Chargers and Chambers Part Ways

Anyone who has read any previous entries here on ChargingBolts knows that I am a huge Legedu Naanee fan and have been drunk off of his Kool-Aid since the preseason. With the stellar performance of fellow wide receiver Malcom Floyd this past week, the Chargers chose to part ways with veteran Chris Chambers to make way for these two budding young stars. The Bolts have some injuries piling up in the linebacking corps and will look to fill the vacated roster spot with a body on defense who can also contribute to the special teams unit which has also been an area of concern this season. After Tim Dobbins went down on Sunday with a knee injury and is expected to miss some time, the Bolts had to make a move as Dobbins was already filling in for the spot left empty by Kevin Burnett who has been nursing an ankle issue.

Special teams ace Brandon Siler was forced into defensive action when Dobbins went down on Sunday and his absence on the unit will leave another void waiting to be filled. On the issues at both linebacker and with the kick coverage units, Norv Turner said: “With the number of new guys we’re trying to fit in there, we’re not as good as we have been and we need to address that. We are very, very thin at the linebacker position and we need to address that, which will help us on special teams.” Now that the Chargers only have _ wide receivers on their roster, it looks as though they will only have 4 of those active for kickoff Sunday. Turner stressed the importance of having multi-dimensional players active so that the team is not put in such a predicament should the unforeseen happen again. He said: “If we have a decision to make and it’s between a fifth receiver and a guy that can go down and cover kicks and punts, it’s going to be the guy who can cover kicks and punts,” Turner said. “We can play with four receivers.”

Even though the NFL is a business, players and coaches naturally develop relationships with the amount of time they spend together and the one shared between Turner and Chambers is a special one. Turner was offensive coordinator in Miami when Chambers first came into the league and then reunited before the trade deadline in 2007 when the Bolts dealt for the receiver. On the talk the two shared Monday morning Turner said: “I think so much of him and that makes these things difficult He’s given great effort on the practice field. It’s where we need to go as a football team.”

The economic end of the spectrum had to come into consideration for Chargers General Manager A.J. Smith as Chris Chambers was the fourth highest paid player on the Bolts roster at just under six million dollars this year. With his down production and the aforementioned emergence of the two guys formerly below him on the depth chart, the decision became a relatively easy one for the personnel gurus in the Chargers front office. Since the trading deadline has come and gone Chambers will be required to clear waivers before any interested teams can come to terms with him and if someone does pick him up they would have to absorb the remaining $2.4 million cap hit that comes with his 2009 contract.

Even though the Chargers have spoken highly of 2007 1st round draft pick Craig “Buster” Davis’s performance in practice lately, the team is adamant that they will dress an extra two way defender/special teamer over a fifth wideout for the near term. And with all of the woes on special teams I think that’s a wonderful idea. Mike Scifres has been killing the ball nearly every time he steps on the field and the average opponent field position stat barely reflects his stellar performance.

All in all, this move definitely makes sense for the long haul and for the overall benefit of the team. Hopefully the team has someone in mind that they want to promote from the practice squad to the active roster or has a particular name in mind currently on the market to bring in and catch up to speed in a hurry. With the rate that linebackers are getting knicked up, the team definitely needs to look in that direction. On a few occasions Sunday it appeared that Steve Gregory and Eric Weddle were lining up as mock linebackers. Adding another body to the depth chart will take some of the pressure off of those two to just take care of their responsibilities as safeties.

Tags: A.J. Smith, Brandon Siler, Chris Chambers, Craig Davis, Eric Weddle, Kevin Burnett, Legedu Naanee, Malcom Floyd, Mike Scifres, Norv Turner, Steve Gregory, Tim Dobbins