San Diego Practicing Wildcat Sparks Questions About Rivers

It seems that wherever he goes, the wildcat formation follows Ronnie Brown.

Having signed with the San Diego Chargers on June 8th to a meager $1 million contract, Brown was seen during Wednesday’s OTA session practicing the wildcat with new teammates Micheal Spurlock, Eddie Royal and Ryan Mathews taking snaps in variations of the technique.

This move seems rather an unusual one as typically trick formations – and let’s face it, the wildcat is nothing more than a deception play – are reserved for when a team has below average offensive personnel and in particular when there is weakness at the quarterback decision. The obvious question then comes up – are the Chargers using the wildcat simply because it’s an option or is there reason to doubt Philip Rivers status as a franchise quarterback?

Until last season few would have questioned Rivers’ place at the head of the Chargers franchise particularly in light of the departure of LaDainian Tomlinson. We’ve seen the Chargers struggle to produce success at times but ultimately they were always a pretty good team. In 2011 that perception changed as San Diego put up multiple bad performances in what many have dubbed their worst season since Rivers took over the quarterback job. Philip Rivers himself played poorly for much of the season and while he did deal with some injury issues his poor decision making led directly to losses in games that could and should have been won.

It was one bad season and many are willing to forgive Rivers for his issues last year. At Chargers OTAs he appears to be healthy and with a newly rebuilt receiving corps he should be able to bounce back from the issues of last season. The question remains – if the San Diego Chargers are fully confident in Philip Rivers as their franchise quarterback why are they bothering with the wildcat?

I think the answer to this question lies with two men – head coach Norv Turner and general manager A.J. Smith. It is well known that the jobs of both men are on the line this season after both came very close to being fired. If there is one thing true about the NFL it is that when men in these positions feel warmth on their backsides from the threat of expulsion they tend to start getting more creative. Norv in particular has been well known in the past for making reckless decisions when his job is at stake. The possible use of the wildcat is just adding another option to the offense.

I rather don’t like the idea of the Chargers using a wildcat at all for one reason – the best player on their team is Philip Rivers and if he is a true franchise quarterback then any formation that takes him out of the game makes no sense to me at all. Rivers needs to be on the field every time the offense is out there as he is the best chance his team has to win. If the San Diego Chargers use the wildcat with any kind of regularity I expect three things – another poor season, constant media scrutiny of Philip Rivers and messrs Turner and Smith to be out of work at the end of the season.

The wildcat is a cheap gimmick whose time has passed – a high quality team such as the San Diego Chargers shouldn’t waste their time with it.

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