The Chargers are probably maybe possibly potentially finally back.

there's been a couple teams so far in this series where from the outside looking in it it feels like things were different right commanders feels different Falcons feel different for sure I know the Chargers are different like there is no feel about this like every story that I've heard from inside the building and this is I know it's going to sound biased and it is because I work with the team um and you know I make content with them whether it's on the video board or in the stadium you're going to be seeing me at virtually every single Chargers game this year like I get it this is this is not a completely unbiased opinion but from the inside folks like this is not just a field different type team this is a quantifiably actually is different type team the culture change has been rapid and stunning to say the least uh the players are energized the staff the support staff is energized the media team like everything just feels different in the building and there is uh for the first time in a long time this unified belief in the Chargers facility which is actually a brand new facility this year uh I don't know if they've opened it up by the time this this airs but uh tomorrow oh it's tomorrow the official reveal it's literally tomorrow because we asked whether or not we could record and they're like we're moving in the day before and we were like Maybe not maybe next year maybe next year but everybody in that brand spanking new facility uh has a unified belief that it's a new organization um from top to bottom it's it's just been a really really stunning I don't want to say overnight change but damn near overnight change uh Jim Harbaugh has done a phenomenal job so far his assistants have done a phenomenal job so far like the culture the culture shift in the Chargers might be the most dramatic culture shift that any team in the entire NFL has gone through so far in one offseason I'm not saying it's going to translate to double digit wins immediately but the reason why Jim Harbaugh has won everywhere he's gone is because of his ability to build culture and hire good assistants and get players to buy in that has already happened with the Chargers so regardless of what the win totals are this year which I think they'll still be a solid team this is the most hope that I think think any Chargers fan could have or should have probably since the mid 2000s when they were one of the best teams in the NFL they will be one of the best teams in the NFL sooner rather than later because of everything Jim Jim has done to transform this organization I just I really want to hammer home the point this is different this is almost unequivocally damn near guaranteed going to work folks it's been that dramatic and they needed that they needed EX exactly that like if any team in the NFL needed a clean break to say we tried we maybe even went a year too long we kept going we gave our previous regime as much rope as we could it's not working we need something not a little bit different I think of teams where they import uh a new coach or new GM and they're like we just need that little push to put us over the edge Chargers were not in that category to be clear they need a little push they needed a large shove in a different direction and Harbaugh has provided that along with everything he brings with him which is a pretty established sort of protocol at this point of unnown known like you know what you're getting you know what the Harbaugh regime is it's going to take him a little while to implement it not super long but you know where you're going when you bring Jim Harbaugh in and the Chargers thought we would like like to go there let's do that let's get him in so this is exactly the kind of thing they're looking for sometimes a new coach comes in and there's radical transformation and the organization's like oh maybe that's a little much like the Chargers are like everything you got bring it on we we want a complete wiping of the Slate that is in a completely different direction because we already tried the other thing extensively we're not happy with it we want that change we're thirsty for it we're hungry for it um and they got got it and I agree with you that sooner rather than later but in a piece of certainty this team will be better than it was well we're talking an LA team today in front of the LA Skyline drinking La beers that's from Boomtown breu over in the arts district that's like I don't know 3 four miles from where we're sitting right now uh probably one of the best names for any beer come on you can't get any better than mik check for a podcast beer like that's just so good Bohemian style check pilsner uh it's fantastic never had it before today but it's uh it's great got at the grocery store uh so it's an all La day here on uh bootleg football if you're a Chargers fan you're going to enjoy this one uh if you're a Chiefs fan watching dread uh that's that's what we're hoping for here so uh yeah Jay Autumn Anthony roll it [Music] [Applause] yeah welcome back to the boot Lake football podcast I'm Brett that's EJ talking Chargers today uh we promise we will keep the 20123 talk to a minimum because uh so much of this episode should be focused on what has happened since the end of the season obviously we have to address uh stuff that went wrong a little bit but most of that's going to be water under the the bridge I would say most of this episode's going to be more positive and more exciting for the future but uh we we do kind of have to explain where this team was coming from in order to fully appreciate uh where we think they're going to go yeah we have to set the stage as to why this sweeping sort of sea change happened 2023 results for the Chargers overall record 5 and 12 well below what everybody in the organization expected rank in the division was fourth home record 2- s road record three and five last five games and this is the nail in the coffin 0 and five like they absolutely slid to the finish and everybody I think at that point said okay it's over over we're done everybody was hurt everybody was done everybody knew like that was it that was last station right we everybody get out we have run it out we are the string is completely unfurled we're done um so couple numbers to help us put this into context we won't spend a ton of time on it but QBs is the first one stands for quarterback support it's a new stat that arjent Menan who now works for the Jets and I came up with over this last year that stands for quarterback support it's a measure of what an organization provides in terms of a framework to help a quarterback play well think of it as a degree of difficulty modifier for the NFL so it has three offensive measures a defensive measure and a special teams measure it's a 0 to 100 scale is the best worst team in the NFL is a zero Chargers were at 12.9 there's no easy way to say that that put them 28th out of 32 teams again we're not going to belabor 2023 because there have been so many changes in the organization the other metric is power score which we introduced you to last year and that's simply taking their rankings in six important categories and that's their NFL rank for rushing offense passing offense Rush defense pass defense points scored and points allowed assigning their NFL rank taking those numbers averaging them out and coming up with a score so rushing offense 32nd not great that's they get the red number for that one if it could have been 33rd it would have been like that that yeah it was not great and and there was a lot of reasons for it you know Eckler got hurt and then once Eckler got back they played literally 75% of the top quartile of run defense in the entire league back to back to back to back to back like they they took injuries in the offensive line everything went to hell in a handbasket so yes it's bad but also there's reasons why it was bad suffice to say when Greg Roman zoc and you invest even more resources in the offensive line it's not going to be that bad this year but last year good God it was rough no that is the red notice for the league that is the lowest possible rank passing offense 19th not great considering some of the weapons they had for sure again reasons Rush defense 18th not bad one of the better teams in the league in the middle of the rankings there pass defense and this is kind of the death Nell for any modern NFL defense 26th just not good enough yep points scored 21st points allowed 24th again not a lot of high rankings here if you average out their power score again one would be the best that means you're first in every ranking no team is that way Chargers power score was 23.3 that placed them 28th overall which is an exact line with their QBs score so QBs you can think of as setting the table how should we have done power score you can think of as how did we do and they match perfectly for the Chargers they set the table at the 28th best level and they performed at the 28th best level so if you're watching Chargers games last year and you're like God like I know they're talented but this just looks like a bad football team you're correct they were they were they were a bad football team um but we are turning the page because they're not a bad football team now NOP they nailed the off season in so many ways between coaching hires and assistant hires and nailing the draft and uh and and we will get to the to to all those individual components because I I oddly enough I think we felt stronger about their draft than even a lot of chargers fans did no I know we felt stronger about their draft than a lot of chargers fans did based on solely the comments but they did really really well um they did a phenomenal job you know basically tearing everything down to the studs and then rebuilding it or at least half rebuilding it in one year um people are going to be stunned at how quickly they turn this thing around again I'm not saying they're going to be a wild card team in a very tough AFC that that's an uphill climb that that's a very very uphill climb but they ain't going to be eliminated by Christmas no or in some cases by Thanksgiving if you're watching last year where you're like there's no way this team is making it like they will be competitive to the end they will be mathematically in it until the end again it's it's tough to say they're going to be one of the top seven but they'll be in this thing um because of how well they nailed this off season so we'll kind of go through it component by component before we get into their coaching hires by the way uh and you know talking about the the probably pretty sweeping systemic changes where in to see this year I do want to thank our friends over at Underdog for making this series possible in