The Los Angeles Chargers are formally in win-now mode after an enormous offseason that’s seemingly flown below the radar. LA made strikes to bulk up their protection and spent massive bucks to make sure they’ve at the least acquired a shot at competing within the AFC over the subsequent couple of years. However this two-to-three-year window they’re in is essential as a result of as soon as Justin Herbert breaks the financial institution, it’ll be robust to maintain this roster intact.
It’s turn into the norm within the NFL, and a few would say the best method to win. Find and draft your franchise quarterback, construct an excellent crew round him, then do your finest to win earlier than his time to money out. Not each crew can execute this plan flawlessly, but it surely has been confirmed to work.
The Kansas Metropolis Chiefs did it with Patrick Mahomes earlier than his massive deal. They performed in back-to-back Tremendous Bowls, successful one. The Cincinnati Bengals, led by Joe Burrow, made it to the Tremendous Bowl final season, having modified what number of view the franchise. Earlier than the Rams received a championship final 12 months, they appeared within the massive sport a number of years prior, with a younger Jared Goff main the offense.
Then, after all, everybody remembers the Seattle Seahawks of the mid-2010s and their back-to-back Tremendous Bowl appearances with a younger third-round decide working the offense in Russell Wilson. Having Wilson on such a team-friendly contract helped Seattle construct and hold the Legion of Increase protection rolling.
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This components has confirmed profitable if the group performs it proper. Even groups that adopted and didn’t win all of it, just like the Bengals, are arrange in a superb place to make one other run. Cincinnati hadn’t completed a lot of something because the late 80s. Though they fell in defeat to the Rams in Tremendous Bowl LVI, I’m certain Bengals followers nonetheless cherish that magical season that solely they might’ve imagined.
Now’s the Chargers’ time to hitch this group. All the pieces is ready up for them to achieve success, even in a troublesome division just like the AFC West. Herbert is a younger gunslinger who might emerge as a top-five QB by the season’s finish. He’s acquired a bonafide No. 1 menace on the surface in Keenan Allen, they usually’ve even been tagged as one of many league’s prime QB/WR duos.
Within the offseason, their entrance workplace went out and certain up the protection by buying and selling for All-Professional linebacker Khalil Mack. They locked up All-Professional security Derwin James a number of days in the past, and All-Professional go rusher Joey Bosa can also be below a long-term contract. And so they additionally signed Professional Bowler J.C. Jackson away from the Patriots. The Chargers begin All-Execs in any respect three ranges on protection. Mix that with a dynamic offense led by among the best younger passers within the sport, and failure shouldn’t be an choice.
However when you step again for a minute and notice who this franchise is, all that optimism can rapidly disappear. In spite of everything, they’re nonetheless the Chargers. Not the San Diego Chargers, however nonetheless the identical group that appears to search out new and modern methods to lose annually. For a very long time now, I’ve known as them the Dallas Cowboys of the AFC. Even when it appears there’s no manner for them to lose, they’ll normally discover a manner.
Most individuals, particularly Chargers followers, are relying on that altering with Herbert below middle.
Herbert’s already handed for the most TDs within the first two years to begin a profession in NFL historical past. Over his first two seasons, Herbert has additionally handed for probably the most yards (9,350) in NFL historical past and is second behind Mahomes in yards per sport (292.2).
If the Chargers can’t make a deep playoff run with all this expertise, don’t be stunned when former Saints coach Sean Payton’s title is linked to LA. Payton already has been, but when Brandon Staley can’t get this group into the postseason, his stint in Inglewood may very well be short-lived. With a loaded roster like this, I count on at the least a postseason look from the Chargers. However for some organizations, it’s onerous to flee their previous.
