Chargers will not win a Super Bowl with A.J. Smith as GM.

Pardon My Bias Bleacher ReportAug 21, 2010

Charger fans, mark my words. The San Diego Chargers will not win a Super Bowl as long as A.J. Smith is their GM. While A.J. Smith is an above-average scout, his hard-ball approach and unwillingness to bring back key veteran pieces while be the downfall of the Chargers every season. The Chargers will continue to win the weak AFC West, but they will continue to falter in the playoffs until A.J. Smith either leaves the organization or changes his methods.

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I have already talked about the whole Brees/Rivers situation and I still feel the switch at QB cost the Chargers at least one Super Bowl. But unfortunately for Charger fans that isn’t Smith’s only miscue. Smith’s ugly public battle with Marty Schottenheimer lead to his firing after the Chargers posted a 14-2 regular season record. While the Chargers couldn’t get past their divisional playoff game against the Patriots, all his players seemed to back the coach and were stunned when he was fired. Players such as Quentin Jammer, Roman, Oben, Marlon McCree, and even Ladainian Tomlinson spoke publicly how much they respected Coach Schottenheimer and how big a blow it would be to incorporate a new coach’s schemes while being a Super Bowl contender. Tomlinson went as far as saying that he had “the utmost respect for Marty as a coach and a human being,” these are big words from a player who just won the NFL MVP award and was the focal point of the offense. Rarely does a team fire a coach that is endorsed and supported by the best player of said team. The Schottenheimer and Smith feud seems to have started when Schottenheimer questioned certain personnel moves by Smith, namely the Drew Brees incident. Apparently when Schottenheimer asked about it, Smith said he didn’t want to talk about it and the relationship between the two seemed to distinegrate and eventually vanish.

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The next public fall-out Smith had was with arguably the best player in San Diego Charger History, LaDainian Tomlinson. The public feud these two had reached the national media level and it was just as ugly. After Tomlinson expressed his love for San Diego, the fans, the organization, and his teammates; A.J. Smith had the audacity to release his own statement that sounded similar to Tomlinson’s and seemed to hint at mocking Tomlinson’s heart-felt statement. Smith’s handling of the LT situation proved to show Smith’s difficult personality and his disregard for keeping internal affairs just that, internal. There was no need for Smith to make that public statement and there was no need for Smith to rub the focal point of the offense the wrong way. Some say that LT was on the decline and he needed to be set straight. If Smith felt Tomlinson was on the decline after the 2007 season maybe he should have kept Michael Turner. Instead of signing Turner to a long term deal to be the Chargers running back after Tomlinson, Smith let Turner walk to Atlanta where he became a Pro Bowler in his first season. Well a key reason for LT’s declining stats was due to a key move that Smith did (or did not do) after the 2007 season.

Smith doesn’t always force out key players publicly, sometimes he just chooses not to sign them. Point and case: fullback Lorenzo Neal. After the 2007 season, Neal was coming off his 11th straight season in which he blocked for a running back accumulating over 1,000 rushing yards. In 2007, Neal was named to his 4th Pro Bowl and his 2nd straight All Pro First Team. Even at age 36 Neal was a good fullback and he was surely missed in 2008 when Tomlinson had the least amount of total rushing yards in his career and his lowest TD total and YPC since his rookie season. But Neal wasn’t the only Charger veteran let go after considerable contributions. Donnie Edwards was the Chargers leading tackler for 4 straight seasons and instead of giving him the contract extensions he deserved A.J. Smith didn’t reward Edwards and let him walk after the 2006 season.

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And this brings me to the current situation with Marcus McNeil and Vincent Jackson. While I understand the Chargers reluctance to give big deals to both these players for various reasons (McNeil: injuries, Jackson: off-field issues). They have both been productive players on the field and deserve to be rewarded for it( McNeil has been a tremendous blocker for the Chargers and Jackson is coming off back-to-back 1,000 yard seasons). What really strikes me as unfair are the deals Smith and the Chargers are offering the Pro Bowl players. The Chargers offered McNeil a $3.168 million tender for this upcoming season, but McNeil had to accept by June 15th. Since the deadline passed, the Chargers have been unwilling to offer McNeil more than $630,000. This is an absurd amount to offer a Pro Bowl player that has been a great pass and run blocker. This even more ridiculous seeing the Chargers are wafer thin at the left tackle spot and owe it to Phillip Rivers to cover his blindside as best they can. Jackson has developed into the #1 option for Rivers and has become an integral part of their offensive game plan. While Jackson has definitely become a headache off the field, a rewarding contract with several provisions warning of forfeiture if Jackson does not represent the Chargers in an acceptable manner is not out of the question. However, the contract offered was inappropriate. Jackson was seeking a $9 million annual salary, instead the Chargers offered him the same $3.168 million offer tender that they offered to McNeill. When Jackson let the deadline pass, the Chargers have reduced their offer to $500K and they refuse to increase their offer.

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These two latest holdouts really hurt the Chargers. Without protection for Rivers’ blindside and without Rivers’ #1 target, the Chargers will struggle. They will look to Malcolm Floyd to fill Jackson’s void and hope that he can replicate Jackson’s impact on the game. But this sure is a shame for all the loyal Charger fans. A.J. SMith’s rough personality and over the top ego have really hindered the Chargers as a franchise. The Chargers have had good players come and go over the years, but Smith’s reluctance to bring back those proven vets seem to be what hold this franchise from winning a Super Bowl. So until Smith is fired/resigned or alters his negotiation process, Charger fans might as well get used to losing in the AFC Championship game.

This is just an opinion…so please Pardon My Bias.