There's no doubt the Chargers would like Jacob Hester to be a Charger for a while. However, complicating that desire is the fact he's going to become a free agent on March 13. Some may bring up the idea that the Chargers put the franchise tag on him given that fullbacks don't get paid very high salaries in today's modern NFL. Part of that statement is true. Fullbacks do not get paid comparably high salaries in the NFL. They really never have. Lorenzo Neal signed with the Chargers in 2003 having blocked for four 1,000 yard rushers and coming off a Pro Bowl season with the Cincinnati Bengals. He signed for 3 years, $4.5 million. He had also bounced around the NFL playing for 5 different teams in a 10 year career before arriving in San Diego.

The people chiming in and saying the team should slap the Franchise Tag on Hester assume his salary would be based on other fullbacks. This is not true, fullbacks count as running backs. And as we can recall from Darren Sproles' two years with the franchise designation, it can cost in the neighborhood of $8 million. The Chargers like Hester, but they don't like him 8 million dollar's-worth. Instead they'll have to compete for his services with the rest of the NFL.

What the Chargers like about Hester is his versatility. He may not be great at any one thing, but he does a lot of things well. He's developed into a steady lead blocker. You can trust him to catch a couple balls in the passing game. He can run the ball for a yard when you need a yard to get a 1st down. He can fill in at RB in a pinch. He can take charge on punt coverage units and play on his share of Special Teams units. Having one guy that takes on those different roles saves you roster space. Of course, the rest of the NFL knows this too.

So, what's it going to cost to keep him? Let's take a look at some current fullbacks' salaries after the jump.

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Just over a year ago, I asked for the good readers here at Bolts From the Blue to give an approval rating on the Chargers runningback. To my surprise, Mike Tolbert ended up with the highest approval rating of any player that I did an approval rating post for. That includes Philip Rivers. A year later some things have changed.

The first thing that's changed is his contract status. Last year he was a restricted free agent, this year he'll be an unrestricted free agent. Because of the lockout teams didn't even get a chance to bid on restricted free agents last offseason, but this year Tolbert's services will be offered up to the highest bidder (barring a lucrative contract extension offered by the Chargers before March 13). So, one could interpret the poll that follows as a way to say, "Yes, I approve of the way Mike Tolbert is handing his job as a Chargers Runningback and I'd like to have him back next year."

The other thing that changed is his production. In 2010, Tolbert and fellow RB Ryan Mathews both had 5 fumbles on the season. This year he cut that down to only 2 fumbles over 175 touches vs. those 5 over 207 touches in 2010. Those touches numbers also show that he was used less. However, it resulted in 923 yards in 2011 vs. 951 the previous season, which isn't that big of a difference. DVOA-wise that came out to -0.8% for 2011 vs. -1.9% in 2011. Those negative numbers look bad, but considering that he's a backup RB, a special teams standout and the best pass backfield pass protector, it's not bad to be a little below average with the ball in his hands. Plus, sometimes that's not all his fault, it's 3rd and 10 and the only successful outcome is to get those 10 yards, he's being set up to fail more times than not.

Offensively, Tolbert is not a standout. He's solid. He does make some special teams tackles on kick coverage and he's able to do pass protection. But, when RBs that have back-to-back years with double digit touchdown numbers and almost 1,000 combined yards per season as a primary backup, they tend to expect a big raise. Can the approval rating stay as high when we consider the idea of paying Mike Tolbert a heftier wage?

Mike Tolbert

#35 / Fullback / San Diego Chargers

Height: 5-9

Weight: 243

Born: Nov 23, 1985

College: Coastal Carolina

All VOA, DVOA, YAR and DYAR statistical values are developed, calculated and reported by Football Outsiders. Their explanation can be found here.

The enigmatic Vincent Jackson is scheduled to become a free agent on March 13. He is a man of great skill, and a man lacking great judgement. On one hand, he has had two DUIs, got pulled over for driving with a suspended license on his way to a playoff game, got a personal foul for kicking a flag during that same playoff game and held out for most of a season. On the other hand, he's the guy that's had three 1,000 yard receiving seasons, has twice ranked in the top 2 in DVOA, averages 17.5 yards every time he catches the ball, has missed only 1 game due to injury since he became a full-time starter and had an unforgettable game-winning touchdown against the New York Giants in 2009. He's been volatile in the past and he's been valuable on the field.

