Speaker 1: Late fifteen to ten touchdown. What's up, guys, Welcome into
Speaker 1: a brand new episode of Chargers Weekly, Episode number two
Speaker 1: from Indianapolis as always, joined by the Voice of the
Speaker 1: Chargers Matt Muney Smith and Money another gym of a
Speaker 1: pot ahead.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, there's all our friends are here and they're
Speaker 2: kind enough to sit with us as they make the rounds.
Speaker 2: They got a lot of requests, they can't honor them all.
Speaker 2: And today three of our favorites, CD Charles Davis, just
Speaker 2: one of the you know Tennessee cornerback when he was playing,
Speaker 2: and of course part of you know the premiere one
Speaker 2: of the premiere productions on CBS when it comes to
Speaker 2: college YEP games. He called the Charger Houston Texan playoff
Speaker 2: game and does a great shot for NFL Network covering
Speaker 2: the Senior Bowl in the draft. So he's going to
Speaker 2: join us, our old friend Matt Harmon, who's met reception perception.
Speaker 2: So today's cool because you know, ce deal give us
Speaker 2: the overview. And then Matt Harmon, who has has been
Speaker 2: charting wide receivers for a decade now, is going to
Speaker 2: just dig into the wide receiver free agency class. Some
Speaker 2: of the options there the draft and what might be
Speaker 2: available there. And then you know, one of my absolute
Speaker 2: favorite people that we get to connect with whenever we
Speaker 2: come down to the combine is Lance Airline. And Lance
Speaker 2: is the guy that writes every single bio for the
Speaker 2: NFL Network. And so when you're when I worked for
Speaker 2: the NFL Network, I had seven hundred names and a
Speaker 2: giant binder back in the day before it was digital.
Speaker 2: They would give me three binders, massive binders. And he
Speaker 2: was all from Lance, all from Lance. He wrote every
Speaker 2: single bio, graded every player, every comp But his dad
Speaker 2: is you know, his dad is well known as one
Speaker 2: of the great o line coaches in the history of
Speaker 2: the NFL. And so Lance was kind of raised on
Speaker 2: offensive line, and so we'll focus on that with him.
Speaker 1: He gave us some great names. Matt Harmon obviously with
Speaker 1: the wide receivers and so much uncertainty in the Charges
Speaker 1: wide receiver room this offseason. So we'll get to Matt,
Speaker 1: we'll get to Lance, but we're gonna kick this thing
Speaker 1: off with Charles Davis. All right, Maddy, one of our favorites.
Speaker 1: Charles Davis joins us here on Charges Weekly, and Charles,
Speaker 1: we saw you in Houston Yeah, I'm just talking about
Speaker 1: just the quick turnaround with the NFL. It never stops.
Speaker 1: Saw your round and you are in. You go from
Speaker 1: NFL mode to draft mode very very quickly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we all do right. If you're in
Speaker 3: the NFL, you're making these transitions all the time, you know.
Speaker 3: And after draft mode, we'll be into OTA Mini camp mode,
Speaker 3: then we'll be into short break mode, then we'll be
Speaker 3: we'll be intestipating in training camp, and then we're in
Speaker 3: the preseason, and then we're into the sea. It just
Speaker 3: keeps going. I am old enough to remember when the
Speaker 3: pat when the newspaper would arrive, the headline at a
Speaker 3: certain point around this time of year would be pictures
Speaker 3: and Catchers Report, and it would be this massive headline.
Speaker 3: I remember one year it said pictures and Catchers Report.
Speaker 3: I don't you know, I've conflated things. But along that line,
Speaker 3: in the time frame of it, there's this blurb about
Speaker 3: Giants draft Rocky Thompson number one. He was their first
Speaker 3: round pick. He was a kick returner, wide receiver out
Speaker 3: of North Texas State. It was three inches Pictures and
Speaker 3: Catchers Report. Yeah, now it's pictures and Catchers Report. Is
Speaker 3: the blurby and where will Aaron Rodgers go?
Speaker 2: Na it right?
