Speaker 1: It has a late fifteen to ten touched up suck.
Speaker 2: Everybody will come into a week zero edition of a
Speaker 2: Charger's Weekly Money and I back on the virtual setup
Speaker 2: after a fun four or five weeks of camp money,
Speaker 2: getting to sit down with players and learn how their
Speaker 2: off season was.
Speaker 3: Checking on a training camp, and we're about a week
Speaker 3: away from a getting real.
Speaker 1: We are, you know, big day yesterday.
Speaker 4: Obviously you get to know a handful of these players,
Speaker 4: and they obviously have dreams and goals, and sadly you
Speaker 4: can't keep all ninety. It gets trend to fifty three.
Speaker 4: We're waiting, you know, as we record this right now,
Speaker 4: the practice squad has not been set, at least I
Speaker 4: don't think it has. I haven't seen anything. You know,
Speaker 4: players are still clearing waivers and all that. But you know,
Speaker 4: you're talking about instead of ninety when the practice squad
Speaker 4: has set sixty nine guys, and it's it's always a
Speaker 4: bummer because there's some that really flash and get excited
Speaker 4: about their potential. Now there's other great stories that I
Speaker 4: know we're going to get into when it comes to
Speaker 4: the fifty three, and those are wonderful, But yeah, it's
Speaker 4: always just kind of a.
Speaker 1: I don't want to say it's not a sad day.
Speaker 4: You know, there's still opportunities for these guys to continue
Speaker 4: to grow and get, you know, and realize and reach
Speaker 4: their goals. At the same time, there's some players that
Speaker 4: did not make the cut that you're like, man, that's
Speaker 4: that's close. Was that had to be super close and
Speaker 4: you're hopeful that they can latch on somewhere else. So
Speaker 4: I know that'll probably be the center of this conversation
Speaker 4: today on the pod. I know, we got a lot
Speaker 4: of questions to get to get to so even though
Speaker 4: it's an off week as we get ready for Miami
Speaker 4: on the tenth, I think there's still you know, a lot.
Speaker 4: It was an exciting training camp, it was an exciting preseason.
Speaker 3: It was a lot of questions, specifically about the roster.
Speaker 3: Obviously some Miami questions will sprinkle in. We'll really get
Speaker 3: into Miami next week. But this is like the human
Speaker 3: side of football here over the last two weeks, you know,
Speaker 3: the third preseason game, I think everybody wants it to
Speaker 3: just get over with as quickly as possible. No injuries.
Speaker 3: But you know, for like you said, money, the back
Speaker 3: half of the roster. That's their super Bowl. I mean,
Speaker 3: that's their last chance to make an oppression for either
Speaker 3: the Chargers or the thirty one other teams in the NFL.
Speaker 3: And a lot of these NFL dreams are over. Now
Speaker 3: you know, these guys and I can get picked up.
Speaker 3: You know, maybe they'll get picked up on a practice squad.
Speaker 3: There's obviously a number of guys who we thought were
Speaker 3: close who will be on the Chargers practice squad inevitably,
Speaker 3: but so many questions related to the fifty three. Let's
Speaker 3: just dive in. I thought that this was one of
Speaker 3: the main topics going into to cut down day. This
Speaker 3: is from Rico the sports Guy. Now, what is your
Speaker 3: guys thoughts on the Chargers going with five wide receivers
Speaker 3: and four running backs and what is the potential upside
Speaker 3: of Dotson on this roster. I'll go quickly and let
Speaker 3: you just pick it up money. I thought Dotson earned
Speaker 3: a spot with how he played in the first and
Speaker 3: third game. He gives you some special teams versatility as
Speaker 3: a kick return or maybe to spell Darius Davis or
Speaker 3: a backup for him, and I thought he earned the job.
Speaker 3: And when you see the one to four I think
Speaker 3: with Keenan, Mike, Joshua, and Quinton, knowing that Jalen Geiton
Speaker 3: will be back week five. I don't know if it
Speaker 3: made a ton of sense to bring on a six
Speaker 3: wide receiver, especially because, hey, you called that third game
Speaker 3: in San Francisco Santa Clara. They couldn't even get the
Speaker 3: ball down the field, so you couldn't even really evaluate
Speaker 3: Doss or High Tower. And my guess is, what are
Speaker 3: both of those guys would be on the practice squad?
Speaker 4: Sure, I think I would imagine they'd like both of
Speaker 4: them on the practice squad. And if I had to guess,
Speaker 4: it's possible that they just maybe didn't show enough that
Speaker 4: that DAWs Or High Tower did not show enough to
Speaker 4: make them a sixth receiver. A lot of it remembers also,
Speaker 4: you know, sort of projecting if we put Dawson High
Speaker 4: Tower on the practice squad, are they going to get claim?
Speaker 4: You know, if we put them on waivers, are the
Speaker 4: gonna get claim? But Dotson on waivers? Is he going
Speaker 4: to get claimed? And my guess is they probably came
Speaker 4: to the consensus if we put if we cut daw
Speaker 4: if we cut Dots, and he's getting picked up.
Speaker 1: So say goodbye to him. So I think that's part
Speaker 1: of it. One two.
Speaker 4: You know, even though last year wide receiver was a serious,
Speaker 4: you know, a position of serious attrition with Keenan and
Speaker 4: Mike barely planning, it was one one hundred and thirty
Speaker 4: eight snaps together all season long, with Jalen Geiten going
Speaker 4: down with the ACL. Certainly having Michael Bandy play in
Speaker 4: a wild card playoff game is not ideal. So let's
Speaker 4: just shove that aside and say, typically running back is
Speaker 4: a position.
Speaker 1: Of attrition, and it was last year.
Speaker 4: You know, it was you had Austin Eckler missed a
Speaker 4: couple games, you had Joshua Kelly miss pretty healthy chunk
Speaker 4: of games. Larry Roundtree was activated for a couple of days,
Speaker 4: for a couple of weeks, I should say. So they
Speaker 4: probably look at that, and so let's protect ourselves. The
Speaker 4: running game is super important to Kellen Moore, so let's
Speaker 4: make sure that we've got that position covered. We want
Speaker 4: to marry this running game to our passing game. We
Speaker 4: know we've got Keenan Allen and Mike Williams and Josh
Speaker 4: Palmer and now Quentin Johnson. You mentioned that, so let's
Speaker 4: just stack that running back room. And remember this is
Speaker 4: just the initial fifty three. It could change, but to me,
Speaker 4: it was if we keep two quarterbacks, we now have
Speaker 4: a luxury. We now have a number to play with it.
Speaker 4: Maybe we didn't think was going to be there, And
Speaker 4: you put it best, Chris Elijah earned that spot. He
Speaker 4: earned it with week one, He earned it in practice.
