If you thought Tom Brady would make a large bet on the stewardship of Dean Spanos, if you believed the greatest quarterback of his time was soon to partner with a club many NFL players regard as cheap and cautious _ and just OK at football _ well, we all get fanciful notions.
Brady to the Bolts is not happening, and never was happening.
Brady, according to multiple reports, will end the first free agency of his 20-year career Wednesday by signing with the Tampa Bay Bucs. The old quarterback, 42, is headed to God's Waiting Room.
So where does Brady's stiff-arming leave the Chargers as they head toward their fourth NFL season since Spanos and siblings moved them north?
It leaves them with Tyrod Taylor as their top quarterback, for now, and the Spanos clan doing a slow walk toward the new Kroenke Dome, the stadium that drew them to Los Angeles.
It sends the Chargers toward the new digs looking like an 8-8 team, perhaps 9-7 or 10-6 if they catch enough breaks. And, barring an improbable trade for Cam Newton, it nudges them closer to taking a quarterback high in the draft for the first time since 2004, when they selected Eli Manning and traded him for Philip Rivers.
One plausible scenario on Draft Night: With the sixth pick or a trade thereof, the Chargers take Justin Herbert of Dan Fouts U, if they decide that, for medical reasons, he's less risky than Tua Tagovailoa, the best lefty from Alabama since Kenny Stabler.
Three years into the Spanoses' L.A. venture, here's one big-picture observation: You can take the football team out of San Diego, but you can't take the Spanoses out of the football team.
The Chargers remain a crayon-within-the-lines outfit. It could be worse. Tom Telesco's scouts are good. They find bargains in the amateur markets, and have a feel for NFL talent. Already this month, Telesco has added good blockers in guard Trai Turner and right tackle Bryan Bulaga.
Capture receipts and cash in. Snap and sort expenses for more than $4,600 in tax savings.
But it doesn't seem the Chargers are living up to claims that life in the country's second-largest media market would attract football stars and fatten margins for error. For example: The notion Brady would gravitate to L.A., as the NBA's LeBron James had in late-career free agency, overlooked the glaring fact the Chargers are nothing like the Lakers.
Amid the new surroundings, the Spanos DNA hasn't changed noticeably. The Bolts still don't do big splashes. They don't import players and coaches whose personality may make the top bosses uncomfortable. If there's something cutting-edge about them, it's hard to even muster a guess as to what it is.
We may not hear Brady say this, but it was wise-cracking, assertive head coach Bruce Arians who gave the Bucs a football edge in the Brady recruitment, because he's one of the NFL's better offensive coaches.
Not long after Spanos chose not to interview him, instead falling hard for Mike McCoy, Arians joined the Cardinals and led them to a 34-14 record between 2013-15 before falling off.
While Anthony Lynn has done some good work since Telesco and John Spanos hired him to replace McCoy, he hasn't ended the franchise's AFC West-title drought, now at 10 years. And partly because he inherited Rivers, it's not fully clear what he stands for on offense, where he earned his bones as an NFL player and an assistant coach.
Lynn's offensive coordinator, Shane Steichen, a Norv Turner protege Lynn inherited _ and promoted during the 2019 season after he fired Ken Whisenhunt _ is a promising coach but also a mystery.
Why would Brady go from one of the NFL's top coordinators, Josh McDaniels, to taking a gamble on Lynn-Steichen?
Arians had this going for him: Directing quarterback Carson Palmer late his career, he fell one victory short of a Super Bowl.
Also, Brady had to conclude the AFC West is more challenging than the NFC South, for one simple reason: Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes reside in the AFC West. Reid has rewarded Chiefs owner Clark Hunt for paying him top dollar by leading the Chiefs to four straight West titles, the latest of which led to a Super Bowl victory, three years after the daring draft night trade to land Mahomes. Bear in mind, it's divisional dominance that underlies Brady's Hall of Fame career,if you look deeper. Finishing first in the four-team race brought him windfalls in the Super Bowl tournament, notably first-round byes and home-field advantage.
Brady's exit from the AFC came about 20 years too late, as far as the Chargers and Rivers were concerned.
Rivers never enjoyed a victory against Brady, who went 8-0 in those matchups. (That history includes the infamous Marlon McCree fumble-game, in which Brady threw three interceptions.) Here's a question that will bake your noodle: Do the Chargers get to a Super Bowl _ and perhaps build enough support for a new stadium in San Diego _ if Brady hadn't become an all-time great in the same conference?
Rivers, 38, may have one more Super Bowl shot, with the Colts, whose division won't include Mahomes or Brady.
The Chargers, who went from Drew Brees to Rivers the last time they were in this position, now will go to a new quarterback: Mr. TBD.
