Speaker 1: As a league fifteen to ten touched up er well.
Speaker 2: The good vibes continue.
Speaker 3: Welcome into a brand new episode of Chargers Weekly, as always,
Speaker 3: joined by Matt Muddy Smith, who I think has been
Speaker 3: on the road calling hoops Christ It's.
Speaker 1: Been a busy week. Was out at MSG, got a
Speaker 1: sweet little garden run in me Saint John's versus Yukon
Speaker 1: on Saturday, and then a quick one up to up
Speaker 1: to Maples, Stanford versus UCLA. A little bit less juice
Speaker 1: in the arena at Stanford, believe it or not than
Speaker 1: there was in New York City for the Johnnies versus
Speaker 1: the number one team in the nation Yukon. But tip
Speaker 1: of the cap here in Southern California to our friend
Speaker 1: Mick Cronan. Love him. One of my favorite people in town,
Speaker 1: one of the best coaches in town. And just to
Speaker 1: acknowledge what he's doing. I'm sure he's a coach that
Speaker 1: Jim Harbaugh would absolutely love. The toughness that he instills
Speaker 1: into his kids, and it's impressive. I'll just because I
Speaker 1: do think there's a correlation. I feel like I can
Speaker 1: actually speak a little bit at length to this. You know,
Speaker 1: he's he's got the eighth youngest team in the nation.
Speaker 1: And this is you know a team. I just saw
Speaker 1: a Yukon squad that won the national championship last year
Speaker 1: and three of their most impactful players are all first
Speaker 1: year transfers. One from ECU Tristan Newton, one from Rutgers
Speaker 1: Cam Spencer, and one Hassandiarra from Shoot. Where did he
Speaker 1: come from? I think, ah, I can't remember. Anyway, Mick
Speaker 1: has got kids from all over the world, not the country,
Speaker 1: the world, seven nations, Nigeria, Slovena, Serbia, Turkey, France, Spain,
Speaker 1: nineteen year olds, eighteen year olds. And you know, after
Speaker 1: struggling at the start of the year, they are absolutely
Speaker 1: kicking tail right now they've won six to seven. And
Speaker 1: you know the correlation I see is, hey, it's not
Speaker 1: a sprint, it's a marathon. And with the amount of
Speaker 1: free agents the Chargers have, and how much different this
Speaker 1: roster is gonna look. The infusion of young talent. Maybe
Speaker 1: it starts a little bit slow, but when you have
Speaker 1: a coach like Jim Harbaugh who can develop talent, like
Speaker 1: mc cronin can develop talent, that's the most underrated asset
Speaker 1: of a coach. The ability to develop, to make kids
Speaker 1: better and mix one of the best at it, and
Speaker 1: Jim Harbaugh is one of the best at it. You
Speaker 1: look at those look at those kids at Michigan that
Speaker 1: he brought in and where they ended up after three years,
Speaker 1: after four years, and how many he's putting into the NFL,
Speaker 1: and I think that's you know, it's just something that
Speaker 1: kind of hit me last night when I was watching
Speaker 1: that game, is they knocked off Stanford up at Maples
Speaker 1: to win their six and seventh im Like, man, these
Speaker 1: are kids playing against twenty two and twenty three year olds,
Speaker 1: and these nineteen year olds in a three point game
Speaker 1: and the final three minutes on the road just austin
Speaker 1: tail and winning and closing out and making huge baskets
Speaker 1: and coming up with big defensive stops. And that's the
Speaker 1: developmental process that's so important to finding in a good coach.
Speaker 3: No doubt, We've talked so much about Jim's success, you know,
Speaker 3: specifically with quarterbacks and Michigan and really every stop he's gone.
Speaker 3: But I'm sure we'll dig into this a little bit
Speaker 3: more money as the off season goes on. It's just
Speaker 3: the player development side of it and the guys who,
Speaker 3: you know, maybe need that extra year or two and
Speaker 3: some time to untap that full potential. Guys like Quentin
Speaker 3: Johnston and Zion you know, former first round picks, former
Speaker 3: draft picks that maybe have.
Speaker 2: Been a little late to develop.
Speaker 3: I feel like that those guys are going to show
Speaker 3: something this year and beyond with with Jim at the controls,
Speaker 3: and you know what a partner he has with Joe
Speaker 3: hortiz Man. Like like Jim knocked it out of the
Speaker 3: park last Thursday. I thought Joe did the same on Tuesday.
Speaker 3: And as I kind of like land survey the landscape
Speaker 3: of all the new coaches and just like the fit right,
Speaker 3: the fit among general manager and head coach, and how
Speaker 3: an organization is going to run, you know, is it
Speaker 3: going to run through the GM? Is it going to
Speaker 3: run through the head coach? I just I don't think
Speaker 3: that the Chargers could have secured a better fit with
Speaker 3: Joe and Jim, given Joe's background in Baltimore, going way
Speaker 3: beyond John Harball, just the track record of a success
Speaker 3: that that front office has had, really the kind of
Speaker 3: the gold standard in the NFL, and then pairing him
Speaker 3: with the Jim Harball, they know exactly who each other are,
Speaker 3: They know exactly the type of identity that they want
Speaker 3: to have as a football team. And I just thought
Speaker 3: Joe was fantastic. And guess what, Joe's going to join
Speaker 3: us in about ten minutes or so and we'll go
Speaker 3: way beyond the press or but just your initial thoughts.
Speaker 1: On this impressive. I'm with you, Chris. I think there's
Speaker 1: reason to be as excited about the Joe Ortiz higher
Speaker 1: as there is about the Jim Harbaugh hire. It's you
Speaker 1: got to have the best players. You know, we see
Speaker 1: coaches who can perhaps out scheme or out coach others.
Speaker 1: You know, when you think about the Patriot teams and
Speaker 1: the draft cat you know the draft profile of their
Speaker 1: players and how often Bill Belichick got undrafted free agents
Speaker 1: to perform above their draft status for him on defense
Speaker 1: or Tom Brady in the sixth round, Kyle Shanahan on offense,
Speaker 1: what he's able to do with mister Irrelevant at quarterback
Speaker 1: all the way to the Super Bowl. Yes, there are
Speaker 1: those instances, but for the most part, you got to
Speaker 1: have the horses. You know, You've got to draft and
Speaker 1: develop well, spend your money wisely. That's something we really
Speaker 1: saw bite the Chargers. I think quite a bit in
Speaker 1: terms of J. C. Jackson not being a great fit.
Speaker 1: You know, the money that was spent in free agency
Speaker 1: where ofton Johnson? Was he serviceable? Was he was he?
Speaker 1: Did he do what he was signed to do? Yeah?
Speaker 1: But did he do it at an above average level?
Speaker 1: Did he do it and it excelled you know, an
Speaker 1: accelerant and probably not so. I think it's that's important,
Speaker 1: right is you've got to be able to find players
Speaker 1: and Baltimore has done it time and time again. And Joe.
Speaker 1: I think one of the most impressive things about about
Speaker 1: Joe is and I appreciate it is is just the
Speaker 1: ability to connect with every single level of the front office.
Speaker 1: There is not a single you know it is gonna
Speaker 1: there isn't a single person that's going to feel left out.
Speaker 1: This is someone who started at a personnel assistant, you know,
Speaker 1: as an assistant to the personnel department, and from there
Speaker 1: just worked his way up area regional, scout, college director,
Speaker 1: pro you know, pro personnel director, player, personnel director. Just
Speaker 1: had to step a lot, did not get to skip
Speaker 1: a rung. And that goes a long way because you
Speaker 1: recognize how important each rung on that ladder is to
Speaker 1: get to the top. So that is exciting about Joe.