Speaker 4: He earned it by improving his special teams even the
Speaker 4: limited number of carries he had in San Francisco, you
Speaker 4: could see that juice. And I'm not saying that that
Speaker 4: Eckler and Joshua Kelly and Spiller don't have it, but
Speaker 4: it looks different. Dotson's juice looks different when he gets
Speaker 4: in that open field, when he finds that crease. There
Speaker 4: is something that's different about him, and I think that's
Speaker 4: why they chose to keep him on instead of DAWs
Speaker 4: or Hi Tar And look, that could change, could change
Speaker 4: by the time you listen to this podcast. It's possible
Speaker 4: that there's a wide receiver out there that fits exactly
Speaker 4: what they were looking for, somebody that can block, somebody
Speaker 4: that can be a special team's ace, maybe a gunner,
Speaker 4: and Dotson won't be on the roster. It'll be he'll
Speaker 4: be on the practice squad. So it's I just don't
Speaker 4: think Doss and High Tower provided Tom Telesco, Brandon Staley
Speaker 4: and their staffs with exactly what they were looking for
Speaker 4: in order to make them that sixth wide receiver agreed.
Speaker 3: Popper broke down the fifty three men roster. I think
Speaker 3: he spoke to Telesco yesterday and said that Dotson earned it.
Speaker 3: He can catch the wall out of the backfield, pass
Speaker 3: protection and the missing link to that offense other than
Speaker 3: just the personnel and the injuries. Last year, money was
Speaker 3: the running game. The running game is going to look
Speaker 3: different this year. I'm really excited to see whether it's Kelly,
Speaker 3: Spiller or Dotson spell Austin throughout the course of this season.
Speaker 3: Chew the clock when you have to. You know, Joshua's run,
Speaker 3: that's seventy five yard run. You know you've you've been
Speaker 3: on Joshua Kelly's bandwagon for a long time, and you know,
Speaker 3: so have I. When he's healthy. Joshua has really put
Speaker 3: himself in a nice position to be that that second
Speaker 3: running back to Austin, and I think Spiller is right
Speaker 3: behind him. And then the potential of dots and so.
Speaker 4: No doubt, I think, And that's ultimately that's what for
Speaker 4: people that we're trying to figure out the fifty three
Speaker 4: and who's going to make it and who isn't.
Speaker 1: Ideally why she.
Speaker 4: Is an active on game day, he's he is an
Speaker 4: insurance policy, like that's Keelands and or I should say
Speaker 4: kilnd Doss or John Hi Tower. Don't have any targets
Speaker 4: through fifteen weeks or seventeen, you know, maybe they have
Speaker 4: a couple they get activated for one week or something like.
Speaker 4: That's the thing to remember is we are talking about
Speaker 4: depth here. How do we feel about the depth of
Speaker 4: the running back room, the wide receiver room, the tight
Speaker 4: end room, the safety room, and on and on, And
Speaker 4: that's sort of what we're we're getting after with these
Speaker 4: slots forty eight through fifty three.
Speaker 3: Bottom line, Quentin Johnson, right now, your first round pick
Speaker 3: is your wide receiver four. Darius Davis, who was also
Speaker 3: on special teams and then showed you the jet sweep ability,
Speaker 3: the ability to give vertical he's your wide receiver five
Speaker 3: right now with Jalen Guiden on the pup. Hopefully Slater
Speaker 3: to come back week five, so that position looks good money.
Speaker 3: Let's keep on rolling. This is from Ahmed. Why did
Speaker 3: the Chargers not keep Clark? With how injured our d
Speaker 3: line has been. We've talked a lot. I think about
Speaker 3: Scott Matlock and his ability throughout preseason and training camp
Speaker 3: as a six round pick and earning his spot. Getting
Speaker 3: Austin Johnson back. Tito Ebonia is another guy that they
Speaker 3: expect to get back, hopefully Week five. So I think
Speaker 3: the defensive line rotation is pretty much set. I think
Speaker 3: we had a pretty good idea of what it was
Speaker 3: going to look like.
Speaker 1: So that's yeah. Look, I think that.
Speaker 4: And Nick Neeman, augmang Bamega and Neeman have solidified themselves
Speaker 4: as not just good, but exceptional special teamers. So you're
Speaker 4: carrying five linebackers, Am and Neeman, Henley, Murray Kendrick. So
Speaker 4: you've got to start working the math here. You've got
Speaker 4: all of that, and then when you look at the
Speaker 4: interior line, Morgan Fox, Sebastian, Joseph Day, Nick Williams, Austin Johnson,
Speaker 4: they're in Matt Locke like they're all in.
Speaker 1: They are.
Speaker 4: So you're talking about one spot and Gerrod Clark and
Speaker 4: Christopher Hinton were probably the two guys that they were
Speaker 4: looking at for that one spot. And I think that's
Speaker 4: sort of what it probably came down to, which one
Speaker 4: And that's a coaches thing, which which one fits best
Speaker 4: with what you want to do, Which one fits with
Speaker 4: what you know we think we need. And this it's
Speaker 4: we said this last week. Every year, this happens every year,
Speaker 4: for whatever reason, there's an interior lineman that I get
Speaker 4: smitten with. And if it's Braydon Fojoko, if it's Forrest Merril, like,
Speaker 4: it just happens because it's an important position and their
Speaker 4: difference makers, and this team has struggled to stop the run.
Speaker 4: So when you see that flash in the preseason, you're like, Okay,
Speaker 4: well maybe this is a solution. Maybe this is what
Speaker 4: we're talking about. But it's important to remember preseason, you're going,
Speaker 4: for the most part, up against opponents twos and threes
Speaker 4: and even further down the depth chart. In practice. Every
Speaker 4: day they're going up against some really good players, and
Speaker 4: the coaches have an opportunity to evaluate practice, which we
Speaker 4: typically don't. And so that's sort of something to always
Speaker 4: keep in mind that we don't know how Hinton performed
Speaker 4: versus Clark in practice and all those reps that we
Speaker 4: didn't see, and also just how he fits in perhaps
Speaker 4: a little bit better than as I'm just kind of
Speaker 4: pulling up the the measurables. So he is six four
Speaker 4: three ten, He's a much longer, younger player than Clark is,
Speaker 4: so I think it's important to kind of remember that
Speaker 4: as well.
Speaker 3: Let's keep these rolling. This is from Steven Gillard. How
Speaker 3: do you guys feel about Stick being the only quarterback
Speaker 3: on the roster. Is there a quarterback that was cut
Speaker 3: you think would be a better fit as Herbert's backup?
Speaker 3: So no, Max Duggan. Max Duggan hopefully will get back
Speaker 3: to the practice squad. I you know, your mind kind
Speaker 3: of wanders a little bit when you see someone like
Speaker 3: Will Greer out there, who I think got picked up
Speaker 3: by the Bengals in their practice squad. The relationship with
Speaker 3: Kellen Moore and nuss Meyer, and I think Nusts had
Speaker 3: him in college too, if I'm not mistaken. So that
Speaker 3: was a name that I saw out there. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 3: that could make sense as somebody to add your quarterback room.
Speaker 3: You know's Easton's preseason I think was a little incomplete.
