Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Chargers showing interest in Royal


After signing Robert Meachem last night, the San Diego Chargers may not be done adding wide receivers to the depth chart. According to U-T San Diego's Kevin Acee, the Chargers are pursuing Denver Broncos unresticted free agent wide receiver Eddie Royal.

Here's what Acee tweeted about two hours ago:

Chargers looking to make Eddie Royal their No.4 receiver. Odds seem pretty good, I'm told.

Along with Meachem, Royal would add an element that's been missing with the Chargers' pass-catchers recently: blazing speed. Vincent Jackson, Malcom Floyd, and tight end Antonio Gates are big pass-catchers who make huge plays, but they don't often turn short passes into long gains.

"That's something that we really haven't had a ton of, is the run after catch, the big play from the wide receivers," Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers said when talking about Meachem during an interview with XX1090's Darren Smith today.

After entering the NFL as a second-round pick in 2008, Royal caught 91 passes for 980 yards and five touchdowns as a rookie. His numbers went down in 2009 (37 receptions for 345 yards and no touchdowns), up in 2010 (59 receptions for 627 yards and three touchdowns), and down again in 2011 (19 receptions for 155 yards and one touchdown). Much of that can be attributed to instability at the quarterback position, as Denver went from Jay Cutler to Kyle Orton to Tim Tebow. Royal has also played for three different head coaches (Mike Shanahan, Josh McDaniels, and John Fox) in four years.

Royal is also a dynamic kick/punt returner, which the Chargers missed in 2011 after Darren Sproles left for New Orleans last summer. In four years Royal has returned one kickoff and two punts for touchdowns. He's produced a 24.1-yard average on kickoffs and 11.9 on punts. He's returned just eight kickoffs in the last two years. In 2011, he had a 16.1-yard average and one touchdown on 12 punt returns.

Earlier today I mentioned I wanted San Diego general manager A.J. Smith to sign New York Giants unrestricted free agent wide receiver Mario Manningham. But I won't be disappointed if the Chargers sign Royal instead.

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