Unfortunately, they have been spending those cap dollars on poor defensive production. This would support the argument that the team's strength is Herbert, and thus offense, and thus the team should invest a lot in bolstering the offense to the maximum degree, building on that strength. I don't think OL was the way to go in the first round,
yeah I get that. They invested a lot in free agent dollars and never got their money's worth. This is not entirely unusual. players are typically older (late 20's early '30s) when they become UFA's and sometimes there is not as much tread in the tires.
I am personally a big believer that you win and lose games on the line. Everything depends on it. If the O line performs, the QB has time to throw, and the RB have holes to run through. If it doesnt, those things dont happen.
On D if you have a top D line its the opposite. even teams with a good O line will struggle to run the ball against you and their QBs will struggle throwing the ball under pressure.
this is why so many teams place a premium on the running QB. they can (to some degree) compensate for a bad line by using their feet.
that said, it is my belief that you really build championship teams through the draft. Free agency can help but given the age of the average UFA quite often you get value for your dollar on the first year (maybe two) of the contract and then poor value for the rest of it as the player ages. Obviously there are exceptions but I have found free agency is basically a band aid solution that you utilize until you can draft a more permanent replacement.
but if you draft poorly or do a poor job of signing free agents, that whole system falls apart.
the good teams do a good job of keeping it together. and the bad ones do not.
Much as I love the chargers, they could have done a better job here.
sure I agree that they have invested in the line. they have invested in the defense with free agent picks. Yes the line has shown signs of coming around but given the investment, I had hoped for more. Last week against Dallas it did not feel like Herbert had enough time to do his job at times. but then again its the Dallas D. pretty solid defense so maybe I'm over reacting on this some. but when you get beat you can quite often figure out where you need to improve. and as you said, the line is young, so better days are likely ahead.
as for the defense.... difference making players rarely come available in free agency. typically the only way to get them is in the draft. so yeah, they invested in the defense but that will only get you so far. I do think the odds of getting good value for their draft capital with a defender at a position of need is greater than it would be for a TE. Not many TE's are good enough to warrant a first round pick either way. so if investing in a TE, why not round 2?