Speaker 3: Obviously started really well in that that first preseason game,
Speaker 3: had some trouble in Week two, and you know he's
Speaker 3: got the wheels. I don't know, what do you think
Speaker 3: about just having two guys in your quarterback room right now?
Speaker 4: It was a celebration for me. I have no interest
Speaker 4: in the Chargers carrying a third quarterback and not using
Speaker 4: that roster spot on a depth piece that may come
Speaker 4: into play. You get down to your third quarterback on
Speaker 4: this team and you're in real trouble. We know how
Speaker 4: important justin Herbert is to what this team wants to
Speaker 4: accomplish this year in any year, and that's win a
Speaker 4: Super Bowl. And if he's not out there, it's gonna
Speaker 4: be awfully hard to do that.
Speaker 1: So the most.
Speaker 4: Important role for me is not if Herbert goes down,
Speaker 4: can the Chargers still win the Super Bowl? I think
Speaker 4: we know the answer to that. It's gonna be damn
Speaker 4: near impossible. It's gonna be very hard to do that.
Speaker 4: So how does the second quarterback? How does the backup
Speaker 4: quarterback support the starter? That is priority number one, two, three, four,
Speaker 4: and five. And Easton is an incredibly smart individual. Incredibly
Speaker 4: he see things. He sees things like this. Just watch
Speaker 4: when Herbert goes to the sideline and you'll see he
Speaker 4: in Easton huddling and going over that Microsoft surface tablet.
Speaker 4: So that's number one too. I do think he showed enough.
Speaker 4: I think there's things that he can do as a
Speaker 4: backup with his athleticism, with his running ability, with Kellen
Speaker 4: Morre's creativity that it's not gonna look like it does
Speaker 4: with Herbert, but we can get by. We're gonna run
Speaker 4: a lot of RPOs, we're gonna run a lot of
Speaker 4: read option, and we're gonna try to lean on this
Speaker 4: exception what we hope is in exceptional defense, special teams,
Speaker 4: great running backs, and piece this thing together. Look, this
Speaker 4: is gonna come out the wrong way. But whatever, Like,
Speaker 4: to me, Chase Daniel was a waste. It was a
Speaker 4: complete waste. If Joe Lombardi's not good enough to be
Speaker 4: a coach and he needs a quarterback to somehow be
Speaker 4: an intermediary between he and Justin Herbert, and every time
Speaker 4: Chase gets on the field, you're like, what are we doing?
Speaker 4: Like to me, that's get it. It's something that that coach.
Speaker 4: Some coaches that's what they want. They want their backup
Speaker 4: quarterback to be an extension of them. And I got
Speaker 4: nothing against Chase. Guy made forty million bucks doing it.
Speaker 4: Good for him, that's fine. But to me, no, like
Speaker 4: we saw it in that one series, the Chase went in,
Speaker 4: it was an abject failure. Was a complete disaster when
Speaker 4: he had to go out there, you know, and I
Speaker 4: just assumed they were gonna run it into the center
Speaker 4: of the line a few times. Instead, Lombardi looked like
Speaker 4: you wanted to flex a little bit and be like, oh,
Speaker 4: you want to come at me for having Chase watch this?
Speaker 4: The guy damn near through two interceptions and it was
Speaker 4: just a disaster. So to me, yeah, Easton's I saw
Speaker 4: some people asking about McCoy and I'm like, you don't
Speaker 4: need a thirty seven year old guy out there in
Speaker 4: your quarterback room.
Speaker 1: Keep Easton. He's plenty good. He's plenty good. He knows
Speaker 1: this system.
Speaker 4: Herbert loves him, very similar to Philip with Kellen Clemens. Yeah,
Speaker 4: Phillip's gonna play. Phillip's gonna play every snap, and Kellen
Speaker 4: is a smart quarterback, a great backup, someone who Philip
Speaker 4: has in place trust in, and every time he comes
Speaker 4: to that sideline, he wants to hear what Kellen saw
Speaker 4: and maybe what he might have missed, and those two
Speaker 4: work together really well. And so that's what I feel
Speaker 4: like Herbert has with Easton Stick right now. And the
Speaker 4: bonus is I would be confident that he could go
Speaker 4: out there and win a quarter, that he could go
Speaker 4: out there and win a week. If need be anything
Speaker 4: more than that, you're fooling yourself.
Speaker 3: So the number one priority, like you said, is the
Speaker 3: relationship between QB one of the backup and Easton. Justin
Speaker 3: are super tight and Easton super smart. And keep in
Speaker 3: mind with the preseason performances, Easton is throwing to second, third,
Speaker 3: and fourth stringers as well. Put Easton Stick behind that
Speaker 3: offensive line right with Keenan and Mike on the outside
Speaker 3: and Austin in the backfield and Palmer and you know,
Speaker 3: Rashaun Slater blocking for you. It's gonna look different too.
Speaker 3: I think the second thing with a backup quarterback, You're right,
Speaker 3: if Justin has to miss like an extended period of time,
Speaker 3: we know what that is.
Speaker 1: But what are we doing?
Speaker 3: But Ken Easton Stick, when you a month, can he
Speaker 3: get you to two and two in a month? Can
Speaker 3: he keep you afloat? If need be, And I think
Speaker 3: the answer to that is yes, with Kellen Moore calling
Speaker 3: the plays and with this personnel. Just keep in mind,
Speaker 3: I think when we watch preseason and it looks ugly
Speaker 3: like it looked ugly in Week two and Week three.
Speaker 3: But also Easton didn't have Mike Williams or Keenan Allen
Speaker 3: or all these receivers in that offensive line blocking for
Speaker 3: the running game. So I do think that Easton deserves
Speaker 3: an opportunity. You know, you always look at like different connections.
Speaker 3: That's why I thought, hey, maybe Will Greer made sense
Speaker 3: to bring in if they wanted to keep three and
Speaker 3: perhaps let dug In go find something else. But I say,
Speaker 3: you go with it, and we just you ride with
Speaker 3: Justin Herbert and expect that he's gonna play every snap
Speaker 3: seventeen games.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I just want I'm sorry, Chris. I didn't mean
Speaker 4: to be distracted there, but I had to go back
Speaker 4: and watch those two throws against San Francisco from Jase
Speaker 4: Daniel and just say.
Speaker 1: What what are we doing? Like? What are we doing?
Speaker 1: So sorry?
Speaker 4: I just wanted to make sure not not because if
Speaker 4: I'm going to be a jerk and a little snarky
Speaker 4: like that I just wanted to make sure that my
Speaker 4: memory from last year served correct, And yes, I'm correct
Speaker 4: in my assessment there. So ultimately, like if you ask,
Speaker 4: if you ask a general manager, like you said, can
Speaker 4: they can he go to and two if he's got
Speaker 4: to play for a month, Basically what they want from
Speaker 4: a performance standpoint, from their backup is ultimately, can you
Speaker 4: win us a series? Like if something happens, if he
Speaker 4: bangs his thumb, if something weird, helmet comes off, he
Speaker 4: gets you know, they want to check him out. They
Speaker 4: want to you know, the independent you know, evaluator wants
Speaker 4: to check him out, concussion protocol kind of thing, and
Speaker 4: he's going to get cleared. We know he's five, Like
Speaker 4: can you can you win those snaps?
