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Melvin Ingram, the San Diego Chargers outside linebacker and 2012 first round draft pick, tore his left anterior cruciate ligament on Tuesday morning during the off-season organised team activities. The extent of the tear is not apparent yet, although if it is a full tear and surgery is required, it will likely mean that Ingram will miss the entire 2013 season.
At face value, this doesn’t look like a huge loss for the Chargers. Ingram played in all 16 games last season but only managed one sack and one forced fumble. However, the loss of two outside linebackers, Shaun Phillips to Denver and Antwan Barnes to the Jets, has changed things in San Diego. Phillips, especially, needs replacing. He led the team in sacks last year with 9.5, and San Diego were expecting that in his absence, Melvin Ingram would play a much more integral role in the Chargers’ 2013 campaign.
Now that Ingram has gone down, the Bolts are desperately short at the outside linebacker position and need to find a pass rush from somewhere. The Powder Blue have to face Colin Kaepernick, Robert Griffin III, Andrew Luck, Russell Wilson, Tony Romo, Jay Cutler and Andy Dalton this season, as well as Peyton Manning twice. If they can’t apply pressure to those quarterbacks, they won’t win many games.
Dwight Freeney and John Abraham are the best two veteran pass rushers in the market right now. While they are both older players, and more suited to playing defensive end than outside linebacker, San Diego will probably want to give both men serious consideration. In fact, just before this went to publish, Ian Rapaport of NFL.com reported that the Chargers are expecting to meet with Dwight Freeney. They certainly aren’t wasting any time trying to bring in Ingram’s replacement.
