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One last crack at projecting who will land on the Chargers’ initial roster.
The Chargers have until Tuesday to cut their roster from 90 to 53, the first year that the NFL has consolidated cutdown dates to one afternoon.
Here’s where I think LA will land with their initial roster by the time the dust settles.
Highlighting the good and bad from the Chargers’ win over the Rams.
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The Chargers beat the Rams on Sunday to improve to 10-6.
Here is a look at the good and not-so-good from Los Angeles’ victory.
Stud: Austin Ekeler
What a game it was for Ekeler, who had the longest run of his career on the second quarter 72-yard touchdown scamper. He also became the third running back to haul in at least 100 catches and score at least 15 touchdowns from scrimmage in a single season, joining LaDainian Tomlinson and Christian McCaffrey. Ekeler was virtually impossible to tackle all game, turning 14 total touches into 161 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns. It was a stellar performance against a Rams rushing defense that came into the game ranked top ten in DVOA and had not allowed a 100-yard rusher the entire season.
Dud: Run defense
Giving up 6.4 yards per carry to a team with five offensive linemen on injured reserve that’s also starting a player they were trying to get rid of less than three months ago is…bad. What’s worse is that the defensive line was pretty frequently moved right off the ball when the Rams chose to run, which represents a disappointing downturn from the past few weeks. Cam Akers himself took 19 carries for 123 yards, good for a per-carry average of 6.5 that feels much more like Akers getting 6.5 every time rather than a few big runs with a few stuffs mixed in. The Chargers don’t have a high-quality run defense; this season has been evident of that at every turn.
Stud: Mike Williams
Williams had maybe his best game of the season, converting ten targets into seven receptions for 94 yards. There was the trademark Williams plays, namely an astounding one-handed catch on the sideline that dropped the jaws of the collective football internet. But there were also new wrinkles: screens to the bigger receiver, deep curls where Williams juked defenders to generate extra yardage after the catch, etc. It was an all-around phenomenal performance that made the game feel, at times, as though the entire offense flowed through Williams and Ekeler. That’s a good sign for the Chargers, who seemed on Sunday to finally find a way to consistently get their stars the ball and score 30+ points for the first time since Week 5.
Dud: Kenneth Murray Jr.
Like we said earlier, much of the struggle with run defense on Sunday came from the push the Rams’ offensive line generated. Still, that doesn’t mean the second-level defenders are without blame, and Murray, in particular, seemed to have a rough go of things. When Akers found himself wide open in space only to have a throw bounce off his fingertips, Murray had fallen down trying to meet him in the flat. As with the defensive line, it’s a disappointing showing for the linebacker, who had strung together a few quietly fairly good games. Sunday, unfortunately, represented a coming back to Earth for the former first-rounder.
Stud: Morgan Fox
The book on Baker Mayfield is pretty widely distributed: make him feel pressured, and he will make mistakes. The Chargers were able to do that on Sunday, racking up three sacks and four QB hits, one of each of which came from Fox. The former Ram has continued to be perhaps the best free-agent acquisition of the year for the Chargers and perhaps across the entire league when you consider value. Fox is constantly disrupting the pocket and redirecting runners when given the opportunity to do so, and he’s proven to be a key cog in the Chargers’ defense.
Dud: Open-field tackling
One of the reasons Cam Akers was so successful was that he’s a bigger, more powerful running back who can break tackles with relative ease. Against players like that, you have to be sound as a tackler to limit them effectively. On Sunday, the Chargers were far from sound: every run from Akers seemed peppered with flailing Chargers defenders and ended with him dragging defenders a few extra yards. Tackling has been an issue for this defense dating back to the preseason, and those issues have continued to rear their heads throughout the year. Whenever Derwin James, who missed Sunday’s game with a concussion, is off the field, the deeper levels of the defense lose most of their teeth.
Stud: Offensive line
After a series of down games from the offensive line unit, Sunday’s performance was sterling. Justin Herbert was not sacked for the first time since the Falcons game. He was only hit twice, the lowest number since the Falcons game. The Rams presented a bounce-back opportunity as soon as Aaron Donald was ruled out, especially because the recent downturn in offensive line play had a lot to do with going up against elite interior pass rushers in recent weeks. On the ground, we’ve already given some credit to Austin Ekeler, but kudos are also for the group blocking for him. The Chargers could largely match the push the Rams got, giving Ekeler space to find a hole and then navigate from there, which is when he’s at his best.
Dud: Big play defense
The few times the Rams were able to move the ball down the field, it was primarily because they generated at least one big play on the Chargers’ defense. The 13-play, 81-yard field goal drive was catalyzed by a 42-yard Cam Akers rush. Baker Mayfield had a 39-yard completion to Van Jefferson on the ensuing drive. The Rams’ lone touchdown came on a 23-yard untouched run from Malcolm Brown. The Chargers were able to limit this tendency in the second half. Still, it’s concerning to give up those sorts of plays to an offense as anemic as the Rams when you’re staring down the barrel of an AFC gauntlet that includes Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, and Lamar Jackson. It’s also a return to earlier versions of this defense, which gave up big plays routinely before finding solutions over the bye week.
Jeff Okudah of Ohio State leads a deep draft class of defensive backs. Xavier McKinney, Antoine Winfield and Trevon Diggs aren’t far behind.
