San Diego's Biggest Needs

With the focus turning to the draft in April, it is once again time to take a look at the prospects and see what San Diego needs the most help with. While taking the best available player is a fairly good approach, lets take a look at some of the prospects San Diego could really use. These positions are not in order of need, just a list of who we could use.

1) Wide Receiver
With both Vincent Jackson and Malcom Floyd both starting to get a little bit older, and Jackson being a free agent, San Diego needs to look into ensuring the future of the position. Vincent Brown may develop into a good receiver, but if Norv Turner ends up staying long-term, the Chargers are going to need to keep finding big receivers who fit his style of deep passing. Come draft day, Justin Blackmon is not going to be available for the Chargers, however, there is the possibility that Michael Floyd of Notre Dame or Alshon Jeffery of South Carolina. Of the two, I lean more towards Floyd due to the fact that he is a more polished player. Jeffery, to me, is a boom or bust prospect.

2) Offensive Line
San Diego has had issues on the offensive line for the past several years. The play has been inconsistent along the line. With this in mind, San Diego could use the most help at the Tackle and Guard positions. Some of the players that come to mind for the Chargers to have a realistic shot at drafting are Georgia lineman Cordy Glenn, who can play tackle but is a more natural fit at guard and Stanford guard David DeCastro.

3) Rush Linebacker
For a 3-4 team, pass rushing linebackers are a valuable commodity that a team can never really have enough of. With the failure of Larry English and the age of Shaun Phillips (30), San Diego needs to upgrade and upgrade soon. This could either be a tweener player or a pure rush linebacker. The chance of Courtney Upshaw being there at 18 is an uncertainty, but Nick Perry of USC seems to be an almost perfect fit.  Whitney Mercilus of Illinois is someone with a huge upside but I have reservations of him finding a true role on the team.

Only time will tell how A.J. Smith and company will approach this draft, but the Chargers are in a position to gain several quality players, especially on the defensive front.