There’s a lot of football coming to Southern California

WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections San Diego Chargers Daily LinksSan Diego Chargers NewsSan Diego Chargers OffseasonSan Diego Chargers HistorySan Diego Chargers HumorChargers Advent CalendarChargers Advent Calendar - Dec. 10:New football leagues!New Virgil Green Jerseys 2019 ,13commentsThere’s a lot of football coming to Southern CaliforniaByJason MichaelsDec 10, 2018,7:00am PSTShareTweetShareShareChargers Advent Calendar - Dec. 10:New football leagues!This is a great time of year to be thankful for what we have, where we have been, and what the future holds. Although the Chargers have lost their way a bit in recent years, the month of December still holds such incredible promise! This advent calendar is an attempt to hearken back to these days of December joy. Each day will bring a new advent from the Bolts’ history that makes it wonderful to be a Chargers fan.Dec. 10: New football leagues are coming!California is a pretty big place. That is why three NFL teams can call it home and still feel like they represent different geographical regions and populations. Four, evidently, is a bit pushing it for one league, so the Raiders are jumping out and heading for the desert.The NFL has had to the game to itself once it ate its only real competitor: The AFL.There have only been two competitors in recent decades: The XFL (1.0), and the UFL. Neither seriously challenged The Shield, though the XFL was the only recent attempt to even try to.Whether Southern California wants it or not, there is a lot of football coming in the next few years:1.The Alliance of American Football (AAF)This league seemed to pop up overnight to try and steal the thunder from the XFL’s resurgence. It has a few advantages, as well. The biggest advantage of note is that it will start playing in just a few short months, directly after the Super Bowl when non-basketball fans experience the ‘doldrums’ between seasons. This league could make some serious waves because it is directly complimentary to the NFL, adding an immediate source of games when football interest is at its highest annually. It also has some big names to carry it through the challenging first year: Bill Polian White Mike Pouncey Jerseys , Justin Tuck, and Steelers’ icons Troy Polamalu and Hines Ward. The AAF should be the most intriguing to Chargers fans because the San Diego Fleet is one of eight teams in the league, and they will be playing in SDCCU Stadium (The Murph, the Q). They are the first major football league to try and capitalize on the Chargers’ old turf, and they just might succeed in that. The AAF is aggressively shy of directly competing with the NFL, which, along with its head start, is why it might just survive long enough to be eaten by the National Football League.2.The XFL (2.0)Ah, the good old XFL. For all of its failures and follies, it did have some great ideas that are now added to the NFL broadcasts. The first time the XFL came around, it tried to do too much too quickly (and football was an afterthought). Vince McMahon is the personality and money behind this resurgence, and he feels that he learned his lessons from nearly twenty years ago. Careful planning might actually the the XFL 2.0’s fatal flaw, because the nearly three years between its announcement and their first game gave enough time for the AAF to beat them to the punch. Still, there’s every reason to believe that the XFL will fare better this time around. For one, it’s entertainment first and sports second Mike Pouncey Jerseys 2019 , which is a fairly staunchly American business strategy. With the added development, there should be stronger ties to communities (and their big spenders) that will make it less susceptible to an early crumble. Perhaps most crucial, the XFL is actually testing out its concept changes with real players in community colleges in Mississippi. This crazy thing might just work after all!And, of course, there’s interest in the XFL because they will be launching with a team headquartered in Carson, CA. They will play their inaugural season out of StubHub Center just months after the Chargers hope to vacate in 2020. The XFL’s previous LA team, the LA XTreme, won their Million Dollar Game back in 2001, so they might just catch a few headlines this time around as well.3. The Professional Football League (PFL)After realizing the need for a developmental Spring league, California businessman Jerry C. Craig began to plan for a league that w——Nope, it looks like that one already bit the dust. The PFL was another developmental league that was set to be centered in Newport Beach, CA. They boasted some interesting support from former coaches, including Dave Campo and Dick Vermeil, but it just goes to show that talk is cheap and results are hard to come by in this business. The PFL was supposed to kick off in spring of 2018, but no games have yet been played.For the here-and-now White Isaac Rochell Jerseys , it looks like the NFL has only two newcomers to really worry about before the next media agreements. Both of these new leagues have a lot of potential interest for southern California fans, and that should bode well for everyone in the Golden State!