the first place you know paying for us to kind of do this home and home where I went up to Washington you know out on Anderson Island for the first couple weeks EJ's now down here in LA to wrap this 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quality and the amount of the work we're able to do as are you in terms of as Brett said watching this consuming is um putting in comments on YouTube it all matters it all adds up and we feel all of it and thank you very much for that with all that said I do want to get into our scheme talk here we're going to start on the offensive side of the ball uh because offense pays everybody's bills there's a lot of preconceived Notions about what Greg Roman is going to run in La Y and and they're completely fair and I have them yes EJ has them uh because if you look at what he called in Baltimore if you look at what he called in Buffalo if you look at what he called in San Francisco keep in mind I have his Niners Playbook I have all of his Niners tape from 12 13 years ago whatever whatever that is because I'm working on a project specifically on this um it all looks pretty similar in terms of what he called at all these different destinations and also probably what he's going to call in LA but just because he's known as the guy who runs the ball at all times and doesn't throw the ball ever doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of really thoughtfully layered and crafted Concepts in there like I've seen them like they're in the Playbook I know they're there right both in the run and the pass game but um I I especially want to focus on the Run game because it's you can call it exotic it it is an exotic Run game they will throw everything at you uh you'll see some outside Zone you'll see inside Zone you'll see Power you'll see counter you'll see quote unquote boring Gap scheme stuff uh he's got like five different ways to run power um they'll use motion and motion at the snap especially to give them s to give themselves you know favorable angles when they're pulling all these guys um it's an exotic Run game and I think it's it's a great run game because they throw everything at you yep from the gun from under center from pistol from different Personnel groupings and you you can't really adequately prepare for it because you can't practice for everything and he's going to throw everything at you the criticism obviously has been like okay well if his if his Run game is so well thought out and so layered and so nuanced and so creative why isn't why hasn't that ever carried over into his his past games and that is a total valid criticism um I know it it's been thought that with him taking that year off he was kind of able to examine that and maybe patch some of those holes we'll see we'll see but I also think it's fair to say that in the NFL if we're looking at quarterback plus offensive line plus receiver combination especially receiver combination I don't necessarily think Romans ever had this kind of group to work with obviously he's had a great quarterback before in Lamar yep he's had some really dominant run blocking lines before in Baltimore um but I I wouldn't say that Baltimore was especially great at pass protection when they had Lamar and they certainly didn't have a great receiving core when when Greg was there they only recently got a good one right um but when you look at what he's got to work with the Chargers he's got a very very very good like a top quartile quarterback in Justin Herbert right top eight quarterback in the league so check that box he's got a better pass protection line than I think he ever had in Baltimore check that box Herbert's a better quarterback than he ever had in in San Francisco even with some of the guys they had there so check that box and I think even if they don't have as good of a receiving core at least as proven of a receiving core as maybe Baltimore has right now they still have some pretty darn good talents there to work with so if we're just looking at the complete combination of good pass protection great quarterback some exciting young weapons to work with I don't know if Gregs really ever had all of this to craft a passing game with so we know the Run game's going to be good but I kind of feel like if there was ever going to be a great Greg Roman comp you know not even great just complimentary Greg Roman passing game that's going to work if they happen to get into third and seven they can dig out of that hole I think this might be the year it happens because it feels like for the first time he has all the ingredients to do so yeah and then classic Spirit of letter Kenny to be fair the Run game is amazing we have lauded Greg Roman's Run game since his time in San Francisco as Nuance as complex as powerful as dominating at certain times um The Run game part of his Playbook like I'm not going to say it doesn't need any work cuz everything in the NFL needs continual work but needs very little work he knows what he's doing putting together a run game the criticisms that were valid about his time that we've seen most recently in Baltimore is that he focused too much on one receiver and a tight end mhm and that was it it was a lack of variation it was a lack of Concepts that got third and fourth options involved and in all the work we do in the work we do with the draft in the work coaches do I don't care whether it's peeee or high school or college coaches you have to self Scout and he's had a year and if I was him if I was GG roome and I'd be taking crib notes on Todd Mon's offense because Todd monin came in to give variety to the pass game with Baltimore they saw a much more diverse and varied pass game it worked it carried them to the first seed in the AFC like I would be saying what did I not have that he had what are some of the things he does that I like that are variations on what I have and I would be adding that and rolling into my game to go with this more fully complimented Personnel Group because I know I need balance I know I'm going to be great on the Run side no question about that I need to be better functional mid pack and really sort of exercise that top level quarterback play that I know I have in Justin Herbert how do I do that how do I bring the other side up to support so I have more balance because that's been the the knock against Roman is the Run game is Elite and the pass game is not it is dependent on a few things and if you stop those few things as a defense you can therefore stop the team and he's got to get around that if he took this year to self Scout and he's said and the Chargers have said oh he's changed turned over New Leaf new ways of doing things we'll see but that's what I would have been doing if I was Greg Roman and I wanted to get back in the league was looking at pass games around the league and saying how do I diversify so they can't tee off against my run game and if I am forced into those third and long situations where I need to to pass they can't just shut down one receiver or the tight end if he's the healthy guy and then I'm done so if that diversity and variety has worked his way into his game like look out because the Personnel package is better we know the defense is going to be strong solid in ways that it hasn't been necessarily especially over the coming years as Harbaugh's able to build that roster out the way he wants to with athletes so that's kind of the like mission number one for Greg Roman and if he achieves that that's probably the unlock for the offense and as you said offense pays the bills and I I do think you know maybe part of the reason why he focused so much on like just the one receiver they you know whether it was Rashad bitman or you know Mark Andrews whatever Hollywood or whoever whoever like I I almost kind of feel like the one reason why he always had like the one guy they locked into is cuz maybe they only had one guy like it sometimes it might just be a Personnel thing and Baltimore they tried for a long time to build a good receiving Corp and just couldn't every year they were looking for that number two and it never quite worked out for them and it does become that chicken or egg argument like oh whose fault is that is that because Roman's not calling it or because they don't have the Personnel to pay it off you don't know but with the Chargers a lot of that is automatically off the board like like you said the Personnel grouping is ostensibly better from the get-go yeah or at least better than maybe some of the teams that Romans had to work with in the past um again I I I'm not expecting them to come out there and throw like Gang Busters if anything if anything they're they're probably going to be a a middle of the pack passing game in a lot of ways just because they're not going to have to throw that much anyway but organizationally their goal is to not have to throw that much it's really just about when we do have to throw we're efficient with it yeah right like Romans never had a high volume or has never called a high volume passing offense but the problem was in if you have a low volume passing offense that mean your your margin for error is also very low like if you're only throwing 22 times in a game you better [ __ ] hit it yeah and and in a lot of those years they weren't right so it's still probably going to be the same thing in La like yeah 22 25 throws a game but I think the goal is is to be just more efficient on those throws and and I'm talking more icient in terms of how you create space for your guys to get open like helping them get open through scheme you know obviously giving Justin answers so that if lad is bracketed okay he can still get to Palmer whoever you know maybe QJ improves and becomes the QJ that that they thought they were drafting like whatever it is helping Justin get from 1 to two to three is going to go a long way to making those those throws more efficient I will say on the topic of Canon old dog learn new tricks couple years ago or even one year ago we sat here you know talking about Mike McCarthy yep you know when he took over play calling duties ironically also from Kell Moore uh and we're like I don't know about this one man like this is a guy who is not modern whatsoever in his approach he doesn't use motion he runs a very static predictable offense like I don't know and then you look at the Cowboys and they were one of the top teams in terms of motion usage especially motion at the snap were like son of a [ __ ] he learned he learned he learned how to call a modern offense and then they they dominated right so it's it's possible the examples are out there and again monan is an obvious example because it's this largely the same team that he left that had a different level of success in that area but he could look to new examples he could look