Chargers Clean Up . . . Right?

Now is the time to suppress that horrible disappointment that San Diego is not hosting the 1993 Super Bowl.

Having monitored the Chargers’ 1991 draft, it occurs to me that the local heroes will provide a consolation prize. Instead of hosting that Super Bowl, the Chargers will be playing in it.

Such a conclusion is inescapable.

What the Chargers put together was one fine draft, maybe the best since they gathered Gary Johnson, Mike Williams, Louie Kelcher, Fred Dean, Mike Fuller, Billy Shields, Rickey Young and Ralph Perretta in 1975.

I know this because I can read. I have read that Bobby Beathard, the general manager, is a genius. I have read what Bobby Beathard (and Coach Dan Henning) have said and done. And I won’t dare do anything outlandish like try to read between the lines.

Yes, I will take what I have read at face value.

I have read, for example, that the Chargers traded next year’s first draft choice to the Washington Redskins for the 20th choice in this year’s second round. Upon reading this, I was choking so badly that my orange juice was coming out my ears. I settled down when I discovered the Chargers would also get a 1992 fifth-round pick from Washington.

Indeed, I became even more comfortable with this “new math” transaction when I found out that the guy the Chargers picked 20th in the second round was really a first-round selection.

You see, Bobby Beathard said that Michigan State’s Eric Moten, the player chosen with that seemingly expensive pick, was rated by the Chargers among the top 15 players available. And Alex Gibbs, the Chargers’ offensive line coach, said Moten was the top guard in the draft.

Since the last great guard out of Michigan State was Magic Johnson, Moten is undoubtedly worth whatever he cost. He might even be able to pass, at least as well as the guys the Chargers are paying to do just that.

However, you have to understand there are more implications to the drafting of Eric Moten.

If he was rated by the Chargers among the top 15 available players, you must also consider that he was the fourth player chosen by the Chargers. If you assume the Chargers knew what they were doing, the three players drafted ahead of him were even higher in that Top 15.

How could you assume otherwise?

Why, for example, would the Chargers have made Alabama’s George Thornton their first second-round choice if Moten was a better player?

After all, they had to have Thornton, a defensive tackle.

Beathard: “He’s one of two guys we had to come out of this draft with to improve our defense.”

(The other, presumably, was Texas safety Stanley Richard, a first-round choice taken more conventionally, which was to say in the first round.)

And why would they have made Colorado’s Eric Bieniemy their second second-round choice if Moten was a better player?

After all, they had to have Bieniemy, a running back.

Henning: “Bieniemy’s a back we thought was the best running back in the draft. You can’t ever go wrong, in my mind, to collect people that are of that quality.”

And, of course, they had to have Moten. If not, they would not have invested a 1992 first-rounder for the 47th player in the 1991 draft.

“I do a lot of things in drafts that don’t make sense,” Beathard explained. “But I go with what I feel.”

It makes perfect sense to me. If the other 27 National Football League teams are going to stumble and bumble and leave first-rounders available so far into the second round, it behooved the Chargers to do what they had to do to get them.

No apologies are needed, at least from the Chargers. Those other 27 general managers and coaches will, to be sure, be called to task by their constituents for such utter stupidity.

Amazingly, the Charger draft went so much deeper than just the four first-rounders.

Assorted picks, paraphrased Charger observations and parenthetical comments by the author:

Winston-Salem State’s Yancey Thigpen . . . just the guy to pair with Anthony Miller at wide receiver. (Does Winston-Salem have the surgeon general’s warning on the city limits sign?)

Michigan State’s Duane Young . . . the best blocking tight end ever to come out of college. (This excludes dozens of tight ends who have chosen to remain in college, some of them 40 and 50 years old.)

Arizona State safety Floyd Fields . . . a fifth-rounder who cost fourth- and 11th-rounders in trade. (More new math.)

Johnson C. Smith’s Joachim Weinberg (or was it Joachim Weinberg’s Johnson C. Smith?) . . . shockingly available in Round 11.

Texas running back Chris Samuels . . . a possible sixth- or seventh-rounder. (Still there in Round 12 after all those hours.)

And this accounting does not include Jimmy Laister, Dave (Don’t Call Me Davey) Jones, Terry Beauford, Andy Katoa, Roland Poles and Mike Heldt, though most were likely in the Chargers’ top 100.

Indeed, this would appear to be a superb collection of talent. The only concern would appear to be that there will be a shortage of uniform numbers down the road when all these jerseys are retired.