LA Chargers: “Steal a Player” series – NFC West edition

From the Seattle Seahawks, the LA Chargers steal…

Tight End Will Dissly

This choice is probably going to be a surprise, especially considering the Seattle Seahawks have one of the best quarterbacks in the game in Russell Wilson, as well as one of the best linebackers in the game in Bobby Wagner. But I’ll remind everyone again that this is about fit above all else, and part of that, at least in some situations includes age and contract.

One of the reasons the Chargers have had so much success this offseason is because of their cap situation at quarterback. I love Wilson, but I’m not crazy about his contract. He signed a four year, $140 million contract extension this past offseason and that’s just money the Chargers don’t have laying around. Even in this imaginary scenario, I’m not comfortable with that.

That being said, I went with Will Dissly to give the Chargers what would be one of the best tight end duos in the league and it wouldn’t break the bank.

Like Henry, Dissly has had some injury struggles up to this point in his career. But when he’s been on the field he has been productive and hyper-efficient. This may surprise some but he was actually tied for the sixth-highest graded tight end per PFF last season, checking in ahead of Henry and others.

Make no mistake about it, Henry is the more talented and naturally gifted player but Dissly is as solid as can be. Henry is praised for his all-around capability but Dissly has him beat, in terms of PFF grades, in every category including run blocking.

He’s only played ten games in two seasons, some of that is him not being active at the start of his rookie season but it is mostly due to injury. In those ten games, however, he’s put up 31 catches on 41 targets for 418 yards and six touchdowns. Those are hardly jaw-dropping numbers but if you take that average out to a full 16 game pace that would be 50 catches for nearly 670 yards and 9 touchdowns, which is nearly identical to what Henry put up last season.

The idea here is to take two tight ends with injury problems and potentially have one of the better duos in the league, but if one does go down the Chargers would still be able to have a highly productive tight end on the field at all times.

If Henry struggles with injuries again this season the Chargers could be in some trouble at that position. Are Virgil Green and Donald Parham really ready to be consistent producers in the passing game? I don’t think so. So hopefully Henry is able to stay healthy and earn himself a long-term deal.