to I'm thinking about Ryan grub coming in in Seattle right and Ryan grub is not necessarily a high volume passing game he's not a guy that's going to throw it 70% of the time he's going to do whatever hurts you the most and we know Roman can hurt you with a run game but when you load up against that run game it's about hitting the efficiency in the shots you said 22 throws a game you better hit 15 of them and you better be efficient with them I'm not talking about three and four yards per I'm talking about gashing folks seven to 15 yards per and you know maybe one of 30 or 40 would be nice M if you can do that that it really puts defenses off balance right we thought we had the Run bottled up we know the run is our primary focus and if we stop that but we you know we sold out to bottle up the Run Justin Herbert threw it over our head for 25 yards we gave up an explosive we're into a new set of downs what do we do now it's very sort of debasing for a defense to be like well we thought we had the thing but we did and then they did this that's the new wrinkle yeah the goal is to make it so that honestly be kind of similar to the Chiefs in a different way the Chiefs are are a higher higher volume passing team but they they take so many like quick easy throws that that are basically just a run play with extra steps sure um but like they only need Pat to make four plays a game like that's it like when the chips are down pat go make a play Chargers are going to try to do that too chips are down four times a game like once a quarter once a quarter Justin is third and eight bail us out that's all we need and then you know Gus bus and everybody else can take over from there but like if we screw up you're the guy who's the fixer that's why they pay him 50 whatever million dollars a year is to be the fixer four times a game works for the Chiefs probably works for the Chargers too because you got that kind of guy so I I really do think it's going to work um I think the criticisms are valid and the the concerns are valid yep but it's just I don't know just talking to people in the building and seeing the Vibes around the building it does feel like you know that old dog learned some new tricks and I feel like if not this season soon very soon like this year again you can't do a complete you know tear down to the foundation you know groundup rebuild in one season in the NFL like the resources aren't typically there the Chargers roster I think and we'll talk about a lot of the roster building they've done um I mean was not as good as everybody thought it was it was an a bit a bit of an illusion um so they're going to do and have done I think as much as they can in the first year but it's really in that year too for everything coming du more roster help more adjustments about hey we're back in the NFL things are a little bit different what did we learn um they're going to be better this year but like year two is the one to put the Target on and I think that's a good transition to the defensive side of the ball because that was the side of the ball that I think kind of fooled us the most on roster quality it's a good way to put it uh and again like not not to be overly negative but the corn the drop off at corner was significant significant um you know Michael Davis played really well a couple years ago and then just couldn't cover anybody and I understand there's an injury component there but like couldn't cover anybody the JC Jackson signing didn't work out you know Asante uh started out his career really hot but I think he's I don't I wouldn't qualify him as like a top top tier corner I think he's a good Corner um I think he's a a very solid starting Corner especially when compared to a lot of guys in the league but um he's he's not in the sauce like conversation he's not uh he's not in that upper echelon like top 10 to 12 you know Jaylen Johnson like yeah he was tipping he was sort of trending towards Difference Maker early in his career and we thought all the signs are there that if this continues again progression is not linear he's going to be in that group and then even if he didn't drop off a ton he plateaued and didn't continue that rise and so I wouldn't classify him as Difference Maker I would classify him as solid and certainly you know starter and everything else but I think there was a lot of certainly institutional hope in the charter especially because of who his dad was and and he and when he was coming out of college we're like oh my God that looks exactly like senior and and he still makes plays like that it's just the amount and the sort of R offenses having to plan around him and I would not answer that question the affirmative right now the hard part is you can't build an entire secondary out of Derwin James one one solid corner correct and then a bunch of dudes are getting eviscerated every single week like you just can't do it yeah they'll go away from him so and Asante couldn't cover everybody and Derwin couldn't cover everybody like honestly the thing that made the defense work the year before to the degree that it did which didn't work in every way but like the reason why their pass defense in the times when it worked worked was because okay Michael Davis was back there being a lock down press man coverage Corner in that I think it was 2022 was that was that season yep all of a sudden defenses or offenses realized like okay let's just do everything possible to not let Michael Davis press us let's make him play in space and he couldn't keep up like he just like the Miami game like it's like we're going to throw motion and stacks at you constantly like you are not going to get to play press coverage ever like Michael Davis you are mine like that is what Mike mcdel was looking at him from the sidelines like you are mine today and they annihilated him and it like that was honestly the first game where I was like and I think that was actually week one and I was like oh [ __ ] like they got problems like if they that's the blueprint right we talk about this all the time is Once opposing coordinators whether it's you know offense versus defense or defense versus offense get that blueprint right and they go oh crap look what Mike did to him in week one yeah like if we want him off us for five plays a game or if we want him off our primary receiver so we can leverage him five plays a game here's what we can do like Mike just gave us the blueprint and until the Counterpoint or the counter punch comes and Michael Davis and the Chargers adjust people are just going to do it to you in the NFL there the NFL is completely ruthless that way like they will whatever works they will do it until you stop it and if you don't they will just continue to do it they're going to rub your nose it there is no like oh mercy rule we'll let you up it's like nope last week they did it to you you haven't adjusted we're going to do it to you the next people are going to do it to you too until you figure it out it was yeah it was tough man and again I know I know we said we weren't going to stick too much of the negative stuff but that sets the the table for Jesse Min right the roster was not in good shape defensively when he got here they went to work him and him and hores went to work uh and again they're not done but from what I know Jesse is going to run this year which is a absolute metric [ __ ] ton of fire zone uh and you know knowing the fronts that he's going to be in knowing how he likes to game plan for um for stopping the run which is also just calling a metric [ __ ] ton of fire zone like I'm telling you right now folks they're going to be like top five in Blitz rate they absolutely are but looking at that play style and kind of visualizing in my head okay what kind of players does he need to do this right and then looking at the roster as it is presently constructed yeah no this works yeah again they're not all the way done but like you're looking at Morgan Fox Puna Ford and then atito abonia coming off an injury as their as their front three um that's 100% going to work like Morgan Fox is the quintessential like 4i sl5 technique that this style of Defense has always had he's still it uh you got Joey and khil as your Edge rushers that's absolutely going to work you got Denzel Perryman the human Coke machine 100% you got Junior Coulson who I adored coming out of Michigan and already knows this system by the way that's absolutely going to work because I've seen it work I've seen him run this defense uh and then in the secondary you still got a Sante again solid corner but he needed more around him because he's not that Shon of corner that can basically just take away one side of the field and give yourself a mathematical Advantage else we would call or classify an island Corner he's not an island cor and that's okay like not a lot of people are not a lot of people that's why they're rare that's why they're paid a lot but you still got Asante there you got Christian fton um jir Taylor and then two absolute ass kickers that they just picked up in the draft and cam Hart and tar Heep still there Ultra physical because again we're looking for physicality here uh and then of course you know dur went in Loi uh and AEM Dent who I think is going to make the roster we'll get to him when we talk about the udfas fair enough but you're looking at that secondary with that linebacking core and that that defensive line and I can immediately see how it all translates to to Jesse min's play style which is aggressive aggressive aggressive how do we stop the pass Blitz how do we stop the run blitz Everybody's In The Back Field at all times and you're going to say ah how's that going to work like you're going to be leaving these huge huge gaps uh in in pass coverage where you know guys are just going to find holes and they're going to catch and run there's more than one way to bring pressure and when it comes Jesse Min there's mathematically roughly 2,000 ways to bring pressure If you're looking at all the combinations of pressure paths fronts and coverages that he runs it is literally thousands of combinations because it's a modular defense and we've gone over that a couple times throughout this series but it is that Ravens style that Mike McDonald Jesse Minter Raven style that they pioneered where we're going to slim down the playbook in order to expand our possibilities we're going to slim down the amount of fronts we cover or that we call we're going to slim down the amount of pressures that we have we're going to slim down the amount of coverages but we're going to make it so that each one of those pieces can be run with every other one of those pieces so instead of having 50 pressures in the Playbook that all are tied to one specific front and one specific coverage we have 5 to six