Preseason is fun. For about two minutes. After that, you're just left wondering why you're staying up until 4:30 AM (the joys of living in England), painfully sober and watching people who won't be in the NFL in 4 weeks time fail to understand what a tackle is, or how to do one - although that bit does also apply to some of our starters. Anyway. We're one preseason game in, which means it's time to over-analyse absolutely everything that happened and call for Mike McCoy to be fired.

I'm going to break down the biggest winners and losers from the Chargers from the Titans game. This doesn't mean the players who played the best, or who played the worst - rather, it means who gained or lost the most from the opener.

Biggest Winners:

1: Melvin Gordon

I'm not going to break down any of his carries, because outside of showing how much we missed Whiz, they didn't really mean much. His TD catch is the big one. Not because it was anything special - he followed his block well and finished it nicely, but there wasn't anything out of the ordinary - but because of how big a mental effect it'll have on him. Running behind the Chargers OL last year was not exactly a recipe for success - even Jordan Belfort from the Wolf of Wall Street would have lost confidence being hit so much in the backfield. Add that to the fumbling issue that plagued him throughout the year - as well as having surgery that kept him from being 100% at the start of camp - and MG3 was probably in a place inside his head that he'd never been in before. This is a guy who had been a star wherever he went. He was a 4* recruit and the #2 HS prospect in Wisconsin, then went to play for Wisconsin and broke all sorts of records - including LT's for the most rushing yards in a game. He'd always been the key man, the focal point of the offense. He gets to the NFL, and that all changes. He's not the star. He's not even the main guy at his position. Instead, he's now the disappointment - or, to some people, the bust.

Then he scores a 44 yard TD.

Suddenly, near enough the entire roster is congratulating him. So are his coaches. So is the media. Doubts about his rookie year, or about the state of his surgically repaired knee? Gone. For the first time since the Lions game in Week 1 last year when he had his TD called back, Melvin Gordon was the man again. And you better believe it felt good.

2: The McSafeties:

I can't remember who came up with the nickname for Dexter McCoil and Adrian McDonald, but I like it. After MG3s confidence booster, these two were probably the joint second biggest winners against the Titans. They were both having strong camps - but a strong camp won't be enough to make the team. The Chargers starting safeties might not be all that great (that's being kind, because they're absolutely awful), but this is a deep position. Lowery and Addae are virtual locks, which leaves Stuckey, Adrian Phillips, McCoil and McDonald fighting it out for what's likely two roster spots (possibly three if they count Stuckey as purely a ST player at this point - which they should.) McCoil and McDonald were originally running with the 3s in TC, so they had a lot of work ahead of them if they had a chance at making the team. After Saturday, that path looks a little less arduous. I don't see a way McCoil doesn't make this team at this point. He had a fumble recovery, and it's not just down to luck - he gets absolutely everywhere. He's 6'4, which is quite frankly ridiculous - add his speed into the equation, and you can see why Chargers fans are getting so excited about him. I'm trying hard not to get drawn into the hype, but it's really difficult. He can ball. McCoil showed he knows how to tackle - believe me, that's a rarity on the Chargers defence - and had some nice plays in coverage to go along with his recovery.

Adrian McDonald is pretty much the opposite of McCoil - at just 5'9 with a 4.65 40 at his pro day, he can't rely on his physical talents to play him onto the roster. He has a nose for the football, though - he holds the Houston Cougars record for interceptions in a career with 17 - and his forced fumble was a just reward for a solid opening performance. If he keeps up that level of play, he's going to make it very difficult for the coaches to leave him off of the 'best 53',