Speaker 4: Headlines that's how we've changed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's go to Houston. Let's talk about that. You
Speaker 2: called the game, and you know, one of the things
Speaker 2: that DJ said, Uh, you know we're both fortunate enough
Speaker 2: to work with DJ is that you know you're and
Speaker 2: it's an old football cleahere, right, your weaknesses get exposed
Speaker 2: in the postseason. So did you feel like that's kind
Speaker 2: of played out for the Chargers and they kind of
Speaker 2: have a pretty good idea of what needs to be addressed, I.
Speaker 3: Would think so. I mean it's a very smart organization,
Speaker 3: as you guys know, especially with the changes that you've
Speaker 3: had over the last year. I mean just in last year.
Speaker 3: What's been infused there? Because I remember seeing Joe Hortiz
Speaker 3: when he got the job and we were talking knowing
Speaker 3: m from Baltimore, and I was like, so congratulations during
Speaker 3: cap hell huh yeah, And he knew it when he
Speaker 3: took job.
Speaker 5: He's not naive.
Speaker 3: He Jim and the rest of the organization went to
Speaker 3: work knowing, Okay, we got to try and mitigate here,
Speaker 3: we got to go bring some and the moves they've
Speaker 3: made let's be honest about the moves they made her
Speaker 3: off the charts. We got to talk to JK. Dobbins
Speaker 3: before the game. Well, the enthusiasm. He came in and
Speaker 3: literally hugged all of us to say hello and then
Speaker 3: hugged us all goodbye. I was like, can I just
Speaker 3: hang with him for a while? Really like him? But
Speaker 3: you're talking about you know, this was not new front line,
Speaker 3: not new defensive front, not new We've had that for
Speaker 3: X number of years now. So here's an opportunity now
Speaker 3: to start to make some moves that way and see
Speaker 3: where they're gonna go. I mean, I'm looking at this.
Speaker 3: I actually did some notes last night for myself. You
Speaker 3: know what's gonna happen? Edge rusher wise, right, because for
Speaker 3: a long time that's been a strength. But right now
Speaker 3: could that be beefed up? I'd say the answer is
Speaker 3: going to be yes, you're gonna have to do that.
Speaker 3: We mentioned inside in terier when people want to run
Speaker 3: the ball defensive front, on the offensive side of the ball.
Speaker 3: Everybody likes a good tight end. Oh yeah, right, everybody.
Speaker 3: Any quarterback I always talked about young quarterbacks love the
Speaker 3: tight ends. Every quarterback loves a good tight end. We're
Speaker 3: gonna do it the pivot, you know, because offensive line
Speaker 3: really started to get a makeover, a bunch of different
Speaker 3: places to go.
Speaker 2: But you Jo said yesterday about Zion maybe getting a
Speaker 2: look at center.
Speaker 4: I did not hear that.
Speaker 3: That's an interesting that's an interesting thought because if he
Speaker 3: can and now you're just replacing it that guard position,
Speaker 3: you've really strengthened your your offensive line. Because I think
Speaker 3: that center has become more valuable than ever. I really do,
Speaker 3: just by the way people are doing things. Would we
Speaker 3: say that the Super Bowl of Seattle and the Patriots
Speaker 3: really brought into focus how big it is to have
Speaker 3: the center. Yeah, and the interior line taken care of.
Speaker 3: And we probably missed the lesson that Sean Payton gave
Speaker 3: us for years ago, especially if you have a smaller quarterback.
Speaker 1: Now you don't.
Speaker 3: You have monster a quarterback, but the smaller quarterback exists
Speaker 3: in the league like crazy. Sean Payton got out ahead
Speaker 3: of it because what did he have in the middle
Speaker 3: Mammoth people, the Jarry Evans Is of the world and
Speaker 3: what have you. Because Drew wasn't tall, but that allowed
Speaker 3: him a cup to step up in and find sight
Speaker 3: lines and throw the ball and networked pretty well for them.
Speaker 1: Charles, I think they've taken kind of a two step
Speaker 1: approach with the offensive line. You get old you already
Speaker 1: have Slater who's doing a big contract, and now it's
Speaker 1: time to solidify the interior line. But on top of that,
Speaker 1: you mentioned what Joe did this past year has been masterful.
Speaker 1: But now I guess it's a good problem. You have
Speaker 1: twenty six unrestricted free agents, So how do you prioritize
Speaker 1: which guys come back while knowing that you have some
Speaker 1: holes into your offensive line? And then how does the
Speaker 1: draft come into play? How does the unrestricted free agency
Speaker 1: dictate what they do in the draft?
