Roster Math: QBs

We have 3 slots filled, and the next three are almost as easy.

QBs Philip Rivers, Mike Volek, and Charlie Whitehurst will in all likelihood fill the 3 QB spots this year.

Rivers is obviously locked in to a roster spot. It's now his offense and his team.

Volek is the 3 million dollar a year player who the Chargers hope never has to actually play. In case Rivers goes down for part of the year, the Chargers are betting that the Volektricity will be able to keep them going. The only reason, barring injury, why I could see him not making the team is if they determine that his play has fallen off dramatically, so much that it no longer warrants his price tag as a backup. I don't know of any evidence of that.

Whitehurst was a 3rd round draft pick with 4 years experience learning and practicing in the Chargers' system. He has no competition in camp for the 3rd QB spot. The team didn't even bring in a 4th QB as a camp arm (its reported that David Binn is filling his time by throwing to receivers in practice).

Whitehurst's only danger of being cut would come from the team deciding that the extra roster spot would be better suited for a player at another position. I doubt this happens, since risk of having only 2 QBs likely outweighs the reward of keeping another backup elsewhere. If they were to go that direction and one or both of the other two QBs were to go down, the Chargers would then likely have to scramble to bring in some currently unemployed QB as a backup or, heaven forbid, the starter. While we can't say just how good Whitehurst would be if pressed into service in a meaningful game, I think its safe to say that, with his 4 years of coaching and knowledge of the system, he would be preferable to someone who couldn't find work on any other NFL roster and had to scramble to learn the system.

This scenario is admittedly far fetched. The reality is that the Chargers QB depth chart will look as its looked the last 3 years: Rivers, Volek, Whitehurst.

That's 3 more roster spots accounted for, leaving 47.