The Chargers currently have 15 unrestricted free agents including Vincent Jackson, 4 other starters and a Special Teams captain. The team has also already committed big-money, multi-year contracts to players like Antonio Gates, Philip Rivers, Kris Dielman, Eric Weddle, Luis Castillo and Marcus McNeill. They also may be considering trying to lure some free agents like Mario Williams, Tyvon Branch or Carl Nicks to San Diego for some serious cash. So, even with a player who provides as much value as Vincent Jackson there is a question as to how much money is there to go around. Recently, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union Tribune wrote an article about the Chargers and their cap situation. He estimated that the team could free up close to $30 million in cap space by releasing some players. You could easily fit even the NFL's most expensive player in for $30M, but are the cuts worth it?

In recent history, most of the top WRs that earn big contracts stay with their current teams. Of the current 10 richest deals for WRs, 1 is a rookie contract, 2 are players that were traded and then extended and 7 are players that remained with their current team. What this seems to say about the NFL is that teams are willing to pay to keep the top WRs. How much are they willing to pay? Let's take a look at those contracts after the jump.

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With yesterday's Super Bowl, the 2011 season is basically wrapped up. However, the 2012 season doesn't start until March 13. They call that the start of the new league year and it also represents the date when free agents are free to sign with any team. So, why start talking about free agents over a month before? Well, the teams can use this month to re-sign potential free agents or even players that will go into 2012 with only 1 year remaining on their contracts. There's also the potential for a franchise tag, which I discussed a few weeks ago.

The San Diego Chargers will go into this 2012 offseason with two former Pro Bowlers, a special teams captain and a player that scored 7 of the team's 41 touchdowns heading to free agency. Vincent Jackson, Nick Hardwick, Jacob Hester and Mike Tolbert head the list of Chargers looking for new contracts. Over the next few weeks we'll discuss the merits of keeping some of the players. The complete list is show below:

After the jump you can see when the rest of the Chargers' contracts expire.

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When Takeo Spikes joined the Chargers most, at best, knew a few things about him: 1. He has a big neck, 2. He's a Linebacker, 3. He was on the 49ers with Greg Manusky the previous season, 4. He's never made the playoffs in his entire career, 5. He has a GIANT neck. Now that he's been a Charger for a year you've probably formed some other opinions of him. Recently, I listed him on the potential cuts list due to his age and the small cap hit that it would take to release him. Some feel that's just, especially because he was one of Greg Manusky's guys and Manusky has been shown the door. Others feel that would be throwing the baby out with the bath water. Which, in case you didn't know, throwing out babies is a bad thing. (Hey, Takeo, that might make for a good PSA campaign)

Let's get some numbers out of the way and show what sort of stats Takeo put up for the 2011 season:

Takeo Spikes

#51 / Linebacker / San Diego Chargers

Height: 6-2

Weight: 242

Born: Dec 17, 1976

College: Auburn

One thing that stands out in those numbers is the lack of impact plays. The sacks, interceptions and forced fumbles totals are all extremely low or nonexistent. Yet, he was involved in plenty of plays as those tackles numbers would indicate. None of that is conclusive one way or another given that in any defense different players will have different roles, including leadership roles (which is a role Spikes takes on). Still, you'd feel like there'd be a few more big plays in the mix.

Other notes on Spikes are that he suffered a concussion this season, but seemingly didn't let that his ability to play and got back on the field quickly. He was also a vocal supporter of Norv Turner when the Head Coach's job status was in question. You can either see that as him foolishly backing the status quo or taking a leadership stance for someone he believes in.

To many, the Senior Bowl is just another game with college players. Maybe if you're a fan of one of the players because of your affiliation with a school, you tune in to see that guy play with his college team's helmet on one last time. For NFL scouts and internet draftniks it's a multi-day scouting process that starts with the weigh-ins on day 1, progresses to the practices and then culminates with the actual game (which many scouts don't even attend). In today's NFL draft news cycle every part of this process is televised in some fashion with NFL Network's Mike Mayock guiding you along the way.