Speaker 3: The priorities are going to be who are the guys
Speaker 3: that we feel like we have to have to play
Speaker 3: and what's our price tag on them? Without saying, well,
Speaker 3: we really like him, so we'll go a little higher.
Speaker 3: Now you're starting to eat into your margins and you're
Speaker 3: going to hurt yourself elsewhere. I have a pretty good
Speaker 3: idea that Joe and crew are going to be like,
Speaker 3: this is what we value him. If we get him
Speaker 3: for this.
Speaker 5: We're good.
Speaker 3: If not, we'll go elsewhere with luck. Yeah, right, and
Speaker 3: go from there. And then once you're done with that,
Speaker 3: then you know what you've got to do in the draft.
Speaker 3: And because as our friend Daniel Jeremiah said, this is
Speaker 3: a meat and potatoes draft, Yep, you're probably pretty decent
Speaker 3: shape to go get people with whatever round you want
Speaker 3: to the guys that have a chance to play. And
Speaker 3: I think that's where they're good. I think that's what
Speaker 3: they'll do. And I'd be surprised to hear that they
Speaker 3: overpaid for anyone.
Speaker 4: I really would. I don't think that's how they operate.
Speaker 2: Those that are watching a lot of people listening right
Speaker 2: now on the pod, but those that are watching, they
Speaker 2: get to see the exquisite taste in headwear that CD
Speaker 2: with his melon hat brought to the table never shows
Speaker 2: a sweat stain. Throw them in the dishwashers. That yeah,
Speaker 2: we surfing. They're amazing.
Speaker 4: They're amazing, Right, how did you get turned onto it?
Speaker 2: They sent me one. They were just like, hey, we
Speaker 2: hear you're a surfer I was talking about on the air,
Speaker 2: and they're like, if you like, if you ever want
Speaker 2: to wear a hat in the water, try this out,
Speaker 2: and they flipped it to me. I was like, Holy crap,
Speaker 2: this thing.
Speaker 4: I need to hang out with you more. No one's
Speaker 4: ever sent me anything but.
Speaker 1: Well, since they will never se.
Speaker 3: My son turned me onto it. He said this because
Speaker 3: I wear hats a lot, because the hair is you know,
Speaker 3: there's there's not a lot to it. So so the
Speaker 3: so my son goes, listen, you know, you're always in
Speaker 3: a hat. This is what I want you to try.
Speaker 3: So I always let him pick my head. And there,
Speaker 3: you know, he said. And he told me, he said,
Speaker 3: you're not gonna want to wear anything else, and he's right.
Speaker 3: I brought three with them.
Speaker 2: There we go. Your son knows. Let's let's get into
Speaker 2: the chiefs because people are taking shots at him now, saying, lookod,
Speaker 2: look at this. There's it's the a f C. West.
Speaker 2: It's a pain. It's been a pain for a while.
Speaker 2: So what do you think moving forward? You know, the
Speaker 2: challengers you had Broncos and the Chargers make the playoffs, Like, yeah,
Speaker 2: how in peril do you think the throne is for
Speaker 2: Kansas City going into twenty.
Speaker 4: Twenty the most imperil it's been under Andy Reid.
Speaker 3: And and I don't mean to be overly dramatic, it's
Speaker 3: just simply you have two teams now that know that
Speaker 3: they can do this. Like, even though you don't have
Speaker 3: the actual full evidence, the idea that the Chargers lost
Speaker 3: twice to them last year is still confounding to them.
Speaker 3: You flip it over to Denver. Was that a block
Speaker 3: field goal?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Right about that.
Speaker 3: We didn't matter, but they laid it on them anyway
Speaker 3: because it felt good. You know, it felt good to
Speaker 3: go ahead and let your rookie quarterback get some more
Speaker 3: experience and beat them down like that. They still have
Speaker 3: to go get it done. I don't think the Chiefs
Speaker 3: are going like, oh, they're off the cliff. I don't
Speaker 3: think they're there. But I do think that the confidence
Speaker 3: level of everyone in the AFC West has to be
Speaker 3: at an altar time high, Like if there's a chance
Speaker 3: to go get this is our chance to go get
Speaker 3: them right now.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: We'll see what Kansay does offseason. But guys, this is
Speaker 3: like NBA when you have the same team make deep runs.
