Predicting What AJ Smith’s Draft Board Would Have Looked Like

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Jan 7, 2013; Miami, FL, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide running back Eddie Lacy (42) runs past Notre Dame Fighting Irish safety Zeke Motta (17) for a touchdown during the first half of the 2013 BCS Championship game at Sun Life Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports

AJ Smith is no longer part of the San Diego Chargers, but his memories still live on with the fans. It is almost draft season and this is the time when AJ would get us scratching our heads. Just to reminisce on his greatness, let’s put together what AJ Smith’s big board would look like going into the draft.

Obviously, the Chargers biggest needs going into the draft is at offensive line, but he would swindle us into thinking that Johnnie Troutman is ready to start at guard and that Jared Gaither would be ready to step his game up.

The offensive line wouldn’t get addressed until the 5th round at the earliest, so you could scratch off a few prospects from the list:

~~Luke Joeckel, LT, LSU~~
~~Eric Fisher, LT, Central Michigan~~
~~Chance Warmack, OG, Alabama~~
~~Lane Johnson, LT, Oklahoma~~

What else would we need? Corner help? NOPE!

AJ definitely would make sure to re-sign Antoine Cason and Shareece Wright is ready to start in the NFL. Scratch another name off of the list:

~~Demarcus Milliner, CB, Alabama~~

Our biggest need? Running Back! Definitely! Ryan Mathews was in the dog house and could quickly become “someone else’s fumbler” and we still have been looking to fill that hole that Ronnie Brown would be leaving. Put some players on the board:

Giovani Bernard, RB, Carolina
Eddie Lacy, RB, Alabama

Another big need? Pass rusher. Shaun Phillips would probably depart through free agency and the Chargers didn’t get much of a pass rush last season with him. So we need some athletic bodies to get after the quarterback:

Ezekiel Ansah, DE, BYU
Barkevious Mingo, DE, LSU
Dion Jordan, DE, Oregon

Those are the 5 players we would want to take with the 11th pick in the draft. That is the way AJ would handle this draft.