It's sort of an odd scouting experience. Some of the best players choose to skip the whole thing (although this seems to have become rarer) and other top prospects can't be invited because they weren't seniors. So, you end up left with a hodgepodge of top talent mixed with players that could go anywhere from day 2 of the draft to potentially undrafted. Nevertheless, it's still the best collection of talent put together where players run real NFL drills, get coached by real NFL staffs (this year it was the Redskins and Vikings coaching staffs) and play in a somewhat competitive, slightly modified (some rules match the Pro Bowl), NFL-style (College-specific rules are not used) game.

Leading up to the game, those with boots on the ground in Mobile, Alabama keep an eye for which team's scouts are talking to which prospects. The great guys over at DraftCountdown.com track all this at the Senior Bowl Headquarters page. You can either click on those links to find out what they saw or check out the list here after the jump.

A lot of the media focus at the Senior Bowl is bestowed upon the quarterbacks. They are easy to watch and fun to project. However, this year a lot of the buzz was on a postion the Chargers need: Pass Rushers. The big three of Quinton Coples, Courtney Upshaw and Melvin Ingram got a lot of attention at practices and in the game. They all seemed to impress enough that I'm pretty confident they will now all be gone by the time the Chargers pick barring a bunch of teams reaching for bigger needs. However, there still was some love thrown around for guys like Marshall's Vinny Curry and 3-4 experienced Cam Johnson from Virginia. Both could be targets for the Chargers on Day 2.

Getting back to 1st round possibilities, Ohio State's OT Mike Adams impressed many in practices. The buzz seems to be that he's now in the 1st round mix. That being said, the game tape from this season isn't all that impressive and makes you wonder how he can be so good in practice, but not as good in games. If there is something to be fixed, the Chargers are a good landing spot since he can apprentice Marcus McNeill and maybe play some OG as a rookie. Also, on the offensive line there is Georgia's Cordy Glenn who I talked about in this earlier article. He showed scouts that he can handle the LT position, but most still see his best work in the NFL coming at OG or RT.

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The San Diego Chargers will enter this offseason with a number of free agents they'd like to re-sign. They also have positions they'd either like to overhaul or upgrade. That kind of roster work requires cap room and roster space. In order to get some of that there may some players that the Chargers need to cut ties with a little sooner than their contracts would dictate. Let's take a look at 6 of these players. First up is...

Luis Castillo

#93 / Defensive- End / San Diego Chargers

Height: 6-3

Weight: 290

Born: Aug 04, 1983

College: Northwestern

Ever since Jamal Williams' started to disappear from the Chargers lineup, Castillo has been a stalwart on the line. That is until this season when a September injury effectively ended his year. His starting job was given to the promising Vaughn Martin, who didn't exactly steal the job but showed he was good enough to handle it. With Castillo set to count for over $5 million against the cap in 2012 (including a $1M roster bonus) and is signed through 2014 with salaries of $4.4 million and $4.9 million in 2013 and 2014 respectively. Cutting him would free up some of that money to keep or sign players that represent more of an upgrade than what Castillo is to Martin.

Travis LaBoy

#99 / Linebacker / San Diego Chargers

Height: 6-3

Weight: 250

Born: Aug 10, 1981

College: Hawaii

Presumably, LaBoy became a Charger because ex-Chargers Defensive Coordinator Greg Manusky was familiar with him from San Francisco. However, Manusky has now been canned and LaBoy didn't not have a very productive year. The Chargers could save about $1.3M if they cut him and use that roster space on somebody younger and cheaper.

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NFL.com has posted a video of Philip Rivers with him mic'd up for sound. Unfortunately, since their website doesn't allow you to embed videos elsewhere you'll have to click on this link their page.

It's got some incredible footage of him introducing himself to other players, doing some light running, throwing footballs and chatting (surprise! surprise!) with different players. He talks with Kubiak about how Norv is a big numbers guy when it comes to play names. Ben Roethlisberger is interested in how many kids Phil has. Rivers tells Big Ben and Andy Dalton that this year they brought all six kids to Hawaii. He also tells Dalton what his least favorite throw in football is. He also seems very excited about this "Pat n' Go" drill. Later, he has tell to Mike Wallace to take it down a notch since his speed takes him farther than Rivers can throw. He also gives Brandon Marshall the skinny that Vincent Jackson only practices on full speed (in case you missed him, that's VJ running the reverse and whizzing by the camera). Antonio Gates looks sweaty as practice concludes. Ryan Mathews makes a few appearances as well.

