FanHouse NFL Season Preview: San Diego Chargers -- Take Your Marmalard and Shove It

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is right around the corner, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterback: Bear in mind, I'm a tremendous Philip Rivers fan. So despite the hilarity of Ape's Marmalard skits, I don't laugh (much). And the fact that everyone focuses on Rivers poor throws amuses me some, since Norv Turner consistently put him in horrible situations for most of the season. I won't mention that he has the stones to go toe-to-toe with Tom Brady sans ACL. Anyway, two years ago he was prepared to take his game to the next level and somehow regressed in 2007. Won't happen this season, providing his coach is smart. Crap. Heat Index: 8

Running Back: Am I allowed to give a heat index of 11? Because, like Nigel's amps, LaDanian Tomlinson is a little bit louder/better than anyone else. The loss of Michael Turner hurts a little, but the poor man's lightning-thunder backup combo of Darren Sproles and Jacob Hester is going to be a pretty devastating change of pace factor for opposing defenses. Heat Index: 11

Wide Receiver: Vincent Jackson was supposed to rise up and become a legit number one last year. Whoops. Fortunately, Chris Chambers and his potentially record breaking low catch rate (based on target % anyway) are in town now. Craig Davis will blossom decently this year and Malcolm Floyd is a pretty nasty, athletic freak, red zone target type. Oh yes, and Antonio Gates counts here too, so there's that. Heat Index: 9

Offensive Line: Much like Rivers, the offensive line didn't dominate (go figure, right?) in 2007 as it had in 2006. Nick Hardwick -- albeit being injured -- and Marcus McNeil are still a very solid core at tackle and center but L.J. Shelton will have to replace Shane Olivea, and improve on his play last year, which shouldn't be hard. Heat Index: 6

Defensive Line: The Chargers D-line is relatively unheralded, considering how good they are, just because of all the flash that the backfield sports (see below) but Luis Castillo and Igor Olshansky are one of the stouter, and young, pairs of ends in the league. Jamal Williams ain't no slouch either. Unless "slouch" means "badass." Because it's a double negative, see? Right? Nevermind, they're good, let's move on. Heat Index: 9

Linebackers: A few days ago, this would have been upper echelon. Now, um, yeah. Shawne Merriman's injury would be pretty devastating to this group. Shaun Phillips is the second best guy on this group, but without Merriman hanging around and wrecking shop, they're average at best. I still maintain that he will get surgery, heal up during the beginning of the season and get back about midway through to dominate. Plus, I hear he's a fast healer! Heat Index: 6



Secondary: Uber-freakish-antelope speed and mamba like athleticism, Antonio Cromartie is thy name. Paired with Quentin Jammer, the former Seminole and somewhat questionable -- at the time -- first round pick gives the Chargers a pretty sickening 1-2 cornerback combination. Clinton Hart and Eric Weddle round out a backfield that will face an interesting test against the run, should Merriman be unable to play early on. Pass protection shouldn't be a problem, but if Merriman's absence puts extensive pressure on Cromartie and Jammer, things could get spicy. Heat Index: 8

Special Teams: Sproles is a speed demon terror and Cromartie, as you may recall, has the NFL's longest play in history, despite the fact that the Chargers don't actually use him on special teams ... yet. Maybe they won't, but we can at least all dream. Nate Kaeding is easily one of the better kickers in the NFL. Heat Index: 9

Coaching: The weak link of this team is looser than Norv's neckskin, which has been wrung dry for several years now. Of course, the Chargers made it to the AFC Championship Game, so Norv somehow doesn't look as bad as Marty Schottenheimer. Frankly, he still scares me, but the fact of the matter is that we can't totally ignore the Chargers' run to end the season and the way they righted the ship when there was a total Norv-freak going on. Heat Index: 5

Intangibles: This San Diego squad believes they can win the Super Bowl, and rightfully so. They took down Peyton and Co. last year, and nearly took out the Pats without any of their superstars being remotely healthy. They probably need Merriman healthy, but their division is relatively comical, so they should have time to stay healthy provided they don't lay another egg to start the season. Heat Index: 7

Total Heat Index: 78

Rivers is going to make a progressive step forward this year and LDT hasn't hit that age (just quite yet) where anyone needs to freak out about his health. If the offensive line can grow up and block, the Chargers should be reasonably unstoppable on offense. On defense, of course, they'll be good, but Merriman is a havoc-wrecker in the middle and despite the fact that he might be a little bit overrated, they still need him to really make the defense go. Despite the progress they made last year (read: getting another round further into the playoffs) there's kind of a sketchy feel about the Chargers lately. Still, they're winning their division, and they'll be well rested and ideally healthy heading into the playoffs. And they are most certainly a Super Bowl caliber team as long as everyone's ACLs are intact.