2006 San Diego Chargers Preview

2006 preview of the San Diego Chargers football team from Maddux Sports. Don't forget Maddux once football rolls around for NFL Picks and be sure to bookmark the free live NFL odds feed covering 16 quality sportsbooks up to the minute odds for your convenience.

Drew Brees (500 ATT, 323 COMP, 3,576 YDS, 24 TDs, 15 INT) is gone and that means Philip Rivers (22 ATT, 12 COMP, 115 YDS, 0 TD, 1 INT) will start with A.J. Feely backing him up. To put Rivers’ experience in perspective, last season running back LaDainian Tomlinson threw 3 more touchdown passes than he did. With Brees at the helm, the Chargers offense was 10th in total offense and 5th in scoring. With Rivers—who knows?

The offensive line was not bad last year, but GM A.J. Smith didn’t think that they were good enough. He spent three-eights of his draft picks on offensive linemen and fired Carl Mauck, position coach.

The team includes top receivers Antonio Gates (89 REC, 1,101 YDS, 12.4 AVG, 10 TDs) and Keenen McCardell (70 REC, 917 YDS, 13.1 AVG, 9 TDs); both are ready to stage repeat performances. The running game is Tomlinson’s (339 ATT, 1,462 YDS, 4.3 AVG, 18 TDs) show and everyone would love to see an encore in 2006. Lorenzo Neal and Michael Turner offer solid back up when needed.

On defense, this team was number one against the rush and 28th against the pass. Jamal Williams, Igor Olshansky and Luis Castillo comprise a formidable frontline. And linebacker Shawne Merriman is a playmaker extraordinaire, headlining on a very effective unit. The underperforming secondary is a major concern. Veteran Marlon McCree, Carolina free agent, has been added at safety but more needs to be done to improve this group.

Rivers will probably be fine if he doesn’t have to be the big playmaker. Hopefully, he can run the offensive with directness, making necessary handoffs and passes. At this point, he’s no Drew Brees, and he should not try to be one.

2006 San Diego Chargers Predictions

With games against Pittsburgh, Seattle, and Baltimore as well as two versus conference member Denver, this may be a rough year for the Chargers. Then again, San Diego possesses talent on both sides of the ball. If Rivers performs well, a second place finish and Wild Card berth are not out of the question, but as of now in this AFC West division that is one of the better divisions in football we will go with San Diego sitting in 3rd at the end of the season.

For more info on the Chargers AFC West division rivals check out the Chiefs, Broncos, and Raiders team previews from the MadduxSports.com experts.

For more info and news on the 2006 San Diego pro football team visit the Chargers team section at NFL.com.