Speaker 1: And just look, I don't think we're saying anything that
Speaker 1: people don't know or haven't heard. You know, Jim Harboss,
Speaker 1: he's aggressive, he's confrontational. He is going to tell you
Speaker 1: what he thinks and how it is because he believes
Speaker 1: that's the most effective way to get something done. Don't
Speaker 1: puss your foot around it. I'm gonna tell you what's
Speaker 1: going on and what's wrong and how we got to fit.
Speaker 1: And some people don't. They're not comfortable in that environment.
Speaker 1: You know. Maybe they just take offense to it, or
Speaker 1: they get combative. And I think in the case of Joe,
Speaker 1: he knows, he knows what it looks like, he knows
Speaker 1: how competitive the hardballs are and what they expect him.
Speaker 1: There's just I've worked with people like that. I think
Speaker 1: we probably many of us people listening you, Chris, we've
Speaker 1: worked with people like that, and it's fine. You just understand, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's how they operate. They don't mean anything. There's no
Speaker 1: ill will, there's no they're not belittling you. They're just
Speaker 1: aggressive and they're a little more confrontational and you're comfortable
Speaker 1: with that.
Speaker 2: The angles the same too, right.
Speaker 3: It's just it comes down to wanting to win right, right,
Speaker 3: So it doesn't matter the personality or the way in
Speaker 3: which you do it, just as long as you do it.
Speaker 3: And Baltimore has had a formula of success in doing it,
Speaker 3: and Jim has obviously had the same and it seems
Speaker 3: like those messages aligned very nicely when you talk about
Speaker 3: Joe and Jim together. One of the things that impressed
Speaker 3: me with Joe was just the him talking about like
Speaker 3: the family aspect to this, because that's a big deal,
Speaker 3: like money. You and I both worked for the Lakers
Speaker 3: and people have been there for twenty twenty five thirty years.
Speaker 3: And I remember when I first got I interviewed for
Speaker 3: the Lakers. There was like two thousand and six. I
Speaker 3: was like in my mid twenties. I flew out from
Speaker 3: DC Cross Country and I was expecting this like global brand,
Speaker 3: headquarter corporation, and I come in it's just me and
Speaker 3: the guy who hired me, and it's just like, man,
Speaker 3: this is just like a family. This is the total
Speaker 3: opposite of what you would expect from like a global brand.
Speaker 2: I just I think that that matters like.
Speaker 3: Culture and family and guys who can can set a
Speaker 3: nice path forward. And to your point about Joe, he's
Speaker 3: done every job in the book, so he knows what
Speaker 3: the Scouts are going through. I think he even mentioned
Speaker 3: just like, hey, I empathize with those guys when they're
Speaker 3: on the road. I want to make sure that they
Speaker 3: know that we appreciate what they're doing when you have
Speaker 3: that sort of culture where everybody's rowing in the same direction.
Speaker 3: And I thought you just maybe the best point about
Speaker 3: Joe is he's done everything, and he's done it at
Speaker 3: the pre eminent place.
Speaker 2: And I think that mass sure.
Speaker 1: And you know, football is interesting because it is different
Speaker 1: than a lot of other sports. There are very few,
Speaker 1: you know, business sort of business backed conglomerates that own
Speaker 1: football teams. For the most part is this is generational.
Speaker 1: You know, these things do not move. They get passed
Speaker 1: down from generation to generation. You know, there are names
Speaker 1: like the Rooneys, the Hallises, which have become the mccaskey's,
Speaker 1: the Maras. You know now in Dallas it's gonna be
Speaker 1: the Joneses. You know that there's there's very few. You know,
Speaker 1: the situation in Washington is rare and you saw what
Speaker 1: happened when someone who was a titan of business came
Speaker 1: in and tried to do it a little bit differently. Now, granted,
Speaker 1: Daniel Snyder is you know, this is just one of
Speaker 1: the worst donors in the history of professional sports and
Speaker 1: American history. But I think what you typically see is
Speaker 1: it is you know, I think mom and pop lends
Speaker 1: to a negative connotation, so I don't want to say that,
Speaker 1: but no, it's not at all, you know. I think
Speaker 1: that the one thing about and and look I said
Speaker 1: it when they hired when they hired Harp, when they
Speaker 1: were going to hire Harbor, and everybody was pushing back
Speaker 1: and oh, they'll never spend that kind of money. I
Speaker 1: just said, I get it. I understand that this is
Speaker 1: a family that has owned this team for generations, right
Speaker 1: from Alex Binos to Dean Spanos to John and Age
Speaker 1: who are now you know, all the way up at
Speaker 1: the top of the corporate structure underneath their dad being like,
Speaker 1: I get it. It's a long time. But since they've
Speaker 1: been here, I've tried to share with the people listening
Speaker 1: and watching, it's different. It is completely different the way
Speaker 1: this organization has operated since they have been in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: and I don't when you are hearing about some of
Speaker 1: the financial investments that they have made in this hiring
Speaker 1: cycle that that was the last part that I think.
Speaker 1: You know, it's going to get out. You know what
Speaker 1: they're spending on the front office too, that's that's going
Speaker 1: to eventually make its way and people an be like, damn,
Speaker 1: like they they are sparing no expense for coaches, for
Speaker 1: assistant coaches, for strength and conditioning coordinators for now, the
Speaker 1: brand new facility that we've talked about, and there's a
Speaker 1: reason why Jim Harbaugh was like, hey, Ed and I
Speaker 1: got to go shopping for some weight room equipment. Like
Speaker 1: nothing is being spared the you know, they had the Ferrari.
Speaker 1: You know, that's the players, and that's spending money on
Speaker 1: player acquisitions, which everybody has to do because nobody's under
Speaker 1: the cap. Ever in the NFL, it's not like baseball.
Speaker 1: They're all spending right up to and past the cap.
Speaker 1: And they had the Ferrari. Now they got the driver
Speaker 1: and Jim Harbaugh and all this other stuff. They're adding
Speaker 1: the assistant coaches, the general manager, the facility, the weight room,
Speaker 1: they're getting the pit crew now now they have one
Speaker 1: of the best pit crews in all of in all
Speaker 1: of the game, in all of the sport. And there's
Speaker 1: a reason why I think, you know, both Jim Harbaugh
Speaker 1: and Georties were so effusive in praise to the Spinos
Speaker 1: is because they recognize, Okay, we're in LA, we've got facilities,
Speaker 1: we've got the quarterback, and you know, we've got the
Speaker 1: destination where free agents want to be, and we're being
Speaker 1: given everything we need to compete to not just compete,
Speaker 1: but to win. And I think that's that's one of
Speaker 1: my takeaways from both of these pressers. These are two
Speaker 1: accomplished individuals that have done it at a high level,
Speaker 1: expect to win, would not leave their current situations to
Speaker 1: take a paycheck because of how competitive they are. I
Speaker 1: heard someone I can't remember who it was, was talking
Speaker 1: about it. It's you know, Harbad just wanted to get
Speaker 1: back to southern California. That's not how that guy's wired.
Speaker 1: You're kidding me that. It's not how he is wired.