Speaker 3: How many extra games now are on the wear and
Speaker 3: tear of your core? Because you know the league is
Speaker 3: the league is your core and then you build around
Speaker 3: your core, and around your core changes all the time,
Speaker 3: but your core Mahomes, Kelsey, Chris Jones, those guys, how
Speaker 3: many extra games have they played?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 3: It just keeps going and going and going. And I'm
Speaker 3: telling you that Super Bowl I'm taking zero credit away
Speaker 3: from Philadelphia. But if Kansas City didn't look like a
Speaker 3: fighter who had gone one fight too long, I don't
Speaker 3: know what else to do. I don't know what else
Speaker 3: to say. That's how they look that night.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: I don't expect them to be that way in next season,
Speaker 3: but I also don't expect them to go fifteen and two.
Speaker 4: Just don't say it, you.
Speaker 1: Know, Charles, Let's go back to Houston too. I think
Speaker 1: that that game was the perfect illustration of this Chargers
Speaker 1: offense in what's lacking on the outside? Talk out one
Speaker 1: hundred ninety seventy yards receiving. Nobody else really did anything
Speaker 1: in that game. The Chargers are lacking an X A
Speaker 1: receiver on the other side of Ladd. Can you find
Speaker 1: it in this draft? What's the best way to approach it?
Speaker 1: Because it sounds like t Higgins is franchised. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know how you going to get him out
Speaker 1: of Cincinnati. I don't think you are Adams an option
Speaker 1: like what would you do me?
Speaker 4: Baron comes with him.
Speaker 1: That's what it sounds like. It's a good number two, right,
Speaker 1: good number two.
Speaker 3: It sounds to me like Devonte Adams replaced Randall cobp
Speaker 3: as Aaron's running guy, right and and somewhere Alm those are.
Speaker 3: It's like, yo, yo, yo, what about me? Don't forget me.
Speaker 3: We'll see if they do. I think you can find
Speaker 3: those guys. I think there's a bunch of them there.
Speaker 3: Obviously at the top of the food chain. You know,
Speaker 3: you get to Travis Hunter is the receiver, is a corner,
Speaker 3: you know that sort of.
Speaker 4: A deal you've got. You know what is Luther Burden
Speaker 4: for you?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 4: Although he kind of looks more.
Speaker 2: Like La lad Yeah, I think right right, thank you?
Speaker 3: Right, you have from McMillan that. But he's not gonna
Speaker 3: I don't think he's gonna blow us away running.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 3: I think he's gonna be fine. But you're not gonna
Speaker 3: go what did he run again? I don't think you
Speaker 3: see that he wins with body control, going up and
Speaker 3: getting it rout running, which I love like a Drake London,
Speaker 3: thank you, just not quite as big as Drake, right,
Speaker 3: Drake's monsters we saw that's a big man. It's like, damn,
Speaker 3: that's a big man. Right, So I totally get it.
Speaker 3: But I do think there's a bunch of them out there.
Speaker 3: It's not as sexy as we've had it before, but
Speaker 3: I've said it before. Dj' is probably sick of me
Speaker 3: saying it. As long as we're gonna play football the
Speaker 3: way we're playing it, every year, you're gonna a million receivers,
Speaker 3: you are, and most of them are gonna be fairly
Speaker 3: accomplished because they've been playing pitch and catch since seven
Speaker 3: on seven in middle school.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 4: So it's a whole different ballgame.
Speaker 2: Last thing for you, CD, we appreciate it. You were
Speaker 2: at the Senior Bowl. You mentioned the pivot, and you know,
Speaker 2: I think maybe the biggest name to come out of
Speaker 2: there was Gray's Abel. Thank you so talking there we go,
Speaker 2: so talk to us out there.
Speaker 1: He is.
Speaker 2: You know, it used to be crazy to think that
Speaker 2: you take a center, you know, but you look at
Speaker 2: what Linderbaum's done. You look at some of these centers
Speaker 2: that go and then last year Graham.
Speaker 4: Barton, remember Corey Linsley when you brought him over a
Speaker 4: free agent.
Speaker 2: It's difference that it made the difference that it makes.