Speaker 1: For us?
Speaker 4: That's ultimately what they want and for them, the way
Speaker 4: they process it is worst case scenario is we need
Speaker 4: you for a week? Can you win a week? And
Speaker 4: that's and that's why carrying three has always just been
Speaker 4: weird to me. I've never agreed that it's something you
Speaker 4: should do when you have a stud quarterback. So, just
Speaker 4: to make a long answer longer, yeah, I'm totally fine
Speaker 4: with them keeping one and I am all about Easton
Speaker 4: Stick as Justin's backup.
Speaker 3: All right, let's keep this rolling here, let's see David
Speaker 3: Thompson likelihood of AJ Finley actually being on the fifty
Speaker 3: three when the season starts. I don't know if this
Speaker 3: was a mild surprise to some people that AJ Finley
Speaker 3: made the fifty three. You brought up a good point
Speaker 3: about Hey, you know, Tom, in the department, they're always
Speaker 3: scouring the other thirty one teams to see who gets cut,
Speaker 3: who makes a practice squad. So as we tape this,
Speaker 3: you know, I think AJ Finley earned his spot, Tom
Speaker 3: said so via Poppers article. But you never know, like
Speaker 3: at the end of this week, there may be another
Speaker 3: safety or another defensive lineman or maybe an offensive lineman
Speaker 3: that they like and takes the spot of one of
Speaker 3: these guys who was on the bubble who made the
Speaker 3: fifty three.
Speaker 4: So the reason why it was surprising is it just
Speaker 4: appeared as though Mark Webb had outplayed him. And we
Speaker 4: know how much the coaching staff likes Mark Webb and
Speaker 4: his versatility, and that that if you were going to
Speaker 4: keep five safeties that he would end up being. We
Speaker 4: knew Raheem Lane was going to make it because his
Speaker 4: special teams has been so exceptional and he's actually played
Speaker 4: all right when preston to rotational duty. But so that's
Speaker 4: where I think the surprise element came in. So at
Speaker 4: the same time, if I had to guess, you know,
Speaker 4: Mark got hurt in the preseason again, you know, and
Speaker 4: that's just unfortunately for web been the story of his
Speaker 4: career is that he has really struggled to stay healthy.
Speaker 4: And maybe that's why he's better parked on the practice
Speaker 4: squad and you can use him for a week, and
Speaker 4: you can use him for maybe two weeks if you
Speaker 4: have to, but you don't have to put him on
Speaker 4: the fifty three and try to count on him for seventeen.
Speaker 4: I wonder how much of it has to do with
Speaker 4: low and whether or not a Loie Gilman's not quite
Speaker 4: fully one hundred percent, and they wanted to have a
Speaker 4: little bit more depth at that position. If if there's
Speaker 4: going to be an issue with those top you know,
Speaker 4: it's three safeties that we're really talking about, it's low
Speaker 4: it's J T.
Speaker 1: Woods and Darwin obviously.
Speaker 4: And so I wonder how much of that because of
Speaker 4: the way the training camp and preseason ended for Lowie
Speaker 4: Gilman comes into play and why they kept that extra position.
Speaker 4: But we all know Brandon Staley likes defensive backs for
Speaker 4: special teamers. They are his favorite special teamers. It's a
Speaker 4: big reason why they took Dean Leonard and why they
Speaker 4: took us here late in the draft last year. And
Speaker 4: he mentioned that. I just that always stuck with me
Speaker 4: when he when he his post draft presser, he talked about,
Speaker 4: we're always going to take swings on defensive backs toward
Speaker 4: the back end of the drafts or at some point
Speaker 4: because of how valuable they are on special teams.
Speaker 1: And we saw that last year.
Speaker 4: They won them a game in overtime, did the combo
Speaker 4: of Dean and Joss here against Denver. So to me,
Speaker 4: that's the other part of it is Finley's got a
Speaker 4: nose for the ball. We know that from his time
Speaker 4: at Ole Miss had some coverage issues, had a little
Speaker 4: bit of run support issues, but that's all stuff the
Speaker 4: coaches can work out. And you certainly is a heck
Speaker 4: of a high school football player and had those flashes
Speaker 4: at Ole Miss, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: So you're betting on the upside.
Speaker 4: It's a little bit more of the ceiling versus the
Speaker 4: floor and Finley versus Web. But that's another one. I'd
Speaker 4: be really surprised that I don't anticipate him Dean on
Speaker 4: the fifty three for all seventeen or eighteen weeks, including
Speaker 4: the buy of the regular season.
Speaker 3: The quarter situation. I think it's a testament to how
Speaker 3: they drafted, with Jasir and Dean both making the team
Speaker 3: in their second year. It's one thing to draft a
Speaker 3: guy and then they contribute in the first year, But
Speaker 3: to have a six and seventh round pick make the
Speaker 3: team in their second year continuing to develop, I think
Speaker 3: it's a good thing. Really, no surprises from the quarnerback standpoint.
Speaker 3: Now money, this is from om run. What is the
Speaker 3: most important difference you noticed in Kellen Moore's offense. I
Speaker 3: felt it was the ability to adjust the game plan
Speaker 3: to the player and the opponent. What do you think,
Speaker 3: I'll just say the running game, because we haven't seen
Speaker 3: a Kellen Moore offense week one when it actually counts,
Speaker 3: but just the flashes of the running game. We talked
Speaker 3: to Isaiah Spiller about the downhill runs, runs that suit
Speaker 3: him best. We saw Joshua have success, dots that have success.
Speaker 3: That was basically I think the missing link to last
Speaker 3: year is not having a running game to rely upon
Speaker 3: in the second half of games outside Austin Eckler and
Speaker 3: I think that's going to change.
Speaker 4: One hundred percent agree. Running game looked much better. DJ
Speaker 4: and Dan Fouts said it in the game during the game,
Speaker 4: how surprised they were that everything was north south and
Speaker 4: then all of a sudden, here comes a stretch for
Speaker 4: seventeen yards. So sure enough, he's not pulling out everything.
Speaker 4: And to me, you haven't seen the biggest impact of
Speaker 4: Kellen Moore. Now what perhaps if you're if you're a
Speaker 4: weirdo and you consume everything, then you read the two articles,
Speaker 4: one from Peter King and one from Lindsay Theory about
Speaker 4: this whole pace in space and the meetings that they
Speaker 4: had with Steve Kerr and the idea that Justin Herbert
Speaker 4: is like Steph Curry and can we apply principles of
Speaker 4: what created a dynasty up in San Francisco and Oakland
Speaker 4: down here in Los Angeles. And much of that they
Speaker 4: talked about was tempo, and that's something that we've talked about.