Speaker 1: It is competition. It's championship. It's saying multiple championships because
Speaker 1: they're in Los Angeles is what's expected. And I think
Speaker 1: the same goes for Joe. You know, why would I
Speaker 1: leave that? You know, the a Baltimore organization that never
Speaker 1: moves on from guyst there. It is it's hard to
Speaker 1: get anything out of that building, let alone a person
Speaker 1: that's had success in the personnel department. There's a reason
Speaker 1: why he came and wanted this job and you know,
Speaker 1: pursued it as aggressively as he did because of what
Speaker 1: they what they envisioned the future could look like, the
Speaker 1: very immediate future could look like.
Speaker 2: They got two Herberts now too.
Speaker 3: They got Justin and they got Ben and they're both dull,
Speaker 3: you know like that that just speaks to the what they've.
Speaker 2: Done around Jim and Joe.
Speaker 3: And you know we'll get into some of the coaching hires,
Speaker 3: but like you know, Ben Herbert, I'm fascinated to learn
Speaker 3: more about this guy, his process, what he's done from
Speaker 3: Wisconsin to Michigan. Jesse Minter on board now is the
Speaker 3: DC's It sounds like Greg Roman gonna be uh controlling
Speaker 3: the offense. And you know, Jim's putting together a staff
Speaker 3: that he's worked with before that has.
Speaker 2: Had proven success.
Speaker 3: And I think just also with with Justin Herbert in
Speaker 3: mind too, the Greg Roman thing I think is fascinating
Speaker 3: because if you go throughout his history, he's run heavy man.
Speaker 2: But that's exactly what his Charges team needs.
Speaker 3: You know, he's never had a quarterback quite like Justin
Speaker 3: Herbert too to throw the ball down the field. So
Speaker 3: like you know, first and ten, second and ten, you
Speaker 3: could take shots because you know you got a punishing
Speaker 3: running game. Like that's another layer two this all season
Speaker 3: money that I'm sure we'll dive into once things start
Speaker 3: to take shape. We get in a free agency, in
Speaker 3: the draft and just scheme.
Speaker 4: But but I.
Speaker 3: Think Charges fans should be excited about the staff that.
Speaker 1: Jim's no doubt, and I think you know, we've talked
Speaker 1: about it. We talked about you know, Jesse Minner and
Speaker 1: and what he's done. And that's the direct tide to
Speaker 1: Mike McDonald. There's a reason why Seattle wanted Mike McDonald, though, look,
Speaker 1: he's young. It's a little dangerous to I don't think
Speaker 1: they hired Mike McDonald for his scheme by any chance.
Speaker 1: Everything we heard about him is what an incredible individual
Speaker 1: leader of men that he is. But it's also the defense,
Speaker 1: it's it is the direction that this league is going
Speaker 1: in the post Vic Fangio era, now, you know. And
Speaker 1: that's the funny thing about this is you have, like
Speaker 1: you have these cycles. You know, I think about Dom
Speaker 1: Caper's and his own blitz, and you think about Wade
Speaker 1: Phillips in the three four, and you know, you think
Speaker 1: about Tony Dungee in the Tampa two. Like these things
Speaker 1: come and then Pete Carroll, you know, and Cover three
Speaker 1: in the single high, and like these things rotate and
Speaker 1: offenses figure it out and then defenses have to adjust,
Speaker 1: and it's just it's it's a back and forth and
Speaker 1: it's happened throughout the course of football since the freaking
Speaker 1: wing team. But like, the thing about this particular era
Speaker 1: of defense and what Jesse Minner and what Mike MacDonald
Speaker 1: they're doing is people are trying to crack the code
Speaker 1: and Brian Flores does quite a bit of it. And
Speaker 1: it's actually very similar to kind of what Bill Belichick
Speaker 1: was doing in you know, in New England, the Amoba defense,
Speaker 1: where you've got seven guys on the line of scrimage.
Speaker 1: You have no idea where the pressure's coming from. It's
Speaker 1: simulated pressures, who's dropping out, who's coming, But you saw,
Speaker 1: you know, I think you saw against Baltimore how much
Speaker 1: team struggled, and you saw Michael Pennix Junior have his
Speaker 1: worst game as a Husky against that Michigan defense, just
Speaker 1: because they don't know. When the quarterback doesn't know what
Speaker 1: he's looking at, can't process. And that's something that we
Speaker 1: saw and that's why a lot of people are excited,
Speaker 1: you know, about about Jesse Minter coming on the defensive
Speaker 1: side of the ball, and about what Jim Harbaugh is
Speaker 1: gonna do on the on the offensive side of the ball.
Speaker 3: The ability to adapt in the NFL and evolve is
Speaker 3: so paramount. And I was listening to some of Dan
Speaker 3: Quinn's press conference and he admitted straight up, he said,
Speaker 3: I did a three sixty on who I was as
Speaker 3: a head coach. What I needed to change, He said,
Speaker 3: in frankly, you know that leads you to boom cover
Speaker 3: three defense that was hot for a while and then
Speaker 3: it wasn't. So I had to change, and he changed
Speaker 3: the defense in Dallas and he had success doing it.
Speaker 2: So I think the.
Speaker 3: Ability to be self aware of what's working, what's not working,
Speaker 3: and the ability to adapt, especially in critical situations as
Speaker 3: you move forward season after season Uh, the thing that's
Speaker 3: hot one year ain't gonna be hot the next.
Speaker 2: But it seems like this this.
Speaker 3: Mike McDonald to Michigan Baltimore defense, that's that's the next
Speaker 3: big thing. And the fact that you have Jesse Minter
Speaker 3: at the controls who who was I think he was
Speaker 3: a secondary's coach for a couple of seasons in Baltimore.
Speaker 1: Money, Yeah, he was on the Baltimore staff for a
Speaker 1: few years. He was the DC at Van Dy and
Speaker 1: then became the DC at Michigan and and you know,
Speaker 1: for the last two years he said the best defense
Speaker 1: in the nation. And that's a big reason why Michigan
Speaker 1: ended up winning a national championship and went to the
Speaker 1: playoffs and back to back years, so, you know, and
Speaker 1: beat Ohio State three years in a row. So it's
Speaker 1: a huge reason why it's it's complimentary football, right, and
Speaker 1: that is that is something that we did not have
Speaker 1: here the last three years. There was zero complimentary football
Speaker 1: being played. If the offense played great and put up
Speaker 1: a ton of points, the defense gave up more. If
Speaker 1: the defense played great and held teams to a low number,
Speaker 1: and the offense tried to run a four minute offense,
Speaker 1: they couldn't couldn't run the ball. And that's why Greg
Speaker 1: Roman's coming in because the anemic rush attack of this
Speaker 1: team that prevented it from winning games, particularly a playoff
Speaker 1: game in Jacksonville when they could not run the game
Speaker 1: to maintain possession and a four score lead. You know.
Speaker 1: That's that's why Greg Roman is coming in. Fix this.
Speaker 1: Let's fit, and that's why Joe or Tiez is here,
Speaker 1: you know, fix it. Let's figure out how to get
Speaker 1: the right personnel, the right coaching, the right plays called
Speaker 1: the right you know, and and fix what has been
Speaker 1: a lack of complimentary football. And I think the reason
Speaker 1: why Ryan Ficken is staying is because that's just been
Speaker 1: the one constant the last two years. Right. Special teams
Speaker 1: has been exceptional since Tom Telesco found Cameron Dicker to
Speaker 1: settle the kicking position, you know, and Ryan Ficken brought
Speaker 1: in JK Scott from his time in Minnesota when JK
Speaker 1: was with Green Bay, and he's the one that tipped
Speaker 1: him off to that, to the coverage units, to the
Speaker 1: return units, to the drafting you know of Davis Like
Speaker 1: they've got that settled, so it's like, okay, we're good here.
