San Diego Chargers: Laziness Out at Left Tackle?

Dec 5, 2011; Jacksonville, FL, USA; San Diego Chargers tackle

The San Diego Chargers offensive line has gone through reconstruction after the rash of injuries that occurred last season. Gone our former Pro Bowlers Marcus McNeill and Kris Dielman and we will rely on a couple of new players to fill their spots. We can focus on the left guard position in another post, this post will be about our big and lazy left tackles.

Jared Gaither was picked up from the Kansas City Chiefs and he was nicknamed “The Big Lazy” when he was with the Baltimore Ravens. He was cut by the Chiefs in the middle of the season, because of poor play. Maybe just one poor play. Gaither  was thrown in for one critical play against the Pittsburgh Steelers and picked up a false start to kill the drive and was cut the next day.

When he came to San Diego, he was given the opportunity to be the starter again and absolutely destroyed. He saved some people’s jobs (Norval and AJ) with his great play on the left side of the line. Which player is the real Jared Gaither? The Big Lazy or the stud that we saw close out the season?

Gaither, or as his teammates like to call him, “Ghost” is a mammoth of a man, standing at 6-foot-9 and 340 pounds. He towers over people and if he is motivated (which I think he will be) can be DOMINANT! We need him to be that dominant force on Philip Rivers‘ blind side.

The scary part about the position is the depth behind Ghost Gaither. Mario Henderson was picked up in the offseason to be the main backup and he is another monster of a man standing at 6-foot-7, 300 pounds. Henderson wasn’t even in the league last season and now he is one bad step away from being in the starting lineup. The Raiders did not re-sign him because they thought he was lazy (sound familiar). Two of our left tackles have a reputation of being giant lazies… not good!

We will be counting on Ghost Gaither to be the stud he was last season and we can only hope the Henderson breaks that lazy tag. If Henderson comes in and works hard, he might be able to push Jeromey Clary. Clary will open the season as the starter at right tackle, but if the refs keep pulling the yellow hankies out their pockets for him, then the crowd will lose their minds and call for Mario.

Big and lazy left tackles? One was and stepped it up big for us last season and the verdict on the backup is still out. Just talking about all this laziness makes me want to go for a run (notice I said want to, but didn’t say I would go).