fronts we have 24 pressures we have 12 coverages multiply all those together in terms of number of combinations and again you're in the hundreds you're in the thousands of possibilities so when I say they're going to Blitz it doesn't mean that teams are going to know what Blitz is coming because it's literally impossible to know that's the point of the defense you can't game plan for it there are no Tendencies to game plan for you know that they're going to bring five you know that they're going to bring six but good [ __ ] luck figuring out which five and which six are coming good luck figuring out what coverage is going to be behind it good luck figuring out you know what kind of fronts they're going to be running when they do all these uh adjustments to it halfway through the year where it'll be the same front but oh let's take the three technique and line them up where we put the Mike linebacker we'll take the Mike linebacker and put him where we do the three technique we'll run the same [ __ ] we're just going to flip it around you're not going to know what the hell's happening so this defense is built to confuse offenses while being as simple as humanly possible for the players so that they can be as aggressive as they want to be and make it look as exotic as they want it to be but without being confusing for their own guys right um Bucky Brooks said and this was the line that he gave that I loved simple for us hard for them that is this defense it's it's the future of the NFL and like La is Ground Zero for that future yeah and it makes traditional tape scouting damn near impossible you can't do it in terms of when they're in this alignment this guy comes well that works until they you know with one word switch the responsibilities that you were talking about week to week game to game you know quarter of the season to quarter of the Season hey we've run this this way we're going to we're going to swap it but we only need one term change to do that because you all know the roles and it's just you're going to play this role and you're going to play this role I don't really care about your position alignment and therefore you know you're looking at it on tape going well we expected this guy to come well we know that's why we did it and it is going to be fascinating to see that I'm going to say this and this is going to like piss off the Michigan purist but you know what it reminds me of from a personal standpoint right now minus Derwin because derwin's a derwin's Derwin derwin's Derwin he's a supernova outside of that the roster construction reminds me a lot of Penn State oh I could see that like just big heavy Corners super aggressive Corners like really good Edge rushers just coming from all angles like you're going to do whatever you're going to do but we're going to give you 2.2 seconds to do it and if you don't do it in 2.2 seconds you're going to get smoked yep so you know outside of Derwin I look at this as the Year One Chargers rebuild roster and I go they're kind of gon to do the same [ __ ] and it's gonna work yeah it's it's G to work because because you better be ready to make that decision based on I thought this guy was coming but he's not and you know cue the clock 2.2 seconds if not you're on your back and what it's going to do is you know again people are so worried okay well if you blitz so much and you go up against Joe burrow who's just going to find the gaps in the coverage and dice you up like that's true sure because he's Joe burrow but here's the thing the second they guess wrong like if they're in fiveman pass protections all day the second they guess wrong and Junior Coulson comes through untouched and puts a helmet into Joe Burrow's rip cuge they're not calling fiveman protections the rest of the game so if you're forcing their running back or they're tight end to stay in and all of a sudden you know it goes from five receivers against six spaced out Defenders all the way down to four receivers running routes against six Defenders all of a sudden again yeah there's windows and coverage but there's nobody to occupy those windows because they have to keep an extra guy into protection so that Joe burrow doesn't die yeah like that's what they do is they just it's like Raptors testing the fence in Jurassic Park right they're just going to keep calling random [ __ ] until they pop one and then you're going to be like I got to repair the fence I'm not just going to leave the hole there because I don't want to die and I love that analogy because it is based on that aggression and it is defense for I feel like the first time in a long time dictating to offense to Modern NFL offense and it's been the other way mhm and this is feel free but you know you're going to roll your roll we're going to roll our role if it doesn't match up we're going to kill your quarterback so you're paying that guy $50 million like play as you will let's go I also have Again The more I've learned about this defense and about how how Jesse game plans and how meticulously detailed he is and how disciplined he is um you know I was watching a clinic that he did last summer like specifically about how how he game plans and after watching that clinic my first reaction was yeah Michigan didn't stomp everybody because of sence stealing they stomped everybody because that dude's a [ __ ] genius yeah like that defense like the reason they played so fast the reason they were ready for everything it was not from science stealing it was because they are the best or rather Jesse is the best game planning DC in college football and other than then a very short list of names in the NFL Mike McDonald included another former Michigan DC there are very few guys that I think could craft a better game plan that is specifically designed to stop a certain offense on a week- toe basis than Jesse Min that dude is brilliant he's going to be a head coach in the NFL he's not going to be the Chargers DC for long like that guy is a genius and he's very good at what he does I I when they call these blitzes like it's not throwing [ __ ] at the wall like they called them for a very specific reason down to you know they chart um you know how how they do pass protections against certain looks sure uh in every single down and distance I'm talking like at a granular level down to you know okay I'm going to I'm going to go in a little bit of a tangent here when a Coleman Rabbit Hole me a tangent no no when when he looks at his first down uh calls specifically for for blitzes right because they'll they'll Blitz their way into into being a sound run defense just throw more bodies at the problem right but it's not just blindly throwing bodies at it like they will break down their first down calls into different categories of okay is this a sudden change opportunity um you know what what part of the field are we on um you know is this a first play of quarter or first play of half because there are different Tendencies for OC's based on those situations even within just neutral first and 10s like not every first and 10 is built the same right so he's going to he's going to develop a call sheet just for those situations we get in a second down he breaks down into short yardage medium yardage long yardage and then extra long yardage again based on hash based on field position he's looking at what's the run pass split within those uh within that run split how are they running the ball you know what are they doing when the Y is on versus the Y is off off how often is the Y on versus the Y off what's their rpos look like um you know what's what what's their play action game look like if they have a successful first down run like how does that affect their run and Pass rates right and he has all these calls built in situationally from down to Down based on distance and and dare I say momentum everything then you get to the third down and it's even more like he even he even has it charted to a granular level where his red zone is not 20 yards his red zone is 22 yards because when he was charting it and he was like the Red Zone guy when he was with the Ravens he was in charge of like their Red Zone stuff he when he was charting offenses he noticed that their they started calling their Red Zone plays at the 22 and not the 20 so he would then build their Red Zone package starting at the 2022 or the 20 not 2022 22 yard line corre that is how detail oriented he is right um so when I say he's calling all these blitzes he every Blitz that he calls out of this modular system where no matter what front we're in we can call any pressure he's calling those pressures based on how he is charting these offenses for the exact situation and down and distance they're in it's not throwing [ __ ] at the wall no everything is meticulously game planned to the point where sign stealing would take longer than just him looking at the sheet and saying okay it's second and seven they just got a turnover we got you know a a stop for three yards on first down they're probably going to try to pay off this turnover with a shot okay what's what's my favorite you know him just looking at his sheet of his own charting is going to be faster than them looking at four Dudes on the sidelines doing [ __ ] wax on wax off like that's why they beat everybody because they're really good at game planning and now that guy is game planning for the Chargers you best believe he's going to have Andy Reid in hell for these two weeks like that battle between Jesse Min and Andy Reid that's musty TV to me because you've got legendary offensive genius versus a guy who I think very quickly will be seen as one of the better DCS in the NFL like period flat out and everything we've said the sort of tldr vers version of that or too long didn't watch version of that is everything that we've said about Mike McDonald and we've said a lot about Mike McDonald on this podcast and rightfully so we're going to say more in the coming weeks as we do the NFC West you could say about Jesse Min as well like Mike and Jesse are like this in terms of the way they approach it and so a lot of the success a lot of the implementation a lot of the ideas the concepts they're they're not just like close they're the same mhm like they think about this the same way they see the game the same way they approach it and attack it the same way so everything we said about Mike McDonald and how off awesome that Ravens defense was last year that's Jesse Min he's not some Rando College DC coming in trying to figure out the league he's basically like simb braining with Mike McDonald and yes he has to adjust to bigger faster athletes everywhere on a week- toe basis as all folks do that jump from college to Pros but in terms of everything else you just covered like he's at or ahead of the game so there