Chargers to meet with Rams Monday

Representatives from the Los Angeles Rams and San Diego Chargers will meet on Monday to discuss the Chargers joining the Rams in Los Angeles, perhaps in time for the 2016 season.

From what I can gather, the meeting will be among team staff members only, which means Rams’ owner Stan Kroenke and Chargers owner Dean Spanos are not expected to attend. The first order of business for the Chargers is deciding whether it’s possible to come together on a deal with the Rams that would pave the way for the Chargers to play in Los Angeles next season. The two teams would then open their Inglewood stadium together in 2019.

For that to happen, the two sides would have to come to an agreement within the next two weeks.

The options for the Chargers are clear:

1. Make a deal with the Rams and decisively announce their intentions to move to Los Angeles for 2016.

2. Agree to the framework of a deal, then remain in San Diego for the 2016 season using the Rams deal as leverage to motivate San Diego to come up with – and approve – a stadium plan to keep the Chargers. If San Diego doesn’t deliver, the Chargers have a guaranteed spot in L.A. beginning in 2017.

3. Decide immediately no deal with the Rams is possible, back out entirely, go back to work in San Diego and open a spot in Los Angeles for the Raiders.

According to sources, option one seems the most likely. It would eliminate any long-range uncertainty for the Chargers, who would simply turn the page on San Diego entirely and embrace their future as the Los Angeles Chargers. And it would send a decisive message to Los Angeles that the Chargers absolutely want to be there.

And while option two seems reasonable, the Chargers simply aren’t convinced San Diego will deliver a stadium deal, and a year working on one there would simply be a year wasted. They want to begin their life as the Los Angeles Chargers ASAP, and every day they don’t is one day further they’ll fall behind the Rams in the marketing of L.A.

That doesn’t mean a deal will happen in the next two weeks. But the sense I get is, the Chargers are looking for every reason to make one happen.