Speaker 1: Hey, what is up everybody?
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Get the Charge podcast, presented by the
Speaker 2: Chargers Podcast Network. My name is Steven and I am
Speaker 2: the host, and joining me is my guy Tyler.
Speaker 1: Tyler, what's up man? How you doing?
Speaker 3: I'm doing a fantastic first day of teaching and being
Speaker 3: paid for it. It was great, great first day with
Speaker 3: my kids. And listen, anytime you can walk into work
Speaker 3: after our Chargers victory, you're feeling pretty good. Sure it
Speaker 3: was just the preseason, but like it feels good to
Speaker 3: walk into work after our Chargers victory on the weekend.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it certainly made the weekend more fun for sure.
Speaker 2: Obviously. You know, we both work in education. I'm at
Speaker 2: a year round school, though it was first day for you.
Speaker 2: My wife works in education. It was a first day
Speaker 2: back for her without kids. But so wishing all of
Speaker 2: my fellow educators some some good vibes. Sending it all
Speaker 2: to you guys as you you know, work towards a
Speaker 2: new school.
Speaker 1: Year, and I'm glad Tyler a great first day as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was awesome. Vibes out to all the people
Speaker 3: working in education. You deserve all the good things that
Speaker 3: happened this year.
Speaker 1: There we go.
Speaker 2: All right, So on today's show, we are going to
Speaker 2: dive into that preseason game. We've had some time to
Speaker 2: look at the data, look at the numbers, watch some film,
Speaker 2: and really be able to you know, kind of take
Speaker 2: a broader scope at really what happened on Saturday night
Speaker 2: in this Chargers preseason game, have some takes to fire away.
Speaker 2: We're also going to be doing a game ball segment
Speaker 2: every single week on this show. Again there's an instant
Speaker 2: reaction aspect of the game ball that's really tradition.
Speaker 1: Obviously CJ. A.
Speaker 2: Koy a great story, great moment, got it from the
Speaker 2: actual Chargers team. Tyler and I are kind of taking
Speaker 2: a step back this week and being able to, you know,
Speaker 2: really analyze who performed well. I felt like last or
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty one, I always would say on our
Speaker 2: show like I would retroactively change it to Rashaan and Slay.
Speaker 2: And so this year where we're doing in that, we're
Speaker 2: we're taking a step back and you know, we're choosing
Speaker 2: these guys after being able to watch some tape and
Speaker 2: look at the numbers. So we'll have that today as
Speaker 2: well to round out the show. As always, before we
Speaker 2: get started. Tyan and I are fans of the show.
Speaker 2: We are are not employees of the Charters organization, and
Speaker 2: as such, some opinions that we express on this show
Speaker 2: and every single week on the show are not reflected
Speaker 2: of the Charters organization. So we're very grateful for this
Speaker 2: platform and excited to dive back into this preseason game.
Speaker 2: We'll also have a little bit of a look ahead
Speaker 2: to next preseason game, some things that we're going to
Speaker 2: be looking for next week. So Tyler, what's up, man?
Speaker 2: You ready to dive in, dive back into this one,
Speaker 2: this one.
Speaker 4: Let's do it.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 4: I love talking about wins.
Speaker 2: It's definitely way more fun to talk about wins. You know,
Speaker 2: when in preparation for this show, I was really kind
Speaker 2: of curious where we would start and who we wanted
Speaker 2: to highlight for their performances, And like I said, you know,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of great performances that I think we
Speaker 2: could talk about, but I think it's only right that
Speaker 2: we talk about Easton Stick and what he was able
Speaker 2: to do on Saturday Night because it was a performance
Speaker 2: that we have not really seen from any quarterback over
Speaker 2: the past few years. In the preseason and specifically I
Speaker 2: think we can look at certain things and how we
Speaker 2: might translate it to Justin Herbert so Tyler. Now that
Speaker 2: we have some time to reflect back of what Easton
Speaker 2: Stick was able to do on Saturday night, what stands
Speaker 2: out to you about what he was able to manage
Speaker 2: and perform and put out on tape from that performance
Speaker 2: against the Rams.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was the best quarterback on the field that
Speaker 3: night and would have had an even bigger game if
Speaker 3: Quentin Johnston caught that one football, probably could have copped
Speaker 3: off a drive with a touchdown if Jamari Saler didn't
Speaker 3: have that holding penalty. You know the box score, it's
Speaker 3: like one hundred and nine yards or whatever it is.
Speaker 3: But it was a really, really solid performance and we've
Speaker 3: really started to see him take these apps in training
Speaker 3: camp then at the scrimmage and like, ah, there's always
Speaker 3: one penalty or something quite doesn't go right. And you
Speaker 3: know it wasn't perfect in the preseason game either, but
Speaker 3: you just saw him take so many steps forward in
Speaker 3: terms of managing an offense. The run game definitely helped him.
Speaker 3: We'll talk about that, but Eastern Stick, I think the
Speaker 3: one thing in particular that he did that we're not
Speaker 3: used to seeing is when there was pressure, it wasn't
Speaker 3: just abandon everything and run. It wasn't or it wasn't
Speaker 3: just I'm taking the sack here, or I'm going to
Speaker 3: scramble and oh I've lost seventeen yards.
Speaker 4: I run backwards.
Speaker 3: Eastern Stick's career in pressure to sack rate in the
Speaker 3: preseason has been like twenty one percent. It's not been great.
Speaker 3: When there's pressure, he goes down. Now, granted there's been
Speaker 3: some rough moments and that's sometimes on the offensive line,
Speaker 3: but someone like Justin Herbert, some of these great quarterbacks,
Speaker 3: what makes them great is a low pressure to sack percentage,
Speaker 3: and Eastern Stick faced five of those pressures on Saturday night.
Speaker 3: Pressure to sack rate was zero, and he threw zero
Speaker 3: turnover worthy plays.
Speaker 4: So there was no There really was.
Speaker 3: No negative play from Eastern Stick in that game, and
Speaker 3: that's something that we really haven't seen. So avoiding taking
Speaker 3: the sack, not making you know, a boneheaded throw and
Speaker 3: oh another interception. He really took care of himself and
Speaker 3: the football and the offense just looked so much better
Speaker 3: for it. And it's so great to see some of
Speaker 3: these guys, whether it's high Tower dos Stone, Smart, et cetera.
Speaker 3: These guys in training camp, the scrimmage and in the
Speaker 3: preseason they get something. Well, High Tower was hurt, but
Speaker 3: generally they've been getting work and shining on offense now
Speaker 3: and we're talking about so many different guys getting a
Speaker 3: roster spot because Easton Stick is putting it together. So
Speaker 3: I just I just Overhall and you can get into
Speaker 3: other specifics, but he's just been playing so much better
Speaker 3: and again protecting the football, protecting himself, letting other guys work.
Speaker 3: It's been quite a drastic turnaround for Easton Stick.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know you mentioned just like the managing the
Speaker 2: game aspect was huge for him, and that's something that
Speaker 2: we've seen him take some little steps over the course
Speaker 2: of his career. Obviously, twenty twenty he didn't get to
Speaker 2: play in any preseason game because there were no preseason games.
