Malcolm Floyd and Dwight Freeney Out For Season

I've been saying from the draft that rookie WR Keenan Allen would make an impact before the season was over...well now the Chargers need him to. 

On Tuesday, the Chargers announced that #1 WR Malcolm Floyd and OLB Dwight Freeney would miss the rest of the season. Floyd had been out since the 3rd quarter of Week 2 when he was sandwiched by Eagles' Nate Allen and DeMeco Ryans.  Floyd was diagnosed with a sprained neck, but although there was speculation that the injury was season ending, it wasn't official until Tuesday. Reports say no surgery will be required and that Floyd just needs time to heal.

Freeney suffered a torn quad last Sunday vs. the Cowboys.  Freeney is expected to have surgery.  I covered Freeney's likely replacements in my last post.

Allen, a 3rd round pick (76th overall) will now get to show why he was projected to be a 1st rounder before suffering a leg injury during his last season at U of California, Berkeley.  I would have liked to see Allen get eased into the lineup as the season went on, but now with the Chargers missing their top two WRs from last season, Allen needs to step up now.

San Diego Chargers, the NFL Draft, and Manti Te'o

I know that the Spurs are playing the Lakers in the first round of the NFL Playoffs, but up 3-0 and with a Lakers player seemingly going down to injury every game there isn't much to talk about on that subject.

I could talk about the Angels, but that's just too depressing right now.

So it's the NFL draft this week and in the first round the Chargers (11th pick) filled a big need at offensive tackle with D.J. Fluker who was part of the Alabama's national championship o-line.  The 3 tackles that were rated ahead of him by NFL.com went 1-2-4 (the first time ever OTs went 1-2 in an NFL draft or three of the first four).  As Mike Maylock said on the NFL Channel broadcast, the Chargers didn't have a legit starting OT on their roster before drafting Fluker...so this was big for SD.

I wasn't so thrilled with the selection of Manti Te'o in the 2nd round...and no it's not because of the Catfishing incident or the bad showing at the combine.  Personally, I think combine performances are overrated.  During his college career, Te'o won the Nagurski Award, Lombardi Trophy, the Bednarik Award, the Maxwell Trophy and named the Walter Camp National Player of the Year, so regardless of the combine there's a lot of people out there who think he has skills.  The Catfishing thing has nothing to do with his on field performance and he's considered a high character guy.

So why am I not thrilled?