Speaker 1: Now let's fix these other two, you know, to compliment
Speaker 1: this exceptional special teams. In that third phase of the game.
Speaker 3: You see Jharball going to Seattle to run the special
Speaker 3: teams there with Mike McDonald. I thought that was pretty
Speaker 3: cool as well. So let's take a quick break and
Speaker 3: then we'll bring in the man of the week Joe Ortes.
Speaker 3: All right, guys, a big thank you to our partner,
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Speaker 3: off the field. Check out the powerful Surface Pro nine,
Speaker 3: combining the power of a laptop with the flexibility of
Speaker 3: a tablet at Surface dot com, and, as promised, the
Speaker 3: brand new GM of the LA Chargers. Joe Hartes joins
Speaker 3: us and Joe, you got us fired up with your presser.
Speaker 3: My first question to you, admit, I got to see
Speaker 3: your family there and to have everybody there for such
Speaker 3: a big moment for you and do a big moment
Speaker 3: for them going cross country. What has this week been
Speaker 3: like for you?
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, it's been awesome.
Speaker 5: It's been a whirlwind for sure, you know, get the
Speaker 5: call on Monday, you know, get it kind of finalized
Speaker 5: on Monday night, and then packing up in Baltimore. You know,
Speaker 5: twenty six years of packing in an office, you get
Speaker 5: a dumpster and you realize you don't you're not taking
Speaker 5: or everything with you. So spent a couple of days
Speaker 5: packing up, saying goodbye to people in Baltimore, and then
Speaker 5: getting on the plane Wednesday and hitting the ground running
Speaker 5: Thursday morning. So kind of got going and my wife
Speaker 5: was great, She's like, you know, we'll come out on Monday.
Speaker 5: Let you I know, you got to jump right in
Speaker 5: and work and we'll come out Monday. And it was
Speaker 5: great to see them and for them to experience that
Speaker 5: moment was awesome, really amazing. You know, we walked in
Speaker 5: you know that we got the rain coming, yeah, you know,
Speaker 5: you know the storms, the commute, you know, you're not
Speaker 5: sure who's going to show up. And Josh was sitting
Speaker 5: there down playing it, you know, like, hey, you know,
Speaker 5: I just don't know how many people are gonna be there.
Speaker 5: We've had some people canceled then walk in the room,
Speaker 5: and most of the Chargers organizations in there. There's good
Speaker 5: attendance for the media and it's like whoa.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: So my wife was just you know, it probably overwhelmed
Speaker 5: a little bit. She's like, I know, I wasn't smiling
Speaker 5: when I walked in because I was so in all
Speaker 5: of everything that was there. But sent me a great
Speaker 5: text yesterday that just she hadn't had a chance to
Speaker 5: process everything and uh, just the magnitude of it, and
Speaker 5: sitting on the plane flying home, you know, realizing what
Speaker 5: just took place in processing it and how impactful it
Speaker 5: was to her, and you know, she said, I'm just
Speaker 5: so happy we're Chargers and that, you know, I just
Speaker 5: you know, warms my heart and gets me wanted to
Speaker 5: hug her, but she's on a plane flying back to Baltimore,
Speaker 5: so you know, but it was great. The boys had
Speaker 5: an awesome time. You know, got some jerseys, some pictures,
Speaker 5: some gear. They're in the player's locker room playing Xbox,
Speaker 5: you know, FIFA, and you know, so they just they're
Speaker 5: really excited and special moment for my family, for sure.
Speaker 1: I get Joe that there's you know, thirty two of these,
Speaker 1: so each one of them is special. There's so few
Speaker 1: of them, and anybody's fortunate enough to get one of them,
Speaker 1: especially as long as you've worked to get to the
Speaker 1: top of this mountain in personnel. But when you heard
Speaker 1: the Chargers job was open, what kind of what's the
Speaker 1: first thing? You know, I'm not asking you to rank
Speaker 1: them in order. Hey, this is what attracted me. But
Speaker 1: what jumps out at you is why this is a
Speaker 1: great job for you.
Speaker 5: Well, I think when when it first opens up, you
Speaker 5: know they have a quarterback like that, you don't have
Speaker 5: to fix that problem. You know there that you know
Speaker 5: you are set there, So that's right away makes it attractive.
Speaker 5: Then you start doing your research, you know on the team, uh,
Speaker 5: the ownership.
Speaker 4: I know, I knew John from the road so and I've.
Speaker 5: Always had a great rapport and relationship with them out
Speaker 5: on the road.
Speaker 4: And it's just friendly.
Speaker 5: It's John and I aren't best friends, you know, you know,
Speaker 5: we're just acquaintances that respect one another and so, but
Speaker 5: always had a great day with them when I was
Speaker 5: together with them.
Speaker 4: So those are the two things that popped in my head.
Speaker 5: And then obviously you start looking at what they're going
Speaker 5: to do with who they're targeting, and you know, once
Speaker 5: they hired Jim, he kind of completes the full circle.
Speaker 5: You know, and I really meant it when I said it.
Speaker 5: Like every scout, you know, we say great ownership, great QB,
Speaker 5: great head coach. And I have friends that are general
Speaker 5: managers and they said, listen, you know, don't take a
Speaker 5: job where you don't believe in ownership.
Speaker 4: You know, it's not worth it.
Speaker 5: And I'm like, well, it's not worth it to you
Speaker 5: because you're in a general manager role again, Matt, like you said,
Speaker 5: there's only thirty two of them, But having gone through
Speaker 5: the process a couple of times, you know, like you
Speaker 5: do see the difference of owners and there's a lot
Speaker 5: of great owners out there, and I had the opportunity
Speaker 5: to interview.
Speaker 4: With some great owners in the past.
Speaker 5: Didn't work out for me in terms of getting the jobs,
Speaker 5: but you know, to sit there with the Spanos family
Speaker 5: and this organization when I came in and to feel it.
Speaker 5: I knew it in the zoom. Like I told my wife,
Speaker 5: I said, this place is special. I could feel it.
Speaker 5: I could feel it in the zoom and couldn't wait
Speaker 5: to get an invite back out here to be in person,
Speaker 5: and it just carried over so that just kind of
Speaker 5: stealed the deal in the end.
Speaker 4: But certainly the quarterback was a first thing that jumps
Speaker 4: out to you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, Joe, we talked about all the jobs
Speaker 3: and the way things are structured throughout the NFL, and
Speaker 3: just the connection between you and Jim, the fact that
Speaker 3: John was in Baltimore, and you know, just the fact
Speaker 3: that you guys want to play football the same way.
Speaker 3: Sometimes you don't get that connectivity between ownership, front office,
Speaker 3: head coach, and sometimes it's a delicate thing.
Speaker 2: Why was this so perfect for you?
Speaker 4: Yeah? You know, I think you.
Speaker 5: Know, Jim and John they're certainly different, but they think
Speaker 5: alike in terms of football. You know, they want to
Speaker 5: build a big, fast, physical, tough team. That's what we've
Speaker 5: always been about in Baltimore, you know, prior to John.
Speaker 5: John just came in, just tied it up, you know,
Speaker 5: and like it was like a tremendous leader and motivator
Speaker 5: and really inspired us as scouts to be to go
Speaker 5: out there and get the best players we can get
Speaker 5: that really fit our scheme.
Speaker 4: I think Jim is the same way. I mean, he's
Speaker 4: looking at me.
Speaker 5: He's nothing but a winner, you know, and and but
Speaker 5: they think the same way. So for me walking in here,
Speaker 5: the staff he's putting together. I'm aligned with them already.