Speaker 2: But if you just look at like how he's progressed
Speaker 2: throughout his career under pressure, Like you know, in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one, his pressure to sack percentage was forty, which
Speaker 2: which you know, that was the first time he had
Speaker 2: played in a year, right, so it's understandable. Last year
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty two, it was thirteen. We'll see where
Speaker 2: it ends at this preseason, but it's at zero right
Speaker 2: now obviously, so that's a really positive step forward. You
Speaker 2: mentioned the turnover where he plays too, and so just
Speaker 2: like the game management aspect, I think he took such
Speaker 2: big strides in and that alone would be like awesome,
Speaker 2: this is great, like this is player development, this is
Speaker 2: this is a fantastic step for him. But we saw
Speaker 2: a very aggressive Eastern stick on Saturday night, And if
Speaker 2: you watched the great breakdown from Underdog Fantasy from Josh
Speaker 2: Norris and Colt McCoy, you know, they did a great
Speaker 2: breakdown on Kellen Moore and and Justin Herbert and how
Speaker 2: things could kind of translate, and you know, they highlighted
Speaker 2: that Kellen Moore's philosophy is to aggressively take what the
Speaker 2: defense gives you, and I love that phrasing, and I
Speaker 2: love how they illustrated how Dak did it, how Justin
Speaker 2: has done it in the past, and we saw some
Speaker 2: glimpses of that with Easton stick, and again I highlighted,
Speaker 2: you know, like that aspect of managing the game was
Speaker 2: great to see. His average depth of target on Saturday
Speaker 2: night was eight point nine yards. You know, that was
Speaker 2: up over two yards higher than what we have previously
Speaker 2: seen from East and Stick in the preseason. In twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one, his a dot was five point nine. In
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two it was seven point five. We're talking
Speaker 2: about a full two yards difference from what we've seen,
Speaker 2: you know, in eight point nine to a dot is
Speaker 2: a fantastic rate. Again, we'll see how that changes throughout
Speaker 2: the rest of the preseason. But he was taking shots.
Speaker 2: He was, you know, firing balls over the middle into
Speaker 2: these really tight windows. You mentioned that touchdown to Quentin Johnston.
Speaker 2: There was another pass that he threw to Donald Parham
Speaker 2: where he went his first route to the right was
Speaker 2: Quenton Johnston. Quenton wasn't open, and he came back over
Speaker 2: the middle on a third down and fired a missile
Speaker 2: over the middle to Donald Parham.
Speaker 1: For a third down conversion.
Speaker 2: And we just hadn't really seen that kind of aggressive
Speaker 2: mentality from easton Stick and that comfortability for him to say, Hey, like,
Speaker 2: I can fit this ball into that window, and I'm
Speaker 2: gonna trust my guy to go make it happen. And
Speaker 2: so I loved the way that, you know, I watched
Speaker 2: this video to hear that phrase of aggressive, aggressively taking
Speaker 2: what the defense gives you. And then Easton Stick went
Speaker 2: out and did it on Saturday night against the Rams,
Speaker 2: and it was just a fantastic performance by him all around.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can hear all the time to take more
Speaker 3: deep shots and we're gonna do this, and then suddenly
Speaker 3: defense punches you in the mouth and you go, ah,
Speaker 3: never mind, maybe not this week. Well we'll try it
Speaker 3: against some other inferior defense. Look again, this wasn't like
Speaker 3: starters out there. Aaron Donald wasn't out there. But Easton
Speaker 3: Stick did take those shots. And I believe his big
Speaker 3: time throw rate tripled from his career. I think he
Speaker 3: has three big time throws in the preseason in three
Speaker 3: years with the Chargers, and then he added two just
Speaker 3: on Saturday. He just it looks different. And you know
Speaker 3: you asked about you talked about Justin Herbert a bit earlier, like, okay,
Speaker 3: how does this translate to him?
Speaker 4: Pretty comfortably?
Speaker 3: Because all respect to Easton Stick, Justin Herbert is a
Speaker 3: completely different tier in terms of throwing it down the field.
Speaker 3: So it's great to see that. And yes it is
Speaker 3: the preseason, it's vanilla. The defense isn't calling their greatest things,
Speaker 3: but you know, neither's the offense. It's great to see
Speaker 3: that what we've been seeing in practice is going to
Speaker 3: if they can translate to NFL games and in the
Speaker 3: regular season. And if you pair that with also this
Speaker 3: rushing attack that was really darn good too, which we
Speaker 3: will definitely get into today.
Speaker 4: Things are very exciting.
Speaker 3: Kellen Moore has done quite a bit and did a
Speaker 3: lot of a lot of talk to talk all the time.
Speaker 3: So far, it's been nothing but walk the walk.
Speaker 4: As soon as training camp hit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's one thing to do. And in practice,
Speaker 2: like you mentioned, where your quarterbacks are not getting hit,
Speaker 2: you know, of course they'll they'll have some sacks and
Speaker 2: team drills and things like that, but you know, you
Speaker 2: can still pull up and throw a deep shot to
Speaker 2: John high Tower, to Keenan, Allen Quintin, Johnson, Mike Williams,
Speaker 2: all these guys when you are in practice. But it's
Speaker 2: another thing to see it come to fruition in a
Speaker 2: game like this. And I thought Easton Stick was very
Speaker 2: calculated in how he took these shots. You know, there
Speaker 2: was none, there was not a ton of like pure
Speaker 2: designed deep shots. You know, we didn't see like a
Speaker 2: sprint rolled out to the right and I'm just gonna
Speaker 2: check it deep to Mike Williams, you know, fifty yards
Speaker 2: in the field on the opposite hash. There wasn't any
Speaker 2: of those plays. It was all Stick like reading the defense,
Speaker 2: taking shots, taking what the defense gave him. And I
Speaker 2: love the way that he played. You know, we saw
Speaker 2: Keeland Doss have a really nice corner route and Easton
Speaker 2: Stick was able to hold the safety with his eyes
Speaker 2: and it was a one to two progression and he
Speaker 2: took that shot to Keelan Doss. I thought that this week,
Speaker 2: we said this on our own show, you know, best
Speaker 2: performance of Easton Stick's career, and honestly like he looked
Speaker 2: like a completely different quarterback. And I think if that,
Speaker 2: if you take anything from that, you can take that
Speaker 2: kind of energy and mindset that Easton Stick had and
Speaker 2: realize who he's watching do it every single day in practice,
Speaker 2: which is Justin Herbert and the coaches that he's been
Speaker 2: around right now are pulling that out of him. And
Speaker 2: theoretically they're doing that same thing to Justin Herbert. And
Speaker 2: I think we've seen that and practiced thus far, so
Speaker 2: you know there was obviously a lot of what ifs
Speaker 2: about Kellen Moore's passing attack, and I loved what I
Speaker 2: saw on Saturday night with Eastan Stick at.
Speaker 3: The once again they we've now strung together, especially like
Speaker 3: you and I were talking to players or reading articles
Speaker 3: talking to Eric Smith. It's all about asking players to
Speaker 3: do something that maybe they were never asked.
Speaker 1: To do before.
Speaker 3: Maybe East and Stick would have been awful at those
Speaker 3: deep throws, maybe things wouldn't have been so great, but
Speaker 3: let's give it a shot. Let's see what he's got,
Speaker 3: Let's get our eyes up, push the ball downfield, and
Speaker 3: I would be really curious to see what wide receiver
Speaker 3: separation or nearest defender looks like in terms of analytics
Speaker 3: specific felt it felt like, yes, he was throwing down
Speaker 3: the field, but also felt like guys were open and
Speaker 3: by themselves with just one dB. It wasn't into a crowd,
Speaker 3: there weren't two other linebackers. It wasn't, you know, five
Speaker 3: feet from the line of scrimmage. It just felt different.
Speaker 3: So kudos to whoever it is, Kellen Moore, Brandon Staley
Speaker 3: overseeing everything, Doug mutt Nussmeyer, justin Herbert Easton Stick.
Speaker 4: Whatever.
Speaker 3: Kudos to them for resurrecting another twenty nineteen draft pick
Speaker 3: who I had written off. I say the same thing
Speaker 3: about Trey Pipkins last.
Speaker 4: Year wrought them off. Sorry after after.
Speaker 3: Three seasons and the way he looked in the preseason,
Speaker 3: it was like, okay, that's probably all we're getting. You know,
Speaker 3: some things don't work out, and Easton Stick this is
Speaker 3: the year five. Not many guys get that long, but
Speaker 3: it listen, they continue to have faith in him, and
Speaker 3: you know, in this brand and stay regime, guys are
Speaker 3: just developing way further. You know, sometimes maybe they get
Speaker 3: maybe you could say, even longer than they quote unquote deserve.