3: Kenneth Farrow

Farrow makes it this highly onto the list for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I didn't think that the Chargers would carry 4 HBs, considering that it's likely one of Derek Watt or Chris Swain makes it onto the roster as a FB. Secondly, if they did, I presumed that it'd be Dreamius Smith, who spent time with the Chargers last year. I think I might have been wrong on both counts. (It wouldn't be the first time). I'm not going to call Kenneth Farrow the second coming of Barry Sanders (because I think he can be better, obviously), but he looked solid. He's not the best runner you'll ever see, but he can run, he can catch, and he can block. That's rare to find in any rookie RB. For an UDFA rookie RB? You just found a purple unicorn. (I would have said the name of some rare Pokemon, but Pokemon Go just seems like too much exercise for me, which is why I'm sitting here writing this and not out there on the field. Well, that and a complete lack of talent. Anyway, I'm digressing). Farrow was actually McDonald's teammate at Houston, and he left with 2,980 yards, 34 TDs and 5.3 YPC in his career. Like I said, he's not the best runner. He won't ever be. Farrow isn't a raw prospect you take and hope he can develop into a stud. He's probably never going to be more than a #2 RB anywhere at best.

That said, he's still a guy you want on your roster as a #4 RB. Instead of taking a speed demon who can't actually play football, you get someone who can do a bit of everything as a RB - and do it well. But here's the kicker. Unlike other star RBs in college, he played on STs. He knows how to cover a punt and kickoff, and he knows how to block in order to return them. Considering how notoriously awful we've been at STs lately, it makes a lot of sense to keep Farrow on the 53 to develop while earning his stripes doing the grunt work on STs.

4: Donavon Clark

When the Chargers drafted Clark in the 7th, I didn't think there was much chance he'd make the team. After a good start to camp and now a good first preseason game, he's got every chance to do so. He looked comfortable out there in both the run and pass game, and certainly outplayed some of the more established backup OL. Here he is pulling from RG to open a lane for Branden Oliver to run through for a first down:

Alright, it's not the quickest lateral movement in the world, but he does a nice job of locking in on his target and sealing him off cleanly. Clark isn't the perfect product, but he's someone who's pretty good at their job on day one. With a little bit of coaching to clean up his technical flaws, Clark could come in very handy as a backup for the most injury prone OL in football. He might just have played his way onto the roster - at worst, he should be a lock for the PS if no team claims him on waivers.

Biggest Losers:





Oh my god, Dzubnar is awful. If you don't remember Dzubnar from last year, he bought you such hits as 'always getting a penalty on Special Teams' and 'Getting jumped in the depth chart by Joe Mays .' This year, he's back with his latest record, 'Stuck in quicksand.' I really don't want to show you these plays. They're depressing. But here you go anyway. Dzubnar is number 48 in these clips. Hopefully you won't have to remember that for much longer.

Then he sits there, waiting for Uhh... what? Did he break down and stop working? That reminds me of when you're playing Madden, but you accidently switch onto someone you didn't want to control, and now you're frozen for a few seconds trying to work out what to do. Rule one of playing ILB is be aggressive and attack holes. Dzubnar sort of just... sits there. Well, first he comes inside for no reason.he sits there, waiting for DeMarco Murray to run right past him into the space he just left. If you thought Te'o was bad, you're in for a treat.





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Here, Dzubnar stops for a second, then begins to run and chase the RB because he's now put himself out of position, only to miss the tackle when he does eventually catch up. Nick Dzubnar is what Afro thinks Te'o actually is. He's small, he's slow, and he's bad.





More Dzubnar! If you have a 300 pound man coming at you,300-poundu want to have some kind of momentum on your side. Just a thought. Instead, he stops, waits for the OL to engage first, and then gets completely wiped out the play. This guy was running with the 1s in practice when Perryman was out? Please never get hurt, Denzel.