This is Philip Rivers' 4th time being selected for the Pro Bowl and his 3rd consecutive election. His selection seemed a bit dubious at first given some of his struggles this season. However, given the crop of AFC QBs, especially Tom Brady ineligible due to his Super Bowl preparation, Rivers seems as good of a selection as any.

Philip Rivers

#17 / Quarterback / San Diego Chargers

Height: 6-5

Weight: 228

Born: Dec 08, 1981

College: North Carolina State

Ever since Shawne Merriman's career went downhill the Chargers defense has been missing one key ingredient: A consistent pass rush. Shaun Phillips, when healthy, can provide some of that and Antwan Barnes can, in spurts, provide some as well. Both have contracts that expire after next season. The Chargers need to figure out an answer to this problem both for next year and in the long term. One way to answer that may be to bring in a proven pass rusher through free agency. Here is a listing of the top options with a brief scouting report and some pros and cons. Read up and then tell us which one you like.

Mario Williams

#90 / Linebacker / Houston Texans

Height: 6-6

Weight: 295

Born: Jan 31, 1985

College: North Carolina State

The surprise #1 overall pick in the 2006 draft. He had double digit sack seasons in 2007 and 2008, and was on pace for another (5 sacks in 5 games) in 2011 before tearing a pectoral muscle. He's an excellent athlete with speed and length. Most of his NFL experience was as a 4-3 DE, but he moved to the 3-4 OLB last year under ex-Chargers DC Wade Phillips. He turns 27 on January 31, which is pretty young for an NFL free agent. Full recovery from the muscle tear should not be a problem. The Texans will consider using the franchise tag on him, but that's a lot of money (and cap space) to commit to him and the team did pretty well down the stretch without him. He won't come cheap, so signing him may cost the Chargers the cap space it would need to keep other players (like Vincent Jackson, Nick Hardwick, Jacob Hester, etc.).

Cliff Avril

#92 / Defensive- End / Detroit Lions

Height: 6-3

Weight: 260

Born: Apr 08, 1986

College: Purdue

The four year NFL vet picked up his first double digit sack season last year helping the Lions to their first playoff berth since the 90s. He's seen his sack totals increase each year of his career and last year set a career high in forced fumbles. He'll be 26 next season making him, like Mario Williams, a pretty young free agent. He has no experience in the 3-4, but his size and athleticism would indicate that the transition wouldn't be too difficult. As a 4-3 DE, he's a bit undersized and in turn has learned to use leverage against bigger blockers. In the 3-4, his size is similar to other OLBs, but that skill would still come in handy. The Lions will be aggressive in trying to retain him, but a big offer could have him San Diego bound. Again, that complicates the Chargers payroll and could mean cuts elsewhere.

Check out the other 3 options after the jump.

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I know that after my detailed coverage of all the bowl games you would probably expect me to give you a report on the every player in the East-West Shrine Game (and later, the Senior Bowl), but I'm not going to do that. Everyone in these games is draft eligible, so our scouting eyes should be on everyone. Now, the Shrine Game does not get the attention of the Senior Bowl and rightly so. There are no projected first round picks in this game, but it's still worth checking out.

The West team is coached by former Vikings Head Coach and Eagles Offensive Coordinator Brad Childress. He runs a Bill Walsh style west cost offense, so that might put us at a very slight disadvatage when looking at his offensive prospects, but I won't worry too much about i. His team has a number of prospects we've covered here before. CBs Shaun Prater (Iowa) and Keith Tandy (West Virginia), DL Tyrone Crawford (Boise State), LBs Jerry Franklin (Arkansas) and Tank Carder (TCU), OT Matt Reynolds (BYU), S Aaron Henry (Wisconsin), TEs George Bryan (NC St) and David Paulson (Oregon), WRs Jarius Wright (Arkansas), WR Greg Childs (Arkansas) and Junior Hemingway (Michigan). The top prospect in all that is Jarius Wright (3rd round) and I'm interested to see his old teammate Childs go to work as well. Childs needs a big week to reclaim his once vaunted status. Aaron Henry is still a depth guy a S I like and I'm convinced George Bryan will be a good red zone threat in the NFL. Tank Carder has to use this chance that he's more than just a hustler if he wants to start at LB in the NFL. The West also has Fresno State WR Devon Wylie on the team. Rumors say that the Chargers have been watching and talking to him. The National Football Post also printed that he'd be a good fit for the Bolts as a slot WR.