Speaker 5: I've been raised in the same you know formula, you know,
Speaker 5: or the same you know, organizational philosophy. So we're going
Speaker 5: to hit the ground run and try to find our
Speaker 5: types of players.
Speaker 1: You know. You know there's people talk about coaches and scheme,
Speaker 1: and you know, this coach runs this particular type of scheme.
Speaker 1: This is how they want to play football. I think
Speaker 1: it often gets overlooked in front offices. Certain front offices
Speaker 1: draft a certain way. You know, they draft first rounders
Speaker 1: like you don't rarely see them stray from the lines.
Speaker 1: You know, they're taking old lineman, They're taking d lineman
Speaker 1: in the first round if they've got a quarter that's
Speaker 1: what they're doing. Is there something to that is? You know,
Speaker 1: just kind of because I just think of the way
Speaker 1: that you built in Baltimore and you know, drafting a
Speaker 1: center in the first round a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: How important that position is? I guess that's kind of
Speaker 1: where my head's going. Joe just we got to see
Speaker 1: how important Corey Linsley was to this team and what
Speaker 1: happened when he wasn't there. Nothing against will clap at all,
Speaker 1: did a great job filling in, but course special, Like,
Speaker 1: is there something to that from a front office? Hey,
Speaker 1: this is sort of a philosophy that we believe in
Speaker 1: and where we've got to build a team first before
Speaker 1: we can get success anywhere else.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think there are I think there are different
Speaker 5: philosophies in terms of how to build a team.
Speaker 4: I think you can see that through the league.
Speaker 5: Like you mentioned, Matt, you know, in Baltimore we believed
Speaker 5: in being strong upfront on both sides of the ball.
Speaker 5: You know, you control the line of scrimmage, you control
Speaker 5: the tempo of the game, you win the time of possession.
Speaker 5: Our best teams in Baltimore always had strong offensive lines
Speaker 5: and offensive line depth and have been able to stop
Speaker 5: the run.
Speaker 4: Are the years we've struggled in Baltimore.
Speaker 5: Whether it be due to injuries or maybe we just
Speaker 5: didn't have as good a talent up front. You notice that,
Speaker 5: you know, hey, we're well weak on the right side
Speaker 5: of the offensive line, or we're a little weak at
Speaker 5: center or left guard, or we rarely have been weak
Speaker 5: at left tackle.
Speaker 4: We played with Jo for a long time and now
Speaker 4: with pet Ronnie, and.
Speaker 5: But you see it, you know, you see it affect
Speaker 5: you as an offense. So that's one thing I believe in.
Speaker 5: I know Gym has always put together great offense the
Speaker 5: lines at all the places he's been, But yeah, you
Speaker 5: control the off Nothing gets done without a great offensive line.
Speaker 5: You know, if you're getting quarterback hit, you can't throw it.
Speaker 5: If you can't create lanes, you can't run it. You know,
Speaker 5: So put together a stronger offensive line and build from there.
Speaker 3: You know, Money and I a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 3: we're just talking about different different pieces on this team
Speaker 3: that we know, you know are going to be here,
Speaker 3: from Rashawn Slater to Toutley to a Polo to Derwin James.
Speaker 3: Obviously you've seen these guys and you scouted these guys.
Speaker 3: When I say the name Rashaun Slater or Toulee or Darwin,
Speaker 3: I mean I feel like these are game changing guys.
Speaker 3: How do you assess this roster starting with some of
Speaker 3: those cornerstone pieces.
Speaker 4: Joe, Yeah, I think you know one.
Speaker 5: As we get the staffs together, uh, they evaluate him
Speaker 5: from the coaching standpoint, And certainly I've already evaluated this team.
Speaker 4: I actually advanced them last year.
Speaker 5: You know, when when Baltimore is getting ready to play
Speaker 5: them and so and then obviously prepping for the opportunity.
Speaker 5: You watch them film on him. You get to see
Speaker 5: the players again. You know, Tully was a guy obviously
Speaker 5: is a rookie this year. Uh, fun player to watch
Speaker 5: in college. Was a big fan of his in college,
Speaker 5: and he kind of did what you thought he'd.
Speaker 4: Do in the pros.
Speaker 5: You know, does he have a home, I don't know,
Speaker 5: but he plays anywhere, and he plays hard and he
Speaker 5: plays he's productive.
Speaker 4: So yeah, you know, but that's what you want in
Speaker 4: defensive players, especially along the front.
Speaker 5: You want some versatility guy that can set an age,
Speaker 5: move inside, rush inside. You know, those are the types
Speaker 5: of players you really like to have. And then with Rashaan,
Speaker 5: you know you got gotta protect you know, Justin's blindside,
Speaker 5: you know, and consistently consistent producer, performer out there on
Speaker 5: the left side.
Speaker 4: And it's it's it's a.
Speaker 5: Lot of it's a lot of fun to walk in
Speaker 5: and see some pieces like that. You know, again, I
Speaker 5: talked about this team. A lot of gms walk into
Speaker 5: a place that needs need.
Speaker 4: A lot of help. This isn't one of those places.
Speaker 5: Derwin had a chance to meet him yesterday spend some
Speaker 5: time with him.
Speaker 4: Oh, it was great. It was great. The just the
Speaker 4: end the room, you know, like me and him and
Speaker 4: Jim were just in there. Tito was in there with
Speaker 4: us and we were just Jesse was in there.
Speaker 5: We're just chopping it up and just the excitement you
Speaker 5: know that, you know, and you felt it like the
Speaker 5: presence with Jim and them, and they were feeding off
Speaker 5: each other.
Speaker 4: So it's it's gonna be It's gonna be a lot
Speaker 4: of fun. Uh. You know.
Speaker 5: The players are the ones that have been around. You
Speaker 5: see him buying in right away, and I just can't
Speaker 5: wait to watch it, watch it come together out there
Speaker 5: on the field.
Speaker 1: I want to focus on a word you just said.
Speaker 1: Their energy, and that is something you feel when you're
Speaker 1: in Derwin's presence. It's special. It is How how important
Speaker 1: is that because you know, I just kind of think
Speaker 1: about the teams in the super Bowl right now, and
Speaker 1: I think about energy from Nick Bosa, energy from George Kittle.
Speaker 1: You know, we see Patrick mahomes Man. I don't know
Speaker 1: if there's a more positive energy bringing energy to a
Speaker 1: team guy than than him. When you hear those micd ups,
Speaker 1: just is that something that that you can find before
Speaker 1: you draft, before you sign. And how important do you
Speaker 1: believe that that particular you know, personality trait is to
Speaker 1: success for a team?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I think it's huge.
Speaker 5: Like a scouts, we go into into schools and we
Speaker 5: talk about that, and you hear their sources and the
Speaker 5: coaches and the people they that work with the players
Speaker 5: tell you, man, you know he's an energy giver or
Speaker 5: people feed off of him, you know. And you know
Speaker 5: you don't have to be articulate and verbose and to
Speaker 5: be a motivator. You know, you can just get out
Speaker 5: there and lead and just have the spirit and passion
Speaker 5: and love of the game and players feed off of
Speaker 5: that and feel it. And uh and then in reverse,
Speaker 5: you know, an opposite you can have. You can be
Speaker 5: an We call it an energy vampire.
Speaker 4: You know, someone steals it out of the room.
Speaker 5: And uh, you know, we don't want those, you know,
Speaker 5: we want we want players that are passionate and it bleeds,
Speaker 5: it leads through their pores and and and you feel it.