There's no hard evidence for this one. Unlike Dzubnar, we can't stop and point to a moment where Attaochu clearly messed up. But somewhere, he has done. Last year, he got 6.5 sacks and led all OLBs in TFLs. Somehow, by day one of TC he'd lost his starting spot to Kyle Emanuel . I like Emanuel , but this doesn't look like a case of Emanuel playing well enough to win the spot. This looks like Attaochu's in the doghouse. The best guess we have is that he showed up to camp out of shape, but he doesn't look like Eddie Lacy did last year. He looks fine. How did it happen from the end of last season to the start of TC? He must have done something, but what? Anyway, the coaches kept him in the game until near the end of the fourth quarter. Do they think he needs the reps, is he that low down in the depth chart, or is he being punished for something? I doubt it's the second one - we're so thin at OLB that at the very worst, he'll only be behind Ingram and Emanuel. Whatever it is, it's not good. What's worse is that he was playing against the second and third stringers - but he was losing. Attaochu played a huge portion of the game, mostly against backups, yet did not record a single tackle. The stat sheet won't show Attaochu as having played at all. If Dzubnar wasn't so bad, this would be #1. This is something big to watch out for in the rest of preseason. If we have any chance at all of making some noise this year, we really need Attaochu to get back to his best.









It's a little harsh to put a guy who didn't play here, but Football is a hard game. There's no reason Dreamius didn't get into the game (unless next week it'll be him and not Farrow with the bulk of the action), but Kenneth Farrow's strong performance really hurts Dreamius. Even if they do keep 4 RBs, Farrow now has the upper hand in that battle, and Dreamius has a tough road ahead of him if he's going to make this team ahead of Farrow (MG3, Woodhead and Oliver are all locks). If Dreamius doesn't get much action against Arizona, it's safe to assume that he's going to be on the list of first cuts.





4: The backup WRs





I won't dwell on this for too long, but I feel bad for the UDFAs fighting for a place on the Chargers roster. The Chargers currently have 11 WRs on the roster - they'll likely carry 5 or 6, which means about half get cut. For an UDFA WR, therefore, you really need to stand out to have any chance of making the team. Unfortunately, it's hard to stand out when your QB just can't put the ball where you need it. Clemens wasn't bad inside the numbers, but he just couldn't hit a WR on the outside. Mettenberger had no accuracy, and Bercovici didn't get much of a chance. Dom Williams and DeAndre Reeves saw a lot of snaps, but they just didn't get given the chance to do anything with them. Isaiah Burse had a great catch wiped off for a Tyreek Burwell hold, couldn't hang on to a high pass from Rivers and then nearly got killed by Clemens on a bad screen pass. Burse has the best shot to make the team out of the guys on the bubble, but he needs some help if he's going to do it.









I'll preface this by saying I don't know who we have on the roster that's better than Burwell as a backup T, but I'm sure there's someone. Hairston is locked into the swing tackle spot, but if they do keep another guy then it's probably Burwell, who can play either Guard or Tackle. Apparently. I have no idea what Brett Boyko Tyler Johnstone and Marcel Jones are like, but I find it hard to believe they're all worse than Burwell. He got off to a bad start by committing a facemask that wiped off Burse's great catch, before having another couple of flags on him for holding an false starting. When he didn't do anything to stop the play coming back, he looked outmatched. On one run play, he went after three different Titans and missed every single one of them. I don't see how he fits on this roster. If you keep 8 OL, that's the five starters plus Max Tuerk Chris Hairston and Donavon Clark, with Chris Watt on PUP. If you keep 9 (which is rare), that last spot is probably Kenny Wiggins (although the Chargers may have Wiggins and Clark the other way around). Burwell didn't look terrible last year, but this Titans game really exposed his weaknesses, and may have seriously hurt his chances of making the team.





6: Adrian Phillips





I mentioned how tough the battle for a roster spot at S is going to be - and a large part of that is due to Adrian Phillips, who seemed to have an interception every day in minicamp and later in TC. He'd bounced around the 53 and the PS for the last two years, not looking bad in limited action and picking off Brock Osweiler (I wish the Broncos had resigned him...) in Week 17 last year. Before this Titans game, he was probably the backup to Lowery, and the safety the Chargers had in their books as 3rd out of 6th. After? It doesn't look great. Phillips missed a couple of tackles and just generally failed to assert himself on the game. I doubt this game costs him a roster spot, but another like it and McCoil or McDonald may just steal it away from him.





Do you agree with these rankings? Disagree? Let me know down below!