Jeff Okudah of Ohio State leads a deep draft class of defensive backs. Xavier McKinney, Antoine Winfield and Trevon Diggs aren’t far behind.
With the 2020 NFL Draft fast approaching, it is time to start finalizing draft boards. Not just for NFL teams, but for the team here at Touchdown Wire. Here is Touchdown Wire’s list of the top 25 defensive prospects in the 2020 draft class.
If there’s one thing NFL teams need more than anything else on defense right now, it’s the prototypical lockdown cornerback who can take an opponent’s No. 1 receiver through any route in any coverage. Of the cornerbacks in this draft class, Okudah is the one who raises no questions regarding his ability to do so. After playing 70% of his snaps in man coverage in 2018, per Sports Info Solutions, Okudah dipped down to 54% man coverage last season, upped his zone percentage and still allowed just 21 catches on 54 targets for 280 yards, three interceptions, one touchdown, and an opponent passer rating of 46.8. There may be more physically talented players in this class, but outside of the top quarterbacks, none are more positionally important.
In his 2019 season, per Pro Football Focus, Simmons played 299 snaps in the box, 262 snaps at slot cornerback, 132 snaps at free safety and 116 snaps at defensive line. The 6-foot-4, 225-pound Simmons also played 13 snaps at outside corner, to make his versatility even more impressive. Asked at the scouting combing what his position was, Simmons simply responded, “Defense.” In the modern NFL, a player who can do everything from blitzing, to taking on the run game as a linebacker, to coverage as a slot defender and safety, is of prime value as defenses move to nickel and dime defenses as their base.
Young has often been compared to fellow Ohio State alums Joey and Nick Bosa, and from a traits perspective, those are pretty good matches. In 2019, Young put up 16.5 sacks, 21 tackles for loss, seven quarterback hits and 31 quarterback hurries. And if you’re concerned about his getting shut out in sacks through his last three college games, a cursory look at the tape will tell you that he still had a massive effect on opposing offenses.
Chase Young this week on the three-sack drought: "Being the best defensive end isn't about sacks, it's about being the most disruptive player on the field. You can do that without having a sack… I had a lot of quarterback hits, a lot of pressures."
Yup. pic.twitter.com/aeDTsoTcgE
— Doug Farrar (@NFL_DougFarrar) February 29, 2020
At 6 feet 6 and 302 pounds, Kinlaw fits the physical profile of the ideal multi-gap defensive lineman who can get nasty everywhere from over the center to outside the offensive tackles. In 2019, he raised his sack total from four in 2018 to six in his final college season, adding seven quarterback hits and 28 quarterback hurries. Perhaps the most impressive thing about Kinlaw’s potential is that he’s turned himself into a wrecking machine without the benefit of advanced hand technique. Once he reaps the benefits of NFL-level coaching, he projects well as an All-Pro-level disruptor.
Brown’s relatively weak combine performance might debit him in the eyes of those who haven’t studied his tape. Similarly, his total of 12.5 sacks over four seasons at Auburn could push him under other defenders in your mind if you’re just box-score scouting. But when you watch Brown do his thing on the field, the perspective is entirely different. At 6-5 and 326 pounds, Brown had 10 quarterback hits and 20 quarterback hurries in 2019, adding four batted passes and two forced fumbles to his statistical arsenal. Brown is an ideal three-down defender who can stop the run as well as he can blast through double teams.
Multi-positional defensive backs are all the rage in today’s NFL, and Nick Saban has been grooming them at Alabama for a while. Minkah Fitzpatrick of the Steelers was an early part of paradigm, and McKinney is ready to follow in Fitzpatrick’s footsteps. Last season, per Pro Football Focus, McKinney played 285 snaps in the box, 271 snaps at free safety and 227 snaps in the slot. The 6-1, 200-pound McKinney also played 38 snaps on the defensive line and five snaps at outside corner. Playing all those positions, he allowed an opponent passer rating of 73.6 and came away with three interceptions, as well as 21 total pressures in just 71 pass-rushing snaps. If you can’t get Isaiah Simmons in your 2020 draft because he goes too early, McKinney is more than an acceptable substitute.
In 2019, Queen established himself as one of the linchpins of the Tigers’ championship defense after lining up for just 255 total snaps in his first two collegiate seasons. The 6-foot, 229-pound first-year starter proved to be the model of the modern linebacker when he finally got his shot, playing 780 snaps in 2019 and showing the ability to excel everywhere from the box to the slot to the occasional go at outside cornerback. More impressively for Queen’s NFL future is his ability to face up against top running backs and make stops when stops are needed. Not every light linebacker can do that, and once Queen gets the hang of the intricacies of coverage (especially zone coverage), he could be one of the NFL’s best three-down linebackers.
Winfield missed all but a total of eight games in his 2017 and 2018 seasons due to injuries, but he came back with a full head of steam in 2019, picking off seven passes and giving up just 11 catches on 22 targets and an opponent passer rating of 45.5. A healthy Winfield has all the athleticism and range you’d want in a deep-third safety, but what really makes him the best in this class at that particular designation is his ability to read offenses and coverages on the fly — as he detailed to me in a recent film session, he learned a lot from his father, who played cornerback for the Bills and Vikings from 1999 through 2012.
