Los Angeles Chargers G.M. Tom Telesco believes that Philip Rivers still has good football left in him. He believes Melvin Gordon is an “excellent football player” and deserves to get paid.
But when it comes to whether the futures of Rivers and/or Gordon reside with the Chargers, it’s a bit complicated.
Telesco said in an interview with Alex Marvez, Mark Dominik and Rick Neuheisel on Sirius XM NFL Radio that with both players being free agents, the decisions over whether to pursue a reunion with two of their highest profile pieces is a difficult task.
“Well he’s a free agent so there’s a lot of moving parts that come with that,” Telesco said of Rivers. “He among some other free agents that we have. I said after the season that we didn’t have the best year, obviously. We had five wins, so that wasn’t good enough. Didn’t make the playoffs and had a rough year but Philip still has good snaps in him. I think I can see that, I think everybody can see that. He still has some good snaps. He didn’t play his best in every game but guess what, our team didn’t play its best in every game either. We only had five wins. I think he still has plenty of good snaps in him but like I said, he’s a free agent. So there’s a lot of moving parts that go with that.
“We have a lot of other guys that are free agents. We have to try to put together the best team we can for next year with a lot of different things. But the good thing is we have some time to get this worked out. After the season ended, we took a step away to kind of gather our thoughts, watch some more tape. We’re going to need some time with this to try to make it right, make sure its the right decision you’re making in the offseason because it’s going to affect you into the regular season.”
Rivers may already be envisioning a different path having moved his family out of their long-time Southern California residence. Meanwhile, Gordon may very well want a new opportunity as well after holding out for a contract extension that never came last fall.
“I love Melvin Gordon. He’s been a great player for us,” Telesco said. “He’s a player that we trade up in the first round (for), we drafted him. He came in and has done an excellent job for us. But he’s a free agent and we have to try and figure out what’s the best for our football team as we move into 2020 and beyond. Our philosophy is that we sign our own. That’s what we like to do. You can’t necessarily do that with every single player but we like to re-sign our own free agents when we can. But we’re trying to work through that process, see what works best. Melvin has shown he’s an excellent football player and deserves to get paid. He does. So we’ve got to figure out if it’s with us or with somebody else, but I love the kid. I really do.”