By all accounts, the Chargers and General Manager Joe Hortiz crushed the 2024 NFL Draft.
The Bolts selected tackle Joe Alt and wide receiver Ladd McConkey in the first two rounds, both of whom produced stellar rookie seasons.
Cornerbacks Tarheeb Still and Cam Hart, both fifth-round picks, also shined as rookies and will be key pieces of the secondary going forward.
But what makes the Bolts 2024 draft class even more impressive is that the Chargers front office had to use two different grading scales last year.
There was one Chargers scouts had used in previous seasons ... and there was one Hortiz grew up in while spending 26 seasons in Baltimore.
"Last year, they had their grading scale, I had a different grading scale," Hortiz said on a recent episode of Chargers Weekly. "We just merged it together and what I did on the board last year is, 'You give me the grades that you gave them, and I'm going to listen and put them on the board where they would be on our grading scale.'
"I put a column, which was the new grading scale, but they read their reports and said the current Chargers grade and they'd see how it tied together," Hortiz added. "It helped transition to the new grading scale."
Hortiz also gave some insight on which grading scale he uses.
The GM noted he deploys the 5.5 to 8.0 scale, which is a common practice and the same one NFL.com uses for their pre-draft reports.
A 5.5 player is generally viewed as an undrafted free agent while an 8.0 player is essentially a perfect prospect. The tiers inbetween range from average backup to a player who will eventually be a plus starter to someone who is viewed as a Pro-Bowl caliber prospect.
Hortiz said the Chargers previously used "more of a round-type grading scale."
But he adjusted on the fly to combine both scales and produce a modified version that helped the Bolts draft a stellar 2024 class.
"You do it long enough, I just had to interpret what colors meant and what their numbers meant," Hortiz said. "You just feel it out, get a feel for it and listen.
"The great thing is in the meetings, you talk about players and you just discuss them," Hortiz added. "As they're saying their grades and colors, I'm like, 'I know what that is, I see where it correlates to how we would have done things in Baltimore.'"
Hortiz and the Chargers are now preparing for the 2025 NFL Draft, where the Bolts currently have seven draft picks beginning with the 22nd overall selection in the first round.
With the draft now two months away, everyone is aligned in the Chargers front office.
"The important thing is how you stack them. You introduce new ideas and ways of scouting," Hortiz said. "They absorbed it, took it and ran with it. This year, I'm familiar with all of them, we're speaking the same language."
