On The NFL Draft, Schedule, and San Diego's Chances for 2008

4/25/08

This "On the High Road" column appears every other week in the following San Diego weeklies: The Del Mar Times, The Carmel Valley Leader, Rancho Santa Fe Record, and The Solana Beach Sun.

There are two events telling us the NFL season is right around the corner. The 2008 player selection draft is this Saturday and Sunday, April 25th and 26th. This month they also announced the schedules for the upcoming season.

The Chargers are looking good in both of these events. They have all of their draft choice picks except for the second round pick, which they traded to the Miami Dolphins for the services of wide receiver, Chris Chambers last year. They will probably draft a running back to be one of the back-ups to LaDainian Tomlinson. At some point they will select one or two defensive cornerbacks and at least one wide receiver.

Then, when you consider, New England quarterback Tom Brady was drafted in the sixth round, a late round pick along with some other very productive quarterbacks. I expect the Chargers to take a QB in the 5th or 6th round and train him as their third QB. The television and radio coverage is lively throughout draft weekend and always produces some surprises.

The NFL teams have known for some time the opponents they will play in the 2008 regular season. The teams began to study and learn as much as possible about the tools they will need to beat them since April 15th, the day those opponents were announced.

The way the NFL sets its schedule is based on a future calendar set up. So Chargers will play the other three AFC West teams twice, all four teams of the AFC East once, the four NFC South teams once, and one game against the Indianapolis Colts and one against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Chargers have struck gold, along with the New England Patriots, with the easiest schedule in the entire league. In contrast, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Indianapolis Colts face the most difficult schedules. The Chargers play just four games against teams that made the playoffs last year. In fact, the AFC East and the NFC South had the combined worst records with the AFC West having something in common with them. All three of these divisions only had one team make the playoffs and not any of the other teams in the division were even close to getting in.

In the first half of the season, the bye weekend (rest and relaxation without a game) falls exactly in the middle of the season after a quick trip to London, England in a nationally televised game against the New Orleans Saints.

The NFL league office loves the prospect of the Chargers being a top team. This is why they will have four other nationally televised night games. As the Chargers continue in the second half, they will play three of the former playoff teams and have a chance to win them all. Does that mean the Chargers are going to be better than their third place finish last year or better than the 14-2 record of two years ago? Maybe! One of the reasons the New England Patriots went undefeated in the sixteen games of the regular season was they were a good football team. The other is that they had an incredibly weak schedule.

So start thinking about the mini camps, team organized workouts, training camps and preseason games. Before you know it, the Chargers will be full speed ahead. The excitement that we saw last year can, and probably will, be repeated. As I said a couple weeks ago, the Patriots will not be as good. The field will be wide open for the Chargers. All they have to do it take it.