Talent Remains, But So Do Chargers' Secondary Issues

Take a quick glance at the offseasons for last year‘s 8-8 teams.

Washington spent $100 million on a defensive tackle. Houston nearly rebuilt its entire defense. The Saints wisely spent every draft pick to improve its atrocious defense. And the Broncos managed to fire a future Hall of Fame coach, ostracize and sack their franchise quarterback and didn’t fix a single hole on their roster.

Then there are the San Diego Chargers.

In reality, this is not your typical .500 team. The Chargers have loads of talent, sustained last season’s most important non-Tom Brady injury by losing Shawne Merriman and have gone through the offseason watching the rest of their division regress.

With so much talent already in place, the biggest move the Chargers made after last season was keeping their two running backs. LaDainian Tomlinson restructured his contract and Darren Sproles was franchised.

There is plenty of reason for the inactivity, however. San Diego’s roster hasn’t changed much from its 14-2 season in 2006.

The team has the talent, and when the result hasn’t been a Super Bowl trip, the front office has blamed the coaching staff rather than the players. Ask former head coach Marty Schottenheimer and defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell about that.

Unfortunately, this hasn’t left the Chargers without holes, particularly on the defensive side.

San Diego gave up 21.7 points a game last year, a season after giving up just 17.8 a contest in 2007, when the team went 11-5 and made the AFC Championship game. Its defense also ranked 25th in yards per game, including 247.4 through the air, which was 31st in the league.

These defensive struggles were a result of a lack of pressure on the quarterback. The Chargers sacked the quarterback only 28 times last year, a year after recording 42 and two years after getting 61. That resulted in just 15 interceptions and 24 total turnovers, a year after 30 and 48, respectively.

The obvious solution to those problems is to insert a healthy Merriman. Not only will he get his sacks, but he wreaks such havoc on opposing offenses, he creates opportunities for everyone else. Antonio Cromartie had just two interceptions in 2008; the last season he played with Merriman, in 2007, he had 10. That’s no accident.

Still, one player cannot do everything. Merriman isn’t Superman.

The question on the Chargers remains their secondary. It was the secondary that gave up game winning touchdowns to the Panthers in Week 1 and the Broncos in Week 2, and allowed the Colts to get into field goal range in the final drive in Week 12.

San Diego’s defensive backs take chances. It isn’t rare to see Cromartie or Quentin Jammer cutting off passes hoping to return a pick all the way. When they rack up interception after interception, it works. When they don’t, they get burned. High risk, high reward.

Because of this philosophy, the Chargers have to get pressure on the quarterback to be successful. Merriman should be able to bring that to the table again, but is that one presence enough? And what if he goes down to an injury again?

The concern about replacing Merriman should he go down again contributed to San Diego picking hybrid defensive end and outside linebacker Larry English in the first round of the 2009 Draft.

However, with the struggles sustained in the secondary, the Chargers likely would have preferred a defensive back at No. 16. But with Malcolm Jenkins going to the Saints at No. 14, there wasn't a corner available that gave San Diego enough value for its pick. So the team selected the best available player, even though it didn't fill the biggest hole on the roster.

San Diego has the talent to go to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1995. But if the team doesn’t shore up its secondary problems, or find a way to recapture that pressure from years past, it could be just another early postseason exit for the Chargers.