There are obvious incentives for the Chargers to bolster depth on the offensive line. Eleven different linemen saw significant snaps last year, and no one wants to re-live that catastrophe.
Piquing the interest of Chargers scouts is Stockholm-born OL David Hedelin. Hedelin offers a stout, 6’4″, 300-lb. frame vying to make that final leap to the NFL.
OL David Hedelin Purdue from Sweden has gotten late interest from the #Texans#Chargers#NFLDraft Per source pic.twitter.com/DNQVgZXukx
— College2Pro.com (@BoMarchionte) April 20, 2016
Hedelin’s first step towards that goal was his trans-Atlantic jump to San Francisco City College, where he played for two years. Note, however, his junior college attendance was not because he lacked the ability to play at the highest level, but rather was due to his distance from the state-side scouts.
Watch as Hedelin delivers pancake after pancake block to unsuspecting defenders as he dominated the competition at SFCC. The footage shows Hedelin as being light on his feet, able to nimbly navigate the backfield pre-snap as well as pull from left tackle post-snap and drive linebackers and linemen completely out of plays.
After the Chargers mustered up the 31st-ranked rushing offense last season, run-blocking linemen are certainly a priority and Hedelin fits the bill.
There’s inherent risk with drafting a player whose most significant playing time is at the junior college level, but his dominance was irrefutable.
After two years of crushing opponents, Hedelin’s JuCo success granted him attention from a slew of Div I. schools and landed in West Lafayette, Indiana, at Purdue.
In 2014, Hedelin’s first year at Purdue, he appeared in nine games at left tackle and started the final seven.
As a native of Sweden, Hedelin struggled to learn all of his relevant calls and assignments right away, explaining that he, “Needed a little bit more time with the playbook and everything to understand the words and what [the team was] calling.”
Now, with two years of Big 10 football under his belt, Hedelin should no longer be hampered by a language barrier and is free to just read and react.
In a 2014 interview with the Indy Star, Hedelin admitted how considerable the jump from junior college to Div. I football was, saying, “It’s not the same. It’s way harder [at Purdue].
“Better athletes. It’s a big difference.”
The NFL is an entirely different beast from Div. I football, and if the Chargers give him a chance, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had the same response. That said, if he is capable of the growth he exhibited from Sweden to CCSF to Purdue, he should be able to adjust if given time to develop.
