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Chargers’ Green shows growth

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The outside world looks at Chargers tight end Ladarius Green – fast, tall, young – and hungers for more.

More catches. More touchdowns.

When Green beats a safety for six points on a fade route, as he did in a 2013 playoff game at Cincinnati, or runs away from linebackers and safeties, as he did in Buffalo two months ago, fans and media wonder why it can’t happen more often.

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“It’s not as simple as they expect it to be,” Green said this week, “because we’ve got other weapons on the field – great players.

“The ball gets spread around so much. Whoever’s open just happens to get the ball. You never know who’s going to get the ball.”

Where this year he has 15 catches, a 14-yard average and no touchdowns in 11 games, last year Green had 17 catches, a 22.1-yard average and three TDs in 16 games followed by the TD in the Wild Card victory over the Bengals.

Opportunities may have been scarcer for him this year, though.

Antonio Gates, the team’s main tight end, has more than doubled his TD total from last year. Receiver Malcom Floyd is a Comeback Player of the Year candidate with 36 catches, a 16.4-yard average and four TDs one season after missing 16 of 18 games with a neck injury.

Green delivered fine returns when called upon last Sunday. On a fourth-quarter scoring drive, he caught a 28-yard pass, moved the chains with a catch in traffic and blocked a speedy Rams cornerback to assist Keenan Allen’s 29-yard jaunt to the end zone.

“It’s been picking up week by week,” he said. “It’s been getting so much better; so, it’s what I expected it to be.”

Blocking challenges

Tight ends are required to block for both pass and run; their versatility creates mystery about the play to come.

At 6-foot-6 with a narrow base, Green’s isn’t ideally suited to create leverage against defenders. His rare speed and long arms help him to initiate contact, but he said it’s “very hard” for him to bulldoze an opponent.

Powerful edge defender Matt Shaughnessy of the Cardinals, for one, proved too forceful in San Diego’s Game 1 defeat at Arizona. The blocking lapses bothered the third-year tight end.

“That was all my fault,” he said. “It was a rough game. I didn’t do as well as I should have. It was tougher, but I could have got it done.”

Reich and Green

Green, 24, since has made strides.

Two games ago, for example, he registered the first “pancake” block of his career when he bowled over Raiders safety Charles Woodson. “Luckily, I got lower than him,” he said, “and it worked out in my favor.”

Playcaller Frank Reich had put him in the I formation, making him perhaps the tallest fullback in Chargers history.

Last Sunday, Reich came up with another wrinkle for Green – stacking him before Allen as a receiver, outside the numbers. Because the backfield was empty, Rams middle linebacker James Laurinaitis ended up on Green.

Though the 255-pound Green has gained 16 pounds since his final year at Louisiana-Lafayette, he said he’s retained all of the 4.47 speed he showed in the 40-yard-dash entering the NFL.

He ran by Laurinaitis to catch Philip Rivers’ 28-yard pass. An even better show of speed came when he ran some 50 yards to knock Rams punt returner Tavon Austin out of bounds.

Notably

Linebacker Andrew Gachkar (knee), nose tackle Ryan Carrethers (elbow) and end Tenny Palepoi (personal reason) didn’t practice Thursday.

A day after not practicing, Ravens edge rusher Terrell Suggs (foot) was a full participant.

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