Speaker 3: Easton Stick is five years. That's a long time. But
Speaker 3: he did develop and they've continued to have faith in him.
Speaker 4: They've had the right coaches.
Speaker 3: It's been awesome to watch again Trey Pipkins last year.
Speaker 3: It's one game for Eastern Stick. I know, but we've
Speaker 3: been to training camp, practices, we've been to the scrimmage.
Speaker 3: You know, we see you know, read Daniel Popper's reports
Speaker 3: from the athletic like, it's just different with Easton Stick.
Speaker 3: But we're we're thirteen fourteen minutes into our conversation, we're
Speaker 3: talking about Eastern Stick's great performance, like this is really cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it just adds like a more entertaining aspect
Speaker 2: of the preseason, you know. And there's that, Yeah, the
Speaker 2: conservative nature of the offense in the past two years,
Speaker 2: like it just made it harder to really evaluate guys.
Speaker 2: And now Easton Stick is being aggressive. He's taken shots
Speaker 2: to guys like Keelan Doss. We'll see what happens when
Speaker 2: John Hightower comes back in practice. Who those who are
Speaker 2: are fighting for a roster spot and now you can
Speaker 2: really see what they can do because you have a
Speaker 2: quarterback taking chances like Easton Stick. So a ton of
Speaker 2: fun to watch and should be exciting to see the
Speaker 2: last two preseason games. All right, very on brand, I
Speaker 2: think we have to revisit the offensive line again because
Speaker 2: again we have the numbers, we have the film this
Speaker 2: into your offensive line put out an awesome performance and
Speaker 2: that's everybody. If you just look at the top six
Speaker 2: into your offensive line players who played against the Rams.
Speaker 2: Obviously you're talking about Zion Johnson, will clap, Jamary Sallier,
Speaker 2: the three starters, and then Jordan McFadden Brendan Himus and
Speaker 2: Zach Bailey, So those were your sick who played the
Speaker 2: majority of the game. Those those six players on Saturday
Speaker 2: night allowed four total pressures according to PFF. One of
Speaker 2: those from Jamari Sawiy I strongly disagree with I'm just
Speaker 2: gonna put that out there. It was off of a stunt,
Speaker 2: which to me was more just kind of a miscommunication
Speaker 2: between him and the right tackle. So really, you're talking
Speaker 2: about three pressures from this intier offensive line, and you
Speaker 2: want to talk about like projecting to the future, like
Speaker 2: you're gonna have Zion, Corey Lindsley, and Jamari Sawier just
Speaker 2: be able to set such a nice pocket for Justin
Speaker 2: Herbert throughout the season, and that's a huge aspect of
Speaker 2: why Easton Stick felt comfortable.
Speaker 1: Back there to take those shots.
Speaker 2: But it wasn't just those three, right Like we saw
Speaker 2: Jordan McFadden come in, we saw bren Heimis come in
Speaker 2: at center, Zach Bailey a right guard. Those three players
Speaker 2: combined for two pressures, Like those three players who are
Speaker 2: gonna be key depth pieces, well, you know, maybe not,
Speaker 2: but at least two of them will be key depth
Speaker 2: pieces going forward. And you want to see what those
Speaker 2: guys can do. And I was very, very encouraged from
Speaker 2: what that second unit did on Saturday night with Jordan
Speaker 2: mcfahn and Brendon Himus and Zach Bailey, and it was
Speaker 2: just a fantastic thing to watch. And we can talk
Speaker 2: about the Run Game too, but the three of them,
Speaker 2: excuse me, the six of them really set the tone
Speaker 2: in terms of pass protection in a way that we
Speaker 2: really had not seen in the previous years with those
Speaker 2: kind of players, So.
Speaker 1: Big kudos to them.
Speaker 2: I do want to talk about the Run game, but
Speaker 2: what did you make of those six into your players
Speaker 2: on Saturday night?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Man, it was awesome to see.
Speaker 3: And we will talk about the Run game because there's
Speaker 3: so much a part of that in the Run Game
Speaker 3: that they were obviously a part of naturally his offensive lineman,
Speaker 3: but I'm just so happy watching Zion Johnson play.
Speaker 1: Left guard and play it really, really well.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you had any rankings or tiers
Speaker 3: of who he thought maybe performed better or worse or whatever,
Speaker 3: but it's just great to see Zion out there. I
Speaker 3: don't know, it's such a small sample size, but it
Speaker 3: just looked like there was a comfort level there which
Speaker 3: was great to see. You know, Jamari's flipping back to
Speaker 3: right guard, saw him back to left guard. Things just
Speaker 3: look great, and honestly like it, Will Clap, it feels
Speaker 3: like it sometimes the butt of jokes because of a
Speaker 3: couple of games or a couple of moments.
Speaker 4: He's the backup center. You know, he's not Corey Linsley.
Speaker 3: There's a few guys that are in the same way
Speaker 3: that many guys are not Rashawn Slater, So any backup
Speaker 3: is just not going to be him. But Will Clap
Speaker 3: I thought had a really really solid game, has had
Speaker 3: a solid scrimmage, pretty decent training camp as is, like
Speaker 3: him getting into his second year with this team, I
Speaker 3: think he's.
Speaker 4: Doing really really well. I will then now.
Speaker 3: Mention the run game because it's an extension of what
Speaker 3: we saw at the scrimmage, where like towards, especially towards
Speaker 3: like the very last third, they decided to just enforce
Speaker 3: their will and things just looked better.
Speaker 4: Herbert looked more calm.
Speaker 3: The offense could move. Was it you know, big twenty
Speaker 3: yard runs. No, but it was like they were getting room,
Speaker 3: they were pushing, they were pushing, they were fighting. And
Speaker 3: so to see that now in the preseason game was awesome.
Speaker 3: And what's really cool is that Kellen Moore is doing
Speaker 3: this with the exact same pieces that they were there
Speaker 3: last year. Basically nothing has really changed. Some guys have
Speaker 3: flipped sides, you know, Brendanheimus is trying out center, but
Speaker 3: it's basically the same pieces and it's so good. And
Speaker 3: I'll kind of spoil what I said on our Chargers
Speaker 3: podcast Crossover that'll drop Wednesday, so tomorrow when you're when
Speaker 3: you're watching this. In three games in twenty twenty one
Speaker 3: and three games in twenty twenty two, the Chargers rushed
Speaker 3: for one hundred and seventy seven yards and one hundred
Speaker 3: and sixty six yards in three games.
Speaker 4: In each of those years.
Speaker 3: In just one Kellen Moore preseason game, their running backs
Speaker 3: rushed for one hundred and eighty six yards.
Speaker 4: Just the one game.
Speaker 3: And like you said, it wasn't just you know, Joshua
Speaker 3: Kelly came in and had you know, one hundred yards
Speaker 3: and great, of course he's like he's the number two
Speaker 3: running back of then Isaiah Spiler had eighty and that's it. No,
Speaker 3: it continued throughout the rest of the game, Like guys
Speaker 3: will continue to be successful because even the third rotation
Speaker 3: came in and looked really really good blocking pass protection,
Speaker 3: like you said, obviously in the run as well, and
Speaker 3: just to see the Chargers in particular, like the running
Speaker 3: up the middle is inefficient. Running up the middle is inefficient.
