The Chargers have a reputation of building through the draft — which was the driving force behind the trades of CB Antonio Cromartie and third-string QB Charlie Whitehurst.

With Cromartie’s recent troubles and figuring they had depth at the cornerback position, and that Whitehurst wouldn’t ever receive significant playing time with Pro Bowl pick Philip Rivers and dependable backup Billy Volek ahead of him, the Chargers elected to unload both players.

The Chargers received a 2011 third-round draft pick (potentially a second-rounder based on performance) from the Jets for Cromartie. And it’s pretty much a consensus opinion that San Diego made out nicely in the Whitehurst trade with Seattle, swapping second-round picks this year — moving up from No. 60 to No. 40 overall — and adding a 2011 third-round choice for a guy who has yet to thrown an NFL regular-season pass.

Chargers coach Norv Turner talked about the approach with NFL Network’s Jason La Canfora on Tuesday at the NFL Annual Meeting in Orlando, Fla., and basically said it was part of the team’s master plan for the future.

“You look at your football team and say, ‘Here’s the things we have to get done,’” Turner said. “We want to do some of those things through the draft, so the ability to get some extra picks … in terms of looking at our football team and knowing the direction we want to go, that was important. And now we have to address those things in the draft.”

Turner also spoke about the loss of leadership with the release of RB LaDainian Tomlinson and who will fill the void.

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