Speaker 2: So can you see that, Like, does that if you
Speaker 2: have Colston Loveland, if if a Marion Hampton is there,
Speaker 2: if Tamax slides, Like, can you see Gray's able being
Speaker 2: a realistic pick for this team or is it too rich?
Speaker 3: I feel like I still feel like he would be
Speaker 3: a second round guy. You know, I think if those
Speaker 3: other guys were available, I think they'd go there.
Speaker 4: I just do.
Speaker 3: I think it's It's still one of those things where
Speaker 3: can you name the rams front five? Can you name
Speaker 3: the interior guys? Because it especially as the way, especially
Speaker 3: the way the season went.
Speaker 2: Yah, I know what you're saying, and yet they function.
Speaker 3: So if you have the right play call or the
Speaker 3: right system and all that, you can do it. I
Speaker 3: think you can hide a few deficiencies there better than
Speaker 3: because if you can get Loveland right, you gotta go exact,
Speaker 3: you gotta do it. But if I could get Gray's abel,
Speaker 3: I'm making my center like I'm not playing in MC
Speaker 3: guard I'm putting him at center right away. You know
Speaker 3: who if you get him later, the Monnheim kid out
Speaker 3: of us see a heck of a week, and I
Speaker 3: think that he can play in this league. I'd be
Speaker 3: surprised if he can't. I need to do some more work.
Speaker 3: I've got Drew Kendall from Boston College down. I'm old
Speaker 3: enough to remember his old man. And you remember not
Speaker 3: a center, but Ozzie Trapea who was putting Trapillo Trapella,
Speaker 3: who was playing a tackle at.
Speaker 4: The Senior Bowl, big out of Boston College.
Speaker 3: I played in the Japan Bowl with his dad, and
Speaker 3: his dad passed away young. He had a heart attack
Speaker 3: and passed away by putting Japan Bowl with Steve. That's
Speaker 3: when I go, old brothers.
Speaker 1: Get right.
Speaker 4: We were in we were in.
Speaker 1: Tokyo.
Speaker 4: We're in Tokyo. And I'll just leave it.
Speaker 3: This way, those old bowl games that we grew up watching,
Speaker 3: the hull of Bowl, Japan Bowl, right, senior all those
Speaker 3: think of it this way. Bo Jackson played in the
Speaker 3: Japan Bowl.
Speaker 4: Bo Jackson played in the Japan Bowl.
Speaker 2: Pretty great. Think about that, Yeah, it's pretty great.
Speaker 1: Not in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: Could you imagine if he said, you know, I think
Speaker 3: I'm playing in Japan, but and how many people have
Speaker 3: tackled him in his camp?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 2: No, no, no, absolutely not. You don't even get on the
Speaker 2: plane Japan.
Speaker 1: I'm not even risking it, not even a tourist.
Speaker 3: But in that Japan Bowl I played in Brett Fulwan
Speaker 3: was the first round pick for the Packers.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, played in Japan Bowl.
Speaker 2: Look at that fantastic Charles Davis.
Speaker 1: Get for an hour, man, We can't take it for
Speaker 1: your time to your next destination. Appreciate you, s gread
Speaker 1: to see you. Guys. Always the best, the best man.
Speaker 1: This week is so fun. So many friends joining us
Speaker 1: on Chargers Weekly. Matt Harmon in person in Indianapolis, first combine.
Speaker 5: I mean, I'm just still struck. Friend. I mean, that's
Speaker 5: that's high bar.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: I appreciate colleague, not contemporary.
Speaker 5: Workplace proximity is a former work worker. Absolutely, it's awesome
Speaker 5: to be here. It's great. Peanut butter denial, Yeah, peanut
Speaker 5: butter denial. Many many or chain out. We're chain in today.
Speaker 5: Yesterday was chain out. We'll see tonight though, chanin's probably
Speaker 5: coming out.
Speaker 2: It's coming out.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Listen, you don't throw around weight on inclined bench and
Speaker 2: keep your chaining. You know, Matt's remade his body. He's
Speaker 2: all barrel chested. He's throwing around freaking plates at the
Speaker 2: y m c A, you get your chain out.
Speaker 5: That was what I was doing, like an hour ago.
Speaker 5: I was up in the hotel gym, you.
