Another Broken Draft Pick for the Chargers

Another Broken Bolt for the ChargersBy: Devin Radigan

Let me start off by saying for the most part I really love the changes the Bolts have made during the offseason. We had a great free agency and the draft went much better than I could have imagined. But there is one thing that really bugs me about the draft pick chosen in the fifth round. Now I know that Johnnie Troutman is a beast and that he is a tremendous football player. He was drafted as a project because the Chargers knew he recently had pectoral surgery. But there is still a lot of value that can be had in the fifth round. You can find value in every round in the draft. Tom Brady is one of the best players in the NFL and a future Hall of Famer (I don’t like him either) and he was drafted in the sixth round.

Recently I read an article written by Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union Tribune. He quoted AJ Smith saying “You know what this all means? Wait and see,” Smith said. “But I look at this draft and believe that the only thing that can stop it from being one of our best is bad luck, or health”. By health AJ does that fall under the category of drafting a guy that had surgery a week ago and more than likely will miss the entire season? No offense AJ but I don’t think a “wait and see” attitude is what Bolts fans are looking for at this stage of the game. And with your job on the line (at least I thought it was) I don’t think you can afford to just “wait and see”.

This isn’t the first time the Chargers front office has wasted a draft pick. If you recall in the 2009 NFL Draft the Chargers selected LSU WR Demetrius Byrd with the 224th pick in the 7th round. I’m sure that while Byrd was lying in a hospital bed recovering from a horrible car accident he was pretty happy to find out he was drafted by the Chargers. Now this was no fender bender, the guy was in the Intensive Care Unit in critical but stable condition. You can read about this further if you need a memory refresher. Byrd eventually recovered just in time to get cut by the Chargers. He never played a snap in the NFL and in my opinion that is just another example of value that could have been found elsewhere.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not bashing the job the Bolts front office did in the draft. In fact I think they did a great job and I’m excited to see all our new guys perform and finally bring a championship to San Diego. But after missing the playoffs two years in a row and being the team that “always gets off to a slow start” and “always underachieves” and somehow always finds the craziest way to lose games, every draft pick should have the chance to make the team and contribute in September. Not next year! Now! Maybe I’m overreacting. What do you think? Let me know.