will be adjustments but best believe they're going to be quick and they're going to be effective well that was uh was a lot longer of a a scheme section than we normally have but again this is a team that I think warranted yeah that big of a deep dive just because of how different everything's going to be but there's a lot of other coaches we also got to talk about so EJ I give you the Flor FL take us through this brand shiny new front office and coaching staff yeah and it starts not only with the coaches but the GM as well Joe hortiz which is somebody our buddy Daniel Jeremiah worked with way back in his Raven scouting days he's super familiar with him he takes over his the GM and again that coaching handshake between Jim Harbaugh and Joe hortiz in terms of the Harbaugh and their legacy with both Baltimore and Azie Newsome and whatever this is family business for lack of a better term Greg Roman we've spent a ton of time talking about Jessie Min we just spent a complete Rabbit Hole sort of going into the direct uh action that he's going to bring towards the league that folks might not be familiar with or might not assume is coming because again he came from a college background it's a bit more than that uh Ryan ficken the Special Teams coordinator in terms of offense notable coaches uh this is a term that's spread across the NFL like wildfire senior offensive assistant or senior defensive assistant in this case it's offense and it's Mark tresman now Chicago fans I can't wait to see what you say about this I've been waiting all day for this for Chicago fans hold tight the whole reason that Mark tresman got hired in the first place when he was the Chicago head coach is because that dude can coach offense as a head coach in the NFL CFL he's been very successful in the NFL it didn't work out well and it ended super poorly and I understand that everybody's going to have that taste in their mouth so tesman's back in the NFL after another stop in the CFL 26 years of NFL coaching experience not total coaching experience former head coach of the Bears we know that part but people forget people forget LED that offense to the number two scoring rank in the NFL in his first year what happened the year after that EJ dumpster fight like complete and utter dumpster fight as as a head coach but in terms of offense and again what's his job with the Chargers senior offensive assistant this is the guy that Harbaugh is going to deploy week to week to say I have a problem I need you to solve I have a set of plays I need you to create I have a set of situations I need you to address specifically for this week that's going to be trestman's job he is more than qualified to do that so as a former PTSD Bears fan of Mark trestman's reign um look at this in a fresh way guy has always coached offense he has always been a great offensive coach and that's all he's being asked to do it's a solid ad it's somebody for Harbaugh to lean on with a tremendous amount you know quarter Century worth of experience in the NFL Alone um Marcus Brady is the pass game coordinator 15 years of pro coaching experience for the last seven years at the NFL level comes from Philadelphia where he was the senior offensive consultant I love this uh means we're just Up titles you're going to do whatever we want you to do we don't want to have to pigeon hole you so we're just going to give you that title um began his career in the CFL as well where he coached uh coached on and won three gray cups uh was a QB in college at Cal State Northridge I wonder what year it's just because anytime I'm I'm Southern California obviously anytime you say the word Northridge we always flash back to okay when was he there though like was he there for that part of Northridge is history I don't trivia question huh mascot for Cal State Northridge oh God Northridge not Fullerton I know you know Fullerton I should know this actually i' I've well again because I'm C Fullerton I've been to many a baseball game against Northridge I truly can't remember the matadors oh yeah which is hilarious because USD just to the south of us is the terrera which is Spanish for Matador um anyways uh Mike delin these are fun facts with EJ indeed Mike Devin the offensive line coach almost 30 years of NFL offensive experience came from Baltimore where he spent the last two years teaching their offensive line helping to power them to the number one seed in the playoffs on defense uh Rick Minter is the senior defensive analyst so the vague title at the top of the or chart over four Decades of coaching experience 40 Years also by the way for those of if you're wondering yes that is Jesse's father correct Navaro Bowman is the linebacker coach so played linebacker under hobar in San Francisco Chargers linebackers are going to be different animals this year 100% like this is nothing against previous Chargers linebackers nvar Bowman's nvar Bowman like he's one of the best of his generation those guys are not going to be average period Mike Kean is a defensive assistant which I find fascinating a hold over from the previous staff always interesting to me when there's a regime chains and the new coaches say guess what you're staying so third season with the team has been both an offensive and a defensive assistant for LA and he is the son of longtime NFL coach Harry hastan who was the offensive line coach at Notre Dame and for the Bears and everything else really interesting that he is currently a defensive assistant well positioned to be um any kind of Coach he wants moving into the future the theme of of this being a family affair should be obvious by now to everybody you know between uh he and uh you know Bowman being a a former player under Harbaugh and you know kind of being in that family so to speak but like also literal familial connections like Rick Minter being Jesse minter's father longtime coach who gave the harbas or at least one of the harau uh his start in the first place uh like when Rick M took the the Cincinnati job in the 80s he retained his then at the time DC which was a very young John Harbaugh and then you know he hired Rex Ryan to be I want to say his defensive line coach SL DC after that and then Rex eventually went to Baltimore to be their defensive line coach and DC and then John Harbaugh got hired by the Ravens and then kept Rex uh so and then Rex eventually got the Jets job and so then I think it was Chuck Pagano that took over the DC job uh and then they just kind of kept going through more and more guys from this family tree that all had connections going back to the Minter and the Harbaugh family to the 90s you know like Wing marale uh Dean peas um like can eventually they plucked Mike McDonald who was a young GA from Georgia at the time uh Jesse Min Rick's son who was an accomplished coach already at the time they brought him into the fold eventually uh alongside McDonald and they were kind of like the Young Guns there who eventually kind of reformatted this system and created how it exists now which I think is again is the future of defense in the NFL so we can kind of owe all of this to Rick Min in a way like John Harbaugh being the Ravens coach we can we can attribute at least a small sliver of that to uh to Rick Miner and uh and obviously his son Jesse is a hell of a coach himself yeah it's the butterfly effect NFL style like I'll give you a chance you'll certainly take advantage of it and you're a tremendous coach in your own right we're not saying that you know John Harbaugh was gifted something he didn't deserve but again those opportunities are key and Rick Min gave many folks early opportunities in their career that blossomed into what is now one of the most successful defensive trees in the NFL period if not the most successful it's like the defensive equivalent of the of the Shanahan offensive tree and just as extensive and has been going on just as long you know like literally since the mid 80s uh all right well with all that information that we just completely overloaded you with for the last hour or so uh that brings us to one of our favorite uh topics which is the underdog top three and we have a doozy for you today because this this segment is supposed to be focused on you know identifying uh fantasy values for every single team cuz all of us here play Fantasy obviously the Chargers are a very weird one right because you got some teams that are just straight up undervalued um where you know they're their players are are typically going uh way way way later than they probably should like any number one receiver probably shouldn't be like wide receiver 50 we've seen a couple of those and then there are teams like say the Eagles where you're not getting any values at all because it's the Eagles and everybody's going to draft them early the Chargers are in kind of this weird Twilight Zone yeah nobody's quite sure what's going on nobody knows what to expect right so I I couldn't just keep it to three I actually do have four for for this for this one just because it's it's such an oddly valued team in terms of where everybody's going with ADP right now uh JK Dobbins is at running back 56 while Gus Edwards is at running back 35 which I know is surprising for a lot of people a lot of people maybe thought it was going to be flipped around the other way um nope Gus bus is going as like the Top Dog in that backfield to be honest I wouldn't be surprised if he is the top dog in that back field but again just kind of shattering expectations you know compared to when these guys were signed and were like oh okay yeah JK is gonna be given an opport oh [ __ ] here comes Gus Edwards all right well he's rb1 let's go the funny thing is RB 35 right because all the Chargers have been doing since pre-combine like since Harbaugh signed Bang the Drum we are going to build the offensive line you're going to run the ball down your throat we are serious this is what we mean they go in like oh they're going to pick a receiver they're going to pick a receiver like they're not at least not that early no not with a top pick they're they're going to pick an offensive Lin folks they're going to pick an offensive L we told you beforehand we told you during we were not surprised like this has been so consistent in fact I can't remember a team so solely focused on a single idea and saying it from so early on with no change and just being like no we mean it I think it's because the the fan base and and for good reason was very focused on the receivers at the top and I think I think Chargers brass was I don't want to say um trying to like soften the blow because you could argue joal would as far as pure grade joal was a better player than any of the receivers anyway sure um but I think they were just trying to prepare the fan base of like we know you want