Speaker 1: Know, just full at the podium. Today we are we
Speaker 1: interviewing you.
Speaker 5: I think I probably should get up there and see
Speaker 5: how long it would take for somebody be like, wait
Speaker 5: a second, that guy, that guy's not a ball play.
Speaker 2: That's that guy dissects wide receivers. Now you're gonna have
Speaker 2: to get the line plate, dude, you know, with this
Speaker 2: new body of yours.
Speaker 5: It is funny. I interviewed thelak neighbors at the at
Speaker 5: the super Bowl, and people like my podcast were just like, wow,
Speaker 5: this's got a lot of Engagemently, let's go check out
Speaker 5: the comments. Most of it was like, does neighbors need
Speaker 5: to hit the weight room? Was like no, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 5: I'm like probably sixty pounds having that right.
Speaker 2: No, I'm I'm a big bodied white dude that lives
Speaker 2: in Virginia. That's all I got.
Speaker 5: Hey, that's all I've got to do is lift weights.
Speaker 2: So let's tell the people about reception per se. Nobody's
Speaker 2: better at it. We're gonna talk straight wide receivers with Matt.
Speaker 2: He does reception perception. He's done it for a long time,
Speaker 2: You're great at it. Let's go just share with the
Speaker 2: people to kind of I think set a baseline last year,
Speaker 2: huge wide receiver class, sort of what you thought and
Speaker 2: where Lad McConkie fit into that mix with I think
Speaker 2: it was what the sixth pass catcher taken in the draft,
Speaker 2: So kind of how you shook how you saw last
Speaker 2: year shaken out.
Speaker 5: Yeah, last year was great for business. It was a
Speaker 5: great receiver class. We had those three guys that were
Speaker 5: all Tier one prospects, Harrison and dounesay neighbors. I think
Speaker 5: I talked to you guys about this last year that
Speaker 5: you could order those guys however, and I didn't really care.
Speaker 5: It was basically like, what's your flavor. And really the
Speaker 5: funny part is that you could argue that two guys
Speaker 5: outside of that top three were the two best rookie
Speaker 5: wide receivers last year, which I think was Lad mccaukey
Speaker 5: and Brian Thomas Junior. So just funny that it's one
Speaker 5: of those things where this is projecting to the NFL. Man,
Speaker 5: anything can happen you get in the right situation, and
Speaker 5: some of those guys that are maybe tier two or
Speaker 5: even Tier three prospects can produce in the right situation,
Speaker 5: which lad was certainly one of those guys. And man,
Speaker 5: what an incredible rookie season he had. And I think
Speaker 5: he showed you very early on like all of the
Speaker 5: things that made him such an awesome prospect. You know,
Speaker 5: there were some questions, right obviously, durability concerns, you know,
Speaker 5: the playing time and overall just where does he fit
Speaker 5: on an NFL field, because I do think he got
Speaker 5: stereotyped as kind of like a bunny hop slot receiver.
Speaker 5: But man, that guy's a real deal downfield route runner.
Speaker 5: And I think it was the early on you could
Speaker 5: really see Herbert gravitate to him because of like when
Speaker 5: he's working in zone coverage, he's just always settling at
Speaker 5: the right spot. And you know, Herbert is such a smart,
Speaker 5: like cerebral quarterback, that is really something that he values.
Speaker 5: But it was I think it was like the Week
Speaker 5: six Saints game. Was it was around that time where
Speaker 5: he had the two monster sideline touchdown. Yeah, and that
Speaker 5: one to me where I mean he was sidelined touchdown
Speaker 5: but he was very far away. Yeah, Yeah, And that
Speaker 5: play was very significant to what I think that you
Speaker 5: could see that trust because Herbert actually looks to like
Speaker 5: the backside dig which I think was a zero two
Speaker 5: two was the guy there and or semi fo Hooko
Speaker 5: excuse me for Hooko was the the read I think
Speaker 5: the first year on that play, he whips background so
Speaker 5: fast and throws that like slot fade to Lad McConkie,
Speaker 5: who wins it in tight coverage and then rips off
Speaker 5: like a yards after catch play which man coverage winning
Speaker 5: at the catch point yards after catch. That's a pretty
Speaker 5: good wide receiver right there.
