Looking to improving from last year's 5-11 record following a coaching change and the signing of free agents, the Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday selected Clemson receiver Mike Williams with the seventh choice in the first round of the NFL draft.
The draft began at 5 p.m. PDT. The second and third rounds of the three-day draft will be held Friday and the fourth through seventh rounds Saturday. The draft was conducted in Philadelphia for the first time since 1961.
The Chargers will hold a DraftFest party from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday at StubHub Center in Carson, where they are set to play the next two seasons. The team's first-round draft choice and quarterback, Philip Rivers, and several other current and former players are set to attend. The draft will be shown on screens throughout the stadium.
Children can play interactive NFL Play60 games. Admission and parking are free.
The Chargers' draft philosophy is to "never pass a special player for a need," general manager Tom Telesco said.
To Telesco "a lot of the draft is eliminating the players who don't fit for you, either scheme-wise or culture-wise."
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"We start out with 3,000 prospects and ... we're probably looking at under 200 on draft day that we're drafting out of,'' Telesco said.
The Chargers employ eight college scouts who spend "hours and hours and days and days traveling, watching film, going to practices, going to games, writing reports," Telesco said.
The team also has three pro scouts who do "a great job of putting a framework together of the ... other 31 teams as far as what they could do, what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are on the rosters, what their draft histories have been potential trade possibilities.
The Chargers also have three scouting assistants whose duties include keeping track of the data that comes in from the scouts, Telesco said.
"Those three guys are the low guys on the totem pole but they are maybe the three most important guys with our draft,'' Telesco said. "We can't run the draft without those three guys. They do a tremendous amount of work and get everything organized for us."
The team's coaching staff "help with how players fit in the scheme and what their exact role would be for us," Telesco said. "Scouts sometimes have a little broader look at things, coaches a little bit more narrow as far as who could help them tomorrow," Telesco said.
"That's needed in your checks and balances."
The team's doctors are also part of the draft process, sharing their knowledge of the injury history of the potential draftees, Telesco said.
"We'll sit in a room with the doctors -- almost like it's a scouting meeting -- and we'll go through all the players, what they have, what the short-term risk is, what the long-term is," Telesco said. "Those are discussions that take a long time. If you're not available for us, you can't help us. We have to try to make good, educated decisions on injuries."
In their preparations for the draft, the Chargers spend as much time examining who to choose in the seventh and final round as the first, Telesco said.
"Those fifth, sixth, seventh round those are really important draft picks for the core of your football team," Telesco said. "We put a lot of work into that."