a receiver but 's this 68 320 lb freaking nature yeah that that we like even more so like just get ready folks and they were basically saying that for four months and got ignored until it actually happened yeah and we get in and you know Gus bus is rb35 that means he's outside the top running backs for every team yeah that would be rb32 again you have a team that has invested in the offensive line has hired an offensive coordinator that is known for pushing their run game picked up a running back in free agency that he is entirely familiar with like this is a team telling you what they're going to do 35 is low I'm telling you right now with the amount and opportunity and familiarity Gus has with the system 35 is low and especially because they're going to run the ball in the Red Zone a lot like when they get down there they are going to run the ball like correct if Justin Herbert has you know uh half as many passing touchdowns in the red zone as they have rushing touchdowns I wouldn't be surprised like that's what they want to do yeah I would actually say that might be high given their particular bent on offense which of course brings us to Justin Herbert himself who's going as QB 17 I know this segment is is about values but the reason why I'm doing four for this is because I want to talk about how Justin Herbert's actually properly valued he's going as QB 17 which sounds insane because we look at Justin Herbert as a top eight quarterback in the league sure I think he is the poster child for real football value versus fantasy football value he is a top eight quarterback but I'll tell you what QB 17 as far as like what the numbers he's going to put up are is probably about accurate like if you're looking at who's going ahead of him right now it's quarterbacks that are on teams are going to throw the ball a lot more give more Red Zone passing opportunities and again I think what the Chargers are doing are going lead to more wins but if we're just talking about fantasy value the reason I want to bring up Herbert is not because I think you should draft him higher than QB 17 it's because I don't want you to get tricked into just seeing the name and associating that with like oh here's one of the again top 25% of quarterbacks on planet Earth I should take him now no you shouldn't like they're not going to throw that much and he's going to be better because of it in real football terms not in fantasy terms like I would not take him as a qb1 just because of of what this offense is going to be no 100% And it's a very important distinction between quote unquote real football and fantasy football if you have a quarterback especially a rookie quarterback on a losing team who is behind often they're going to Chuck it up yeah fourth quarter they're going to get a lot of opportunities ter mcen down there somewhere baby like that's what it's going to be they're going to have a lot of yards not necessarily as many touchdowns but they're going to have a lot of yards you can call them garbage yards you can call them fantasy yards you can call them whatever you want but they're going to have them if you're only throwing the ball by Design 22 times a game you're not going to be a top fantasy quarterback unless you also rush for damn near a thousand yards Justin Herbert under ideal conditions is not going to rush for half of that and they're not going to run Justin like Lamar was run under and that was honestly what I don't want to say propped up but it was a significant chunk of Lamar's fantasy value as a quarterback is because okay yeah they didn't throw as much as other teams but like he was their short yardage back for sure anytime it was third and two like we're calling bash counter with Lamar like that that was how they move the ball in in high leverage situations where they wanted to run the ball it was with Lamar not to mention all the scrambling and stuff like that too that he could do on on broken plays Justin is a great mover he is a phenomenal athlete but they're not gonna run him like that so like I don't know I just I don't see how how this translates to him being a qb1 in in pretty much any fantasy format doesn't mean he's not an elite quarterback he is and they're going to win more games because of right oddly enough not making him have to do everything all the time but if we're just talking about stats 1's pretty close probably about right yeah um in terms of you know who's going to catch the ball from him because again he's still going to he's still going to get some yardage so like there still are skill position players that you can invest in um it's kind of interesting to see how how depressed the value for for some of the pass catchers are because I think a lot of people again expect them to run so much but I I almost think they went overboard sure on receivers and tight ends you have will dley top pass catching tight end on this team in a system that historically kind of does like to give the ball to tight ends he's going his te 45 yeah if we're talking about one value from this whole section that's the one like disle is the one if we're just purely talking about value and the difference between their ranking and where we think they're going to finish like dley has the biggest Gap easily the biggest positive Gap um very talented pass catching tight end again in a system that likes to feature a top pass F catching tight end like it's opportunity meets player meets profile meets fantasy value that's the one lad makoni at wide receiver 40 I go back and forth in this one because he's a rookie we know what that means like that's that uh sort of handicap has decreased over the past few years pass catchers come in they're more ready red off the bat I understand that but like L mongi is a guy that caugh like 30 balls Georgia last year like volume has not been his thing it's not an ability question but we talk about same thing with Herbert like how often is he going to get a chance to to catch that ball like if they're only throwing 22 balls a game and we've talked about they're going to send some of those to dley they're going to send some of those to to Palmer and other receivers like he's going to have what five chances a game seven again it it depends on on how on how much they throw which in if if it was up to them wouldn't be that much that means they're winning right the reason why I think he might exceed wide receiver 40 is because all of these receivers probably are not going to get as many chances as some receivers from other teams but if I had to guess which one will pay off those chances at a higher rate I think it'll be lad makoni because he's not he's not just a slot guy like how people profile like he played mostly outside of Georgia he's got legit deep speed he's a great route Runner he's got great yards after catch ability um I think he's a more complete receiver now than than Quinton is but I think he's got more juice than Palmer does I think it's very possible he leads them in catches which you know maybe that's 70 you know not a ton but I still think like I don't know a receiver that leads his team and catches is probably better value than wide receiver 40 now do I think he's going to be wide receiver 25 no but if I was going to throw a dart at one of these guys yeah is probably him that's the sort of fantasy challenge with the Chargers wide receiver core in general is we know there are some catches to go around we don't know where they're going to be concentrated it's a new regime it's a new offense maybe they seem again they seem fair honest in terms of what they're telling folks about what they're going to do they seem fairly honest in the fact that they are very high on lad makoni that they drafted him for a reason they're going to put some effort in focusing the offense his way those are all good things for Fantasy we'll see I think the fact that he's wide receiver 40 means that even if you're just taking a a beted on it it's not it's not that big of an investment he's not going to late anyway anyway so like if you're going to strike out on a guy at least strike out on somebody who's going that late and has potential and has potential for sure so again it's a weird team it's a very weird team because yeah when we're talking about will dley as the primary value for a team it's it's odd that's it I mean I guess we could say Gus possibly you know but yeah I don't know it's it's an odd team I would say take Gus Edwards and then take will will disley really late and then you know let let the chips fall where they may yeah if you want to take a flyer on lad because you loved him or you're a Georgia fan or whatever go for it probably not going to lose money on that one but you might not make money either well with all that being said uh let's get to how this roster was mostly remade in March you know talking about free agency losses free agency gains you know obviously with any new uh regime coming in there's going to be a large amount of roster turnover the Chargers were definitely one of those teams especially because they were kind of up against it in terms of of the cap going into free agency so they had to get rid of a lot of guys and uh you know it tough decisions had to be made I don't want to I don't want to say I would have absolutely done it differently than they did because I understand why they did what they did but I I will say I was kind of surprised it went down the way it did I know that sounds very vague I'll let you kind of walk us through it but I just want to preface this by saying this was not how I thought March was going to go yeah there's always going to be a bit of a bloodletting when a new GM coach combo takes over a team they have a vision for how they want their roster spots which are precious in the NFL especially compared to college to be spent and to be fair there's a lot of names to be fair to be fair there's a lot of names on this list we'll put them all up on screen we're going to talk about the highlights of that list guys that have played for chargers for a while or played a significant role I'm going to start with Joshua Kelly the running back um only three 33.9% of the snaps but you know was the rb2 pretty consistently rb1 occasionally during injury um worth noting that he's moved on isang Bassie the cornerback I have to know because he's one of my biggest misses as a draft guy I was not an assang Bassie guy we saw him in person uh during the draft process and I was like I don't think so he has stained in the NFL in a way moved from multiple teams had meaningful roles on those teams credit to Aang Bassie I was wrong you're right you're an NFL player he's moving on from the charges as well that's a compliment you're an NFL player dude he's making money well past when I thought he would be in the top league