San Diego Chargers

As always, the San Diego Chargers remain a strong Super Bowl contender on paper, but outside of a single appearance in the AFC Championship game they have not proven worthy of the speculation. There are, and will continue to be, plenty of articles written about the Chargers' window of opportunity closing. At the same time, there will be lots of pundits who will pick the Chargers for the Super Bowl again in 2012. The team has not really gone up or down, but has hopefully plugged the necessary holes while maintaining decent depth and youth,

Corey Liuget was the San Diego Chargers' first round pick, and he's expected to strengthen the defensive line as a starting Defensive End and free up the Linebackers behind him in the process. The rest of the players taken by the Chargers are mostly raw, yet talented, players that will earn their keep on special teams for a year or two before getting a crack at a starting job. A defensive lineman in a 3-4 defense will not get the town as excited as a first-round pass-rusher, quarterback, running back or wide receiver. If anything, fans are much more excited about the possibility of soon-to-be-signed Bob Sanders' effect on the defense.

Like many other NFL franchises, the San Diego Chargers have been organizing team workouts and practices. However, to stay focused on football, they have remained very secretive about where and when these meetings are happening. The San Diego sports media is desperate to find out, as are many fans, but as of yet the location remains a mystery.

All the fans have been told is that Philip Rivers is essentially acting as the team's head coach at these informal practices, even going so far as to bring and set up the cones for drills and water for the guys, and that much of the team (including at least half of their rookie draft class) is participating. There has been a bit of discussion from the players that the informal nature of the practices, without the fans or the coaches, is doing wonders for the team chemistry.