It’s been an eventful off-season and a dramatic camp. The big three holdouts are still unseen in Chargers activities. Fortunately, all of our draft picks are now signed. We had a bit of a wrinkle with Ryan Mathews brief display of discontent, but that monster bedded down almost as fast as it arose. Still now sign of Vincent Jackson, Marcus McNeill, or Shawne Merriman. Though, it seems fans are getting used to that sight. The worst thing on fans minds right now seems to be the absence of Donald Butler, who will miss the entire season with an injury to his Achilles tendon. It’s a shame. I was really looking forward to seeing our third round pick tear it up on special teams at the very least. Hopefully Antwan Applewhite can stay healthy for the whole season and put up some good numbers.

The bolts will have their hands full in their first pre-season game. Hopefully Tyronne Green, Brandyn Dombrowski, and Tra Thomas (at left tackle) can keep Julius Peppers off of Philip Rivers and Ryan Mathews. If anybody can make the team miss Marcus McNeill, it would be Peppers, who also plays the left side very well so we will probably see him at both defensive end positions. Our offensive line is going to have their hands full in this game.

Everyone should also pay close attention to tonight’s game, as we will be playing the Cowboys in week two of the pre-season and the Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints the following game. This pre-season will really show us what we are made of, so don’t blink or you might miss something.

At least now we are at a point where everybody has shown their hand and now our star holdouts and their respective agents are forced to make an actual decision.

For those of you who have been under a rock in Uganda or caught up in World Cup/NBA Finals madness, Marcus McNeill, Vincent Jackson, and Shawne Merriman still have yet to sign their tenders and show up for workouts.

To make a long (and arduous) story a little shorter, the three are fishing for long term contracts and a big payday. Merriman’s situation is different in the fact that he is the one out of those three who is not coming off of a productive season and has yet to prove that he has separated himself from his injury issues. For this reason, he is not expected to hold out much longer and it would be a bad idea for him to do so.

Not to say that respective holdouts from McNeill and Jackson have not had their negative impacts around the team and the league. Waves were made when the two players became restricted free agents (instead of unrestricted as they expected) and then tendered in a way that warded off other teams from even thinking about trying to acquire them. A first and third round tender can definitely take the wind out of another teams sails. However, since neither player has signed their tender, they cannot participate in team activities and have yet to show up to work.

In turn, the Chargers responded by picking up five-time Pro Bowl left tackle, Tra Thomas, and finished up the week by signing wide receiver, Josh Reed, from the Buffalo Bills. In addition to sending the traditional holdout formality letter that states that our stars risk having their salaries cut dramatically as well as having their services still retained for a fraction of last seasons salary if they do not start cooperating.

If that’s not like a shotgun blast to the bank account then I surely haven’t seen anything closer to it.

Our star holdouts need to realize that all of their leverage has been taken away and that is would be very smart to swallow real hard and sign. The fact is that they will either be part of one of the best Chargers squads in history, as well as possibly go to the Super Bowl, or they can stay home and hold out from whatever glory or money could have been had. The Chargers front office has shown their hand, and now it’s time for these players to either show up or fold out and leave the table.