on the planet that's impressive just it's like congratulations to saying you exist you exist in the NFL is a very rare existence Keenan Allen obviously the big one moving to the Bears in trade 67% of the snaps longtime charger um leader with a lot of their receiving yards as well um big shift big change for them Gerald Everett at tight end as well almost 50% of the snaps he too goes to the Bears um Austin Johnson the interior defensive lineman goes to the bills 55% of their snaps that's a lot for an interior defensive lineman especially the role that Austin Johnson was playing Michael Davis the corner we talked about ends up on the commanders played a lot for them last year you can argue is Effectiveness or not but it is a big shift Austin Eckler face of the franchise I mean honestly at least one of them you know if you go around the stadium you go around Sofi on you know Chargers game days you're going to see Austin Eckler as you know you would have seen Austin Eckler as a representation of you know one of the top three sort of most famous Chargers um no longer he ends up signing with the commanders he uh has come out publicly and said he's pretty happy with that over the past couple of weeks uh Eric Kendricks moves on goes to the Cowboys to play with Mike Zimmer Mike Williams the wide receiver goes to the Jets uh Jaylen gon the other large wide receiver ends up on the Raiders I think that one's like quietly fascinating we'll talk about that later this week he's such a Raiders type receiver too it's a little bit of raider in that guy for sure and then Kenneth Murray um the you know the great next hope at linebacker for the Chargers that didn't really work out that way ends up on the Titans he did play 84% of the snaps Chargers last year again not even close to all the Chargers that the moved on but I think the ones that are most significant either because of draft Capital spent the amount of time they spent with the team the role they played uh those are the big hitters the one that shocked me was Keenan going into March I did not think Keenan was going anywhere yep I don't even really think the team thought it was going to go down the way it did do you know what I heard when we were at the combine huh about that particular situation was like one or the other it's Keener than right it's Keener than right it's Keener and I always thought it was going to be Keenan ended up being neither but I thought honestly it was going to be Keenan or Joey yeah I I I did not like when when news came out that khil was staying and Joey was staying I was like okay they chose defense like that was not what I expected that means the offense is moving on and it you know again I get it I understand the process because in their minds they're like well we think we can in this receiving class we think we can get a a really good guy on on day two and replace that need and they did they got lad I get it but I just didn't expect it yeah if you talk about Keenan Mike and Austin Eckler moving on not to mention Everett who played a you know I would say fifth or sixth best Target on this you know receiving Corp that's that's the big three Keenan Mike and Austin Eckler like that's the largest part of your offense outside of Justin Herbert and the Chargers chose defense I do want to hear from Chargers fans by the way like what was your initial reaction to uh that's not a saga uh the chain of events all this change like it just gestures at everything so many things have changed in such a short period of time let us know in the comments what the sort of most impactful move for you was if you know if you remember where you were when you heard about one of these and you were like what especially the Keenan trade like where were you when you heard about the Keenan trade I was floored yeah when when all that went down and and to see him go to the Bears yep of all teams because I was like wait a minute does that mean okay DJ Keenan is that mean receivers off the table and then of course it was like no no they're going to take Rome anyway and then it just became a oh my God what is happening here um but no I mean there's a lot of chargers here who have a lot of um you know when you've worked for a place for a long time they call it institutional memory right there there's just a lot of institutional memory that's moved on for the Chargers so let us know in the comments what the most impactful one was for you in terms of uh big retentions obviously khil Mack is back once again uh Easton stick is back aloy Gilman is back at 5 million that's a reasonable contract I would say considering where the safety market's at right now Joey Bosa as I mentioned is also back this year uh Cameron Dicker the kicker backck very reasonable $985,000 deal which again looking at the kicker Market that's not bad at all that's like 20% at top of market in terms of outside uh free agent additions again they didn't have a whole lot of money to work with so there wasn't a whole lot of money to give out but I thought they made some pretty good value signings especially guys that are familiar with um both the culture and the schemes that they're trying to establish here so uh Hayden Hurst Once Upon a Time former tight Endor GRE Greg Roman they brought him in at a very reasonable $1 million deal Bradley Boseman obviously knows the system he's going to be their starting center Gus Edwards and JK Dobbins are going to be the two starters in the backfield ahead of kamani badal who I love uh will dley brought from the Seahawks we mentioned him denel Perryman once a charger now A charger again brought him back uh Puna for from the s former Seahawk uh one of EJ's favorites Bud dpri uh really good he's not he's not the pass rusher he once was but he's still a really good Edge Setter um in in the Run game so he's going to get snaps for them uh let's see who we got DJ CH uh he might play X for them depending on how they plan to use lad so we'll see I I could see him getting significant snaps early on because of that uh Christian Folton he's going to be an immediate starter for them as a another aggressive press corner on the outside and and Troy Dy brought in likely for uh for special teams Duty from the Vikings so um not the longest list but I would say in terms of um signings that I think are going to get significant snaps and be impact players for not a lot of money they did pretty well yeah I feel like Joe Ortiz here did work like he put in work he did not have a huge budget a sort of endless war chest to to go into free agency with um but ends up with a lot of what I would call impact players whether it's role players or starters for not a lot of money and that's what you want your GM to do so they didn't stop with free agency they had a strong draft again we thought they had a very strong draft we understand Chargers fans don't necessarily think so let's talk you through why we thought that so at the top Joe Al we already mentioned him one of the cleanest prospects in this draft um you know if you're voting on um High School yearbook most likely to succeed most likely to be a good NFL player joal is right there so they get him at the fifth pick overall in the first round lad makoni we also talked up out of Georgia um some questions about his production but no questions about his physical skills his ability to separate they get him in the second round at the 34th pick overall Junior Coulson one of your favorites linebacker out of Michigan obviously Harbaugh has all the book on him I helped recruit him to Michigan so knows everything there is to know about him round three pick 69 um Justin aboy the interior defensive lineman from Alabama um fourth round 105 overall absolute ass kicker like physical specimen powerful like when this pick happened and we were right over there on that couch doing live stream I was like oh that fits like I wasn't sure where he was going to go but now we know where he was going and we know which regime is in charge like I see the fit I see the role I understand that t still the corner from Maryland um very tall super athletic fifth round 137 cam Hart the cornerback from Notre Dame I actually thought he would go earlier than this he goes in the fifth round at 140 again tall long physical press Corner out of Notre Dame uh has a lot of attributes you know that Chargers fans are familiar with in terms of big long physical press Corners they're going to use him in that way as a real lever on one side of their defense to say you're not going that way kman Vidal one of our favorites one of both of our favorites the running back out of Troy sixth round 181 overall is going to be almost the perfect understudy to both JK Dobbins and Gus oh absolutely like hand in glove fit like to sit there and learn Roman's offense with those two guys who both have experience in front of him extremely explosive very fun player to watch on tape if you haven't and you're a Chargers fan give yourself a treat go watch a little Troy tape Brenan rice uh somebody we saw at the prod day right down the road here at USC famously son of Jerry Rice the larger of the two wide receivers from USC last year um going to play an interesting role and I think might displace one of their earlier high piics from last year I wouldn't be surprised by that um in fact I wouldn't be surprised if both Brennan rice and Cornelius Johnson their other seventh round receiver I wouldn't be surprised if they both made it CU they're both talented I mean Cornelius is really talented um but I think they're both extremely high effort High football character high IQ guy like they just fit what Harbaugh likes in a football player like culturally they fit perfectly um you know we talked to Cornelius at The Shrine bow I was just blown away like he talks like a college professor yeah he is incredibly polished and we were both taken by that particular facet of who he is and then we ended up talking to somebody and they were like oh his dad's an author his dad's a very successful author it's been on multiple book tours and like Cornelius has seen this approach with media and the Press since he was a child for the most part and we were like oh that makes sense incredibly well spoken but also really the straw that stirred the drink for the Deep Michigan passing game again there wasn't a ton of that and like Roman Wilson got a lot more of the press for timely catches and touchdowns and whatever else but when they needed a chunk it was Cornelius Johnson so to be able to get a receiver that honestly reminded both of us of Nico Collins during his time at Michigan in the seventh for a coach from Michigan tremendous value and if you're betting on a late round pick from any team in the NFL to like make it and contribute Cornelius Johnson's got as good a chance with the Chargers as