Speaker 3: Joe, the fact that you've done every job in the
Speaker 3: NFL and you were with one organization for such a
Speaker 3: long time. I know you spoke to this on Tuesday.
Speaker 3: But just the perspective you have from being a scout
Speaker 3: to just everybody in that organization, Like you've done that
Speaker 3: job or you know of that job very well.
Speaker 2: How is that going to serve.
Speaker 3: You in this new role knowing that you've been into
Speaker 3: other people's shoes and you can empathize with some of
Speaker 3: the challenges they may have or some of the things
Speaker 3: that they need to do in their role.
Speaker 5: Well, yeah, so I think that's how exactly how it
Speaker 5: does help me. Like, as you just stated, I can
Speaker 5: tell a scout a personnel assistant, hey, this might be
Speaker 5: a better way. You know, I know you're doing this,
Speaker 5: why I've done this, this is how I've done it,
Speaker 5: this is how I would do it. You know, same
Speaker 5: with scouts. I understand the challenge of scouting. You know,
Speaker 5: you leave your house August first, or I really in
Speaker 5: the end of July. You go to training camp for
Speaker 5: a couple of weeks, and then you get out on
Speaker 5: the road. You maybe come home for two days, and
Speaker 5: you're on the road for twenty one and you're back
Speaker 5: home after two days, and then it becomes a two
Speaker 5: week cycle.
Speaker 4: Where you're away, you're away from your wife, your kids.
Speaker 5: If you have a family, and if you're single, it's
Speaker 5: just you're out on the road grinding and you just
Speaker 5: never get back home.
Speaker 4: And so it's a grind. You got your work until midnight.
Speaker 4: So you know, I can help.
Speaker 5: Them because I've been in their shoes and directors of
Speaker 5: college scouting, you know, I've worked alongside directors are pro
Speaker 5: watched how they've done things. You know, so every having
Speaker 5: been able to go through all those roles and really
Speaker 5: you know, learning and being complete in that role before
Speaker 5: I took the next step.
Speaker 4: You know, it didn't rush through anything.
Speaker 5: Always tried to absorb from Eric and Ozzy along the way,
Speaker 5: and Eric was a great mentor for me, as was Ozzie.
Speaker 5: And so you know, George Cokeenis is a great friend
Speaker 5: of mine and mentor. We've kind of worked side by
Speaker 5: side for the past six years. But along the way
Speaker 5: we've always always been like just a big brother to me.
Speaker 5: And and you know, so you try to give that
Speaker 5: back and I've always tried to do that with our scouts,
Speaker 5: and I'll continue to do it in my current role.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna focus on that one name, Ozzie, just because
Speaker 1: I don't know if there ever was or ever will
Speaker 1: be someone better to to do it, just to can
Speaker 1: assistency the rare misses. You know, maybe it's not home runs,
Speaker 1: but man, there's a lot of and there were home
Speaker 1: runs obviously, but there's just every everything's a double. There's
Speaker 1: no strikeouts, double off the walls. Good, Yeah, exactly. We
Speaker 1: would always say you, as someone that covered the draft
Speaker 1: for all those years at NFL Network, we would always say,
Speaker 1: as we're in the midst of the draft, that guy
Speaker 1: fall to Baltimore, They how did they? And it's not
Speaker 1: because they fell to you, It's because the Ravens manipulate
Speaker 1: the board on like any other team, it was just
Speaker 1: a constant owait, they're going back, noe, Now they're back up,
Speaker 1: Now they're back. And that wasn't just the first round,
Speaker 1: it was every round. So I'm sure you know that's
Speaker 1: something that Ozzie, you know, imparted on all you guys,
Speaker 1: And why doesn't everybody do it? How hard is it
Speaker 1: to do it to try to make sure that you
Speaker 1: kind of get that balance of not just always moving back,
Speaker 1: but just kind of you know, manipulating the board where
Speaker 1: it seems to always work out for the Ravens.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think you know, it's like going back.
Speaker 5: I mean, you gotta have a trade partner, right, but
Speaker 5: you've got to be willing to and and you've got
Speaker 5: to be prepared to go back. I think that's probably
Speaker 5: And again I've only been in one war room, Matt
Speaker 5: so with Ozzie and it was first it was Phil.
Speaker 5: Now you know, with Eric for really twenty plus years,
Speaker 5: twenty years. But you know the preparation that goes into
Speaker 5: it to be ready on draft day. The answers are
Speaker 5: already made on draft day, the game plan, the strategies.
Speaker 5: I think that you're prepared for every scenario.
Speaker 4: You don't.
Speaker 5: You don't just sit there waiting to pick at five, ten, fifteen,
Speaker 5: thirty two, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 4: And just I'm just going to wait to pick. You
Speaker 4: got to be ready to say, hey.
Speaker 5: If if, what, where's the cutoff where we would go
Speaker 5: up and trade for a player? If these eight players fall,
Speaker 5: We're sitting at thirty two and these eight players.
Speaker 2: Fall, where would we go?
Speaker 4: How high would we are we willing to go up
Speaker 4: to get them?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 4: And in the same.
Speaker 5: Token, if you're going to trade back, you know, okay,
Speaker 5: which players are will we not trade away from you know,
Speaker 5: these are locks to be chargers if they're there. If
Speaker 5: they're not there, this is if these players are there,
Speaker 5: we trade away from them.
Speaker 4: You know, And how far back do you want to go?
Speaker 5: You have to have a plan, And I think Ozzy
Speaker 5: and Eric have done a masterful job of that. And
Speaker 5: I got to sit there and watch it and learn
Speaker 5: and I'll do hopefully be able to be equally as
Speaker 5: good as them. But you know, they set the bar
Speaker 5: very very high.
Speaker 1: You know, Hey, Chris, I'm gonna just jump in again
Speaker 1: just because I think, you know, the draft has become
Speaker 1: such it's it's so important to fans. It's crazy how
Speaker 1: popular it's become. Is you know, I remember the first
Speaker 1: time we did the combine, we did a live stream
Speaker 1: on NFL dot com and it ended up being the
Speaker 1: most watched event in NFL dot com history. We had
Speaker 1: like seventy countries watching the combine at the same time,
Speaker 1: and like one point six million people were tuned into
Speaker 1: that particular stream. Is you know, it's me and Bucky
Speaker 1: and Maurice Jones, Drew and I and we're all just there.
Speaker 1: At the end of the forty yard dash line, I
Speaker 1: kept saying, what are these people watching, why would they
Speaker 1: be interested in this? But they are. And I would
Speaker 1: love for you to explain something that you brought up
Speaker 1: in the press or and that's comppicks and why they're
Speaker 1: so expensed, because I don't think people listening and watching
Speaker 1: quite understand exactly how that formula works, why it's so important,
Speaker 1: and why it became a big part of the lifeblood
Speaker 1: of the success of the Ravens.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So like with the compics, it's really just managing your
Speaker 5: roster and.
Speaker 4: Knowing who is going to generate a compic.
Speaker 5: I think we did a great job with that valuation expectations.
Speaker 5: And there's times like you know, we go into free agency.
Speaker 5: We want to keep players in LA here. We want
Speaker 5: to keep the Chargers the Chargers when we can, but
Speaker 5: there's going to come a point with the salary cap,
Speaker 5: you're going to lose some players.
Speaker 4: And you know that.
Speaker 5: And it's it's managing the signings versus the losses in
Speaker 5: free agency, and they put them in buckets in terms
Speaker 5: of you know, what they say I'm for, So you
Speaker 5: just kind of you gotta know, Okay, if we sign
Speaker 5: this player, he's going to cancel out him, you know,
Speaker 5: and the and.
