There's Always Next Year: San Diego Chargers

Our main offseason storyline with the Chargers is that they will be trying to schlep it up the road to join the Rams in Los Angeles. This is devastating for their fans, and another example of the NFL's profit-margin-driven decision-making. There's no way a NFL team couldn't find a way to build their own stadium at this point. The city didn't fail the Chargers—the Chargers failed San Diego.

Coincidentally, that's much of what happened on the field last season too. The Chargers have spent most of the past decade being mediocre and wasting the end of Philip Rivers' prime. In 2015, they decided to change it up and just stink out loud. The Tom Telesco/Mike McCoy administration has largely focused on establishing and stopping the run, but this past season San Diego finished 32nd in rush defense DVOA, and 31st in rush offense DVOA. They de-stablished it. That's not a word, but then this wasn't much of a strategy.

Luckily for Telesco and McCoy, ownership was too busy fantasizing about a new stadium to care about matters like on-field performance. The Chargers retained both.

Coach and Quarterback Confidence Rating: 6/10

Philip Rivers is still an upper-tier quarterback in this league. The fact that he was able to produce as much as he did this season is incredible. His main targets were eight weeks of Keenan Allen and 35-year-old Antonio Gates. Gates is a future Hall of Famer, but he barely has the speed of his future Canton bust at this point. At 34, Rivers is nearing the age where we try to project his decline on a yearly basis, but we're not there just yet.

McCoy, meanwhile, has attempted to turn the San Diego offense into a slow-paced, bruising running team. His offensive line has ended the last two seasons in shambles, though, and I'm not going to pretend that hasn't altered McCoy's plans. At the same time, a coach without a counter-punch is a coach not long for the league. Reasonable parties can disagree on how important it is to establishing an identity, but there's no argument that a team has to accomplish more on offense than the Chargers have the last two years.

Average an 8 and a 3 out, and I have to stick them at 6.

Key Offseason Decision: How will the Chargers replace their old core of receivers?

Rivers actually has some decent receivers to work with going forward; 2015 was just a year where they were mostly banged up or injured. Steve Johnson is a credible slot receiver. Ladarius Green looked good when he wasn't hobbled, although he's now a free agent. Allen, though always hurt, is great when he can get on the field.

On the other hand, we're beginning to see age take its toll on the Chargers' roster. Malcom Floyd has said that he'll retire, and Gates can't be far away from that either at this point. Combine that with the injury issues above, and the Chargers will need to look hard to find stability.

One way to do this would be to pick a wideout high in the draft. The problem is that Ole Miss' LaQuon Treadwell is the only college receiver regarded as a prospect worthy of San Diego's third pick. Using a second-round pick on one would make sense, too. The Chargers could also make a play for a fallen receiver who needs another chance, as Oakland did with Michael Crabtree.

They could also do both, especially if they don't have faith in Allen as a long-term fixture.

Major Free Agents: S Eric Weddle, TE Antonio Gates, DE Kendall Reyes, TE Ladarius Green

The organization's puzzling hatred of Weddle was one of the season's weirder subplots. The former All-Pro safety dangled through the last year of his contract without any real opportunity to renegotiate. Yes, he's an old safety, but my suspicion is that Weddle can and will do better than the Chargers.

We went over Gates and Green earlier, but Reyes is an interesting rorschach test. A once-promising second-round pick, Reyes hasn't been much of anything as a 3-4 end in San Diego. (OK, he did sack Greg McElroy a lot of times.) I can understand why the Chargers would let him go, but I think he's young enough that some team will take a chance on him.

Cap Situation: $29,223,859—12th in the NFL

San Diego doesn't have much to work with on their cap. Depressing extensions for linebacker Donald Butler and corner Brandon Flowers have been a double-edged sword: they played so poorly, so quickly, that the Chargers aren't even able to release them this year to reclaim some cap space. The only players the Chargers could cut for reasonable cap space would be edge rusher Melvin Ingram ($7 million), running back Donald Brown ($3.5 million), and punter Mike Scifres ($3.5 million). Those last two guys should be on the chopping block.

San Diego has enough money to play in the pond a bit and sign a premium free agent, but that hasn't been the team's MO under Telesco. The Chargers probably need to come out of free agency with at least three or four real answers if they're going to be players in the AFC West next year. I don't know if that's in the budget without some under-the-radar scoops.