Speaker 1: What do you think he will look like in year
Speaker 1: two with someone on the other side of him that
Speaker 1: is perceived as a one A or a a number two?
Speaker 1: Like how do you view Lad? Is he a sure
Speaker 1: fire number one? Or do you think that they need
Speaker 1: I guess they just need a different type of receiver
Speaker 1: on the other side of.
Speaker 5: It, Yeah, they do. I think they're need is pretty
Speaker 5: obvious for like an X receiver, because I think Lad
Speaker 5: can win inside out his in terms of yards per
Speaker 5: route run. He's actually better on the outside than he
Speaker 5: is on the inside. And I mean he's damn good
Speaker 5: working that slot. So that's that's a pretty incredible thing.
Speaker 5: For giving him someone that can kind of like move
Speaker 5: him from that flanker slot position is pretty crucial to
Speaker 5: me because I do think he's capable of being a
Speaker 5: number one receiver, Like, do you want to throw him
Speaker 5: the ball one hundred and sixty one hundred and fifty
Speaker 5: times in a year? Probably not, for a variety of reasons,
Speaker 5: but I think he's a guy capable of being your
Speaker 5: first read in the vast majority of your concepts. But
Speaker 5: having someone that can not just clear out space from
Speaker 5: the X receiver position, but can win in that spot
Speaker 5: as well, that just makes the.
Speaker 2: Offense more dangerous overall. So it seems like this year
Speaker 2: you talked about it last year is good for business.
Speaker 2: This year's a bit of a struggle. I think it
Speaker 2: might have been. Was it Kuiper's draft mock draft that
Speaker 2: had t ma max sliding all the way to twenty two?
Speaker 2: Can you envision, like what's your grade on on McMillan
Speaker 2: versus like where he would have fit in last year,
Speaker 2: And whether or not you think in a league that
Speaker 2: is desperate for wide receivers and they get paid a
Speaker 2: ton of money, so it's a premium position, whether or
Speaker 2: not it's realistic that that guy's there at twenty two.
Speaker 5: Right. That's the thing for me because DJ had him
Speaker 5: slipping Dan Jerem I had him slipping to the bucks
Speaker 5: as well, right, And then to me, I struggle kind
Speaker 5: of seeing that happen, especially if he goes out, because
Speaker 5: he's gonna work out right, like he's gonna run the forty.
Speaker 5: If he goes out and rips like a four or
Speaker 5: five two or something like that, I think then he's
Speaker 5: locked himself into probably the top fifteen picks. I don't
Speaker 5: care about his forty time, like that doesn't really matter
Speaker 5: to me, but that does set the narrative of who
Speaker 5: you are as a draft prospect when I watch him,
Speaker 5: and I'm still like working my way through the film
Speaker 5: on these guys for reception perception, it's always an eight
Speaker 5: game sample if those are available, I'm like about halfway
Speaker 5: through that right now. To me, he's kind of charting
Speaker 5: out as more of like a tier two prospect. So
Speaker 5: that would have put him last year in the conversation
Speaker 5: with like Brian Thomas Junior in that range, which again
Speaker 5: he was made.
Speaker 2: It to twenty right, whatever it was at twenty six or.
Speaker 5: I just think in this class though, he's the Travis
Speaker 5: Hunter kind of discussed aside. I think he's the best
Speaker 5: just receiver. And to me, like you said, it's such
Speaker 5: a premium position. The money is crazy there, and there's
Speaker 5: so many teams that need, like we just talked about
Speaker 5: the Chargers need an X. I can go down the
Speaker 5: list and tell you, like a lot of teams need
Speaker 5: that skill set. And I just struggled to see him
Speaker 5: slipping that far. But shoot, if you made it to LA,
Speaker 5: that is exactly the guy we are talking That's like
Speaker 5: the best version, the best outcome of what we're talking
Speaker 5: about from that position.
Speaker 1: And that's what we're trying to identify. Is okay, if
Speaker 1: it's not in the draft, you know, there's rumors about
Speaker 1: guys like DK Metcalf and Adams and you know, Tyreek Hill,
Speaker 1: all these different players. You know, we've talked about Chris Olavin,
Speaker 1: Garret Wilson. Who knows what's gonna happen with the cap
Speaker 1: situations in New York and New Orleans. If you had
Speaker 1: to scour the league in terms of guys who could
Speaker 1: be available via trade or just straight up free agents,
Speaker 1: who do you think makes the most sense for the Chargers.
