I’m all-knowing, all-powerful…and all-too-often wrong. Nevertheless, the 2010 NFL season will soon be upon us, and you want to know what’s going to happen with your beloved San Diego Chargers.
So why wait until the preseason opener Saturday night against Chicago or the Monday night regular-season opener at Kansas City to find out? Here’s exactly what’s going to happen with the Bolts this season.
Promise.
The Chargers will not win as many games this year as the Padres (well…might as well give myself a shot at getting at least one right).
Nate Kaeding will make a field goal, and no matter where you are or who you’re with, somebody in the group will moan that he wished “Kaeding could have done that last January against the Jets.” If nobody’s around, that somebody will be you.
Rookie running back Ryan Mathews’ first-year numbers will be closer to those of Denver’s Knowshon Moreno in 2009 that they will be to LaDainian Tomlinson’s in 2001.
Moreno gained 947 yards rushing with the Broncos last year during his rookie season and scored seven touchdowns while averaging a pedestrian 3.8 yards per carry and 59.2 yards per game. A solid, but certainly not spectacular season.
Tomlinson, meanwhile, was beyond spectacular for the Chargers in his rookie year, rushing for 1,236 yards and averaging over 100 yards per game if you include his 367 receiving yards. To cap his tour-de-force debut, LT scored 10 touchdowns.
Don’t forget that guys like Tomlinson are once-in-a-lifetime backs. Keep that in mind as you listen to and read all of the LT-Mathews comparisons throughout the season.
Regardless, Mathews will still finish with twice as many rushing yards this season as Tomlinson will get for the Jets. Mike Tolbert, backing up Mathews, is a good bet to out-rush LT this year as well.
Me-first linebacker Shawne Merriman, if he doesn’t get off to a fast start sacking quarterbacks and creating general havoc the way he did several years ago, will pull the chute and sit out much of the second half of the season with some sort of injury.
Merriman knows full-well that the only way he’ll get a huge contract (somewhere) is to flash some of the dominance of his first three seasons in the league. If he’s not able to accomplish that any longer, he’ll need an excuse. The injury route will be the safest road to travel and may convince some other team to take a shot at him for big dollars next season.
(In the meantime, welcome to camp, Shawne).
New starting corner Antoine Cason will be burned for an early-season touchdown and fans will start wondering why the Chargers got rid of Antonio Cromartie.
I’ll finish the regular season with as many tackles as Cromartie finishes with in New York.
Marcus McNeill will start opening night in Kansas City at left tackle. Of course, they won’t say it publicly, but the Chargers are scared to death right now that quarterback Philip Rivers will take a couple of bad blind-side hits this season if McNeill isn’t in the lineup.
If they’re not scared, then they’re not very smart. Nobody — in any business — spends $100-million dollars on a big-ticket item (in this case Rivers) and then refuses to spend an extra few million to insure that item. The Chargers want (need) McNeill back, and my guess is the Big Fella wants to come back.
Have A.J. take him to lunch somewhere and get this thing hammered out.
Luis Castillo will continue to earn a gigantic pay check to play a very quiet defensive end. Coaches will tell everybody that the film each week shows that Castillo is playing great, but the fans will hardly notice any of #93’s contributions and wonder why he’s so well-paid.
Mike Scifres will help win at least one game and maybe two with his brilliant punting. Meanwhile, Shane Lechler will bomb meaningless 50-yards punts each Sunday in Oakland and earn yet another berth on the Pro Bowl roster.
Someday — hopefully not to soon — Scifres will retire as the best player in Chargers history to never make a Pro Bowl team.
Norv Turner will call three consecutive passing plays, which fall incomplete, and an idiot in your section will beg for the return of “Marty Ball.”
Turner will call for an off-tackle run on first down, and every idiot in your section (including you) will boo lustily.
The most fun guy to watch during the preseason will be #40, scatback 5-foot-9 free-agent rookie Shawnbrey McNeal out of SMU. At just 190 pounds, McNeal’s quick, darting moves in the open field will remind everybody of Darren Sproles.
The Chargers will win their division (of course), but will not earn a first-round playoff bye — as they did last season. The reason for the the fall-off will be the absence of wide receiver Vincent Jackson (apparently for at least nine weeks).
You and Bolts’ management may not be too fond of Jackson’s attitude, but no team in the NFL can simply subtract a No. 1, All-Pro type of receiver from the lineup and expect to be as dominant on offense as it was a year ago.
Don’t forget that the Chargers are a passing team first, and last year they were a top-of-the-charts passing team. They can’t possibly duplicate that success this year without Jackson.
When they reach the post-season, the team standing in their way — at some point — will be the New York Jets. Things just always seem to work out that way.
At the end of the season, many of you will e-mail me to point out all of the predictions that I got wrong. (hey…might as well get at least two of these things right).
– Ello
Craig Elsten -
Chainsaw -
