According to the Silver Fox Columnist and his trusty sidekick, the San Diego Chargers are attempting to fill the RB spot left vacant by Mike Tolbert with a veteran free agent that can split carries with Ryan Mathews and contribute as a 3rd-down specialist.

The only names we've heard so far are Jackie Battle, who visited with the team about a week ago, and Michael Bush, who the team wasn't interested in and who is now a Chicago Bear anyway. We've also been told that there are 3 RBs besides Battle that the team is pursuing.

With a premium being put on passing offense around the league (thank you, Patriots, Saints, Giants and Packers), many FA RBs are hitting the market only to find out that nobody is willing to pay very much for their services. That means that most of the FA RBs are still free agents.

Assuming that the 3 RBs that the Chargers have targeted are still free agents, let's see if we can find out who might be filling Tolbert's shoes after the jump.



Guys That Fit the Mold



Narrowing the Candidates List

Kahlil Bell

Ronnie Brown

Justin Forsett

Mewelde Moore

Maurice Morris

Sammy Morris

Jerious Norwood

Kevin Smith

We can probably assume Kevin Smith is off this list. I also can't see them being all that excited to land Norwood either. The Steelers will probably fight hard for Mewelde and the Lions will probably want to keep Morris to backup Smith. Kahlil Bell is still rather unproven. I think I just got us down to a very mysterious group of 3.





Ronnie Brown

Justin Forsett

Sammy Morris

(and don't forget about) Jackie Battle I'm okay with this group. Brown has the most potential, but was so awful last season that the Eagles tried to trade him away for next to nothing. I think he was just a very bad fit for their system, but that's just my opinion.

Forsett would probably be the most expensive and, with the team wanting to sign back Jacob Hester to be the backup FB, it probably doesn't make sense to spend too much on him.





Morris is the type of guy you sign when your first two RBs go on IR in the beginning of the season. He's solid, but his ceiling is much lower than Forsett or Brown. That being said, he's one of those guys that this front office can fall in love with because of his consistency and experience.





I don't like Jackie Battle much at all. He's kind of like the poor man's Le'Ron McClain, who was a poor man's Mike Tolbert years ago.









So, there's my guess on the guys that the Chargers are chasing. They might even be calling them "Plan A", "Plan B", "Plan C" and "Plan D". I'd like to believe that, anyway. But, who knows? I'm probably way off.