Speaker 3: It's more inefficient than running outside obviously, but the Chargers still,
Speaker 3: like Josh way Kelly is still averaged over eight yards
Speaker 3: per carry up the middle, as I spilled over five
Speaker 3: yards per carry up the middle. That's because of these
Speaker 3: these guys on the interior. So you know, we're seeing
Speaker 3: the Chargers invest in the interior offensive line pretty repeatedly
Speaker 3: in the brand and Stalely era, and it's paying off
Speaker 3: because their second rotation is really really strong. And I
Speaker 3: think that Brandon Staley is a really smart guy and understands,
Speaker 3: you know, even just watching Aaron Donald, the way things
Speaker 3: have progressed. Defensive tackles are becoming just as valuable as
Speaker 3: edge rushers if you can rush the passer. So the
Speaker 3: CounterPunch to that is not just getting Rashaun's SLA, but
Speaker 3: it's getting Jamar, it's getting Zion, it's getting McFadden, getting Himus.
Speaker 3: You know, Corey Linsley, who they signed, it's continued to
Speaker 3: invest in that interior because it's just as important to
Speaker 3: protect that as much as it is.
Speaker 4: Just the tackles.
Speaker 3: So good for the regime for the last three seasons
Speaker 3: for investing in these guys. It's paying off and they
Speaker 3: have the right coordinator pushing the right buttons.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I loved watching those first two drives and the way
Speaker 2: that they were calling those run games. You know, there
Speaker 2: was a statistic mentioned on the Athletic Football Show that
Speaker 2: Austin Eckler was like the fourth most efficient running back
Speaker 2: on duo, which is an inside run, you know, and
Speaker 2: the Chargers really like to do it out of twelve personnel,
Speaker 2: which is two tight ends. And that was what we
Speaker 2: saw a lot of on Saturday night. We saw a
Speaker 2: lot of duo, We saw a lot of inside zone,
Speaker 2: and we saw some trap plays featuring Zion specifically as
Speaker 2: a polar. There was one play that was nullified from
Speaker 2: holding penalty, which there were two penalties that nolified like
Speaker 2: really explosive runs. Both unfortunately were runs that Isaiah Spiller
Speaker 2: carried the football. So poor guy got I think like
Speaker 2: at least eighty yards taken off of his total on
Speaker 2: Saturday night, because of some holding penalties. But I just
Speaker 2: love the intentionality of getting these guys into situations where
Speaker 2: they feel comfortable. And Zion talked about it today, you know,
Speaker 2: Isaiah Spiller talked about it on Chargers Weekly about how
Speaker 2: much everybody is really excited about running the ball and
Speaker 2: how the downhill approach is featuring these guys well, and
Speaker 2: you brought up Will Clap, and I thought Will Clap
Speaker 2: had an outstanding performance on Saturday Night.
Speaker 1: And I know that, you.
Speaker 2: Know, there's a drop off in terms of like pass
Speaker 2: protection plan and the ability to communicate when you go
Speaker 2: from Corey Lindsay to Will Clap, Like that's just the
Speaker 2: nature of the business. But individually, I thought Will Clap
Speaker 2: was really solid last year, and I think you should
Speaker 2: feel really comfortable about him being your backup center. I
Speaker 2: think he's a solid backup center and I think he
Speaker 2: showed that on Saturday Night. And the guy that I
Speaker 2: really want to highlight here is Zach Bailey, the right
Speaker 2: guard who came in for Jamari Sawier. We've heard from
Speaker 2: Brandon Staley at press conferences. We heard from Brandon NuGen
Speaker 2: in his you know interview with Eric Smith that the
Speaker 2: Chargers are really high on Zach Bailey. And this is
Speaker 2: a guy who they claimed off of waivers from the
Speaker 2: Washington Commanders, where he had mostly played tackle. That's what
Speaker 2: he did last preseason, and so to hear how highly
Speaker 2: they viewed him as a potential guard coming into this preseason,
Speaker 2: I was kind of confused.
Speaker 1: Honestly.
Speaker 2: I was like, Okay, like, he's a he's mostly played
Speaker 2: tackle for you. Now you're switching in positions and you
Speaker 2: really are are you know, thrilled with this guy? So
Speaker 2: just like I wanted to see what he looked like
Speaker 2: in a game. And we've heard some some good things
Speaker 2: about practice, but it just looks different in a game, right,
Speaker 2: And so he comes out in his first preseason game
Speaker 2: at right guard, he only allows one pressure. And if
Speaker 2: you look at the rushing statistics, the Chargers went to
Speaker 2: the right side, which you know, definitely features some Jamari,
Speaker 2: definitely features some Zion polling like I mentioned, but that
Speaker 2: was a lot of Zach Bailey. And so if you
Speaker 2: look at their rushes to the right side, they went
Speaker 2: twelve carries seventy two yards for an average is six
Speaker 2: yards per carry, and that's featuring Zach Bailey. That's what
Speaker 2: they did last year was Zion with Zion after Rashaan
Speaker 2: Slater went down, as they featured that right side more
Speaker 2: and they looked at Zach Bailey and said, let's feature him.
Speaker 2: You know, he's gonna be the focal point of our
Speaker 2: rushing attack. And he rewarded them with some great blocks.
Speaker 2: Like I loved watching that unit perform, you know, specifically
Speaker 2: with Will Clapp and Zach Bailey. And I thought Bailey
Speaker 2: was outside of easton Stick. I think Bailey was the
Speaker 2: best player on the offense on Saturday night.
Speaker 3: Wow, Okay, the best player outside of East and Stick
Speaker 3: on offense.
Speaker 4: That's listen. You love your offensive line.
Speaker 2: Zion played seven snaps, I will say. I will say
Speaker 2: Zion played seven snaps.
Speaker 1: You know great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, No, I certainly didn't hone in on Zach Bailey,
Speaker 3: but I'll take your word for it.
Speaker 4: I'll have to go back and watch him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just really like you have a ton of confidence,
Speaker 2: and you know, this was the first game for Jordan
Speaker 2: mcfahnen and a guard as well. There were definitely some
Speaker 2: learning moments for him. You know, I thought his penalty
Speaker 2: on Isaiah Spiller was just unfortunate timing. But you know
Speaker 2: he's switching positions, the timings different, the communication is different,
Speaker 2: and I think you come away from that performance very
Speaker 2: very encouraged, and you have this backup trio of into
Speaker 2: your offensive linemen that I feel really comfortable with. You know,
Speaker 2: I think we highlighted the offensive tackle depth last week
Speaker 2: and our concerns there. I feel great about the interior
Speaker 2: offensive line depth, which like is pretty crazy to say
Speaker 2: considering the team that we love watching and their history
Speaker 2: with backup into your offensive lineman. But all three of
Speaker 2: these guys I thought played really well. They've all had
Speaker 2: good camps, and I think that this group is going
Speaker 2: to really be, you know, the focal of the rest
Speaker 2: of the preseason. I don't know how much more we're
Speaker 2: gonna see Zion and Jamari play, but Jordan mcfahn and
Speaker 2: Will clap in Zach Bay that I think you feel
Speaker 2: great about as a backup into your offensive line trio.
Speaker 3: Do you feel any differently, I'm guessing better about the
Speaker 3: chances of then Jamari being the other actual swing tackle,
Speaker 3: Like we've sort of talked about it, but they haven't
Speaker 3: moved him. But the more you see from this offensive
Speaker 3: line's interior, like if you you said, Zach Bailly was amazing.
Speaker 3: If you're seeing that, you're seeing McFadden developed, granted as
Speaker 3: a left guard, you've seen this interior improve.
Speaker 4: And look really good.
Speaker 3: Are you more like kind of stock up on the
Speaker 3: idea that Sawyer could actually be that that sort.
Speaker 4: Of swing tackle or.
