former players that have possibly been disowned by the fan base. Seau, for all the work he’s done lately for the enemy, spent the bulk of his career as a Bolt. He was a one-man wrecking crew on the field. There is no denying that. Now, as we near the date for Seau to either announce his retirement or return to the field, there are lingering questions.
The first question is obviously one of Seau’s future. Will the linebacker finally hand up his shoulder pads for good? Or will he return for one more year. It might be in Seau’s best interests to stay one more year. The number of first-ballot guys who will be looking to get into the Hall of Fame in 2013 is substantial as it is. Adding Seau’s name to the hat would only create more issues. However, if he stays one more year, he could easily see himself get into the hall on the first ballot in 2014. Only time will tell what Seau decides to do with the future of his career.
You can get all your San Diego Chargers tickets at www.stubhub.com.