Speaker 1: Welcome to playmakers. Everyone. I'm your host, Haley Ellwood. It
Speaker 1: is week three in the Los Angeles Chargers. We'll welcome
Speaker 1: to Jacksonville Jaguars to town. So joining me to talk
Speaker 1: about this matchup is NFL on CBS sideline reporter AJ Ross,
Speaker 1: who will be down on the sidelines. Aj, thanks for
Speaker 1: joining me. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So we're going to give the big old disclaimer here
Speaker 1: before we get into and that is we are taping
Speaker 1: this on a Tuesday. The Chargers have not taken the field.
Speaker 1: No one knows really at this point what is going
Speaker 1: to happen, notably most with Justin Herbert and his status
Speaker 1: for Sunday. But we're gonna go with it. Who knows,
Speaker 1: it might be outdated by the time Sunday rolls around,
Speaker 1: but we're going to do our best here. Sounds good,
Speaker 1: all right? AJ? So, as I said, we're not totally
Speaker 1: sure on the status of Justin Herbert, But overall, what
Speaker 1: are you looking at in this matchup? I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: that's if Justin does play. He showed a lot of
Speaker 1: just perseverance and grit, and I mean it was painful
Speaker 1: to watch the end of that last game. But what
Speaker 1: an amazing talent. What he's able to do and clutch
Speaker 1: moments is really like top five in the league. So
Speaker 1: I don't even want to call him an X factor.
Speaker 1: He is literally a game changer. But this Jags defense
Speaker 1: is an entirely different group than years before, So you
Speaker 1: cannot sleep on this Jags team. This could be a
Speaker 1: sneaky game for the Chargers depending on who plays, and so, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's an important matchup. You can't count these Jags out whatsoever. No,
Speaker 1: that certainly seems to be the case right now, just
Speaker 1: through the first couple weeks of the season. But let's
Speaker 1: kind of start here. If Herbert can't go and say
Speaker 1: Chase Daniel has to assume the position of the quarterback
Speaker 1: starting quarterback role on Sunday, how does his veteran presence
Speaker 1: having been there before benefit this offense. It's a good
Speaker 1: thought to think of his veteran presence transferring into a
Speaker 1: game scenario. But again, looking at what the Jaguars did
Speaker 1: to the Colts last week, Matt Ryan has just as
Speaker 1: much I think one season on top of Chase Daniel,
Speaker 1: I think fifteen compared to fourteen seasons and obviously Matt
Speaker 1: Bryan's resume compared to Chase Daniel day and night, not
Speaker 1: you know, counting the guy out whatsoever, but I think
Speaker 1: he's only had like five starts in fourteen seasons, five touchdowns,
Speaker 1: maybe a little over twelve hundred yards. You know. Of course,
Speaker 1: leadership and poise can be something critical against the pass rush,
Speaker 1: like what the Jags will probably be doing on Sunday,
Speaker 1: But it's day and night compared to if Herbert's in
Speaker 1: the game, if Chase Daniel's under center, two entirely different teams.
Speaker 1: So I would expect a lot of, you know, on
Speaker 1: the ground action with the Chargers. If Chase Daniel is
Speaker 1: the starting quarterback, You'll see a lot of Austin Eckler,
Speaker 1: I would anticipate, and the defense will really have to
Speaker 1: step up and kind of compensate and hopefully get some turnovers.
Speaker 1: That all equates points absolutely, and flipping to that Chargers defense.
Speaker 1: Ter when James obviously just such a presence when he's healthy.
Speaker 1: We saw the impact he had on Travis Kelsey in
Speaker 1: last Thursday's game. How can he be a game changer
Speaker 1: on that side of the ball man that body slam
Speaker 1: on Travis Kelsey. I think everybody felt that across the nation.
Speaker 1: It felt like an earthquake when he did that. Derwin
Speaker 1: James is just a unique talent. I mean, he's a force,
Speaker 1: and his energy on the field you can feel, it's palpable,
Speaker 1: it's contagious. So yeah, obviously on the defensive side of
Speaker 1: the ball, his presence can you dictate a game immensely,
Speaker 1: But it's gonna have to be a collective effort and
Speaker 1: they're gonna have to apply consistent pressure up front on
Speaker 1: Travis Lawrence. Like that's going to be I think really
Speaker 1: the big key for the Chargers defense in this one.
Speaker 1: Or Lawrence. Yeah, yeah, Trevor Lawrence. And we'll actually we'll
Speaker 1: get to Trevor Lawrence. Now, let's talk about these Jags
Speaker 1: for a little bit. You mentioned it, they blank the
Speaker 1: Colts in week two. There's a new head coach, you
Speaker 1: mentioned some new pieces on defense, But overall, why is
Speaker 1: this such a different Jacksonville team than maybe what we
Speaker 1: saw a year ago. Well, Trevor, for one, is doing
Speaker 1: extremely well through the first two weeks. His completion percentage
Speaker 1: just this last game eighty three percent is a career
Speaker 1: high for him. I think he completed twenty five or
Speaker 1: thirty passes, which you know he hasn't even all of
Speaker 1: last season had that high of a completion percentage or
Speaker 1: a quarterback rating. So he's coming into his own. They
Speaker 1: often say with quarterbacks the year two leap is a
Speaker 1: you know, defining factor and what not. Just they do
Speaker 1: that year too, but moving forward with their careers, and
Speaker 1: he has key pieces around him now, he has Christian
Speaker 1: Kirk Zay Jones, and their run game is also you know,
Speaker 1: opening up a bit. So you know, offensively, it's a
Speaker 1: different team and I've mentioned defensively it's a different team.
