San Diego due for a fall
I'm not ready to write off SD just yet. Just way too much talent on both sides of the ball.
Four doomed NFL partnerships for next season
From Si.com:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/tim_layden/02/09/combos/1.html
2. Marty Schottenheimer and the Chargers -- Raise your hand if you thought A.J. Smith would bring back Schottenheimer after yet another playoff flameout. It's well known that Smith and Schottenheimer scarcely acknowledge each other. Turns out it's worse than that. Last November, when I was in San Diego to report a story on Chargers' first-year starting quarterback (and first-rate, good guy) Philip Rivers, I sat down with Smith. We were talking about how Drew Brees got hurt last year in the 16th game of the season, with the Chargers out of playoff contention.
Smith says, "Now, as to why our starting quarterback was playing in that game in the first place, you'd have to ask our coach about that.'' (Here, the word ''coach'' is spoken like "cockroach.'')
At which point, I'm thinking, Man, it just got cold in here.
You get the idea. But the Chargers lose to the Patriots, ignominiously, and Smith brings Schottenheimer back. It has gotten worse since that playoff loss. Both of Schottenheimer's coordinators have left to become head coaches -- OC Cam Cameron to Miami and DC Wade Phillips to Dallas. Two other assistants have left to become coordinators -- Rob Chudzinski on the offense in Cleveland and Greg Manusky on defense in San Francisco.
This could be construed as a good news/bad news situation. The good news is that Chargers had one hell of a staff. The bad news is they're all gone. And Schottenheimer leans as heavily on his assistants as any coach in the league.
Players love Schottenheimer. When I was with Brees in January in New Orleans, he talked about briefly having considered staying in San Diego for 10 percent of his value. In large part, out of loyalty to Marty. But Schottenheimer hasn't won a playoff game since 1993 and only five of 17 overall. He has never taken a team to the Super Bowl. This was the year. It seems unlikely that next year, with a reconstructed staff and an anxious fan base, will be better come January.
and this also from SI.com. Seems nobody has a clue...
Teams who may break Super Bowl drought next year
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/don_banks/02/09/top.five/index.html
• San Diego -- By virtue of my now oft-mentioned "theory of unfinished business,'' which helped me predict last May that the Colts had a Super Bowl ring in their future, the Chargers are next up to get the big confetti shower. For two years in a row, the team with the best record in the NFL has had a bitter disappointment in the playoffs and then came back and won the Super Bowl the following year.
Pittsburgh went an NFL-best 15-1 in 2004, lost in the AFC title game at home in the postseason, and came back to win it all in 2005. Indy went an NFL-best 14-2 in 2005, lost at home in the postseason, and came back to win it all in 2006. San Diego went an NFL-best 14-2 in 2006, lost at home in the postseason, and ... well, you get the idea.
But despite San Diego's loaded roster, there are some disturbing trends to take note of if you're a Charger fan, and they all revolve around coaching. First, there's the whole Marty Schottenheimer-working-in-the-final-year-of-his-contract thing. Schottenheimer, of course, barely kept his job last month, but then refused a rather hollow one-year extension offer from San Diego because it came with a buyout clause. He and general manager A.J. Smith have a tenuous relationship at best, and at worst it's a tinderbox waiting for a match to be struck. If these two make it through the year without a blowup, it'll be an upset.
Then there's the Chargers' coaching staff, which has been fairly well decimated by defections in recent weeks. San Diego lost both of its talented coordinators to head coaching jobs -- Wade Phillips to Dallas, and Cam Cameron to Miami -- and also saw tights end coach Rob Chudzinski (who likely would have replaced Cameron) leave to become Cleveland's offensive coordinator, and linebackers coach Greg Manusky resign to accept the San Francisco defensive coordinator position.
The last time we saw a coaching talent drain like that, New England's Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel were leaving their coordinator jobs to become head coaches at Notre Dame and Cleveland, respectively.
