Chargers have shown they can startle at draft’s start
Convention seems to call for a bolstering of defense with first pick. But look at 2016 draft.
In the buildup to last year’s NFL draft, the Chargers were largely mum about the direction they would take.
People knew after the Rams and Eagles made trades to get into the top two that quarterbacks would be off the board. The Chargers would have their pick of everyone else to get the player they wanted.
The mock drafts almost unanimously had the team selecting an offensive tackle or cornerback. The team and general manager Tom Telesco swerved from convention and selected Joey Bosa, who in their opinion was the best prospect in the draft.
It turned out that they were mostly right, landing the NFL’s top defensive rookie, who had a monster season destroying quarterbacks.
This year, convention again has them pointing in one direction — defense.
Most of the top prospects play on that side of the ball, and the Chargers have clear needs, particularly on the interior of their defensive line and in the back of their secondary.
But inside Telesco’s offices, it’s possible something else is brewing.
The team has the No. 7 pick in the draft and there’s a chance it will go on the clock without a single offensive player having been taken. And, just maybe, Telesco is ready to shock the draft for the second year in a row.
There would be no bigger shock than the Chargers’ using their first-round pick to take a quarterback, though they’ve openly talked about their eventual need to find Philip Rivers’ replacement. That search probably won’t begin until the second day of the draft at the earliest, though Telesco insisted they’ve scouted the position as hard as every other one.
“It’s important to do. It doesn’t matter if your franchise QB is 25 or 35, it’s a position you have to know inside and out,” he said this week. “[We] put in the same amount of work this year. Whether it lines up in this year’s draft, in 2018 or 2019, I don’t know, but I know we’ll be prepared with the work we’ve done if that opportunity arises.”
Pittsburgh’s Nathan Peterman and Tennessee’s Joshua Dobbs could be options in the middle rounds, in the search to find a player to sit and be groomed behind Rivers.
Coach Anthony Lynn has spoken of finding a back to pair with Melvin Gordon, but no one really has linked the Chargers to any of the draft’s top runners, though Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey could be tempting. And if they used the seventh pick to select him, it would certainly be a shock — though one that would make sense.
Lynn said Wednesday that the skills he’d value in a complementary back would include the ability to operate in space, and McCaffrey is a skilled receiver and route runner who could be a younger, more explosive Danny Woodhead. He’d also be in line to return kicks and punts, an area where the Chargers want to improve.
If the team doesn’t choose a running back in Round 1, the Chargers could absolutely address the position in later rounds.
A more likely scenario would have the Chargers taking a wide receiver in the first round, and it seems as if Clemson standout Mike Williams could be that guy. Williams, who recently had a private workout for the Chargers, is a big target and would give the team insurance if Keenan Allen is unable to stay healthy.
If the Chargers don’t select a receiver in the first round, they could jump at the chance to take a highly productive one in the second or third, such as East Carolina’s Zay Jones.
The team chose tight end Hunter Henry last season, meaning it’d be very unlikely for the front office to use a pick, especially an early one, on another tight end. Telesco could be tempted, though, by excellent value if one of the top four tight ends in the class slips out of the first few rounds.
Though getting offensive weapons for Rivers is important, keeping him from getting hit by opposing defenses might be a bigger priority.
The team needs to upgrade the offensive line (something nearly every team in the NFL wants to do), but the consensus is that this draft doesn’t have a lot of top talent at those positions.
An offensive lineman at seven would be a huge reach, and scouts and evaluators aren’t entirely sold on the crop of tackles that likely will be taken in the first round. Guard Forrest Lamp from Western Kentucky might be the best prospect along the offensive line, but he plays a position that’s traditionally not viewed as worthy of a first-round pick.
The team will need to find help up front, though, and almost certainly will use at least one of its seven picks on an offensive lineman.
It would be the obvious thing to do, but if there’s one thing we know about Telesco and the draft, it’s that the obvious-seeming choice isn’t always the one he’ll make.
daniel.woike@latimes.com Twitter: @DanWoikeSports