Unintentionally Ironic Marketing Speak of the Day . . .

. . . not a regular feature, yet, but you never know, if I come across stuff like this on a regular basis, maybe I'll use this to make BLOGTOBER even more bloggeriffic.

From the official Chargers.com bio of GM AJ Smith:

Chargers General Manager A.J. Smith has assembled one of the NFL’s most talented rosters. Named by Forbes Magazine as the NFL's top general manager in 2006, Smith has overseen a renaissance in San Diego as the Chargers have won the AFC West two of the last three years. The team's 35 wins during that stretch, including a franchise-record 14 in ’06, ranks third in the league behind only Indianapolis and New England.

Smith has stockpiled a roster full of Pro Bowlers, including a team-record 11 in 2006. Eight of those Pro Bowlers are Chargers because of Smith's handiwork, including draftees Shawne Merriman, Nick Hardwick, Marcus McNeill and Nate Kaeding; undrafted free agents Antonio Gates and Kassim Osgood; veteran free agent Lorenzo Neal, and Philip Rivers, who was acquired in a blockbuster 2004 draft-day trade. In the trade, Smith selected quarterback Eli Manning with the first overall pick and traded him to the New York Giants for Rivers, draft picks used to select Merriman and Kaeding, and an additional fifth-round pick that Smith later traded to Tampa Bay to acquire tackle Roman Oben. Merriman (2006-07), Gates (2005-07) and Neal (2006-07) have all been to multiple Pro Bowls with the Chargers.

Forbes may have to re-evaluate that list in light of the 2007 season. Right now the Chargers look like longshots to even make the playoffs, or crack .500. There's time to change things around, and luckily, even at 1-3, that puts them only one game behind the 3 team logjam at 2-2 atop their division.

Would you have predicted that after week 4 in the AFC West, Oakland, KC, and Denver would be tied for first, and San Diego would be alone in last place? They have Denver next week, and Oakland the week after that, if they lose both those games, their playoff hopes are already over, there's no way they'd make the playoffs after starting 1-5 and 0-3 in their division. Denver has been playing poorly, too, but the game is in Denver, and Oakland has an opportunistic defense which will force turnovers, so unless the Chargers defense creates plenty of turnovers also, they just might manage to extend this losing streak to 5 games.