Speaker 2: I I mean I would love to, Like if he's
Speaker 2: your swing tackle, I think you feel great about that,
Speaker 2: but I think that they would still kind of prefer
Speaker 2: to keep him there and maybe maybe bring in somebody
Speaker 2: else at tackle before you move him. Like, if there's
Speaker 2: two injuries at offensive tackle, then I think you put
Speaker 2: Jamari back out there. But the double edged short here
Speaker 2: is like, yes, Jamari's proven that he can be a
Speaker 2: quality offensive tackle, but it's like, ideally you want him
Speaker 2: to find a long term home and I think that
Speaker 2: his best position is on at right guard, you know,
Speaker 2: and and so ideally he doesn't come to that point
Speaker 2: and Jamori gets to stick at right guard. Obviously you
Speaker 2: don't want any injuries, right but you know, for Jamari's sake,
Speaker 2: I think his long term best position is at right guard,
Speaker 2: and hopefully he's able to stick it out there.
Speaker 3: Not to be this guy, but you did focus on
Speaker 3: the offensive line, and we've sort of left out a
Speaker 3: name here, so I am a little curious how you
Speaker 3: felt Foster Ceryl fared in his sort of debut.
Speaker 4: I guess of the preseason.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: It was it did not live up to what I
Speaker 2: was hoping for. Foster's a young player, you know, he
Speaker 2: was an undrafted free agent, and he's definitely more comfortable
Speaker 2: in his own skin. I think you can see that.
Speaker 2: But there were some some tough moments in the second half,
Speaker 2: and the second sack against Max Duggan was was not great.
Speaker 2: I thought that both he and Austin Pleasants had some
Speaker 2: tough moments. They had some good moments too. There was
Speaker 2: a there was one rep against Byron Young I think
Speaker 2: his name is number zero for the Rams where Foster
Speaker 2: was able to trap him and get him to the ground,
Speaker 2: and we hadn't really seen him do that. So there
Speaker 2: was definitely some growth. But I thought both of the
Speaker 2: tackles had some tough moments as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was just curious.
Speaker 4: I hate to bring that up, but you know there's
Speaker 4: tackle depth to talk.
Speaker 2: You gotta talk about it, you have to for sure.
Speaker 2: So yeah, that's offensive line talk. Satisfying my personal quota,
Speaker 2: which we always have to get on the show because
Speaker 2: I'm a big offensive line guy. Tyler, who did you
Speaker 2: want to highlight next after Saturday Saturday Night's performance?
Speaker 3: Oh goodness, anybody on the defensive line, to be completely honest,
Speaker 3: but let's go with Let's go with Chris Rumf. I
Speaker 3: think that look I understand And people even made the
Speaker 3: comments while this was happening.
Speaker 4: Chris Ruff has.
Speaker 3: Been great in the preseason, maybe kind of shies away
Speaker 3: and goes away during the regular season doesn't quite live
Speaker 3: up to what the preseason looks like. But there was
Speaker 3: just a display of stringing either pass rush moves together
Speaker 3: or just power that Chris Rump had that You're really
Speaker 3: starting to see what looks like a complete pass rusher
Speaker 3: out there. And you know, I don't know how strong
Speaker 3: the Rams feel about their tackles. It seems like the
Speaker 3: whole thing is in flux. But he went out there
Speaker 3: and looked like they're best defender and then just got
Speaker 3: to sit down. Like the way he was rushing the
Speaker 3: passer and the ferocity that he has, He's improved so much.
Speaker 3: Like this was a guy at Duke who was like
Speaker 3: playing sort of like Tully, but he was smaller and
Speaker 3: like playing a lot of linebackery stuff and going out
Speaker 3: in college. The transformation to what he is now, both
Speaker 3: in body type, play style, and even just where he
Speaker 3: plays is tremendous. Like Brandon Saley has really taken this player,
Speaker 3: given him, you know, enough reps now sometimes he just
Speaker 3: had to because of injuries, but they really built this player,
Speaker 3: Chris Romp to improve and I think that while it
Speaker 3: was very limited action, there was so much to like
Speaker 3: about what he could do. Then you pivot to the
Speaker 3: twenty year old in Tuley, and this is really I guess,
Speaker 3: both of them together, it's the best edge three edge
Speaker 3: four situation they've had in the Telesco era, and I
Speaker 3: almost think that's by far. I could argue they've had
Speaker 3: maybe a better edge three that being a Chenna and
Speaker 3: Wosu at the time, but they haven't had they haven't
Speaker 3: had an edge four, like whether it's whether it's Chris
Speaker 3: Romp or it's Tuley, they have not had a situation
Speaker 3: like this in quite some time.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: I went and looked back at the.
Speaker 3: Chiefs game in twenty twenty, in Herbert's debut, and that
Speaker 3: trio Ingram Bosa and Wosu had nineteen pressures, a sack,
Speaker 3: multiple run stops, et cetera. They could do whatever, and
Speaker 3: it allows like Jerry Tillery to have six pressures in
Speaker 3: Asako whatever.
Speaker 4: We ended up having that game.
Speaker 3: You know, we've I've talked about, We've talked about Morgan
Speaker 3: Fox is another step forward, breakout candidate. The defensive line
Speaker 3: is coached by Jade Rodgers, and that group looks awesome.
Speaker 3: You've got both, You've got Mac and I've got two lead.
Speaker 3: Now you've got Chris rum looking even better. It's just
Speaker 3: tough to not get excited for this rotation. I think
Speaker 3: that Edge three and Edge four, both those guys in
Speaker 3: like the twelve snaps they had or whatever it was,
Speaker 3: it's all I needed to see.
Speaker 1: They looked great.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you decided to go with Chris rump here because,
Speaker 2: like I understand, last year, he had some really good
Speaker 2: moments in the preseason. But for me, like looking back
Speaker 2: at that, it was a lot of just like sheer
Speaker 2: effort and get off because he does have a great
Speaker 2: get off and he has ridiculously high motor, but his
Speaker 2: arsenal has really come a long way and his power
Speaker 2: has come a long way. That was something that Derek
Speaker 2: Ansley talked about today that you know, he didn't put
Speaker 2: on a ton of weight, I don't think, like he's
Speaker 2: definitely stronger, and you see that explosiveness on display went
Speaker 2: from his sack. You know, he did a long arm
Speaker 2: stab on this backup offensive tackle and the tackle like
Speaker 2: had to jump back like he like you visibly see
Speaker 2: him move this offensive tackle off of his spot, and
Speaker 2: then he had a great finish on the quarterback. We
Speaker 2: just didn't see that kind of stuff last year. And yeah,
Speaker 2: it's a preseason game, but again, like progress is progress.
Speaker 2: You see that display of violence and physicality that we
Speaker 2: hadn't really seen much of his pressure where him and
Speaker 2: aim in Ogbong Wmiga, who I wanted to talk about
Speaker 2: as well today as well, Chris Rumf had a cross
Speaker 2: shot move which I had never seen him do, and
Speaker 2: he was able to flatten and bend and get to
Speaker 2: the quarterback and was like inches away from getting a
Speaker 2: strip sack on Brett Rippian. So yeah, like he played
Speaker 2: well in the preseason last year, but like you really
Speaker 2: see some big strides from him just in terms of
Speaker 2: his physicality, in terms of his technicality, as well, and
Speaker 2: I think we've seen that in practice too, so it's
Speaker 2: not like this was just a one off performance where yeah,
Speaker 2: like maybe he just like beat somebody to the spot
Speaker 2: and maybe he just chased somebody down. Like he's actually
Speaker 2: showing that he's a legitimate pass rush option now. And
Speaker 2: you know, there's been a lot of talk about like
Speaker 2: Tully being like clear age three Chris rumpfmind has somebody
Speaker 2: to say about it, man, And I think both of
Speaker 2: these guys are ultimately gonna end up playing some big
Speaker 2: roles for this team.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I didn't expect the newfound power that Chris has
Speaker 3: had because that's kind of what I felt like with Tuley.
Speaker 3: Although Tuley says he's more of a technician than a
Speaker 3: power guy, which I thought was interesting, which, hey, great,
Speaker 3: I'm cool with that because he's really powerful, so if
Speaker 3: he also wants to be a technician.