The East team is coached by former Chargers Head Coach Bobby Ross. That might be enough to give some of you a rooting interest in this game. However, his team doesn't seem to have the same kind of NFL talent. The only guys from his team that we've covered are DE Kyle Wilber (Wake Forest), DE/LB Brandon Lindsay (Pitt) and WRs B.J. Cunningham (Michigan St), A.J Jenkins (Illinois) and LaRon Byrd (Miami). At least those guys are at positions we're interested in. LaRon Byrd seems like an interesting one to me. Miami is a team that could best be described as dysfunctional so it'll be good to get him out of that environment.

I'll give you the scouting reports for the players I've mentioned after the jump. If you're looking for the team needs chart, it'll be there as well.

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The tweetup took place at Bub's at the Ballpark. That's on 7th and J, for those that haven't seen it before. It's a 21 and up bar, which I thought kind of made it a weird choice for this sort of thing. In my mind I expected the place to be mostly empty on a Wednesday and there to be a specific area for the tweetup. Not the case. Most seats were full and it wasn't until I started wandering that I practically ran into Josh Byrnes getting chatted up by Jim Laslovic.

I was kind of milling around, saying "Hi" to a fellow Padres fan, Scott, who I've met a few times. Then, Josh Ishoo whose listed title is "Coordinator, Media Relations" approaches us and wants us to meet Trader Josh. We kind of hovered as Laz and Byrnes built up their relationship, but eventually got in and shook the man's hand.

My expectations for this thing was not to end up having an up-close-and-personal conversation with the Padres GM. I guess that was naive of me. At one point I had thought about having some questions prepared just in case, but I really didn't. I also didn't know what kind of answers to expect.

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Mel Kiper's 2012 NFL Mock Draft (subscription required) starts out the way many of the 2012 variety do these days. Andrew Luck goes first to the Colts. Then predictability the next 3 off the board are Justin Blackmon, Matt Kalil and Robert Griffin III. Those four names are commonly placed in the top 4, in varying orders, but aren't Mel Kiper's top 4 according to his Big Board (subscription required). He actually likes BCS title game participants RB Trent Richardson and CB Morris Claiborne more than Blackmon and Griffin III. So, those two come off the board next. If you remember last year's draft, I had an article that outlined an NFL Mock Draft Best Fit Point System. Players like Trent Richardson are ones you want to get picked before the Chargers pick at #18. He's a RB, which is not a 1st round target position for the Chargers. Some rank him very high, some a little lower and most agree that picking a RB in the 1st round is a luxury item and not meant for the rebuilding teams that pick high in the draft. Nevertheless because Richarson is so highly regarded, it's pretty likely that he'll come off the board before the Chargers, thereby deeping the pool of players the Chargers would actually want to select.

As his mock moves on we see some names that would interest the Chargers come off the board. Picks 10-16 all are players that you could see the Chargers want to sport Blue and Gold. Alabama OLB Courtney Upshaw, who has been mentioned in plenty of comments here, goes to the Bills. Penn State DT Devon Still ends up on the Kansas City Chiefs to play in their 3-4 defense. South Carolina DE Melvin Ingram is selected by the Seattle Seahawks, depriving the Chargers of another pass rushing option. Two Stanford OL go next with OT Jonathan Martin landing with the Arizona Cardinals and OG David DeCastro gobbled up by the Dallas Cowboys. Boston College ILB Luke Kuechly might not be an ideal fit for the Chargers defense and fits better with the Philadelphia Eagles, but he's a talent at a position that need more depth. Alabama S Mark Barron would fill an opening for the Bolts, but Mel has him becoming a New York Jet.

At pick number 18 Mel Kiper has the Chargers selecting a player that has not been linked to the Chargers very often. He's a player we scouted week 1 of the college season for a game he didn't even play that well in. That player is...