Speaker 4: The tier, you know, So definitely one of those things.
Speaker 5: Once you create that cycle of compicts, once you start
Speaker 5: getting them, all of a sudden, you get three compicts
Speaker 5: on top of your seven draft picks, that's ten players
Speaker 5: that you potentially could ride through for four years.
Speaker 4: Well there, some of them aren't going to be back,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 5: You just you're gonna pay the great ones and and
Speaker 5: the very good ones, and you're gonna you may lose
Speaker 5: some very good ones because you just can't afford them all.
Speaker 5: So you hit on picks, you get more chances, and
Speaker 5: then you just replenishes itself every every four years, so
Speaker 5: to speak.
Speaker 4: But it really becomes every year of replenishment. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think one of the things you said tuesday, Joe,
Speaker 3: that fired up the fans was just every pick matters
Speaker 3: in the draft, and obviously the Chargers. I don't think
Speaker 3: when we when we started the season, we envisioned the
Speaker 3: Chargers picking number five overall in this draft. But just
Speaker 3: focusing on that picture for a second, because obviously there's
Speaker 3: some quarterbacks at the top, and there's gonna be some
Speaker 3: teams one a quarterback. Five just becomes that much more
Speaker 3: attractive in terms of getting a blue chip player or
Speaker 3: the possibilities that come with it. You know, I think
Speaker 3: you spoke to it's it's very rare to have a
Speaker 3: top five pick, especially coming from the Ravens organization. Just
Speaker 3: how unique is this draft going to be for you
Speaker 3: being that it's your first one and you start pretty early.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I definitely we won't be sitting around waiting
Speaker 5: very long, that's for sure. I mean, you know, now
Speaker 5: we've done it one time in Baltimore we had the
Speaker 5: fifth pick.
Speaker 4: And we've had it twice.
Speaker 5: Actually, I think it was my second draft two thousand
Speaker 5: drafts we actually had the fifth pick and then we
Speaker 5: got the tenth pick as well, or we had the
Speaker 5: tenth pick and got the fifth pick. But yeah, you
Speaker 5: definitely don't wait as long, but you want to get
Speaker 5: it right.
Speaker 4: You got to nail it if you use it, and.
Speaker 5: Then if not, at the phone rings you get an
Speaker 5: opportunity to move back, you know, the way the offers.
Speaker 5: But certainly a lot of excitement knowing that we're gonna
Speaker 5: have an opportunity to get a really special player here
Speaker 5: if we pick at five, and if we don't, we
Speaker 5: we'll get some more players, you know, So again that's
Speaker 5: the whole the whole plan.
Speaker 4: You know, who are the guys we take? We're taking?
Speaker 4: Are we willing to.
Speaker 5: Walk away from a player? We'll see how the quarterbacks
Speaker 5: come off the board. Uh certainly think there's three or
Speaker 5: or four that could go really early in this draft.
Speaker 5: So you know, we'll see, Uh, we'll see how that
Speaker 5: all happens. But got plenty of time for that, you know,
Speaker 5: a lot. We're not gonna have to wait long once
Speaker 5: the draft click kicks off, But we got a little
Speaker 5: bit of time if you know, we don't get too
Speaker 5: excited too early.
Speaker 4: You know, you got no doubt pace, you know, build
Speaker 4: yourself to that.
Speaker 1: You know, Hey, as far as we're concerned, there's there's
Speaker 1: five quarterbacks in the draft, and all you teams that
Speaker 1: don't have one, you're gonna want to come up and
Speaker 1: get it, and you're gonna want to pay it is.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what.
Speaker 5: It's a good quarterback here, you know, I mean the
Speaker 5: teams that need quarterbacks, it's a good quarterback here, that's
Speaker 5: for sure.
Speaker 1: You know. The you know you talked about the staff
Speaker 1: and and how that was priority won right, make sure
Speaker 1: you kind of get this. The coaching staff settled how
Speaker 1: much changes because you oversee all of it, you know,
Speaker 1: for the draft, and we got a long way to go.
Speaker 1: Obviously the combine hasn't even shown up yet the time
Speaker 1: we're doing this, but you know, the game completed, you've
Speaker 1: got all your film, Like, how much work have you
Speaker 1: I assume it's a considerable amount. Have you already done it?
Speaker 1: Does it change because you're at a new place, Like
Speaker 1: the way you evaluate or value these players with these coaches,
Speaker 1: with the pieces you already have, does that change at all?
Speaker 1: Or is the evaluation the evaluation no matter where you are.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the evaluations the evaluation no matter where you are. Now,
Speaker 5: the staff you have and what they want to play
Speaker 5: for them, the types of linebackers, d linemen, you want,
Speaker 5: types of corners you want that can change offensive line,
Speaker 5: wide receivers. All that can change when you go to
Speaker 5: new staffs and bring in new staffs. I've experienced it
Speaker 5: in Baltimore. We've had different coaches and coordinators that have
Speaker 5: come in that may have wanted.
Speaker 4: To shift the type of player we have, and you
Speaker 4: just adjust, you know. And I remember one.
Speaker 5: Year we went from we were a gap you know,
Speaker 5: power run game, gap scheme and and I think it
Speaker 5: was in February March we made a decision to go
Speaker 5: to a wide zone running scheme, and it's like, okay,
Speaker 5: you know that's so we've already had our February meetings,
Speaker 5: you know, with a scouts and it's like, all right, guys,
Speaker 5: you know that that big guard that can roll off
Speaker 5: the ball and mall three technique, he might not be
Speaker 5: the guy that we want here in Baltimore anymore. So yeah,
Speaker 5: he certainly have to adjust. But you got to know
Speaker 5: what plays in each scheme. I think the coaches, you know,
Speaker 5: conveying that to us, communicating it to us helps us
Speaker 5: evaluate the players that fit what they want to do.
Speaker 2: Joe final one.
Speaker 3: For me, you come from a brutal division where you
Speaker 3: really I think at one point all four teams could
Speaker 3: have made the playoffs. The AFC West has been tough,
Speaker 3: but it's always going through Kansas City, and when you
Speaker 3: have a quarterback, you've got a chance, and obviously the
Speaker 3: quarterback here you always have a chance. How would you
Speaker 3: assess this AFC West starting with Kansas City and you
Speaker 3: got Sean Payton in the division, the Raiders making moves.
Speaker 3: It's a very interesting four teams here.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, I think with any division, all right, any division,
Speaker 5: we've seen it. Certainly Kansas City there the standard right now,
Speaker 5: and they're consistent winners. And that's what that's what every
Speaker 5: organization should be, you know, aspiring to be a.
Speaker 4: Team that consistently competes to win championships. And that's what
Speaker 4: we're going to do here and uh and but they
Speaker 4: do it, you.
Speaker 5: Know, excellent evaluation, excellent scouting. I know a lot of
Speaker 5: their scouts. They're all in sync with one another. And
Speaker 5: that's what we want to build here. When you watch divisions,
Speaker 5: when you watch teams, they Sean Payton certainly has a
Speaker 5: track for a great track record of success. And you
Speaker 5: see the improvement Oakland's made as well over the past
Speaker 5: couple of years with in terms of adding players, and
Speaker 5: everyone's striving to get better. And a division can turn
Speaker 5: just like that. And you you look across the league. Heck,
Speaker 5: I think the NFC East, who was No.
Speaker 4: One won the division. There was no repeat winner for
Speaker 4: I don't know how long it was, but it was
Speaker 4: on the top of years or ten years. And you
Speaker 4: get a lot of worse the first team.