Speaker 4: When Kellen was hired. That was always impressive about Dallas
Speaker 4: as you did not know when they were going to
Speaker 4: snap the ball, they did not always wait until three
Speaker 4: seconds on the play clock, or when the play clock
Speaker 4: was at zero. Sometimes they're snapping the ball at twenty
Speaker 4: two seconds. Sometimes they're running with crazy tempo. Sometimes they'll
Speaker 4: let it run all the way down to zero, so
Speaker 4: you can't time your get off. But I think with
Speaker 4: this roster, just the quotes, the way I interpret the
Speaker 4: quotes from Kellen Moore in those interviews and from Brandon
Speaker 4: Staley in those long form pieces from Peter and Lindsay,
Speaker 4: sounds like this thing is gonna move, like it's really
Speaker 4: gonna move, and they do not. They're gonna hit the
Speaker 4: gas and it's gonna stay there. And that that our
Speaker 4: PM line is gonna be on the red for stretches
Speaker 4: of games because they think everybody. They've got a roster
Speaker 4: full of very intelligent players and they can put a
Speaker 4: lot on them. And they're talking about justin with a
Speaker 4: couple of check with me's with maybe four or five plays,
Speaker 4: you don't have to huddle. You got you know, choice
Speaker 4: routes all over the place for Eckler, for Keenan, for Mike,
Speaker 4: they're all it is. We talk about the Patriots defense
Speaker 4: being an Amoba defense. To me, it's it's gonna be tempo,
Speaker 4: it's gonna be Amiba, it's gonna be constantly changing, and
Speaker 4: it's gonna keep That's the goal is to keep defenses
Speaker 4: on their heels and take advantage of arguably the most
Speaker 4: physically gifted quarterback in the league, combining with a guy
Speaker 4: that won the academic Heisman and can process as quickly
Speaker 4: as some of the best, and see if in fact
Speaker 4: this you know, Justin Herbert can end up being the
Speaker 4: best quarterback in the league by the time this season
Speaker 4: is over.
Speaker 3: He just look at the personnel entering a week well,
Speaker 3: and at the wide receiver position specifically, and just what
Speaker 3: an upgrade it is with Palmer a year wiser and
Speaker 3: Quintin Johnson and Darius Davis, and we know about Keenan
Speaker 3: to Mike. This next question is about the tight ends
Speaker 3: from Bull Moose. With the richest free agency tight end
Speaker 3: blocking class and tight end draft class in recent memory,
Speaker 3: the Chargers chose to do nothing to upgrade the position
Speaker 3: when it's really needed after last year? Why And it's
Speaker 3: the crying emoji Listen, Gerald Everett, I think went healthy
Speaker 3: and in the position that he's going to be in
Speaker 3: not having to be the top two or three target.
Speaker 3: That's gonna look different. I thought stone Smart was excellent
Speaker 3: during the preseason and he made the team because of
Speaker 3: his ability to came. He sprung a great block for
Speaker 3: Joshua Kelly after the offensive line just from all of
Speaker 3: the save defensive line. Uh. He also he also had
Speaker 3: a nice block for Easton in the in the week
Speaker 3: before Easton getting in the end zone. So I wouldn't
Speaker 3: be as concerned about the blocking tight end thing right now.
Speaker 3: I think that why there was so much concern last
Speaker 3: year money is because Rashaun Slater went out. So they're like, Okay,
Speaker 3: well we're gonna have to We're gonna have to protect
Speaker 3: Justin and and try to form some semblance of a
Speaker 3: running game without our all pro left tackle. Uh McKitty
Speaker 3: is gonna have to be that that blocking tight end.
Speaker 3: Hopefully stone Smart can contribute to that. But I think
Speaker 3: it may be a little overblown based on the personnel
Speaker 3: that's coming back healthy across the offensive line.
Speaker 4: So first, the name of the person that asked the
Speaker 4: question or the is what.
Speaker 3: Bull moose at four five two?
Speaker 1: Bull moose like b U L. L. Moose.
Speaker 4: Yep, So it reminds me I have to acknowledge this
Speaker 4: just in case. That's why his name is bull Moose.
Speaker 4: When I was in high school college, when I was
Speaker 4: twenty one, we used to play a game called bull
Speaker 4: Moose and you would hold your right hand up and
Speaker 4: they would say, hold your right hand up, make a fist,
Speaker 4: Say bull moose, Say bull moose. All right, now you're in.
Speaker 4: You can no longer drink with your right hand, and
Speaker 4: you had to drink with your left hand. And if
Speaker 4: anybody caught you taking a drink with your right hand,
Speaker 4: they would say bull moose and you'd have to finish
Speaker 4: whatever was in your cup. And it takes a while.
Speaker 4: It would take a couple parties to kind of settle
Speaker 4: in and you are just dusting glasses because you're right
Speaker 4: handed for the most part. And now to this day,
Speaker 4: here I am some thirty plus years later, and I
Speaker 4: still drink with my left hand exclusively from you know,
Speaker 4: when I was like fifteen, sixteen years old when I
Speaker 4: got initiated to the bull Moose clan.
Speaker 1: So thank you bull Moose forgiving me that beautiful money.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna ask Bull Moose to
Speaker 3: reply and confirm with that is why.
Speaker 1: You say is your name Bull Moose? Because of the
Speaker 1: drinking games.
Speaker 3: This is a Chargers Dieharden busking magician.
Speaker 4: So okay, let's find out as if Bull Moose is
Speaker 4: related to the drinking game. In terms of the tight end,
Speaker 4: I'll i'll disagree with you a little bit, Chris. I
Speaker 4: do think they need a blocking tight end. I am
Speaker 4: a little nervous about the blocking. I think we wanted
Speaker 4: to see more from Trey. I know we hear that
Speaker 4: Donald's getting better. I just haven't quite seen it. Gerald
Speaker 4: Everett's not. He's just not gonna block. That's not what
Speaker 4: he does. But he's exceptional at beating man coverage as
Speaker 4: a tight end.
Speaker 1: He just does.
Speaker 4: He wins, and that's so important on third downs. I
Speaker 4: don't think Gerald gets nearly the credit he deserves for
Speaker 4: what he's able to do at that position.
Speaker 1: He is so good.
Speaker 4: If if you guard him with a single if you're
Speaker 4: just man up single defender, he's gonna beat him. He's
Speaker 4: gonna be open, and I think that is so valuable.
Speaker 4: So let's not pretend like they don't have assets in
Speaker 4: that tight end room. I'll second and echo exactly what
Speaker 4: you said about Stone Smart. I knew he was gonna
Speaker 4: make the team. I had no doubt in my mind
Speaker 4: that he was gonna make the team. He is for
Speaker 4: someone that played Remember this is someone that played quarterback
Speaker 4: at Riverside City, won the MVP, won the championship, tried
Speaker 4: to play quarterback at an FCS, go just didn't happen.
