You couldn't blame Philip Rivers if a few months ago he said, "By golly, what took you so long?"
The question would've made sense in reaction to the Chargers making a big investment in a right tackle by signing Bryan Bulaga, a former Packers standout. The contract, announced March 17, is worth up to $30 million.
Right tackle was never a consistent Chargers strength in the 14 years Rivers started, and in other decades the team's track record at right tackle was spotty.
It wasn't always that way.
The early Chargers stand in magnificent contrast.
In the 1960s, not only did the team find right tackles who could block, these men held the job for a decade or so.
Start with Ron Mix of the original Chargers team in 1960. The diligent former USC All-American dominated opponents for most of the 1960s, leading to his election into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
It was Russ Washington's turn soon after Mix moved on, and if Mix's level was platinum, Washington's level was gold.
A converted defender, Big Russ made 148 consecutive starts and earned five Pro Bowl berths. "He was one of the best tackles not in the Hall of Fame," Mix said recently.
Nothing to it, huh?
You find a right tackle, hand him a helmet and direct him to the field. Give him a decade there. Then hire another young guy and watch him shine.
Of course, it is not so simple. And don't the Chargers know it.
There were exceptions, such as Vaughn Parker manning the position for most of eight seasons starting in 1995, and Jeromey Clary's seven-year run through 2013 that coincided with Rivers leading the franchise to four playoff berths.
Mostly after Washington's final season in 1982, the drill was this for a Chargers right tackle: Give us a year or two, maybe three, and move on.
Longevity aside, how well did Bolts right tackles perform in the years long after Mix and Washington had secured the line's right edge?
Parker provided several good seasons, many of them with bad Chargers teams. Teammates called him the Gatekeeper. Ornery veteran Stan Brock started all 19 games for the franchise's Super Bowl team. Shane Olivea never missed a start for the 2006 squad, which went 14-2.
In 1993 Brock brought a surly personality to a Chargers line that a year later helped lead the team to the Super Bowl. Teammates say Brock, in anticipation of facing Packers great Reggie White that December, worked himself into an angry mood. Brock cut-block White to the ground three times that night in San Diego, and White never sacked Stan Humphries despite grounding him three times.
Yet Brock, 36, required a lot of help, and coordinator Ralph Friedgen sent at least two blockers at White on most pass plays.
In 2017 when Rivers carved up the Cowboys on Thanksgiving, a big factor was right tackle Joe Barksdale's dominance of the best Dallas pass-rusher, DeMarcus Lawrence. Barksdale set up fast on his pass blocks, and Lawrence never got going.
What distinguishes the better right tackles is their consistent excellence. There, the Chargers largely have struck out the past four decades.
You have to go back an awfully long time, to Washington's 1979 season with Air Coryell, for the last Pro Bowl season the Chargers got from their right tackle.
So it was interesting that team executives Tom Telesco and John Spanos guaranteed $19.25 million to Bulaga as part of a three-year contract whose risk dips after the 2021 season.
Bulaga's typical season far exceeds the general work of recent Chargers right tackles led by Sam Tevi, the primary starter in 2018 and 2019, and Trent Scott.
Think of Bulaga, 31, as a Pro Bowl Lite regular. While he never made the Pro Bowl's first team he established himself as a good right tackle who started for a Super Bowl winner as a rookie in 2010 and went to three more NFC Championship Games including one five months ago.
Bulaga ranked fifth among all NFL tackles in ESPN's "pass block win rate" the past two seasons. Last year his totals in sacks (four), pressures (21), "bad" runs (a unit-low 5.5) and penalties (six) reflected a top-half right tackle in the NFL, reported longtime Packers writer Bob McGinn of The Athletic.
Does Bulaga profile as the best right tackle to play with the Chargers since Washington retired? It's very close. The edge could go to Parker, a second-round selection of Bobby Beathard's out of UCLA in 1994. Parker, smart and more athletic than Bulaga, started all 16 games in four seasons and 15 in another year.
Here's how a veteran NFL scout described Bulaga to me: "He is still a good player _ a smart, steady presence."