Speaker 1: So I think this is really going to be an
Speaker 1: interesting matchup and yeah, we'll see what happens. When you
Speaker 1: look at that development for Trevor Lawrence, how much of
Speaker 1: an impact do you think Doug Peterson has had, even
Speaker 1: though just it's spend such a short amount of time
Speaker 1: and we only have a very small sample size right now.
Speaker 1: Absolutely day and night, it seems don't have to get
Speaker 1: back into the controversy of last year, but something I've
Speaker 1: just started to kind of delve into with local reports
Speaker 1: and what I've seen with some of their interviews, even
Speaker 1: the way they game planned for week two with Trevor
Speaker 1: trying to build up his confidence and get him into
Speaker 1: a rhythm with scripted plays out the gate. There was
Speaker 1: a lot of underneath passes, a lot of you know, checkdowns,
Speaker 1: things to just get him into a rhythm out the
Speaker 1: gate and get him comfortable and not as inclined to
Speaker 1: like force it and you know, turn the ball over.
Speaker 1: And that's just made a huge impact. And obviously Doug
Speaker 1: Peterson comes with a wealth of experience working with quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: So the synergy, I think is something that you're already
Speaker 1: seeing on display early on in this season. So let's
Speaker 1: get into this Jags defense. Three interceptions last week of
Speaker 1: Matt Randibley. Former charger ray Sean Jenkins had one of those.
Speaker 1: What is causing them right now to just mesh so well? It,
Speaker 1: according to reports, is like this contagious competitive spirit throughout
Speaker 1: their defense and amongst them, you know, even ray Sean
Speaker 1: was recently saying an interview, like they try to get
Speaker 1: a turnover or take way early on because if they
Speaker 1: can get that, it seems to be a ripple effect
Speaker 1: and they want to get these multiples and even internally
Speaker 1: they seem to have like these competitions like some of
Speaker 1: the dbs, the corners are having any internal conversations or
Speaker 1: competitions about like I gotta pick today, now you got
Speaker 1: to catch up that sort of thing. So, you know,
Speaker 1: the Jags had those top picks and the draft this year,
Speaker 1: these rookies are, you know, already performing two linebackers they
Speaker 1: drafted very early. So again, it's a whole new face
Speaker 1: on this defense and they believe that they can win.
Speaker 1: They do not have that carryover from years past with
Speaker 1: you know, these negative connotations about the drag wars of
Speaker 1: the old. This is a brand new team. It's a
Speaker 1: new day, and this defense is young and they're hungry.
Speaker 1: I think that's such an interesting point that you make,
Speaker 1: because so much of the time we're talking about positive carryover.
Speaker 1: We're talking about maybe teams that didn't quite make it
Speaker 1: the last year, but it's like, oh, but they did
Speaker 1: these great things and that'll carry over. But very rarely
Speaker 1: do we talk about negativity and maybe throwing that aside.
Speaker 1: And I think that's so interesting. Obviously, we said new
Speaker 1: head coach, some new pieces, but the fact that they
Speaker 1: have totally just put that behind them and are moving
Speaker 1: forward is pretty remarkable. Absolutely, that mentality is everything, and
Speaker 1: if you don't believe internally that you can do something
Speaker 1: different than you know, it's a very long season, to
Speaker 1: say the least. So seeing this sort of precedent early
Speaker 1: on that they are, you know, believing in each other
Speaker 1: and they're you know, picking each other up and competing
Speaker 1: within the team in a you know, a positive way.
Speaker 1: We'll see how long this endures. This is the first
Speaker 1: AFC South opponent for the Chargers this season, after playing
Speaker 1: two AFC West. Team's final question, what do you think?
Speaker 1: And I know this could be as easy as just
Speaker 1: if number ten is out there, but what do you
Speaker 1: think will be a big factor in determining how this
Speaker 1: game gets played out? I think it's going to be
Speaker 1: close either way. Even if Herbert is out there. There's
Speaker 1: a pain factor, you know, a what is it rib? Cartilage?
Speaker 1: I don't want to say the wrong thing, that it
Speaker 1: can be just as painful, if not more than a
Speaker 1: broken rib. So I don't want to take for granted that,
Speaker 1: you know, if he is present out there, that this
Speaker 1: is you know, just that throwing motion can be you know,
Speaker 1: every snap something very painful. I think it will come
Speaker 1: down to, you know, maybe some fourth down calls on
Speaker 1: both sides of the ball these I mean not both sides,
Speaker 1: but both teams, And these are two coaches that like
Speaker 1: to gamble a bit, So I think there's a lot
Speaker 1: of variables in this one as far as time of possession,
Speaker 1: how often they may go for it on fourth down,
Speaker 1: how well each of these quarterbacks whomever maybe out there
Speaker 1: takes care of the ball, and obviously defense, there's there's
Speaker 1: you know, some big names on both these teams. So um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't I don't want to put it all on
Speaker 1: Justin's shoulders, but yeah, I hope he heals up and
Speaker 1: he's out there. We hope that too. I think every
Speaker 1: Charters fan is lighting candles and praying for that to
Speaker 1: happen this week. But AJ, we will see you out
Speaker 1: at so Far on Sunday. Thanks so much for coming on,
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for having me looking forward to it.