What has long been perceived is now at least tangible. The vibe around the Chargers is all new. Yeah, yeah. You’ve heard it before. I’m as guilty as anyone for perpetuating it. But it’s no longer just something hoped for. This time, for the first time in a long time, it’s an effect of actual cause. It’s because pretty much everything is new. We’ve talked a lot about it – the new general manager, head coach, assistant coaches, paint on the walls, ways of doing things in the building and on the field. Heck, there’s a new field. What does it mean? Will the shattering of a decade-long dogma of Commitment to Continuity also lift the Chargers out of their three-year Morass of Mediocrity? Training camp begins a month from Tuesday. We have almost three months to wait to see the results in real games. Even if continuity ended up yielding complacency, that doesn’t automatically mean change equals championship. But there is no doubt the transformation at Chargers Park has infused a current of energy into the lightning bolts. “This offseason more than ever has been the biggest to believe and quickly develop trust in each other,” Philip Rivers said. “You can’t wait.” There has been no other option. So far, the most visible change is in the roster. Overwhelmingly so. Teams don’t like the term rebuilding, in that the connotation is one of surrender or complacency. But what else is this if not a reconstruction? Quentin Jammer’s departure leaves Malcom Floyd, Mike Scifres and Antonio Gates, who all joined the team in 2003, as the longest-tenured Chargers. And the number of players who remain from the heart of the A.J. Smith-Norv Turner era has dwindled to little more than a handful. Exactly two handfuls, actually. Just 10 players remain on the roster from the 2009 team, the last of the Chargers’ four straight AFC West titlists. By comparison, 30 players on the Chargers’ 2009 opening-day roster remained from the ’06 team. Rivers and his center, Nick Hardwick, are the lone survivors from the Class of 2004. And among the players that joined the team from 2005 to ’08, only Jeromey Clary and Charlie Whitehurst (‘06) and Eric Weddle (’07) remain. Brandyn Dombrowski was on the practice squad in ‘08 but didn’t join the roster until 2009, also the year Larry English was a rookie. - See more at: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/jun/22/chargers-complacency-change-acee/ ESPN Chargers community We can create a Chargers forum for you in seconds Make Sportstwo your new home! Been a forum for almost 7 years. We have never crashed. We have our own servers. We are not a fly by night forum. Our owners are experienced in running successful sports forums
