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Built for now, and later
Chargers have done it via draft, nondrafted free agents
By Kevin Acee
STAFF WRITER
April 24, 2006
Over 13 years in the NFL, during stays in New Orleans, New York, Tampa Bay, Tennessee and Cincinnati, Lorenzo Neal has seen just about every way there is to construct a franchise.
About to enter his fourth season as a Charger, Neal looks around the locker room and sees a bunch of players he has known since they were rookies.
“What they've done is built a team that's built to compete for years,” the Pro Bowl fullback said recently. “This team is not built to win this year or win next year. This team is built to be good for the next eight or nine years. If they never drafted another player, they'd be competitive for the next eight or nine years.
“It's set up great. They don't have any big free-agent salary. It's set up good for the salary cap.”
That doesn't mean Neal, like much of San Diego, would not like to have seen the Chargers get another proven player or two in free agency. He is simply acknowledging he sees a plan in motion.
It is a strategy oft-cited by General Manager A.J. Smith – that his desire is to build primarily through the draft and complement that assemblage with the rare trade and signing of key free agents.
And, as teams prepare for this weekend's draft, a look at the 32 NFL depth charts reveals the Chargers are atop the league when it comes to developing and retaining homegrown talent under Smith.
No team has as many players as the Chargers do who were either selected by the team in the draft or originally signed as nondrafted free agents in the past three years – since Smith assumed his current role as architect.
On their current two-deep the Chargers have 25 such players.
The two-deep in mid-April is tentative, of course, considering the season is 4½ months away. But it is the same with every team. And the Chargers' depth chart does not figure to change significantly between now and then.
Given the Chargers' improvement over the past two seasons – from no winning seasons in an eight-year span to 21-11 over 2004 and '05 – the numbers graphically back up Smith's credo.
The list of 25 young homegrown players includes nondrafted free agents Antonio Gates, a two-time Pro Bowl tight end, and Kris Dielman, so good in his first season as a starting guard that he just signed a one-year, $1.55 million contract. It also includes quarterback Philip Rivers, who was acquired in a draft-day trade in 2004 but for all intents and purposes was drafted by the Chargers.
There are a few reasons the Chargers have so many of their own on the roster.
For one, they were awful and had to be overhauled somehow. And with the NFL's salary cap limiting how much a team can spend, the most efficient way to rebuild is through the draft and with inexpensive nondrafted free agents.
But even if there were no salary cap and Smith worked for an owner who said he could spend as much as he wanted, the old scout in Smith would not allow him to forsake his first love.
“It would be easier that way,” Smith said. “But I would absolutely prefer the draft and be able to hand-pick some key guys (to acquire via trade or free agency). That is still the way I'd do it.”
Once a player is signed as a rookie, his rights belong to that team for three years and could be so for up to six years, depending on his contract.
That is a huge benefit, one Smith covets in that he does not like surprises or last-minute changes. He works three years ahead, balancing team needs with salary cap concerns.
Among Smith's most-uttered phrases is, “He's a Charger.” Used in its various forms, it is essentially a declaration that the player is locked up by the team for a certain amount of years and Smith does not have to worry about that player's contract for a while.
There also is the benefit of younger players being cost-effective. Gates made just $309,400 in 2004 when he scored 13 touchdowns and led the Chargers in receiving. Even the six-year, $22.5 million contract Gates signed last summer was a relative bargain. By the time Gates is due for his next contract, assuming he continues to be one of the game's most dominant players, his services will cost the team that signs him an ungodly sum.
But, for all that has been accomplished, Smith knows what must come soon.
“Where are the results?” he said. “Winning and all those numbers are great. What is the purpose of all those numbers without substance? Did you go deep into the playoffs?
“We know it's a 'win now' league. But still you need a little time when you come to a team that needed to be revamped, as this one did.”
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060424/news_1s24chargers.html
Chargers have done it via draft, nondrafted free agents
By Kevin Acee
STAFF WRITER
April 24, 2006
Over 13 years in the NFL, during stays in New Orleans, New York, Tampa Bay, Tennessee and Cincinnati, Lorenzo Neal has seen just about every way there is to construct a franchise.
About to enter his fourth season as a Charger, Neal looks around the locker room and sees a bunch of players he has known since they were rookies.
“What they've done is built a team that's built to compete for years,” the Pro Bowl fullback said recently. “This team is not built to win this year or win next year. This team is built to be good for the next eight or nine years. If they never drafted another player, they'd be competitive for the next eight or nine years.
“It's set up great. They don't have any big free-agent salary. It's set up good for the salary cap.”
That doesn't mean Neal, like much of San Diego, would not like to have seen the Chargers get another proven player or two in free agency. He is simply acknowledging he sees a plan in motion.
It is a strategy oft-cited by General Manager A.J. Smith – that his desire is to build primarily through the draft and complement that assemblage with the rare trade and signing of key free agents.
And, as teams prepare for this weekend's draft, a look at the 32 NFL depth charts reveals the Chargers are atop the league when it comes to developing and retaining homegrown talent under Smith.
No team has as many players as the Chargers do who were either selected by the team in the draft or originally signed as nondrafted free agents in the past three years – since Smith assumed his current role as architect.
On their current two-deep the Chargers have 25 such players.
The two-deep in mid-April is tentative, of course, considering the season is 4½ months away. But it is the same with every team. And the Chargers' depth chart does not figure to change significantly between now and then.
Given the Chargers' improvement over the past two seasons – from no winning seasons in an eight-year span to 21-11 over 2004 and '05 – the numbers graphically back up Smith's credo.
The list of 25 young homegrown players includes nondrafted free agents Antonio Gates, a two-time Pro Bowl tight end, and Kris Dielman, so good in his first season as a starting guard that he just signed a one-year, $1.55 million contract. It also includes quarterback Philip Rivers, who was acquired in a draft-day trade in 2004 but for all intents and purposes was drafted by the Chargers.
There are a few reasons the Chargers have so many of their own on the roster.
For one, they were awful and had to be overhauled somehow. And with the NFL's salary cap limiting how much a team can spend, the most efficient way to rebuild is through the draft and with inexpensive nondrafted free agents.
But even if there were no salary cap and Smith worked for an owner who said he could spend as much as he wanted, the old scout in Smith would not allow him to forsake his first love.
“It would be easier that way,” Smith said. “But I would absolutely prefer the draft and be able to hand-pick some key guys (to acquire via trade or free agency). That is still the way I'd do it.”
Once a player is signed as a rookie, his rights belong to that team for three years and could be so for up to six years, depending on his contract.
That is a huge benefit, one Smith covets in that he does not like surprises or last-minute changes. He works three years ahead, balancing team needs with salary cap concerns.
Among Smith's most-uttered phrases is, “He's a Charger.” Used in its various forms, it is essentially a declaration that the player is locked up by the team for a certain amount of years and Smith does not have to worry about that player's contract for a while.
There also is the benefit of younger players being cost-effective. Gates made just $309,400 in 2004 when he scored 13 touchdowns and led the Chargers in receiving. Even the six-year, $22.5 million contract Gates signed last summer was a relative bargain. By the time Gates is due for his next contract, assuming he continues to be one of the game's most dominant players, his services will cost the team that signs him an ungodly sum.
But, for all that has been accomplished, Smith knows what must come soon.
“Where are the results?” he said. “Winning and all those numbers are great. What is the purpose of all those numbers without substance? Did you go deep into the playoffs?
“We know it's a 'win now' league. But still you need a little time when you come to a team that needed to be revamped, as this one did.”
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060424/news_1s24chargers.html