Chargers Get Their Man... for only the Season's Last Six Games

"It's all about number one, right here. Funny, cut off like this I look like number 0."

With little having gone their way so far this season, even the boost wide receiver Vincent Jackson is bound to give the San Diego Chargers’ offense will likely come a few weeks too late.

It’s somewhat ironic that the one thing that has kept the 2-4 Chargers from flatlining up to this point seems unlikely to survive the length of time it will take Jackson to serve his three-game roster-exemption suspension, to be served once he finally reports to the team to sign his contract. His decision to bring an end to his idiocy came on Thursday.

Meanwhile, San Diego’s dynamic offense, which has scored the fourth-most in the entire league in six games, 157 points, looks like it will be without tight end Antonio Gates and fellow wide receiver Malcom “No Second ‘L’” Floyd for an undetermined amount of time after both missed practice on Thursday. Gates, of course, being the six-time Pro-Bowler and premier target of choice for quarterback Philip Rivers, and Floyd obviously being the victim of his parents’ inability to remember their older son, Malcolm. No offense to the elder Floyd, but they’re not the only ones, with his career spanning just four years in the mid-1990s.

Now, Jackson held out for a long-term deal this summer, with him and left tackle Marcus McNeill seemingly taking an oath of solidarity to not sign their tender offers. Apparently, a bond that strong is only broken by a lust for greed, which for McNeill was satisfied when he got his five-year, $48.5-million contract extension on October 11. And, like a Rivers pass thrown astray, Jackson, realizing he isn’t quite as valuable as he may have thought, was left twisting in the wind looking to be picked off by another team.

The league and the NFL Players Association had come to an agreement that Jackson’s six-games’ worth of suspensions (including a three-game ban for a driving-under-the-influence charge dating back to 2009) could be reduced to two if the Chargers were to trade him to another team, but, despite agent Neil Schwartz reporting several potential deals being on the table, none appealed to Chargers general manager A.J. Smith. As a result, the agreed-upon window during which he could have been traded closed, leading Schwartz to “reveal” that one rival gm told him Smith never had any intention of trading Jackson and that he was squatting on his rights.

Fitting tea-bagging imagery aside, the term “squat” is still incredibly appropriate here based on the $240,058 Jackson will earn this season in his six games to be played... a relatively small sum compared to the $3,268,000 he would have earned had he actually taken the time to think out this master plan of his properly. He’ll accrue his sixth season towards free agency with those six games, but it’s clear that this end-game is a less-than-ideal scenario for both sides.

Based on how this contract dispute has unfolded, it’s clear that Jackson will just end up playing not for the Chargers but for a bigger contract next year. It clearly won’t be with the Chargers, who are becoming increasingly irrelevant with each passing game. Oddly enough that may be the one inch of common ground between them, as Jackson can surely relate. The Chargers may well be out of the playoff hunt by the time Jackson will be eligible to help out.