Draft season brings with it countless reports that player X has met with team Y, stirring up a frenzy of discourse about how that player-team fit must now be considered a lock. In reality, most prospects meet with every team during the pre-draft process, and gleaning information from the simple report that a team has met with a player tends to be a losing proposition.
But sometimes, there’s more information than that. Sometimes, it comes out that a team is consistently meeting with a player, or has been monitoring him all season, or even longer. That’s been the case with prospects in this draft already as it pertains to the Chargers: UCLA guard Atonio Mafi said Los Angeles has been watching him since his freshman season in 2018.
Now, we have confirmation about another trip LA has been taking all season. In an interview with The Draft Network’s Justin Melo, Chattanooga offensive lineman McClendon Curtis revealed that the Chargers have “always” sent scouts his way and that in Mobile, AL for the Senior Bowl, Curtis was catching up with scouts he already knew.
Curtis mentioned a few other teams to who this applied as well: the Saints, Cardinals, and Jaguars. What makes LA’s interest in him well, interesting, is that Curtis has the versatility to play tackle or guard. The Chargers currently have some shuffling to do on their line, with an impending cap decision on guard Matt Feiler and free agency negotiations with tackle Trey Pipkins. 2022 sixth-rounder Jamaree Salyer will take one of those starting spots, but depth will be a huge concern. Adding a player like Curtis who can play four of five spots on the line allays those concerns to a large degree.
Curtis is currently projected to be a Day 3 pick by most major outlets.