Speaker 4: Converts to wide receiver, then all of a sudden becomes
Speaker 4: a tight end. This is someone that's played tight end
Speaker 4: for like two three years. He's just starting to figure
Speaker 4: it out, and you just see how quickly it's coming
Speaker 4: to him. He's an incredible athlete. He makes some ridiculous
Speaker 4: catches and the thing that jumped out you mentioned the blocks.
Speaker 4: The blocking was great in the San Francisco game. He
Speaker 4: had a couple key ones. But more than that, what
Speaker 4: I've seen and I think is important for his development
Speaker 4: is the contact. He absorbs crazy shots like that guy
Speaker 4: is getting blown up and that ball is not coming out.
Speaker 4: He holds on to it. And that's what's gonna happen.
Speaker 4: As a tight end. You're in the middle of the field,
Speaker 4: You're gonna take some shots. Can you secure the football?
Speaker 4: And pick up first down. So to me, Stone Smart,
Speaker 4: he's he's the number two to me like Everett's one.
Speaker 4: Stone Smart is. From what I've seen and just the development,
Speaker 4: I feel like he is the second best tight end
Speaker 4: on this roster and I'm looking forward to big things
Speaker 4: from him. If there was a big tight end out
Speaker 4: there that that would be a reliable tight end, not
Speaker 4: just a block, but someone that can catch a few
Speaker 4: passes as well, I'd be very surprised if the Chargers
Speaker 4: didn't put in a claim and maybe swap out one
Speaker 4: of those guys for that. They've got so many pass
Speaker 4: catching weapons, they're so stacked in pass catchers. I do
Speaker 4: think they need a little bit more of a thumper,
Speaker 4: someone that can really clean clean somebody out.
Speaker 1: Just the idea of putting a.
Speaker 4: Badass blocking tight end next to, you know, next to
Speaker 4: Slater who's got Zion on the inside, and Lindsley there
Speaker 4: and just those four bodies coming at you as a wall,
Speaker 4: like that's exciting to me. Or someone that's pulling and
Speaker 4: you know, right before the snap, here's some big old
Speaker 4: tight end in motion running towards Slater and now he's
Speaker 4: cleaning somebody out. That's trying to creep up on the
Speaker 4: line of scrimmage. I do think I think that that
Speaker 4: they're missing that, just plain and simple. It has not
Speaker 4: quite developed for any of you know, Donald Parhum, Trey McKitty,
Speaker 4: have not developed that skill at an NFL level.
Speaker 3: We go to one road game a year. We're going
Speaker 3: to Lambau in November. As a bucket list. Any tips.
Speaker 3: Did you have a bar? Did you have a bar
Speaker 3: for Chad?
Speaker 4: I wish I could remember the name of it. It's
Speaker 4: a giant bar though you can't miss it. It's got
Speaker 4: an outdoor patio. It's got an outdoor like area, not
Speaker 4: a patio, it's a gigantic it's it's encircled by kind
Speaker 4: of like one of those wooden plank fences, you.
Speaker 3: Know what stopped which He's bringing four little kids and
Speaker 3: a wife, so maybe maybe it's not the best place
Speaker 3: for Chad to take.
Speaker 1: The care we go.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I stayed. I can't remember where I stayed. It was,
Speaker 4: you know, kind of one of those family friendly breakfast
Speaker 4: is free indoor pool, whole place smells like chlorine, kind
Speaker 4: of joint whatever it was. I can't remember the name
Speaker 4: of it now, But like I said, I called games
Speaker 4: in Green Bay probably five six times when I was
Speaker 4: doing national radio, and you can't beat it, just the
Speaker 4: people are the best. Get there early, walk around. I've
Speaker 4: talked about it. Watching people play Ultimate on the lawn
Speaker 4: of a funeral home and in an ACDC cover band
Speaker 4: on the front porch of a Catholic church. You just
Speaker 4: you can't beat that, like it's hilarious. And so get
Speaker 4: there early. Make sure and you know, by the way,
Speaker 4: make sure you get the Lambeau early because they obviously
Speaker 4: have the museum in there, so you want to make
Speaker 4: sure you get there and take advantage of that as well.
Speaker 4: You know, don't get there too close to the game.
Speaker 4: Get there a couple hours early so you can really
Speaker 4: a walk the whole neighborhoods, and b make sure you
Speaker 4: get into Lambeau and check out the museum and everything there.
Speaker 3: Which player are you each most upset about missing the
Speaker 3: initial fifty three money? What do you think?
Speaker 4: So let's see as I put together what I think
Speaker 4: is going to be the practice squad.
Speaker 3: So how about the Zach Bailey brendan heimis I.
Speaker 4: Was surprising to me that's I thought Bailey outplayed him
Speaker 4: in the in the preseason. I thought Bailey had some
Speaker 4: really good snaps. He's I can't imagine he doesn't get
Speaker 4: claimed offensive lineman or it's such a premium at the
Speaker 4: same time we say it, you know, you have Foster
Speaker 4: Surrel that made it as the tackle, and you've got
Speaker 4: positional versatility with McFadden Himus because he has the center flexibility,
Speaker 4: I guess to have a third string center out there,
Speaker 4: and he did play tackle at Nebraska, so I was surprised.
Speaker 4: But again, you're talking about the ninth offensive lineman, So
Speaker 4: hopefully it doesn't come to that. What I think, if
Speaker 4: I had to pick one, it would probably Yeah, it'd
Speaker 4: probably be it probably be Gerrod Clark. I just like
Speaker 4: I really thought, again, I thought he had a lot
Speaker 4: of those hockey assists, as.
Speaker 1: I like to call him.
Speaker 4: He's not getting the he's not getting credit necessarily for
Speaker 4: the tackle or for the sack, but it's it's his
Speaker 4: push and his collapsing the pocket that led to a
Speaker 4: Koye sack, that led to Henley's sack that led to
Speaker 4: toy Polotu sack. He was a big part of those
Speaker 4: and for him to be a rookie to have, you know,
Speaker 4: he's listed six three three thirty. I've joked about it.
Speaker 4: He's three sixty. He's three fifty three sixty, and to
Speaker 4: be able to move the way he does is impressive.
Speaker 4: So that's one that that I thought maybe had a
Speaker 4: shot to make it. I'm not upset about any of
Speaker 4: these guys not making it. I thought Keelan DAWs had
Speaker 4: a great training camp. He's got super sure hands, which
Speaker 4: you love to see. You know, guy's gonna catch it
Speaker 4: if you throw it in his direction. Terrell Bidam had
Speaker 4: a really nice camp. The receiver out of sc to me,
Speaker 4: the one name that I really wanted to make it
Speaker 4: and we made it was no secret here, but it
Speaker 4: was Elijah Dotson. I wanted to see him make it.
Speaker 4: I wanted to see him rewarded for what was a
Speaker 4: great camp. Not to mention it was somebody that we
Speaker 4: kind of had tabbed early on as being excited about
Speaker 4: so selfishly confirmation bias. Like to see him make it,
Speaker 4: But I thought he was the one wild card of
Speaker 4: all of them that really deserved it. So for me,
Speaker 4: I'm super stoked on how the fifty three turned out.