Speaker 1: That's great.
Speaker 3: But I didn't really expect Chris to then continue with
Speaker 3: that and get that strength that you know, maybe he
Speaker 3: hasn't really had really more in particular against.
Speaker 4: The run, so he can do that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's really an edge three ab situation
Speaker 3: more than a three and a four here and.
Speaker 4: We've talked about how Chris is so.
Speaker 3: Vile to this pass rush and has been on stunts,
Speaker 3: how successful they were. I don't see any reason to
Speaker 3: take him off the field.
Speaker 2: That's it's pretty reminiscent to the receiver situation right now
Speaker 2: with Palmer and Quinton Johnston. So I'm really excited to
Speaker 2: see this come to fruition. You know, like the pass
Speaker 2: pass rush depth last year was such an issue and
Speaker 2: we got to see Brandon Statey really crank up that
Speaker 2: Brits that blitz rate. This year, he might not have
Speaker 2: to do that, you know, and it's going to be
Speaker 2: very interesting to see the ramifications there. I mentioned Amen,
Speaker 2: I wanted to highlight him because I thought that he
Speaker 2: played a fantastic game as well. He wore the green
Speaker 2: dot for the I believe the whole first half, so
Speaker 2: he was calling plays, communicating and just felt so much
Speaker 2: more comfortable back there as he was able to sift
Speaker 2: through traffic and diagnose plays. There was, you know, that
Speaker 2: play at the goal line that I tweeted out.
Speaker 1: It was kind of about j T.
Speaker 2: Woods, but it was also about Amin Agwong with me
Speaker 2: of the play after the unsportul conduct penalty where at
Speaker 2: that point the rams are at the two and a
Speaker 2: half yard line two yard line on first and so
Speaker 2: you really have to like set the tone on that
Speaker 2: first down and play in a goal to go situation
Speaker 2: and augment. Amen was able to shed the block of
Speaker 2: the guard and come out and be able to get
Speaker 2: the running back down and then J. T. Woods came
Speaker 2: up and clean up the rest of the play, which
Speaker 2: speaks highly of what J. T. Woods and his development too.
Speaker 2: But Amen was the one who started that Aiman I
Speaker 2: mentioned his pressure against the where Chris Rumf almost got
Speaker 2: the strips sack. Amen was was up against the running
Speaker 2: back and just blew this running back off of his feet, like.
Speaker 1: It was a great Bowl rush that we saw.
Speaker 2: There was another play where Amen was kind of over
Speaker 2: the left guard, but like behind the left guard to start,
Speaker 2: and the the rams of motion to the right, so
Speaker 2: he ended up kind of flowing to the opposite side
Speaker 2: and then he cut back underneath and got a tackle
Speaker 2: for loss. Like it was a great play from Amen.
Speaker 2: And I think that, you know, there's been a lot
Speaker 2: of rush to see what this linebacker unit can look like,
Speaker 2: and I think Amen has been incredibly consistent throughout training camp.
Speaker 2: And on Saturday night he just looked calm, collected, very
Speaker 2: similar to how we felt about East and sixth performance.
Speaker 2: And then he was able to take shots, shoot gaps,
Speaker 2: get tackles for losses. Average has to tackle on Saturday
Speaker 2: night was two yards, which is a really, really good number.
Speaker 2: And I think you feel great about this linebacker depth
Speaker 2: if Aiming can really be a consistent and reliable force,
Speaker 2: if he needs to step in for Eric Kendricks, and
Speaker 2: I think he's on track to do that. I want
Speaker 2: to see some more steps, but I thought that he
Speaker 2: was one of the best players on defense.
Speaker 1: If not Chris Rump, I think Amin would probably be
Speaker 1: my choice there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is a sneaky story I guess to follow
Speaker 3: throughout the season. Not Aman necessarily, but just what is
Speaker 3: both being in Brandon's daily system for many years now,
Speaker 3: but also the effect of Eric Kendricks and the effect
Speaker 3: of Jeff Howard having on these linebackers, because you know,
Speaker 3: we've seen it from Kenneth Murray of course, and his
Speaker 3: development and getting closer to the line of scrimmage, making
Speaker 3: places behind the line of scrimmage. But yeah, someone like
Speaker 3: Amin agbanglamiganaw who.
Speaker 4: It's one preseason game.
Speaker 3: I totally get that, but he was affecting at the
Speaker 3: line of scrimmage, two pressures I think, four tackles, two
Speaker 3: run stops or whatever it was. He's making plays closer
Speaker 3: to the line of scrimmage. It just seems like whoever
Speaker 3: you want to give credit to him, even Derek Ansley
Speaker 3: for communication, Jeff Howard Daley, things are just moving slower
Speaker 3: for these linebackers, and they're diagnosing so much better.
Speaker 4: And I think maybe that's also.
Speaker 3: Partially just due to the defensive line playing so well,
Speaker 3: like Jay Rodgers just unleashing anybody you can find. They're
Speaker 3: getting plays. But these linebackers are looking so good, and
Speaker 3: Amen is starting to be one of those guys, a
Speaker 3: player that had potential undrafted free agent, but they did
Speaker 3: draft Nick Neeman, and I always kind of wondered, why
Speaker 3: are you not playing more of Nick Neeman? Maybe I
Speaker 3: still kind of wonder that, But there's some way that
Speaker 3: a men can play where he is a guy who
Speaker 3: can affect near the line of scrimmage, who can rush
Speaker 3: the passer. But there was never really like that diagnosing
Speaker 3: that was going on in the same way like it
Speaker 3: was on Saturday.
Speaker 4: So I'm glad you pointed him out.
Speaker 3: I think it was so it's so quick to look
Speaker 3: at the guys on the other side of him, right
Speaker 3: the two starters in front of him, or Dayan Henley
Speaker 3: behind him who's currently not starting overplaying in the next
Speaker 3: group over him. It's easy to overlook Amen. But he's
Speaker 3: been good and they have a lot of faith in him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think stylistically like he's he's probably the
Speaker 2: closest one they have to to Kendricks. You know, there's
Speaker 2: a lot of space and chase linebackers in the NFL,
Speaker 2: and there's just kind of that element of physicality that
Speaker 2: you need to play in the middle as the green
Speaker 2: doc caller that Eric Kendricks.
Speaker 1: Has and I think that Aimen has as well.
Speaker 2: All right, Tyler, your final takeaway for maybe from a
Speaker 2: player performance, who do you want to highlight last?
Speaker 4: Give me?
Speaker 3: He won't be my game ball because he already got one.
Speaker 3: I do want to talk about c J o'coy real quick, Yeah,
Speaker 3: because I mean I was talking to Emily Words, who
Speaker 3: covers you know, the NFL internationally and works with the
Speaker 3: international players and player relations.
Speaker 4: She's known him for a.
Speaker 3: While and you know they met at NFL Africa camp
Speaker 3: in Ghana last year and he was playing offensive line.
Speaker 3: He's like, hey, I don't like getting hit. I want
Speaker 3: to just I want to hit people.
Speaker 4: That's what I would like to do.
Speaker 3: So he switches to defense and OCEU Minia you know,
Speaker 3: identifies him. He attends the International Player Pathway Combine or
Speaker 3: whatever it was, gets to join the Chargers, plays in
Speaker 3: the first organized football game of his career and gets
Speaker 3: a sack and es fears something ever played football or
Speaker 3: an organized fashion like this in a game and he
Speaker 3: gets a sack and it's kind of you know, an
Speaker 3: assist sack. You know, I think it would have gone
Speaker 3: to I believe Gerard Clark if you could have finished
Speaker 3: that play. But okay, you got a sack man, And
Speaker 3: that is one of the coolest stories. And the sideline
Speaker 3: just went ballistic, you know, Brandon Steley gave him the
Speaker 3: game ball. One of the best stories of the year.
