Assessing the Bolts Draft & UDFAs to Watch

I knew these questions were coming, especially when the tight end spot was so heavily mocked to the Chargers in recent months.

I’ll echo something I wrote last week in the pre-draft Mailbag. For all of the information out there, we all don’t really know what’s going to happen.

And just because pundits project one tight end after another to the Bolts, it doesn’t mean the front office is surely going to pick one.

“We like our tight end room. We draft what the board presents us,” Chargers General Manager Tom Telesco said Saturday night. “You really can’t manufacture anything. I think it’s a really good group of players. We have some depth there at that position. We’re ready to go.”

So, while tight end and running back were popular projections in mock drafts, it didn’t turn out that way in the actual draft, which is as fluid and unpredictable as anything in the league.

The Bolts have Gerald Everett as the starter, with Donald Parham, Jr., Tre’ McKitty, Stone Smartt and Hunter Kampoyer on the roster. Michael Ezeike was added as an undrafted free agent Saturday night.

Moore met with beat reporters Monday and was understandably asked about that position group.

He had a great answer, which is in full below, on what the tight end spot means to his offense and how he’ll use this current group.

“I think the tight end room is a very rare room and it’s a very important room for an offense because they’re part of every aspect of the game,” Moore said. “The run game, they’re right in there with the O-Line in the run-game component and the techniques. They’re in the pass game, obviously, with the QBs, at times they’re a protector, even in the play-action game and what not.

“Those guys have to be able to do a lot of different things. It’s a very important role just because of those things,” Moore continued.

“We probably used a little bit more tight ends, maybe, the last couple of years in Dallas. A little bit more 12 and 13 [personnel] and some of those different things. It suited us…