Potential 2013 San Diego Chargers roster changes

The 2012 season is over for the San Diego Chargers, and now we look onto the potential 2013 San Diego Chargers roster changes. The Chargers will potentially lose 24 players to free agency in 2013. Let’s start with the players that are safe. Seji Ajirotutu, Danario Alexander, Curtis Brinkley and Richard Goodman are restricted free agents. All of them are not flashy enough to bring many suitors to try to pick them up with them being restricted free agents, but any offer they might receive from other teams, will be matched by the Chargers in any case. Then the next crop of significant free agents are the Norv Turner Disciples. These are free agents I predict will follow Turner to the Cleveland Browns.

Those players will potentially include Antwan Barnes, Antoine Cason, Louis Vasquez, Brandon Dombrowski, Dante Rosario, Vaughn Martin, Demorrio Williams, Shaun Phillips and Quentin Jammer. Mike McCoy and the Chargers will be lobbying hard to keep all of these players, but remember that Turner and Chudzinski have had personal contact with these players during their time on the Chargers. Add on top of the fact that the Browns will have a lot of cash to spend this offseason, and you could see half of the players mentioned above, becoming Cleveland Browns players in 2013. The only likely franchise tag will be used on Antoine Cason, but everyone else will likely find another team unless Mike McCoy gives a great pitch. However don’t forget that this was a 7-9 football team, and that means a lot of these players were past their prime or were not very good football players.

The Chargers will also see former Denver Broncos players coming their way, and that will make up for some of the losses. Bottom-line the Chargers Achilles heel of 2012 was on offense, and that happens to be Mike McCoy’s specialty. The Chargers will also have two players out of the Top 50 in the NFL draft in 2013, and a plethora of talent in those picks. The Chargers shouldn’t come out crazy in free agency, but they need to at least set some foundations this offseason. That will be reflected in who they keep, and who they draft. I’m confident Mike McCoy will have a good crop of players coming into 2013 to show an improvement on the Chargers 7-9 record of 2012, but now we have to just wait and see.

James Cobern is a Featured Journalist for TPF and can be contacted at JCobern@ThePenaltyFlagBlog.com.