Speaker 3: Could be almost a movie at this point. Yeah, it
Speaker 3: was awesome to see.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 4: It was one play.
Speaker 3: I think it's the only play he even showed up
Speaker 3: in the stat sheet. But it's one of the coolest
Speaker 3: plays I've seen, because what a story.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, the.
Speaker 2: Scale of difficulty of that sack I think should not
Speaker 2: go unnoticed either because he it was a stunt play
Speaker 2: and he would looped all the way around to the
Speaker 2: other side. You know, he basically come off of came
Speaker 2: off of the left side and Yadjerward Clark certainly kind
Speaker 2: of started the play, but he had to chase down
Speaker 2: Stetson Bennett, and Stetson Bennett.
Speaker 1: Is a fast quarterback.
Speaker 2: Like It's not like he chased down you know, Davis
Speaker 2: Mills or one of these others Jared Goff or guys
Speaker 2: who are not are a little bit on the slower
Speaker 2: side like sets of Bennett's is a pretty above average athlete.
Speaker 1: You at the position. We've seen.
Speaker 2: We saw him light up college football with his legs,
Speaker 2: and so, you know, the scale of difficulty should not
Speaker 2: go unnoticed there. I thought it was a great play overall,
Speaker 2: and just like the moment of seeing the team come together,
Speaker 2: the celebration on the sideline, like every player on the
Speaker 2: team like went over and said something to him and
Speaker 2: felt like there was clips of Quinton Johnson going up
Speaker 2: to him. There's clips of other guys going up to
Speaker 2: him on the offensive side of the ball. You know,
Speaker 2: it just was such a cool moment, and then obviously
Speaker 2: the game ball after the game. You know, today he's
Speaker 2: getting love on Good Morning Football. You know, obviously Chris
Speaker 2: Harry did a feature on him for CBS leading up
Speaker 2: to the game. It's just like, I think what the
Speaker 2: NFL is all about, and you know a lot of
Speaker 2: times we see these international pathways guys come in and
Speaker 2: it's just kind of like it's just it's just a
Speaker 2: struggle for them, you know, making that kind of jump.
Speaker 2: And not to say that it hasn't been for CJ,
Speaker 2: but to have this kind of moment, it was truly incredible.
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, there's this man looked.
Speaker 2: There's some really intriguing physical traits here, Like he's the
Speaker 2: guy is six seven, he's massive, Like he's a big dude,
Speaker 2: and so we'll see what happens there. But you know,
Speaker 2: he got to have his moment in his first NFL game.
Speaker 2: Like I think that's another thing too, Like this was
Speaker 2: his first organized football game. You know, this isn't some
Speaker 2: guy who had been playing in Germany for like four
Speaker 2: years or something like that, Like this was his first
Speaker 2: real football game playing and getting a snack which is just,
Speaker 2: you know, such a rarity, and it was, like I said,
Speaker 2: it was a great moment to see.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I can't wait to see where it goes from here.
Speaker 3: I don't recall exactly how it works roster wise, but
Speaker 3: I mean you get to learn from Jay Rodgers and
Speaker 3: some very very good players. You talk about Morgan Fox
Speaker 3: being a mentor for a long long time, you know,
Speaker 3: for whether it's just the year or however long it is.
Speaker 4: It's it's an awesome story.
Speaker 3: It was really really cool to see that, and the
Speaker 3: sideline celebrations for everything.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, great, great call there to uh to celebrate CJ.
Speaker 2: All right, Tyler, who is your game ball going to be?
Speaker 2: I'm very curious to see where you end up going
Speaker 2: with this, uh this decision here.
Speaker 3: So just to clarify, are we doing offense and defense
Speaker 3: or just one game ball?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 1: Let's just do one for today? Okay?
Speaker 3: Then I will go with Darius Davis, who we have
Speaker 3: not mentioned really I don't think so so far, and
Speaker 3: I actually want to talk about I believe it was
Speaker 3: the two minute drill where he caught a short pass
Speaker 3: and blue passed the defender, turned the corner and got
Speaker 3: a first down in that two minute drill.
Speaker 1: That was awesome.
Speaker 3: But okay, the play of the day was the punt
Speaker 3: return for a touchdown, and boy, he is bad as
Speaker 3: confident as anybody could look returning his first real punt
Speaker 3: in the NFL and just going for a touchdown. I
Speaker 3: couldn't believe that. He just started to jog after he
Speaker 3: caught the ball. It looked very like he was very
Speaker 3: like John Snow, you know, at the Battle of the
Speaker 3: word I can't say on the show, drawing the sword
Speaker 3: and just ready to chart.
Speaker 4: He was just very confident.
Speaker 3: He's like, I'm doing this and then boom he takes
Speaker 3: off and goes for a touchdown. Like there is just
Speaker 3: something different I saw day one in practice nopads, some
Speaker 3: guys just are faster than others, and Darius Davis is
Speaker 3: really fast. And you know, rarely do I get to
Speaker 3: see and do the math in my head where I
Speaker 3: can see about where he is relative to the other
Speaker 3: players and go, oh, yeah, he's gone, you know, and
Speaker 3: he's got forty yards left, but you know he's gone.
Speaker 4: Because he's that fast, and he was. It was awesome
Speaker 4: to see.
Speaker 3: I'll give him a game ball for contributing both on
Speaker 3: and then really just finally showing why they drafted him,
Speaker 3: because it's been a long time coming. We've had to
Speaker 3: be really patient through the off season with Darius Davis
Speaker 3: because he's been like wide receiver maybe eight in terms
Speaker 3: of like production on the team. Some guys like buying
Speaker 3: them dos obviously high tower, more productive than him. But
Speaker 3: you drafted him for really one reason, and that was
Speaker 3: to be a returner and lo and behold touchdown And.
Speaker 4: If that's what we're getting this season to go with
Speaker 4: the run game we just.
Speaker 3: Talked about and the development at the quarterback and the
Speaker 3: offensive coordinator, I mean, come on, man, it's good stuff.
Speaker 2: It is it's it is great stuff. I'm glad you
Speaker 2: brought up the key conversion too. It's just the speed
Speaker 2: level is really really exciting there. I'm excited to see
Speaker 2: how that continues to develop. I forget which account I was,
Speaker 2: but I think it was twenty one point eight miles
Speaker 2: per hour officially on the on the punt return. And
Speaker 2: for that to be for him jogging, it's pretty crazy.
Speaker 2: I would love to see what foll speed looks like
Speaker 2: there sometimes soon mister Darius Davis.
Speaker 4: Yeah, alright, who's your game?
Speaker 1: Ball for the game all.
Speaker 2: Right, So we talked about a lot of guys today.
Speaker 2: You know, I mentioned how I thought that Zach Bailey played.
Speaker 2: I think that could be a choice here, but I
Speaker 2: do want to give this game ball to Andrew Farmer,
Speaker 2: the pass rusher. I thought that he was really a
Speaker 2: pleasant surprise for me. Like we've seen a couple moments
Speaker 2: here and there, but not a ton of reps. And
Speaker 2: so for him to come into this game and have
Speaker 2: the three pressures, get the sack, get a run stoff,
Speaker 2: get a tackle for loss, and it's not just like
Speaker 2: he had some splash plays. His pass rush win rate
Speaker 2: on PFF was twenty five percent, which is like number
Speaker 2: tenth in the league in terms of edge rushers. Had
Speaker 2: at least ten pass rush naps in Week one of
Speaker 2: the preseason, so he was highly effective on a down
Speaker 2: to down basis. He had the splash plays. You know,
Speaker 2: this is another guy who has really come a long
Speaker 2: way out of an HBCU. You know, the Charger spotted
Speaker 2: him at the HBCU combine, and you know that's an
Speaker 2: area where the NFL I think could do a really
Speaker 2: better job of finding talent, and they took a chance
Speaker 2: on Andrew Farmer as an undrafted free agent, and he
Speaker 2: played incredibly well in his first game in the NFL too.
