With Michael Turner off to the Atlanta Falcons in free agency, the Chargers will look to a couple of draft picks to give LaDainian Tomlinson a break once in a while.  Make no mistake though, Tomlinson will be the focus of the Chargers’ offense once again in 2008.  He played in 16 games (all starts) last season for the Chargers and he carried the ball 315 times for 1,474 yards (4.7 ypc) with 15 TD runs.  He also caught 60 passes for 475 yards (7.9 avg) with 3 TD grabs.  The Chargers would be smart to start to lessen the workload on Tomlinson this season and they will likely do that if one of the rookie RBs step up.  Tomlinson has now played in 111 games (all starts) in his NFL career and he has carried the ball 2,365 times for 10,650 yards (4.5 ypc) with 115 TD runs.  He has also caught 458 passes for 3,375 yards (7.4 avg) with 14 TD grabs.

Rookie Jacob Hester out of LSU is a power runner plain and simple.  He played in 14 games (13 starts) for LSU last season and he carried the ball 225 times for 1,103 yards (4.9 ypc) with 12 TD runs.  Hester also is a good enough blocker and receiver to possibly fit in at fullback on the Chargers.

Fellow rookie Marcus Thomas is also a power runner with nice hands in the passing game.  He will battle Hester and Darren Sproles for the backup carries on the Chargers this season.  Thomas isn’t the fastest runner around but he is one of the toughest between the tackles.

Darren Sproles is just a little guy but he has some great moves in the open field.  He also has the speed to go the distance on any play but his size makes him nothing more than a backup.  Sproles played in 15 games (0 starts) for the Chargers last season and he carried the ball 37 times for 164 yards (4.4 ypc) with 2 TD runs.  He also caught 10 passes for 31 yards (3.1 avg).  Don’t look for Sproles to have a big role on the offense as he’s too valuable on special teams for the Chargers.  Sproles has now played in 30 games (0 starts) in his NFL career and he has carried the ball 45 times for 214 yards (4.8 ypc) with 2 TD runs.  He also has caught 13 passes for 41 yards (3.2 avg).

PROJECTED GRADE FOR THE 2008 SEASON:  A