-Jason “If at first not succeed...” Michaels ONLY TWO MORE SLEEPS UNTIL THE NFL DRAFT!!!!It’s really almost here. The most wonderful time of the year. The most exciting, blissful, and heart-wrenching weekend that draftniks have been working..."ONLY TWO MORE SLEEPS UNTIL THE NFL DRAFT!!!!It’s really almost here. The most wonderful time of the year. The most exciting, blissful, and heart-wrenching weekend that draftniks have been working towards since the final seconds ticked off the clock last April.There’s really not much to say at this point because you all know the drill. Here are another four prospects that the Chargers should instantly keeps tabs on should they escape the first round and find themselves waiting on Friday night.DT Renell Wren - Arizona StateSurprise! This spot for Wren might wrinkle some feathers (I’m looking at you Jamie) but life isn’t fun unless a few fowl have been rustled.Wren is a tough one to pin down as a prospect. He comes with plenty of questions. Can he find increased productivity in the NFL after not doing much at ASU? Can he find consistency? There are both real questions that a team must help answer when it comes to drafting Wren anywhere, but especially this high.You can likely name a handful of tackles that you believe will be more reliable, but you can’t name too many that are more athletically-gifted than this former Sun Devil. Just take a look at clip below:Wren possesses one of the most explosive first steps among the defensive linemen. In fact, it’s almost the sole way that Wren wins during games. He needs to find a better, more varied pass-rushing plan or else his career will end far too soon once opposing linemen figure out how to stop his shallow list of tricks.But at a hulking 6-foot-5 and 320 pounds, Wren is strong (30 reps on bench) and has some wiggle to him (4.53 in the short shuttle, 7.65 in the 3-cone). I believe Wren will go higher than most believe he should simply due to his upside. You see it every year. I think Wren is one of those guys in this class.But let’s be real. Does his lack of productivity scare me? A little. However, some would argue that Wren was used all wrong in college. He spent most of his snap lined up as a nose tackle or as a shade. Wren’s skillset is much more suited for a 3-tech where he doesn’t have to worry about two-gapping. He’s a better player when he doesn’t have to think. Lucky for fans of Wren, he won’t have to do much of that in Gus Bradley’s defense.S Juan Thornhill - VirginiaIf you want a defensive back with elite productivity, look no further than Virginia’s Thornhill. In his final three seasons Isaac Rochell Jerseys 2019 , Thornhill amassed 13 interceptions and a whopping 26 pass breakups. His senior season in 2018, he also posted 98 total stops, one of the highest numbers for a safety in this year’s class.But wait, do you want elite athletic ability as well? We got you, boo.At the combine last month, Thornhill jumped an incredible 44 inches in the vertical and 11’ 9” in the broad. Those numbers match up real close to the Cowboys’ Byron Jones who jumped a combine-record 12 feet several years ago. Jones was just rated as a top-5 cornerback in the NFL in 2018 by Pro Football Focus.There likely isn’t a more complete safety in this draft than Thornhill, who combines production, athleticism, and consistency into one heck of a player. I’m not sure Thornhill makes it all the way to #60, but with the bevy of defensive linemen and other premium positions in this draft, crazier things have happened.OT Yodney Cajuste - West VirginiaCajuste has been in talks as a top offensive tackle prospect for as long as I can remember. He was a top-3 guy at one point. I even think he was even the number one OT on someone’s rankings in early January. But at this very moment, Cajuste is likely a solid day-2 selection and possibly the fifth-best player at his position.A 30-game starter out of 31 career games, Cajuste offers almost everything one could want in an offensive linemen: elite athleticism, a nastiness on the field, and the type of quick footwork that would make a boxer blush White Darius Philon Jerseys , but the one thing holding Cajuste back is good ol’ fundamentals in pass protection.As the 2018 Big 12 Co-Offensive Lineman of the Year, Cajuste is obviously good. You don’t win awards for being “meh”. But lapses in his kick-slide and occasional deadening of his feet are notable concerns.If you are me, however, you raise your grades of offensive by a bit when you see them demolish a defensive line or pancake a poor soul into the turf. This is a temperament that is almost impossible to teach older offensive lineman, especially those now heading into the NFL. Some guys are just wired different and Cajuste wants to body whoever is unfortunate enough to line up across from him.Cajuste would likely slide in at right tackle with the potential to take over once Russell Okung’s time with the team expires. In the short-term, he would be a welcomed upgrade over Sam Tevi and a positive role model for the offensive line when it comes to finishing opponents on the field.LB Mack Wilson - AlabamaWilson was touted as a “sure-thing” first round pick for pretty much the entire season up until the all-star games started coming around.Due to a lingering injury, Wilson did not participate in the combine apart from jumping but did end up running through the list of athletic testing at Alabama’s pro day several weeks later.His performance was less than ideal as the former five-star recruit ran his forty somewhere between 4.65 and 4.70, according to scouts in attendance. Not surprising when you take his lower-body ailments into consideration but Wilson was quoted saying he wanted to hit “a 4.5 or low 4.4s”.When it comes to Wilson, teams are just going to have to trust the tape which shouldn’t be too hard because he’s got plenty of it.One of the biggest things you will be getting with Wilson is his ball skills, which are arguably the best of any linebacker in this entire class. In 2017. Wilson led the Crimson Tide with four interceptions. The following season, he snagged another pair of picks and had five pass breakups. The 6-foot-1, 240-pounder had 71 total stops and five tackles-for-loss in 2018, leading him to a second team All-SEC nod following the season.Wilson was a common pick for the Chargers at #28 earlier in the offseason but now seems to be a more realistic option at #60. If that were to happen, the Chargers would be already in the running for best draft based on value right out of the gate.