Speaker 3: Money two more This is from Karris Bowling. What are
Speaker 3: your thoughts on how the Chargers defense can limit the Dolphins.
Speaker 3: We're going to really dig into this next week, but
Speaker 3: I would say, just fire up Sunday Night football last
Speaker 3: year and that would be the blueprint.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it'll be similar. Keep him in front of you.
Speaker 4: You know, you had Josh here in the slot on
Speaker 4: Wattle almost that whole game, and just jam him, disrupt
Speaker 4: the timing, don't allow don't you know they They certainly
Speaker 4: took Tua out of his comfort zone. And remember they
Speaker 4: did it without Joey Bosa. So in this game, you're
Speaker 4: gonna have Joey Bosa out there along with Khalil Mack.
Speaker 4: It's I think it will look very similar to what
Speaker 4: we saw last year, and that is you just can't
Speaker 4: let him get behind you. It'll be a you're gonna
Speaker 4: have to beat us with twelve play drives to score.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: The only it was a fluke play that Tyreek Hills
Speaker 4: scored on. Otherwise the offense had nothing going in that game.
Speaker 4: You know, it was the fumble that was like a
Speaker 4: fumble Rooski that he was able to just pull out
Speaker 4: of the pile when no one was paying attention and
Speaker 4: took all the way. But other than that, they did
Speaker 4: a great job of keeping their linebackers a little bit
Speaker 4: deeper and and just pressing guys on the line saying,
Speaker 4: we're gonna knock off your rhythm and here's our second
Speaker 4: wave of defense, and then we're gonna have another wave
Speaker 4: of defense behind that, you know, our two shells or
Speaker 4: our two our shell to safety, two shells safety high.
Speaker 4: You know, that keeps another level of security in front
Speaker 4: of him. And it worked exceptionally, worked to a t.
Speaker 4: So I think it'll be very similar. Now. The question
Speaker 4: will be does Mike McDaniel instead of trying to instead
Speaker 4: of taking the cheese, which the charge has been very
Speaker 4: fortunate in the past where you face teams that have
Speaker 4: exceptional running games and for the coordinators that can't help themselves,
Speaker 4: they just it's weird. They don't understand that you're going
Speaker 4: to get credit for just running the ball. They're going
Speaker 4: to say, hey, way to go. I think it was
Speaker 4: Marty morning Wegg in Baltimore, if I remember right, I
Speaker 4: think he was the OC when he you know, you
Speaker 4: had I can't remember if it was God. I think
Speaker 4: it was Gus Edwards at that point, and Lamar Jackson
Speaker 4: and he comes out throwing the football all over the
Speaker 4: place in that wild card game and it's like, is
Speaker 4: he really going to do this? And it held through
Speaker 4: like the whole game, and they just were trying to
Speaker 4: show that Lamar Jackson can throw the football and we're
Speaker 4: not just a running team. And that happened last year
Speaker 4: in Miami, like they were running the football really well.
Speaker 4: Mike McDaniel was like, no, we're gonna throw it all
Speaker 4: over the yard and thank you appreciate it.
Speaker 3: So I think it was a shocking part of that game.
Speaker 3: Money did did? Did they win? Run? Because the Chargers
Speaker 3: run defense was vulnerable too, and I thought that that
Speaker 3: would be a way to get going on the road, right,
Speaker 3: run the football.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I think the I think the Miami offense
Speaker 4: will look different this year than it did last year.
Speaker 4: They're gonna try to attack with the run, but it's
Speaker 4: gonna just the Chargers run defense is gonna be so
Speaker 4: different because Joey's out there and because you do have
Speaker 4: depth now on that interior defensive line. It looks like
Speaker 4: Austin Johnson's gonna be ready to play. So you're gonna
Speaker 4: have your starting front four of Bash and Johnson and
Speaker 4: Bosa and Mack and behind him. Now you're gonna have
Speaker 4: Eric Hendricks, You're gonna have throwing up on that line up.
Speaker 4: So it's gonna be it's gonna look different, is what
Speaker 4: I should say that. I think Brandon Staley's scheme is
Speaker 4: the same, but Mike mc daniels probably gonna run the
Speaker 4: ball a lot more then.
Speaker 3: The other wrinkle to that is Vic Fangio is a
Speaker 3: defensive coordinator. What does he have for Justin and killing.
Speaker 4: He's always got something, always got something, So he's got something.
Speaker 4: Some of the best in the business.
Speaker 3: So you know, I think we'll end on this one.
Speaker 3: This is an appropriate question to end on money from
Speaker 3: a rich I think it's Rich Mollard. What do the
Speaker 3: Chargers need to accomplish to qualify it as a successful season.
Speaker 3: It's a good question.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I've been asked this a lot and all the
Speaker 4: interviews I've been doing leading up to the season, and
Speaker 4: to me, look, Brandon Staley's not gonna want to hear it,
Speaker 4: Norrith Tom t LESCo. But just the way they work
Speaker 4: to their money this offseason, they expect to win the
Speaker 4: Super Bowl, or at least they expect to be incredibly
Speaker 4: competitive in the playoffs, the playoffs or a crapshoot, you
Speaker 4: just you gotta punch your ticket to the tournament. And
Speaker 4: once you get in, you don't want to be embarrassed.
Speaker 4: You want to play a tight game against a very
Speaker 4: good team, give it your best and hopefully you win.
Speaker 4: Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. That's to me as
Speaker 4: a successful season. If you're in the tournament and if
Speaker 4: you're playing an exceptional whatever team you face is going
Speaker 4: to be really good, and if you you know, win
Speaker 4: or lose, you play your best football. And sometimes you
Speaker 4: just got to tip your cap to the other team
Speaker 4: because they had a better day than you. But the
Speaker 4: way the Spanos has moved money around and they didn't
Speaker 4: cut anybody when we thought they were gonna cut Keenan Allen,
Speaker 4: they might have to cut Khalil Mack that they might
Speaker 4: you know that Mike Williams might get traded. Like think
Speaker 4: of all the speculation we had prior to the summer
Speaker 4: because we knew Justin Herbert was going to be getting
Speaker 4: a quarter of a billion dollars and we're like, well,
Speaker 4: they're gonna have to remake this roster. There's gonna have
Speaker 4: to be some sacrifice. And it's probably gonna be Keenan Allen. No,
Speaker 4: they push that money to the next year, which signals
Speaker 4: we think we can win this year. We're willing to
Speaker 4: take one more crack at it. We've shoved all this Bosa,
Speaker 4: Mike Williams, Keenan Allen, tens of millions of dollars into
Speaker 4: next year when we'll have to pay that bill. But
Speaker 4: for this year, we're keeping them together and we're going
Speaker 4: to make a run at this. So it's it's the
Speaker 4: whole thing, is what they're thinking to me. I measure
Speaker 4: success by winning the division, or at least winning a
Speaker 4: bus bunch of games in a very competitive division that
Speaker 4: you end up maybe getting the number one wild card
Speaker 4: because you're playing in the toughest division or have one
Speaker 4: of the toughest teams in your division, that kind of thing,
Speaker 4: and then acquitting yourself exceptionally in the postseason, win or lose.
