The San Diego Chargers have ruled starting cornerback Brandon Flowers out for their Thursday Night Football matchup against the Denver Broncos.
Chargers have ruled out RBs Donald Brown and Ryan Mathews along with CB Brandon Flowers for Thursday night's game in Denver.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 22, 2014
Flowers, a free agent acquisition from the Kansas City Chiefs this past offseason, is Pro Football Focus’ second-ranked cornerback through Week 7.
Quarterbacks are putting up just a 66.9 rating when targeting Flowers this season. If he was able to go, the Pro Bowler would have likely covered Demaryius Thomas, who has tallied over 500 receiving yards in the last three games.
With Flowers out of action, Shareece Wright and Richard Marshall will start on the outside Thursday night.
In another bit of bad news, rookie slot corner Jason Verrett is questionable with a shoulder injury. As a top contender for Defensive Rookie of the Year, this is also potentially a big loss.
If Verrett isn’t able to go, Marcus Gilchrist will line up as the Chargers slot corner. He just recently transitioned to the safety position from cornerback, so the experience is there. With that said, Gilchrist is a major downgrade from a talent perspective and would have the task of having to cover Wes Welker.
We have seen full well how the Broncos offense succeeds against defenses that are at full strength. Once you take away key players, the end result is similar to what happened Sunday night against the San Francisco 49ers. With Navorro Bowman, Patrick Willis and Aldon Smith all sidelined in that game, Peyton Manning was able to do whatever the heck he wanted against the 49ers defense.
Unfortunately for San Diego, we may very well see much of the same come Thursday night in Denver.
Photo: UT-San Diego