SD Impact Player Picks

What I'm looking for here are players you feel were drafted or UdfAs that had a major Impact in their rookie season ,1960 to present.

Obviously LT, Merriman, McNeil (?), Weddle (??) He had some impacting plays at Indy in playoffs that year...i.e. the INT right by the goal line)...can't really think of others.

My point Linh, Damn seems we suck at drafts! Hope Ingram breaks that! We are talking 52 years!

From most recent to earliest.

Vincent Brown.
Ryan Matthews.
Pretty sure Vasquez started as a rookie.
Cromartie & McNeil.
Merriman, Castillo & Sproles (Vincent Jackson also that year, but sat because of injury as rookie)
Igor Olshanski, Nate Keading, Nick Hardwick, Shaun Phillips, Michael Turner,
Mike Scifres
Quentin Jammer, Toniu Fonoti (hey, he was a great run blocker until he ate himself out of the league.)
LT, Brees.

Seriously, looking at the drafts from 1995 to 2001...OUCH!
Not a whole stands out...except for Ryan Leaf. If you add up all of the career TDs by RBs, TEs and WRs drafted in those years, you get 82.
LT has 162.

I am using Pro Football Reference as my, uh, reference.

Other notable names (I think they started right away, but I could be wrong):

Vaughn Parker & Rodney Harrison (1994)
Natrone Means and Raylee Johnson (1993)
Chris Mims (1992)
Eric Bienemy & Eric Moten (1991)
Juior Seau & John Friesz (1990)
Burt Grossman, Courtney Hall, Billy Joe Tolliver & Marion Butts (1989)
Anthony Miller & Stacy Searels (1988)
Rod Bernstein (1987)
Leslie O'Neal (1986 - I had no idea he was so long ago! He had 132.5 sacks!)
Jim Lachey (1985)
Lionel "Little Train" James (1984)
Billy Ray Smith, Gary Anderson & Gil Byrd (1983)
James Brooks (1981)
Kellen Winslow (1979)
J.J. Jefferson (1978) Did you know he has more career TDs (47) than Winslow (45)?
Gary "Big Hands" Johnson, Louie Kelcher, Fred Dean & Billy Shields (1975)
Dan Fouts (1973)
Russ Washington & Bill Lenkatis (1968)
Bob Howard and Dickie Post (1967)
John Hadl (1962)

First round picks in our history:

YEAR - POS - NAME - SCHOOL - GAMES PLAYED
1961 - DE - Earl Faison - Indiana - 73
1962 - FB - Bob Ferguson - Ohio State - 20
1963 - OG - Walt Sweeney - Syracuse - 181
1964 - LB - Ted Davis - Georgia Tech - 90
1965 - DE - Steve DeLong - Tennessee - 103
1966 - DT - Don Davis - Los Angeles State - 14
1967 - DT - Ron Billingsly - Wyoming - 61
1968 - OT - Russ Washington - Missouri - 200
1969 - QB - Marty Domres - Columbia - 90
1969 - LB - Bob Babich - Miami (OH) - 125
1970 - WR - Walker Gillette - Richmond - 91
1971 - RB - Leon Burns - Long Beach State - 28
1973 - WR - Johnny Rodgers - Nebraska - 17
1974 - RB - Bo Matthews - Colorado - 101
1974 - LB - Don Goode - Kansas - 112
1975 - DT - Gary Johnson - Grambling St. - 157
1975 - DB - Mike H. Williams - LSU - 109
1976 - RB - Joe Washington - Oklahoma - 119
1977 - OC - Bob Rush - Memphis - 117
1978 - WR - John Jefferson - Arizona State - 102
1979 - TE - Kellen Winslow - Missouri - 109
1981 - RB - James Brooks - Auburn - 162
The first pick for the Chargers in 1982 was in the 7th round! Pick 188! But the next year they had 3 first rounders!
1983 - LB - Billy Ray Smith - Arkansas - 126
1983 - RB - Gary Anderson - Arkansas - 111
1983 - DB - Gill Byrd - San Jose State - 149
1984 - DB - Mossy Cade - Texas - 30
1984 (Supplemental Pick) - DE - Lee Williams - Bethune-Cookman -140
1985 - OT - Jim Lachey - Ohio State - 131
1986 - DE - Leslie O'Neal - Oklahoma State - 196
1986 - OT - James FitzPatrick - USC - 65
1987 - RB - Rod Bernstine - Texas A&M - 84
1988 - WR - Anthony Miller - Tennessee - 155
1989 - DT - Burt Grossman - Pittsburgh - 86
1990 - LB - Junior Seau - USC - 268
1991 - DB - Stanley Richards - Texas - 124
1992 - DE - Chris Mims - Tennessee - 104
1993 - DB - Darrien Gordon - Stanford - 138
Welcome to the Bobby Berthard era! No first round picks!
1998 - QB - Ryan Leaf - Washington State - 25
1999 - RB - Jermaine Fazande - Oklahoma - 20
2001 - RB - LaDainian Tomlinson - TCU - 170
2002 - DB - Quentin Jammer - Texas - 156
2003 - DB - Sammy Davis - Texas A&M - 71
2004 - QB - Eli Manning - Ole Miss - 121 all with Giants
2005 - LB - Shawne Merriman - Maryland - 65
2005 - DE - Louis Castillo - Northwestern - 82
2006 - DB - Antonio Cromartie - Florida State - 95
2007 - WR - Craig Davis - LSU - 26
2008 - DB - Antone Cason - Arizona - 64
2009 - LB - Larry English - Northern Illinois - 29
2010 - RB - Ryan Matthews - Fresno State - 26
2011 - DE - Corey Liuget - Illinois - 15
2012 - LB - Melvin Ingram - South Carolina

So, if I got all of this correct, out of 60 first-round picks, the Chargers have selected an offensive player 33 times, defensive player 27 times.

DE-7
DT-4
LB-8
DB-8

OT-3
OG-1
OC-1
FB-1
RB-9
TE-1
WR-5
QB-3

That Pro Football Reference website somehow computes something called the "Career Approximate Value," which apparently tries to break down how valuable the draft pick was to the team.

According to them, Junior Seau is tops followed closely by LT:

Junior Seau - 127
LaDanian Tomlinson - 124
Dan Fouts - 122
Jimmy Johnson (DB) - 113
John Hadl - 111
Russ Washington - 99
Drew Brees - 97

Other notables:
Leslie O'Neal - 87
Kellen Winslow - 76
Fred Dean - 75
Rodney Harrison - 74
Gary Johnson - 68
Gil Byrd - 62
Eric Weddle - 24
Jacob Hester - 5
Ryan Leaf - 2

The wide receiver drafted by the Chargers with the most receiving TDs is Anthony Miller (63.)