It's not a complete coincidence, but soon after signing running back Ronnie Brown, the San Diego Chargers are trying their hand at the Wildcat offense.
Chargers coach Norv Turnertold U-T San Diego on Wednesday that he has toyed with the idea of using the Wildcat for roughly two months. On this front, Brown represents a good fit, at least historically.
The 30-year-old running back has bounced around in recent years, but it's hard to forget the damage he and Ricky Williams inflicted when the Miami Dolphins ran the Wildcat under coach Tony Sparano beginning in 2008. Those days are long gone, but Brown has some interesting weapons around him in San Diego.
The newspaper reported that wide receivers Eddie Royal and Micheal Spurlock and running back Ryan Mathews have taken snaps out of the package. Brown believes a diverse roster is core to the Wildcat's success: "There's a lot of athletes on this team," he said. "It makes it a lot easier, being a piece of the puzzle. You've got different guys running around. Defenses don't have that one guy to focus on."
This isn't San Diego's initial foray into the strange lands of the Wildcat, even with a quarterback like Philip Rivers under center. They ran the "Wild Frog" set with LaDainian Tomlinson and have continued to dip into the sub-package in game situations in recent seasons. We're not confident Brown can duplicate his past success -- or even make this team -- but we'll keep an eye on Chargers practices to see how this develops.
