With LaDainian Tomlinson's advancing age, unsettled lines and injuries catching up to Shawne Merriman and Antonio Gates, one of the themes we'll be hearing as training camp opens this week is whether 2009 is the last legitimate Super Bowl opportunity for this crop of Chargers.
I tend to think not. My belief is more that core players including those three have a two-year window before age and injuries begin to take their toll and reduce their status as contenders. By way of clarification, Philip Rivers is clearly part of the core but he's emerging as one of the two or three best quarterbacks in the NFL and has plenty of good years in front of him unless he's injured.
It would make us all feel better, of course, if they get off to a decent start, if Merriman can reignite the aggressive butt-whipping style of the defense of years-past, and Tomlinson and Gates can pair with Rivers to score points aplenty. An opening trio of the Raiders in Oakland, and the Ravens and Dolphins at home, is encouraging. A Chargers team headed for a deep playoff run emerges 3-0 before a showdown in Pittsburgh.
I'm still old school and I'll say it until I'm blue in the face -- or blew in my nose -- that the Bolts front office is ignoring the line of scrimmage at its peril. The offensive line is now subpar at three of the five positions, a ratio that will increase to four of five if Marcus McNeill doesn't return to the form of his rookie season. The defensive line offers aging Jamal Williams, career backup Ryon Bingham and inconsistent Luis Castillo. An improvement at linebacker will do no good if opposing blockers are allowed to get in their way. Therefore, I suspect teams with good running games will be the Chargers Achilles heels. Uh, the first three opponents were among the better rushing ballclubs in the league last year. Oops.
Therefore, you might see Coach Norv Turner come out with very aggressive offensive gameplans early in order to get a jump on the other team and force them to pass.
That's how I see things. It's a long season, and one of the things we learned last year is that the first half of the epic is not necessarily a predictor of the second half. There's also the advantage in competing in the AFC West, which might not be as strong as the SEC.
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Speaking of college football, San Diego State opens camp Aug. 10 and it will be very interesting to see how Brady Hoke and his staff have molded their players. By the end of spring practice, it was clear this team was lacking in experienced talent. The kids who were playing, with a couple of notable exceptions, weren't all that good. The promising younger players were just that, promising.
A lot can happen in a few months, though, and by all accounts just about the entire roster and most of the incoming recruits have been working diligently. How Hoke, Al Borges, Rocky Long, Brian Sipe and the others on the staff can "coach them up" will be interesting to see.
One of the themes we could have for the Aztecs this year is turnover -- not just of the coaching staff taking over for Chuck Long, but for the two-deep of players. It wouldn't be too suprising to see a wholesale number of younger players in the lineup by the end of the season. Hopefully, that will be from a talent infusion instead of an injury siege like last year.
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Back in the old days, 13-1 losses to the team with the worst record in baseball would get someone fired. For the Padres, it was just another day at the office ... Will someone end the misery for Josh Geer? Jeez, four earned runs and three homers in four innings pitched? I know Cincinnati is a hitter's park, but come on ... Kyle Blanks sucks. There, I wrote it. Last week I mentioned the young outfielder's inability to reach the cheap seats and he suddenly knocked a few out. He got some other hits too and has his average nearly up to .200. So now that my latest criticism has been offered, maybe he'll go out and have another big week ... I'm not a huge animal rights activist, but as time goes on and there continues to be fatalities at Del Mar, the validity of the protestors arguments improves. You can't ignore a problem and hope it will go away.
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