Pro Football Focus recently released its list of the 101 best players of the 2010s decade, and five of those players with ties to the Chargers were among the crop.
Three of the players who made the cut are still with the team, while the other two are no longer with the Bolts. However, their contributions still impacted the franchise, in a positive way.
Here’s who made the cut, along with analysis from PFF’s Sam Monson:
12. CB CHRIS HARRIS JR.
“Chris Harris Jr.’s career has been a remarkable thing to behold. An undrafted player out of Kansas, Harris forced his way onto the team as a nickel corner, played so well he earned snaps outside in base and then so well at that that he became a true No.1 cornerback who didn’t even play in the slot anymore. Harris has been targeted over 600 times in the decade, and yet surrendered just 6.3 yards per reception. Over the course of the 2010s, only Richard Sherman allowed fewer receiving yards per snap in coverage than the 0.89 Chris Harris did, and nobody did it with a more varied role within his defense or a tougher path to success than hitting the league as an undrafted free agent.”
15. S ERIC WEDDLE
“The best — and most consistent — safety over the past decade, Eric Weddle retired after last season after never earning a season grade as low as even average. At a position where consistency is incredibly hard to maintain, Weddle was phenomenal year after year in every facet of play. Weddle was a modern-day prototype safety who could do everything that was asked of him at an extremely high level, and he showed later in his career that he could do exactly the same thing in a new team with new requirements. Weddle had three seasons this decade that earned an overall PFF grade above 90.0.”
24. CB CASEY HAYWARD JR.
“Hayward just outperformed expectations from Day 1 in the NFL. His rookie season was one of the greatest statistical performances we have ever seen from a corner covering the slot, and he only got better as his play earned him a greater role within defenses and, ultimately, a job with the Chargers as a No. 1 corner. For the decade, he has the highest forced incompletion rate of any cornerback (18.6%) and has been one of the most underrated coverage players of his generation. Hayward doesn’t get remembered as a shutdown corner along with the biggest names at the position, but he should.”
64. QB PHILIP RIVERS
“Rounding out the bottom half of the second-tier of quarterbacks, Rivers has had a few ups and downs throughout his career, but he had six top-10 finishes during the decade. Even when it doesn’t look pretty, Rivers has the anticipation and feel to mitigate a decrease in arm strength, and he remains productive at all levels of the field. Even more impressively, Rivers played behind one of the worst pass-blocking offensive lines for the better part of the decade, yet he still stood in there and made big-time throws at a high level. The big criticism for Rivers is the lack of postseason success, but he’s one of the most underrated regular-season quarterbacks in NFL history and clearly one of the top eight signal-callers during the 2010s.”
83. WR KEENAN ALLEN
“One of the slickest route-runners in the game, Keenan Allen doesn’t have the mind-blowing athletic profile of some other receivers, but he can match anyone from a production standpoint. Allen has reeled in more than 90% of the catchable passes thrown his way since he entered the league and generated more than two yards for every pass pattern he has run. There is no real weakness to his game, and he has consistently shown that he will get open at will with some of the best releases off the line of any receiver in football.”