Los Angeles Chargers Sunday Mailbag: Madden ratings and more

For all your questions and topics regarding the best team in the NFL, welcome to the July 15 edition of the Los Angeles Chargers Saturday Mailbag.

Happy Sunday to the best fans and readers in the NFL! Wherever you’re reading this, welcome to the Los Angeles Chargers Mailbag.

As always, we’re looking at questions from fans and readers about the Bolts heading into the 2018 season.

How can you get your questions in?

1. Post in the comments section
2. On Twitter to @tjscooter30
3. By email (for longer submissions or multiple questions) at lacbag18@gmail.com

Let’s dive right in, and let me know what you think in the comments below!

Question 1: Hey Tyler. Not sure if you play Madden, but I’ve got to comment on some of the recent ratings. What is going on with all of this hate for the Chargers? Some guys like Rivers and Hayward are too low in my opinion. What do you think?

If you’re curious, you can find the Chargers’ Madden 19 ratings here. Here are some notable numbers that stick out from their list:

• Joey Bosa, DE: 90
• Philip Rivers, QB: 87
• Desmond King, CB: 81
• Jatavis Brown, LB: 77

Keenan Allen is rated at 92, which is the highest for any Charger, but surprisingly only 43rd on the list of overall players at every position. Casey Hayward and Joey Bosa are 62nd and 72nd, respectively. It’s quite shocking when you view it in terms of “real football” impact and player ability. You can’t convince me in any way that there are 71 players that should be rated higher than Bosa, and on Sunday’s it’s not even a question.

But this is Madden, which gives a huge edge to a player’s “measurables”. Allen was never a speedster, nor was Hayward. King, who is only rated at 81, is/was an undersized and slower corner coming out of Iowa, and that hampers his grade significantly.

Then again, why is Brown all the way down to 77, but Tom Brady shoots up to 99? This is where athleticism and rating tend to diverge, because at the end of the day the player has to be a “good” player to be rated as one. Brown would beat most players in an athleticism competition, but his low grade shows what a disastrous season he had in 2017 coming off of a 2016 campaign that once pegged him as a legitimate Defensive Rookie of the Year candidate.

This brings me to my biggest gripe with the Madden ratings, and is something that most Chargers’ fans and players would agree with: Rivers should not be rated at 87. Heck, I’m surprised there are only four quarterbacks to score into the 90s this year. But Brady can’t be that much more athletic than Rivers, right? What’s more painful is the identical rating of Andrew Luck, whose oft-injured body shouldn’t get a grade equal to that of the NFL’s iron man. But in the end, it’s a game, and the Chargers will always be the team I pick when I play.

Question 2: I’m frustrated the Chargers still haven’t adjusted and brought in better players on the defensive line, especially in the middle. I predict at least 5-6 losses simply because they can’t stop the run. Am I wrong?

Looking down the Chargers’ schedule, I can guess where you’d find those losses. In my opinion, they would take place against the Chiefs twice, Rams, Titans, Cardinals, and Steelers if you’re looking at which teams the Bolts face in 2018 have the most dominant running attacks.

I hesitate to outright give an opposing team an edge simply because their strength matches up with the Chargers’ most glaring weakness, but I’ll take your stance and run with it. It’s true that there have been no significant additions to the middle of the defensive line, something that has bugged many fans for months now. The team’s biggest interior acquisition has been Justin Jones, the third-round selection from this year’s draft. That’s it; no Johnathan Hankins, Ndamukong Suh, or any other free agent.

Mathematically, the goal for every football team is to average roughly 3.33 yards per attempt so that a first down can be achieved every three plays. Without the presence of a guy in the middle to stop the rushing attack, it’ll be much more difficult to expect the Chargers to hold their own against elite running teams.

However, the lack of an impactful interior lineman does not doom the Bolts. Through key additions like Derwin James, Kyzir White, and Uchenna Nwosu, coupled with the return of a (hopefully) healthy Denzel Perryman and Jason Verrett (a superb tackler), the Chargers hope that they have enough playmakers on defense to stuff the run.

Re-watching the Chargers-Patriots game from 2017 for an article I wrote a few weeks ago brought two important things to my attention: That the Chargers expect a lot out of their safeties and linebackers to stop ball carriers, and that the old regime of tacklers on defense did not do well enough to eliminate the them rushing or receiving on the outside. Here’s a play where Tre Boston gets shaken around and run past by James White:

https://twitter.com/BadgerFootball/status/924689938758688769

Next: Who is Chargers' biggest celebrity fan?

I don’t expect much more of that to continue this season, as the aforementioned James and Verrett should really step in and do a superb job of stifling the big plays and runs for a long gain. So, you have every right to worry about the Chargers’ lack of an interior playmaker on the defensive line, but I would rest assured knowing the players brought in will specialize in controlling the line of scrimmage. Thanks for your question!