Los Angeles Chargers: Antonio Gates deserves one more shot at a ring
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Chargers ended up bringing back Antonio Gates last season after Hunter Henry’s injury and should give him one more go in LA.
Many fans thought that they had seen the last of Antonio Gates after the 2017 NFL season. That was until Hunter Henry suffered a torn ACL and the Los Angeles Chargers went against what the team previously stood by and brought the veteran tight end back for one more year.
Now we are in a similar situation. Henry is back healthy and the Chargers have Virgil Green as the number two option at tight end. Gates is once again a free agent and has not been signed by the Chargers.
Many fans, including wide receiver Keenan Allen, want to see Gates back on the Chargers this year. It definitely is not too late as Gates did not re-sign with the Chargers until September, completely forgoing training camp and the preseason.
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That could be the strategy this year; just hold off until right before the season and re-sign Gates, so he does not have to go through all of the nuances of the preseason.
Either way, Gates undoubtedly deserves one more shot at a Super Bowl ring this season. Even if he is rarely on the field and is reserved for red zone and third and short chances, he deserves this chance.
He proved last year that he could still contribute in this role and his chemistry with Philip Rivers makes him a dangerous target when the team is in the red zone. It is not even about that, though. It is about Gates’ veteran leadership and what he deserves.
Gates has a massive veteran impact on this team, which is evident by Allen’s comments that he already misses Gates in the locker room. That is the kind of production to a team that cannot be measured on a stat sheet but still has a massive impact.
Not only that, but Gates has put into the Chargers so much that the franchise deserves to pay him back out. He has stuck with the team through good times and bad when he could have signed with a contender to go get a ring.
He didn’t. He stayed with the franchise and has the third-most receiving yards of any tight end and the most touchdowns. He is a first-ballot Hall of Famer and the only thing he is missing to cement himself as the best tight end of all-time is something that Tony Gonzalez never received: a Super Bowl ring.
I don’t care if Gates has one play a game and stands on the sidelines and the Chargers are paying him to do so. The franchise has rarely had a team like the one this year and it has not been since LaDainian Tomlinson was in his prime that the team has as good of a chance to win the Super Bowl as this year.
Gates has suffered through the bad, has continued to put up numbers when the team was winning six or fewer games.
Next. Rivers is a legitimate MVP candidate. dark
He does not deserve to end his career in a blowout loss to the New England Patriots. If the Los Angeles Chargers don’t give him one more shot at a Super Bowl ring, the franchise will be showing no loyalty to someone who has been nothing but loyal to them.