Speaker 3: I think a successful season would be to finally dethrone
Speaker 3: the Chiefs in the AFC West because you got all
Speaker 3: the guys to do it. You've been so close, and
Speaker 3: at least getting to the divisional round or the AFC
Speaker 3: Championship game. You look at this conference money, and we
Speaker 3: talk about all the franchise quarterbacks. I think the Pittsburgh
Speaker 3: Steelers in the New England Patriots going to make the
Speaker 3: playoffs this year and they don't have the quarterbacks that
Speaker 3: we're talking about. So do the math, you know, Josh Allen,
Speaker 3: Aaron Rodgers, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Deshaun Watson, Patrick Mahomes,
Speaker 3: Justin Herbert. Did I say Aaron Rodgers TUA. You know
Speaker 3: that Dolphins team is expecting to make the puffs. It's
Speaker 3: been a lot of disappointed teams in the ANFC this year.
Speaker 3: Sean Payton and Russell Wilson think they're going to do it.
Speaker 3: You know who knows what the Raiders are with Jimmy
Speaker 3: Jimmy g wins games. I don't think the Raiders have
Speaker 3: a great roster right now compared to the rest of
Speaker 3: the AFC, But Jimmy g wins games.
Speaker 4: I'll say that, like I hear that a lot, And
Speaker 4: I say, Jimmy g wins games with the best supporting
Speaker 4: roster in the league. Like, let's not forget that roster
Speaker 4: without the quarterback is probably the best roster in the league.
Speaker 4: When you're talking about offensive line receivers, running backs, defensive
Speaker 4: line coach. So I know that Jimmy won with Kyle Shanahan,
Speaker 4: but so did Rock Party, mister irrelevant, And if you
Speaker 4: go back and watch the Rock Party film, it's okay,
Speaker 4: it's it's okay, it's it's not what everybody's making it
Speaker 4: out to be. So I don't have a lot of
Speaker 4: faith in the Raiders, right, It's like, yeah, I don't
Speaker 4: have it, but but I think everybody else, Yeah, everybody else.
Speaker 3: Ryan Tannehill, Trevor Lawrence.
Speaker 4: You know, if it's a rough schedule, it's a rough Yeah,
Speaker 4: it's not going to be a really rough schedule.
Speaker 3: If you get to the divisional round in the AFC,
Speaker 3: I think that's a heck of an accomplishment and something
Speaker 3: to build on. Basically, you don't want to go backwards, right,
Speaker 3: nine and eight stalies first year, ten and seven, get
Speaker 3: to the playoffs a second. This needs to be an
Speaker 3: AFC West Crown and or get to the divisional round
Speaker 3: and make your presence felt in the AFC.
Speaker 4: So, Chris, here's I just opened up my Twitter because
Speaker 4: I just got peppered and I'm sure you saw it too,
Speaker 4: with a handful of these. So let's see if we
Speaker 4: can just clean them out real quick. Where's this one?
Speaker 4: What positional group do you think could take the next
Speaker 4: step and becoming elite? I'll answer these quickly. Linebacker. To me,
Speaker 4: it's it's no question Eric Hendrick is going to have
Speaker 4: an impact. I'm everything I hear from all the coaches
Speaker 4: is that Canine is ready to take a big step,
Speaker 4: and we know Dana Henley's going to be exceptional. So
Speaker 4: to me, it's it's not even close. Position group needs
Speaker 4: more depth. I think we talked about that already. You know,
Speaker 4: maybe a blocking tight end would be nice. What type
Speaker 4: of season is stay need to keep his job?
Speaker 1: Success?
Speaker 4: I thought I thought Brandon Staley's taken some incoming that
Speaker 4: I don't think is warranted considering the injuries from last year,
Speaker 4: in the fact they won ten games. Team was completely
Speaker 4: destroyed by injuries, and he was able to win ten
Speaker 4: games and be the number one Wild Cards. So the
Speaker 4: idea that that he's on this crazy gauntlet run in
Speaker 4: order to keep his job, I don't quite think is
Speaker 4: is accurate. When a playoff game or more blah blah blah.
Speaker 4: That's Zach Bailey. He was the best O line player
Speaker 4: this offseason. Eh, let's not forget Zion and Jamari were
Speaker 4: out there. So but at the same time, Handan I
Speaker 4: would say, again, you're talking about the ninth alignement. Hopefully
Speaker 4: you don't have to to see him at all. That's
Speaker 4: the idea is your backup you know you have you
Speaker 4: have Slyers your backup tackle, and then someone else comes
Speaker 4: in to play guard, which McFadden I thought played very well.
Speaker 4: I'm I have I have faith in McFadden as that
Speaker 4: player that can potentially come in. So I would say,
Speaker 4: you know that's that's that's all right by me. I
Speaker 4: want you want to freak out over Himus versus Bailey, whatever,
Speaker 4: that's do it. I thought Bailey was better too, but
Speaker 4: it's not going to freak out over it.
Speaker 3: And money, you know, things move quick. Schefter just tweeted
Speaker 3: this Chargers claim. Linebacker Tanner muse on waivers from the Steelers.
Speaker 3: This was a third round pick of the Raiders a
Speaker 3: few years back, played with the Seahawks Steelers for camp
Speaker 3: and now he's gonna be a Charger.
Speaker 4: So uh yeah, that's the Chargers put into claim, which
Speaker 4: means someone's out. You can't you can't make a claim
Speaker 4: and then put that player on your practice squad that's
Speaker 4: got to be on your active roster. And Muse comes
Speaker 4: in as far and Albert Brier just posted all the
Speaker 4: waiver claims and none of the Chargers players were claimed,
Speaker 4: which means good news for now. They they'll they'll get
Speaker 4: all those Zach Bailey'll make it to the practice squad.
Speaker 4: Going back to that conversation we just had a second ago.
Speaker 4: Both receivers, Keelan Dass, high Tower, all the things that
Speaker 4: you know, J Clark, the players that were asked about
Speaker 4: how could this guy not make it? Well, they all
Speaker 4: made it. They're they're gonna be on the practice squad
Speaker 4: and likely AJ Finley would be my guess we'll join
Speaker 4: them in place of Tanner Muse.
Speaker 3: So there you go. We went about an hour talking
Speaker 3: about the fifty three men roster getting ready for week one.
Speaker 3: I can't wait. Yeah, year seven of Chargers Weekly and
Speaker 3: it hasn't been better the last couple of years having
Speaker 3: money a part of this. So I can't wait for
Speaker 3: another season with you man Dolphins on deck.
Speaker 1: Yeah, looking forward to it. Brother.
Speaker 3: All right, guys for money, I'm Chris. This has been
Speaker 3: Charges Weekly. We'll see you next week.