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If you read the title of this article and thought it was going to be a rehash of the 2004 draft, you were tricked. If you thought you were going to read about how one is superior the other, then you are wrong. What I want to do here is just take a look at a quarterback (Eli Manning) who is obviously the franchise QB of his team, has played on a lot of winning teams and a couple .500 teams and who has had a lot of stability at Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator during his career. All those traits he more or less shares in common with Chargers QB Philip Rivers.

Eli Manning is also a man in the news these days. For the second time in his career he's gone into Lambeau field in January and knocked off a favorited Green Bay Packers team that seemed primed to go to the Super Bowl. Something else that's interesting about Eli Manning is that last year he threw 25 interceptions. His team missed the playoffs that year as they had the year before when the team went 8-8. Despite plenty of criticisms, the Head Coach was never fired and the Offensive Coordinator remained in place.

Philip Rivers is one month shy of being a year younger than Eli Manning. He threw a career high 20 interceptions and his team will miss the playoffs for the second year in a row. He will head into the 2012 with the same Head Coach (the offensive coordinator will change, but I think we'd all agree it's fair to say that Norv Turner, for all intents and purposes, takes on both roles).

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Last year, the Chargers drafted DE Corey Liuget. The Illinois defensive lineman made an important decision last January that affected not only his life, but the future of the San Diego Chargers. In 2010, Fresno State RB Ryan Mathews made a similar decision. Both decided to forgo their senior season and declare for the NFL draft. Yesterday was the deadline for prospects to decided if they should do the same. Here are some of the names of the players that we've scouted here at Bolts From The Blue that could interest the Chargers in the draft and have declared:

• Dwayne Allen, TE, Clemson
• Vontaze Burfict, ILB, Arizona St.
• Orson Charles, TE, Georgia
• Fletcher Cox, DT, Mississippi St.
• Dont'a Hightower, ILB, Alabama
• Ronnie Hillman, RB, San Diego St.
• LaMichael James, RB, Oregon
• Alshon Jeffery, WR, South Carolina
• Ronnell Lewis, DE/OLB, Oklahoma
• Whitney Mercilus, DE/OLB, Illinois
• Donte Paige-Moss, DE/OLB, North Carolina
• Nick Perry, DE/OLB, USC
• Mohamed Sanu, WR, Rutgers

Plenty of other players have also declared for the draft, but a few I'm projecting to go too high for us to worry about or I haven't published scouting reports like I did with the players above. You can peruse a complete list by clicking here and checking out Draftcountdown.com. Also of interest are some players who didn't declare that would have been likely Chargers targets. That includes Georgia OLB Jarvis Jones and two LSU DEs that project as 3-4 OLBs in Sam Montgomery and Barkevious Mingo. Jones is interesting because he has experience as a 3-4 OLB and Montgomery and Mingo both had a lot of upside despite only a couple years of college ball.

When the Chargers released David Binn in the offseason I think many Bolts backers had hoped he'd ride off into the sunset. He could sit back in a rocking chair, reflect the glory days of playing in a Super Bowl with the blue and gold and know that his was a good long career as just a San Diego Chargers. Today, we have found out that will not be the case. The Broncos official twitter sent out this blast:

I'm sure plenty of you were already going to tune into the game, but maybe this is extra added interest for Chargers fans. Perhaps you'll root for Binn in hopes that he can get a Super Bowl ring. Perhaps you want to root against him because he's tainting his Chargers legacy. Whatever your feelings, it adds a little bit more intrigue to the game.

On ESPN Insider, Mel Kiper went back and re-graded the 2011 draft (subscription required) for every team including the San Diego Chargers. According to the network's long time resident draft guru, the Chargers don't look as good in hindsight as they did at the time of the draft. Part of this has to do with some of the relative optimism that Kiper had for the Chargers draft compared to his colleagues. He liked a lot of the players that others thought were reaches. It also has to do with liking long term potential over short term impact. In any case the grade went from a B+ to a C+.