Speaker 5: So that can happen in an instant and you know,
Speaker 5: it can be done with players, it can be done
Speaker 5: with new schemes, it can be done with the new mentality,
Speaker 5: a bunch of different ways. So I know we're gonna
Speaker 5: focus here with the Chargers on being the best we
Speaker 5: can be, all right, and we're gonna try to get
Speaker 5: better every single day. But we want our players trying
Speaker 5: to get better every day. We want our scouts trying
Speaker 5: to get better every day, and we want to try
Speaker 5: to improve this roster every single day. And we're gonna
Speaker 5: keep doing that and hopefully one day we're at the top,
Speaker 5: you know. And that's our goal, and we're gonna work
Speaker 5: hard to get there as fast as we can. But
Speaker 5: we know, we know we got great teams we're going
Speaker 5: up against twice a year that are that are in the.
Speaker 1: Way for sure, Hey, almost certainties right. In the NFL,
Speaker 1: every year four new teams go in, four teams fall
Speaker 1: out of the playoffs, and every year a division sees
Speaker 1: a team go worse the first why Chargers, It's crazy.
Speaker 1: Every year I'll finish, I'll finish with this, Joe, I get.
Speaker 1: I have the great pleasure to do the games with
Speaker 1: Daniel Jeremiah, one of my absolute favorite people, Uh in
Speaker 1: the world. You had a chance to work with them.
Speaker 1: With Phil you mentioned Phil Savage. Uh kind of brought
Speaker 1: you guys, And I don't know if I'm saying, like,
Speaker 1: give me a story, if you can just share, you
Speaker 1: know what what your experience was, like the very young
Speaker 1: just cutting his teeth of both of you, Daniel Jeremiah
Speaker 1: way back in the day with the Ravens.
Speaker 2: A good DJ story.
Speaker 4: You know, I don't have any like one.
Speaker 5: I'll never say anything negative about DJ, so it's always
Speaker 5: going to be positives of DJ.
Speaker 4: One.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: I don't know how if you guys know how good
Speaker 5: of an athlete he is.
Speaker 4: I mean he is.
Speaker 5: I never played. I'm not a hooper, all right. I
Speaker 5: can't shoot to save my life. But I go down
Speaker 5: there and watch and play hoops and all that. But
Speaker 5: we got we all of us scouts during training camp,
Speaker 5: just you find something to compete with, right, and we
Speaker 5: would play.
Speaker 1: Walk football.
Speaker 5: Okay, it turned it went from walk football into running football.
Speaker 5: But we started by playing walk football. And so I'm
Speaker 5: having to cover Daniel, and Daniel's like speed walking and
Speaker 5: I'm like I'm almost having to.
Speaker 4: Jog to keep up with him.
Speaker 5: But he's so he's taller than me and longer than me.
Speaker 5: So even if I'm on his hip, he's just catching
Speaker 5: mall send me this. So then when you say, you know,
Speaker 5: I'm like, forget this walk stuff, Let's just run, you know.
Speaker 5: And so again I'm like the fastest guy on my
Speaker 5: team and I have to cover Daniel, And I'm like,
Speaker 5: this is not working, man.
Speaker 4: Can we double cover him?
Speaker 5: Can we put his I get some safety help over
Speaker 5: the top, you know, I mean.
Speaker 4: He's absolutely torching me. Give me some help. You know,
Speaker 4: I can't do it, you know, you know, so I try.
Speaker 4: I kept trying and trying and trying.
Speaker 5: I just couldn't keep up with him. So uh, but
Speaker 5: just a great, great person, a great friend. Love talking
Speaker 5: players with them. Although I have to tighten that up
Speaker 5: a little bit, you know, but no, just just we
Speaker 5: we uh we always have had a great time together.
Speaker 5: And he loves what he does and evaluating players. I
Speaker 5: love what I do and evaluating players and scouting and
Speaker 5: but just.
Speaker 4: A special person. Glad.
Speaker 5: I'm glad he's around. I was really fired up he
Speaker 5: showed up at the press conference. Meant a lot to me. Uh,
Speaker 5: He's giving me some good advice through the uh, the
Speaker 5: uh interview.
Speaker 4: Process that maybe I'll tell you guys some other time,
Speaker 4: but uh, you know, it was, it was, it was.
Speaker 5: It's been great to have him in my corner here
Speaker 5: and to see him the other day was just awesome,
Speaker 5: special moment.
Speaker 1: Well, if you uh don't know how good of an
Speaker 1: athlete DJ is, just ask him. Joe.
Speaker 2: Appreciate it, Joe, Joe. This has been This has been amazing.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 3: It's just the the energy over the last week from
Speaker 3: from Jim's presser to yours and just to see how
Speaker 3: how fired up the city is. To see what you
Speaker 3: guys do this offseason beyond has been very very cool
Speaker 3: and refreshing and uh, we're just so happier in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: And appreciate your time, man, Yeah.
Speaker 4: Man, I appreciate it.
Speaker 5: You know, the work is hard, but the game is fun, right,
Speaker 5: you know, so exactly have fun. You know, let's keep
Speaker 5: the energy up and that's what we're gonna do here.
Speaker 5: You know, we're gonna have fun competing and work hard.
Speaker 3: So buddy, it's just like talking to an old buddy.
Speaker 3: He's just a great dude and I'm so glad he's
Speaker 3: part of the Chargers. Wow.
Speaker 1: Look, I think that's that's a big part of it,
Speaker 1: you know, and I think he's he talked about that
Speaker 1: in his presser and it's communicat you know, you can
Speaker 1: clearly see first time we've ever talked to him on
Speaker 1: the pod, the communication skills, the comfortability, the familiarity that
Speaker 1: you feel like you have with him even though you
Speaker 1: just met him. So that goes a long way in
Speaker 1: making you know, you you asked it straight out the
Speaker 1: you know, the first question about his family, and he
Speaker 1: you know, pointed to this is a family. That's that's
Speaker 1: just way that you spend so much time together when
Speaker 1: you work for a professional football team that you start
Speaker 1: to feel like, well, I'm closer to these people some
Speaker 1: gervery than I have my family because I see him more,
Speaker 1: I'm with them more, I'm on the road with them,
Speaker 1: I'm you know, at the office from six am until
Speaker 1: eight pm every single day. So that's an important part
Speaker 1: of it, you know, to wanting as a scout to
Speaker 1: be on the road for twenty one days to help
Speaker 1: this guy do his job as general manager. And you know,
Speaker 1: certainly it appears though he's going to set a very
Speaker 1: you know, a great tone for those guys to know
Speaker 1: they're appreciated and to want to work hard to deliver
Speaker 1: for this regime and for this team to be as
Speaker 1: great as as we think they can be.
Speaker 3: Well, hopefully we'll catch you with Joe in a few
Speaker 3: weeks at the combine. Uh, We're gonna have a great
Speaker 3: week in Indy more than one episode of Charges Weekly.
Speaker 3: I promise we'll talk to a lot of folks there
Speaker 3: in a couple of weeks, and I'm sure next week Money,
Speaker 3: we can really dig into the coaching staff. I'm sure
Speaker 3: at that point next Thursday, we'll have a list of
Speaker 3: all the coaches and responsibilities and we can dive in
Speaker 3: a little.
Speaker 1: Bit more, no doubt, looking forward to it.
Speaker 2: Cool. All right, guys for Money, I'm Chris. This has
Speaker 2: been Charges Weekly. We'll see you next week.