P-Rez25

Hurrying to a rental car on a chilly morning at the most recent Senior Bowl, Kansas City Chiefs General Manager Karl Peterson was discussing the Chargers' success the past three seasons.

“The key was that (2004) draft,” Peterson said just before ducking his head into the passenger seat and being driven away.

On the last weekend of April 2004, with a franchise in disarray and having been so recently dissed, one of the modern era's most impressive draft hauls served as the bedrock of a team's road to respectability.

Of course, there was the drafting of impudent Eli Manning with the first overall pick and subsequent epic trade that sent him to the New York Giants.

Manning had said he would not play for the Chargers, who at the time had suffered through eight consecutive seasons without a winning record.

But Smith took him with the first pick anyway.

Some 40 minutes later, Smith struck a deal with Giants GM Ernie Accorsi.

It was more heist than trade, as the Giants drafted Rivers and then sent him to San Diego along with a third-round pick in that draft and first-and fifth-round selections in 2005.

Just last week, noted ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper recalled, “I said on draft day – and Ernie Accorsi is a good friend of mine – I disagreed with what they did. . . . It looks like San Diego got the best of that by far.”


SignOnSanDiego.com > San Diego Chargers -- All the right moves

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