anybody in the NFL yeah he's a great kid um super talented like I think he's going to make it and then brenon rice too like I it's so odd to to look at at two seventh round receivers and say I think they're both going to be on the 53 but like if I had to guess yeah they're they're both going to be on the 53 there's a lot of opportunity there in terms of undrafted free agents I think there's a few more guys that I think could absolutely make this final 53 Zack hings the tight end of the South Dakota State EJ and I both loved him as this huge 67 y tight end uh it's an easy mover was also had the best hands on the team at South Dakota State per his teammates who we talked to yep and I believe it he made some crazy catches in trible practice uh look at Carson Barnhart the I don't want to say guard because he was everything at Michigan he played literally all the spots at one point or another so just versatile offensive lineman out of Michigan I think he's got a good good shot of making it uh I want to highlight savan Jackson The Edge out of NC State who was listed at 62290 he slimmed down a little bit for the combine he got down to 265 but that was definitely after losing weight because if you watch him playing at NC State I was like I 290 might not be that far off and he was an edge by the way like tank he's a big big dude great run Defender you know typically well I say Edge he typically played either four high or five technique but he was listed as a defensive end um but he fits that kind of archetype of you know can play a little bit inside play a little bit outside um I'm curious to see if they make him bulk back up a little bit or if they want to keep him at at that 265 range you know I I think they're they're going to play around with him because he's got such an interesting kind of flexible skill set they can they can do a little bit of both but I think he'll make it what team uses Defenders like that in the NFL oh I don't know Baltimore seems like the Ravens yeah maybe anyways uh definitely a Ravens type pick but again um solid work by Joe Ortiz in his first year as GM to go through the udfa ranks and pick some guys that we think have like if Zack Hines doesn't make this team even on the practice squad I would be shocked excellent excellent blocker often times on tap looks like another offensive tackle before you realize oh no that's their tight end and has tremendous hands in the passing game oh I forgot about Keem D I think he he might make it too at of Florida State he might thought about a thick he's like 61200 lb yeah um he's the kind of guy like you watch him on tape I didn't think he was great in coverage not that he's not a great athlete but um I just didn't think he was very Polished in coverage but as far as tackling and run defense and blitzing goes like he fits what Jesse Min likes to a t of just a DB out in space that is is willing to put his own life on the line to get guys on the ground like there were several uh tackles last year you watch him where he squared up and he's like all right guess my face is about to get rearranged but we're not going to give up the first down and he would just tank these huge hits but he got his guy on the ground man I respected it he always stood in there and just dealt as much damage as he could while like a pulling guard and a running back were running in at the same time but he's tough as [ __ ] man I I think a might make it too just because of of how he plays yeah it's mindset uh I was just looking at a uh a clip today and it was uh Brandon Bean going back on Ray Davis the running back from Kentucky he said it always comes back to One play and it was pass Pro wasn't a reception wasn't a long touchdown run wasn't broken tackle whatever else he was like there was this blitzing linebacker safety this is Brandon Bean words the GM of the bills and I don't remember which but he's coming in on pass Pro and like Ray a just annihilates him like completely stops him his track and again Ray Davis gives up his body on that play like he gets the worst of it for sure but the guy doesn't go anywhere and the pass goes off without a hitch not a play you're going to see on Highlights not a play that's going to make Sports Center whatever else but in terms of the mind of an NFL GM picking a mid- round running back he was like this guy's willing to sell out and Keem D the same way it's how you make football teams as udfa man y got to be willing to sell out uh all right that brings us to our summary where we have two questions that we answer uh the first is did this team get better and we kind of answer that with either a thumbs up a thumbs down or a thumbs even are they better are they worse or are they roughly the same if we add up all the different additions and subtractions this one's easy it's thumbs up like not just because of them nailing the draft which no they did like they got a franchise tackle for the next X number of years and I think Jo Walt's going to be one of the best tackles in the AFC like very very quickly they got a great linebacker they got a great pass catcher in in uh in lad makoni they got special teamers they got you know lowcost high impact free agents they kind of got themselves through the worst of their cap situation uh with as little damage as they possibly could could take um they improve improved everywhere on the coaching staff like how could you not say thumbs up for this team no I have to and it's largely because of culture change more than anything else we can talk about roster change and how that filters down but it starts the top with the GM coach handshake that is very different than where the Chargers have been and they needed very different let's be clear and they got it and on that alone if they'd had to gut the roster I might have gone thumbs even but they didn't again they were able to again move on some from some very established Stars fill that talent in other ways and establish culture change very quickly for me that's a thumbs up so for ceiling and floor and again this is ceiling and winds and floor in winds I know I said earlier I don't expect them to be a playoff team and I still don't I still think they're probably going to end up somewhere in the middle of my ceiling and floor but if everything goes crazy well they don't take on a huge number of injuries um you know Greg Roman uh you know his passing game is let's just say better than in previous years but the Run game still is the same you know Justin Herbert's still great uh the culture change that Harbaugh brought you know with him uh takes quickly which I think it is you know if everything goes well mhm I think they could be ATT 10- win team like truly I think they could be a 10- win team I think the floor if they do start taking on injuries or maybe if the passing game still isn't that efficient you know maybe if the rookies don't come along that quickly maybe if they really feel uh the adverse impacts of not having Keenan and Mike on the team anymore I think their floor is still higher than where they bottomed out last year so I'm going to say their floor is six in all likelihood they're going to end up dead in the middle probably about wins but I do think that there's room to allow a plus or minus two games in there depending on on on how quickly all this gels yeah the floor I'm with you in terms of six wins I feel like this particular coaching staff sort of almost on Vibes alone can power this roster to six wins MH worst case scenario injuries slow to gel anything else I don't see them winning less than six games games yeah possible five but just on gutfield alone I'm going with six at the bottom at the top it's nine for me because they're not done rebuilding the roster yet there is a lot of work to do we still need to see whether or not the passing offense forget the passing the pass catching roster um you know measures up in terms of this is Harbaugh's return to the NFL there are going to be some adjustment moments he's been gone for a decade now he's got coaches who certainly have been in the NFL more recently that he's going to lean on a lot of assistants who have a ton of experience it all still comes down to it's a different game than College it doesn't work the same way they're going to be figuring that out and I do have confidence for Chargers fans that they are going to figure that out again sooner rather than later but this season I would say the top is at about nine wins until all of those things come into phase and I can see them struggle out of the gate they make those adjustments and then go on one of those classic second half runs that sets them up for oh they're going to be a lot better in year to either way it's going to be a fun season agree a lot more entertaining of a season than yeah than probably the last few years the the Chargers are going to be a tougher out no matter what they're going to be good TV at minimum they're going to be good TV uh so charger fans I know that you're um what's the word hesitant to to fall in love quickly after the hurt of of of your past relationship but I'm giving you the green light you're allowed to fall love quickly on this one like it's it's working like just talking to people in the building it's working and it's working fast and this team sooner or later will be really really good so uh yeah it's a new direction for the Chargers and a very very good New Direction uh if you guys want to shop for Chargers gear yourself or for bootleg gear or for any other gear that's available over on homage I encourage you guys to check that out the link in the description below anything you buy on homage whether it's Chargers gear uh or whether it's bootleg gear we get a cut of it like literally anything you get at the link it doesn't have to be bootleg gear it can be anything so uh hope you guys check that out see if there's anything you like uh thank you to all of our patrons especially all of our executive producers on patreon for helping to make this series possible in the first place uh thank you to Underdog thank you to all of our other sponsors uh that support this show and what we do here I know it's a longer than normal episode but if you're still here we appreciate it feeding the algorithm and all that uh tomorrow is Raiders day believe so okay so tomorrow is Raiders day after that Broncos and then we're finishing it up with the evil empire over in Kansas City uh at the end of the week ideally there will still be some players to talk about on the chief's roster that are not in prison by the time we get to that episode so uh stay tuned for that and we'll see you tomorrow [Music] [Music]

Channel: Bootleg Football

Views: 37,664

Keywords: chargers, jim harbaugh

Id: joHvNj5hYmI

Length: 92min 43sec (5563 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 09 2024