ANAHEIM, Calif. _ The crowd inside the ESPN Zone Thursday night had the cameras and bright lights pointed at them before seeing the big television screens flash to a group of rowdy football fans cheering.
Assuming it was showing them about to react to history, they erupted in cheers. They were wrong. It wasn't them. The bar shown on the screens was all the way across the country.
It was one of a plethora of surprises as the Chargers made their first pick as Los Angeles residents.
After everyone got their bearings, the Chargers dealt the draft another swerve, taking Mike Williams with the No. 7 pick in the 2017 NFL Draft.
In Vance, S.C., where Williams was watching the draft with family and friends, the initial phone call with the Chargers dropped, and he said he had to silence his party so he could call back and take care of official business.
A lot like the television cameras in Anaheim, the Chargers front office threw the NFL for a bit of a head fake. After a chaotic first six picks, the Chargers came to the clock with Ohio State safety Malik Hooker, Alabama defensive lineman Jonathan Allen and Ohio State cornerback Marshon Lattimore all on the board.
Signs had pointed to the Chargers going defensive with their first pick, especially after general manager Tom Telesco said he thought the overall talent in the draft was better on that side of the ball. Most mock drafts had them coupled with Hooker since early in the process.
But the Chargers, much like the rest of the league, decided to address the other side of the ball. Seven of the first 10 picks in the draft were offensive players, and in Williams, the Chargers got their favorite.
"I love the pick," Chargers Coach Anthony Lynn said. "We put in a lot of work, we like him, he was No. 1 on our board."
With the pick, the team gets quarterback Philip Rivers a big target on the outside. At 6-foot-4 and 218 pounds, Williams starred on Clemson's National Championship team this past season, catching 98 passes for 1,361 yards and 11 touchdowns. In the Tigers' win over Alabama in the title game, Williams caught eight balls for 94 yards and a score.
"You can't have enough playmakers," Lynn said.
Williams had a private workout with a Chargers scout last week.
"I felt like I caught all the balls," he said.
Williams is the sixth receiver selected in the first round in team history and the first since Craig Davis got picked 30th in 2007.