I can understand this assessment, but I can also note some flaws in its approach. If I'm trying to grade the Chargers draft and I only use the 2011 season, then I'd probably give the Chargers a C. If I start to think that I still like some of the upside of the players, then I'll bump it up to a C+, giving extra weight to the performances we've already seen. However, how many players were thought to actually make an impact this season? I'd argue that most, including Mel Kiper, didn't really think that many of the draft picks would come in a contribute at a high level in 2011. Sure, there was a chance, but it wasn't the expectation. So, if you're trying to grade a draft, that was mostly based on post-2011 potential then why drop the team a letter grade?

A lot of the decision involving Chargers draft grades revolves down to 1st round Corey Liuget. Here's what was said about Corey in the re-grade article:

The prize of this class was Corey Liuget early, but, although he had his moments this season, I expected a little more from him in terms of overall production. He jumped off the tape in preseason... If Liuget develops -- and he has a lot of talent -- this class will look better.

I'll give my take on these comments as well as a look at some of the Chargers other picks, after the jump.

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The San Diego Chargers have used the Franchise Tag each of the last 3 years. The first two of those years the team used it on RB/KR Darren Sproles. Then last year the Chargers slapped it on WR Vincent Jackson and let Sproles walk. The Franchise Tag requires the team to offer a player a one year contract that is the average of the top 5 salaries at the player's position or 120% of the player's salary from the previous season. So, if the Chargers wanted to use the Franchise Tag on Vincent Jackson again, they'd need to offer him a 1 year contract worth 120% of what he made last year.

That $13 million price tag is probably too much to pay Vincent Jackson and still have enough to do what they need to do sign some other players this offseason. However, the deadline for using the tag comes on February 25 while free agency doesn't start until March 5. The Chargers can negotiate a long term deal with Vincent Jackson at any time before the 25th of February, but once that date passes Jackson (and his agents) know they can get to Free Agency unencumbered and will want to test those waters for the best possible deal. Hopefully, if you have been paying attention, you get the same ticking clock visual that goes with this situation. The Chargers have about a month and a half to resolve this situation with Vincent Jackson.

Recently, the the rumor mill has stated that the Chargers will not use the Franchise Tag on Vincent Jackson. This is either a show of good faith towards the big wide receiver or it's a partial leverage killer. It would seem to be the latter since #83 has said that he'd be okay being re-tagged. Still, if the rumors are true then it begs the question: Should the Chargers use it on someone else?

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People love to create some sort of controversy about this game. Even the people that came up with the idea of the game love the controversy. People want to debate sports and the talking point for this game is "rematch". Sports are full of rematches. Boxing loves rematches and people pay big money to watch those. Most professional team sports are built around rematching teams over and over again. Baseball, basketball and hockey play playoff series' which are basically a set of rematches. Football doesn't plan out rematches like that, but even the NFL doesn't avoid playoff rematches. Next week, all 4 NFL playoff games are rematches of earlier contests. The Super Bowl has had it's share of rematches, the most recent being XLII where the New England Patriots lost to the New York Giants after beating them in the regular season. Even our own Chargers played in a Super Bowl that was a rematch, although in that year the Bolts lost to the San Francisco 49ers twice. The "Greatest Game Ever Played", the 1958 NFL Championship game, was a rematch between the New York Giants and the Baltimore Colts. This is not something new to sport, just something new to the BCS Championship. The bottom line (from an entertainment aspect) is that you have the consensus top team (LSU) playing a team that you know can compete with them (Alabama) and, arguably, should have won the previous engagement if not for a kicker having a bad day.

The other talking point is the quality of the previous tilt. It was a bit of snoozer with the two teams a little afraid to expose their offenses against each other's talented defenses. With all the time given to prepare for this game, I fully expect the offenses to be ready to roll in this one. Neither has an elite QB and only one has an elite NFL prospect (Alabama Jr. RB Trent Richardson), but they can do enough to make sure the same offensive sluggishness doesn't reappear.