Speaker 2: So I want to give a shout out to Andrew
Speaker 2: Farmer and give him the game ball tonight.
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
Speaker 3: You know, I don't recall there being any discussion about
Speaker 3: Andrew Farmer really prior to training camp, and really threw
Speaker 3: out a lot of it and understandably so, nobody had
Speaker 3: any film on him.
Speaker 4: We were very lucky to get the games that we did,
Speaker 4: and you could just see that maybe.
Speaker 3: Like he wasn't obviously that he was undrafted, right, and
Speaker 3: there's kind of a reason for it. Part of it
Speaker 3: is also competition that he faces, but you could see
Speaker 3: there was something there. Whether it's you loved it more
Speaker 3: as a pass rusher. I liked it more as a
Speaker 3: run defender.
Speaker 4: He did both.
Speaker 1: So good for him.
Speaker 4: He looks really really good.
Speaker 1: The motor looked great.
Speaker 4: Will he make the team.
Speaker 3: I don't so because I think they're just gonna stick
Speaker 3: with four and it almost wouldn't have mattered what anybody
Speaker 3: else did, but Andrew Farmer. You know, HPCU player rarely
Speaker 3: discussed player if at all. For him to go out
Speaker 3: in his debut, and look that good is awesome, and
Speaker 3: you could have gone with several different head rushers or
Speaker 3: defensive linemen. But if I didn't go with Darius Davis,
Speaker 3: I would have gone with Andrew Farmer. So we're right
Speaker 3: on the same page with that one.
Speaker 2: There we go, all right, to wrap up this conversation today,
Speaker 2: you know, during the season, we'll have a bit more
Speaker 2: of a balance between like what happened previously and looking
Speaker 2: ahead to the game. So we'll briefly talk about the
Speaker 2: preseason game that's coming up against the Saints. Obviously they
Speaker 2: have joint practices, so with the Saints, I'm excited to
Speaker 2: see what Matt and Chris's takeaways are from being up there,
Speaker 2: up close and personal on Thursday morning. But Tiler, what's
Speaker 2: one thing maybe lingering question or one thing that you
Speaker 2: want settled after the Saints game?
Speaker 3: Depends on participation. But is John high Tower taking that
Speaker 3: next step?
Speaker 1: Is that for real?
Speaker 3: I believe he returned to practice today, did not practice
Speaker 3: fully all the way through, So we'll see how things go.
Speaker 3: But I would imagine if he's getting close and knowing
Speaker 3: he's only got one more game after that, I would
Speaker 3: imagine he's trying to get out there, and I really
Speaker 3: want to see if what we've been seeing in practice translates.
Speaker 3: He's got the quarterback to do it now, so we
Speaker 3: feel really good about that. Can John high Tower go
Speaker 3: in and be the guy to push and secure almost
Speaker 3: that wide receiver six spot that is sort of vacant
Speaker 3: right now because of Jalen Kitan's injury, So I would
Speaker 3: love to see what he can do in some legit
Speaker 3: action because we haven't really seen that just yet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, High Towers a great call. You know, this.
Speaker 2: Is kind of turning into more of a battle than
Speaker 2: I think people are letting on because Keilan Dass has
Speaker 2: really kind of been a pretty steady presence for East
Speaker 2: and Stick and that second unit had some great catches
Speaker 2: on Saturday night as well. So how does that position
Speaker 2: battle kind of come to Fruition is certainly a key
Speaker 2: point for the next two weeks. You and I have
Speaker 2: talked about previously. They're the Chargers really like to keep
Speaker 2: ten defensive backs, whether that's six corners, four safeties, five corners,
Speaker 2: five safeties. I think they can be flexible with that,
Speaker 2: but right now that that tenth spot is is really
Speaker 2: up for grabs.
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 2: You know, we've seen Mark Webb come on recently. He
Speaker 2: started in the preseason game. Obviously we know Raheem Lane
Speaker 2: is a great special teams player, just brings kind of
Speaker 2: a different element of physicality. But Cam Brown had himself
Speaker 2: a really solid performance on Saturday night too, and he
Speaker 2: got to go up against some some starting caliber receivers.
Speaker 2: Puka Naku is going to play a key role for
Speaker 2: the Rams, so he had he forced two incompletions on
Speaker 2: Saturday night. He only allowed nineteen total yards as as
Speaker 2: a cornerback on six targets, so he had a really
Speaker 2: solid day. So this this tenth spot, I think is
Speaker 2: is really up for grabs. You know, Taiwan Mullen was
Speaker 2: having himself a really good day I felt like as
Speaker 2: well before the injury, which I think is not super serious,
Speaker 2: but we having got an update there, So that tenth
Speaker 2: defensive back spot, Like, if Cam Brown really starts to
Speaker 2: build some momentum, maybe he kind of makes him self essential.
Speaker 2: Maybe Mark Webb is able to really put it together
Speaker 2: get a turnover next week. So that tenth defensive back
Speaker 2: spot I think is a key point to focus on
Speaker 2: next week and the next week after that as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a great call.
Speaker 3: I didn't consider Cam Brown. There's a point of the
Speaker 3: roster where you start like, Okay, who's that guy again?
Speaker 3: But he was making his presence really no and yeah
Speaker 3: against the past, but also like tackling, and I think
Speaker 3: that's something.
Speaker 4: I think he ended up with three or four tackles
Speaker 4: and a run stop or something was really strong there.
Speaker 4: So I'd love to see his development. I feel like,
Speaker 4: if you had to pick, then is it redundant to
Speaker 4: have Mark Webb also on the roster.
Speaker 3: With Raheem Lane Maybe, but they love him, so yeah,
Speaker 3: that's a good call. I didn't even consider the tenth
Speaker 3: dB spot there, and yeah, could be a good one.
Speaker 1: I think with.
Speaker 2: Maybe potentially wanting more bodies to play the slot this year,
Speaker 2: I think that might be away from Mark Webb and
Speaker 2: Raheem Lane to both earn a spot this year. Lane's
Speaker 2: definitely more established on special teams. I feel like at
Speaker 2: this point, Lane's I believe, a starter on three of
Speaker 2: the four core special teams units, so Bryan Pickin really
Speaker 2: values his performance there. I don't believe Mark Webb is
Speaker 2: I think he's a starter on punt return. I'm not
Speaker 2: sure what else, but so that's obviously a key battle there,
Speaker 2: and then like I said, maybe Cam Brown forces his
Speaker 2: way in there, Tomlin mullen. So we'll see how it
Speaker 2: goes on that end. So, Tyler, any final thoughts before
Speaker 2: we head out tonight and get out here.
Speaker 3: Hoping for another win man and hopefully everyone gets through
Speaker 3: practice okay, healthy, safe and all that. Hopefully nobody starts
Speaker 3: any fights. Can't think of anyone in particular who would
Speaker 3: do that. Everything goes well.
Speaker 2: Yes, very excited to see the content come out of
Speaker 2: the joint practices. Obviously not a lot of starters playing
Speaker 2: in the preseason, so you know, we'll get to see
Speaker 2: Rareshaun Slater versus Cameron.
Speaker 1: Jordan in practice.
Speaker 2: You know, we'll get to see you know, Sante and
Speaker 2: jac Ego up against Chris o'lobby and Michael Davis of course,
Speaker 2: and Michael Thomas and so just gonna be a great
Speaker 2: couple practices. I hope, you know, we get to see
Speaker 2: some really cool moments there. But yeah, excited to see
Speaker 2: how this next preseason game turns out as well. Special
Speaker 2: thanks to Greg Kim for producing tonight's episode. Can't think
Speaker 2: the Chargers enough for continuing to give us this platform.
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