SAN DIEGO -- The Los Angeles Chargers had been considered one of the potential landing spots for Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon after coach Anthony Lynn said the explosive running back remained on the team’s draft board after a pre-draft visit.

However, in this interview with AM 570 LA sports in Los Angeles, Chargers general manager Tom Telesco indicated his team decided to go in another direction in the draft.

The Chargers could have taken Mixon at No. 38 in the second round, but instead selected Western Kentucky offensive lineman Forrest Lamp. Mixon went off the board 10 picks later at No. 48 to the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Chargers took a calculated risk that Forrest Lamp would fall to them at No. 38 in the draft, and it paid off. Brian Spurlock/USA TODAY Sports

ESPN’s Elizabeth Merrill writes an interesting profile on how Mixon is looking for a second chance in Cincinnati.

“With Joe, we did do a lot of work on him to determine what would be the best scenario for us,” Telesco said. “And at the end it worked out that Cincinnati gets a good football player, we got our good players and we’re happy right there.

“I don’t get into who we had on or off the board very often, but after we did the work on Joe, we just thought it was best that we went with the guys we had.”

Telesco said the Chargers actually tried to move up in the second round to get Lamp, but ultimately decided to stay put in the hopes that he would fall to them at No. 38.

“We had very high grades on him and thought he’d be a good fit for us,” Telesco said of Lamp. “We thought he would go in maybe the mid-to-late first round. He didn’t, so our first thought is he would probably go off early in the second, can we go get him?

“So we talked to some different teams about moving up in the second round to acquire him there. But our pro scouts in Lewis Clark, Dennis Abraham and Regis Eller do a great job as far as giving us the groundwork and framework of what other teams are looking for, what their needs are and how they draft. And we made a decision that we thought we could sit there with those other teams in front of us, and there’s a good chance he could come to us and we’d save a draft pick.”

Many mock drafts had the Chargers selecting Ohio State safety Malik Hooker at No. 7. However, with Hooker still on the board, Telesco took Clemson receiver Mike Williams.

Obviously, Hooker had some medical risks due to hip labrum and sports hernia surgeries he had in March that will limit his availability in offseason workouts and training camp. And the Chargers finished with the most players on injured reserve in the league last season.

So it appears the risk-averse Telesco took the cleanest player available at No. 7, particularly with LSU safety Jamal Adams coming off the board a pick ahead of the Chargers at No. 6 to the New York Jets.

“This was an interesting draft in the first round, especially in the top 10 or 15,” Telesco said. “There were a good amount of players with different flags for different reason, obviously still talented, but different flags, whether it was medical or character concerns.

“Mike was a very clean player for us. (He was) highly productive as Clemson, and he’s got size, speed and strength, and being able to really play at a high level and against a lot of high-level competition in college.”