However, all that talk isn't important to the scouting department at Bolts From the Blue. What you do have here is a number of players that will be in this year's draft, a few others that will be top prospects in future drafts and a number of good matchups to test all these prospects. Charger fans looking for immediate help for next year should focus on two players. Both play for the Crimson Tide. One is Senior OLB Courtney Upshaw and the other is Senior S Mark Barron. Both are in the first round mix and both play positions of great need for the Chargers. Alabama's 3-4 defense makes a number of other prospects interesting for the Chargers. They have two draft eligible ILBs in Dont'a Hightower and Nico Johnson that could address the depth issues at that position. They have a good Nose Tackle in Josh Chapman. They also have two CBs that will play in the NFL in 1st round prospect Dre Kirkpatrick and 4th round prospect De'quan Menzie. Their second safety, Robert Lester, could be a guy the Chargers look at for Safety depth if both Gregory and Oliver leave and the Chargers find a starter in Free Agency.

The Louisiana State Tigers are a much younger team as far as starters go. There are Seniors on the team that are expected to hear their names called before day 3. However, that doesn't mean the Bayou Bengals don't have other elite talent. Jr. CB Morris Claiborne is a sure fire top 5 pick and will be coming out. Three defensive players have decisions to make about whether to stay or go, but would hear their names called early if they did declare. Sophomores DT Michael Brockers, DE Sam Montgomery and DE Barkevious Mingo are that trio and are a big reason why the LSU defense is so good. Montgomery has stated he's not coming out, but nothing's official until the deadline passes. 6'4 Jr. WR Rueben Randle is a 3rd round prospect. And then there's the "Honey Badger" CB/KR Tyrann Mathieu who emulates 2011 1st pick and current Arizona Cardinals CB/KR Patrick Peterson, but is not draft eligible. Their best Sr. prospect is TE Deangelo Peterson, who could be an interesting pick for the Chargers.

I'll cover the detailed scouting reports for the prospects in this game after the jump. after the jump. First let's take a look at our team needs chart. I justified the most recent updates to the team needs list a few weeks ago when I scouted the last week of the college football regular season.

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In case you missed it, I justified the most recent updates to the team needs list a few weeks ago when I scouted the last week of the college football regular season. There's a lot of unknowns until we know the extent of some injuries and any changes in management are made, so I'm not going to say much more about that. Instead let's go to the games.

I'll go over the individual players after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

In case you missed it, I justified the most recent updates to the team needs list a few weeks ago when I scouted the last week of the college football regular season. There's a lot of unknowns until we know the extent of some injuries and any changes in management are made, so I'm not going to say much more about that. Instead let's go to the games.

I'll go over the individual players after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

In case you missed it, I justified the most recent updates to the team needs list a few weeks ago when I scouted the last week of the college football regular season. There's a lot of unknowns until we know the extent of some injuries and any changes in management are made, so I'm not going to say much more about that. Instead let's go to the games.

I'll go over the individual players after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

In case you missed it, I justified the most recent updates to the team needs list a few weeks ago when I scouted the last week of the college football regular season. There's a lot of unknowns until we know the extent of some injuries and any changes in management are made, so I'm not going to say much more about that. Instead let's go to the games.

I'll go over the individual players after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

In case you missed it, I justified the most recent updates to the team needs list a few weeks ago when I scouted the last week of the college football regular season. There's a lot of unknowns until we know the extent of some injuries and any changes in management are made, so I'm not going to say much more about that. Instead let's go to the games.

I'll go over the individual players after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

In case you missed it, I justified the most recent updates to the team needs list a few weeks ago when I scouted the last week of the college football regular season. There's a lot of unknowns until we know the extent of some injuries and any changes in management are made, so I'm not going to say much more about that. Instead let's go to the games.

I'll go over the individual players after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

In case you missed it, I justified the most recent updates to the team needs list a few weeks ago when I scouted the last week of the college football regular season. There's a lot of unknowns until we know the extent of some injuries and any changes in management are made, so I'm not going to say much more about that. Instead let's go to the games.

I'll go over the individual players after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

In case you missed it, I justified the most recent updates to the team needs list two weeks ago when I scouted the last week of the college football regular season. There's a lot of unknowns until we know the extent of some injuries and any changes in management are made, so I'm not going to say much more about that. Instead let's go to the games.

I'll go over the individual players after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

In case you missed it, I justified the most recent updates to the team needs list two weeks ago when I scouted the last week of the college football regular season. There's a lot of unknowns until we know the extent of some injuries and any changes in management are made, so I'm not going to say much more about that. Instead let's go to the games.

I'll go over the individual players after the jump.

Continue reading this post »