It was exactly a week ago that President of Football Operations John Spanos and General Manager Tom Telesco were counting down the hours until the draft began, hoping to execute their plan to perfection.
They couldn't help but wonder how it would all play out.
Fast forward to today, and the mystery is over. The Los Angeles Chargers added seven rookies to their roster headlined by first-round WR Mike Williams.
"We're very happy with the group of players we got," Spanos reflected. "We look for players in the draft who we think can help our team both now, and long term. We did a lot of work leading up to the draft, and were very thorough with the evaluations and background research. It was very successful."
The draft is essentially a year's work condensed into three days. With so many unknowns once the clock starts, Spanos believes the team "maximized the value of each pick and used it to its fullest value."
The Chargers believe they did that right from the beginning, bolstering the receiving corps with the big-framed Clemson wide receiver who has an ability to get in the end zone.
"He scores touchdowns. But from a skillset point of view, obviously he's very big. It's not just that his measurables are big, but he plays big. He has long arms and wingspan, and a big catch radius. He's very strong to the ball and has excellent hands, and is strong in his run after catch. He's very athletic and has good speed for his size. He also has good intangibles; being the best is important to him and he's a competitive kid."
In rounds two and three, the Bolts selected two offensive linemen: Western Kentucky's Forrest Lamp and Dan Feeney from Indiana. Spanos mentioned that along with having "outstanding intangibles" the pair "care about football." The athletic duo were stalwarts on their college teams and will provide depth for the team's unit.
In rounds four and five, the defense got on the board. The Chargers selected safety Rayshawn Jenkins out of Miami in the fourth and cornerback Desmond King in the fifth.
"Jenkins certainly brings a lot of traits that we're looking for at the strong safety position. He's got great size, is a strong player who supports the run aggressively and is a hard hitter. (King has a) different build but has some similarities in terms of his aggressiveness as a tackler. What you're also getting with Desmond is great quickness, instincts, and ability to anticipate."
The Bolts finished their draft by taking T Sam Tevi out of Utah in the sixth and Notre Dame DE Isaac Rochell in the final round.
Overall, Spanos believes each one of these players provides depth and ultimately, competition. If he could categorize this class in one way, it would be that the group is diligent.
"We took guys with the make-up we look for. They are going to want to work hard…. I think every single rookie has some degree of an adjustment coming to the NFL. We look at all these players and we realize, they all have work to do at our level. But we feel great about the group we got and are excited to see them come in and work hard to contribute for us."