Speaker 5: That Adams one, I mean makes a ton of sense
Speaker 5: to me. You know, he wants to play on the
Speaker 5: West Coast. Don't blame him. I'm a guy that moved
Speaker 5: away from the West Coast a stupid decision poorly. If
Speaker 5: I'm him, I love the idea of getting back there
Speaker 5: for sure. And again, he's somebody that can play the
Speaker 5: ex receiver position. Now you also he moved around a
Speaker 5: little bit with the Jets last year, but he can
Speaker 5: play at that spot. Be kind of the backside ISO guy.
Speaker 5: Allow you to move Lad McConkie into a bunch of
Speaker 5: different positions, maybe work him off like full speed motion concepts.
Speaker 5: There's there's a lot you can do there having that
Speaker 5: guy who's also a credible threat. I mean, once he
Speaker 5: hit the field for the Jets, it allowed Garrett Wilson
Speaker 5: to really do a lot of this like move around
Speaker 5: stuff we're talking about. So I think he would be
Speaker 5: a great fit, you know, if he's available, if it fits,
Speaker 5: they have a lot of cap space to do it.
Speaker 5: I'm just curious like where the Chargers view themselves as
Speaker 5: like how close are they how much do they want
Speaker 5: to push the chips into I think they feel and
Speaker 5: I think they should feel that way. You know, they
Speaker 5: have the quarterback, they have the head coach. You've got
Speaker 5: a lot of these like pieces that outkicked their coverage
Speaker 5: last year, maybe outkicked expectations. Can we get an interior
Speaker 5: offensive line locked in here? Can we get one more
Speaker 5: pass catching threat, because that just and you know you
Speaker 5: got needs on the defensive side too, You got things
Speaker 5: to check off there. But offensively, I do feel like
Speaker 5: they're right there, and a piece like Adams would be
Speaker 5: an ideal, you know, kind of archetype for that. If
Speaker 5: we get beyond that. I mean, there's just not a
Speaker 5: lot of guys in this free agent market that fit
Speaker 5: into that like potential X receiver bucket.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Alave thing has always been interesting, and obviously
Speaker 2: there's that Southern California connection as well, and that for
Speaker 2: whatever reason, it just feels like there's always some sort
Speaker 2: of issue with the Saints and their pass catchers. Yea,
Speaker 2: if for whatever reason they decide to make him a
Speaker 2: vail and I know the concussions are kind of scary
Speaker 2: they're doing that thing, but I mean, he's he is
Speaker 2: also a perfect fit right for kind of the way
Speaker 2: he plays. He would fit in right there, wouldn't he?
Speaker 5: I think so, And I think he is a guy
Speaker 5: who has a lot of untapped potential right from a
Speaker 5: production standpoint, for sure. It just felt like him and
Speaker 5: Derek Carr were never quite like a good fit for
Speaker 5: each other, and like sometimes you can be a you know,
Speaker 5: we could haggle about where Derek Carr ranks in terms
Speaker 5: of NFL quarterbacks, but he's a starting quarterback in the league,
Speaker 5: and Olave is a guy that should be kind of
Speaker 5: on that upper trajectory. But some guys just don't see
Speaker 5: the game the same way. Their styles don't fit in together.
Speaker 5: I don't think that would be an issue in this offense,
Speaker 5: where again you're getting so much play action, you're getting
Speaker 5: shot plays like that really fits into a Lave skill set,
Speaker 5: because when I've charted him out his first two seasons especially,
Speaker 5: I mean, awesome separator, another guy that just gets open,
Speaker 5: and that really is what you felt lacking. I've never seen,
Speaker 5: I mean, I've never seen a freaking playoff box score
Speaker 5: like the one that the Chargers had where it's just
Speaker 5: Adam McConkie has one hundred and ninety seven yards and
Speaker 5: the next highest is what like eighteen or something like that,
Speaker 5: or was anybody even in double digits. It was absurd.
Speaker 5: I've never seen a wide receiver split like that because
Speaker 5: the other guys just can't consistently separate. If you can
Speaker 5: get somebody like yeah, it's the idea of a big
Speaker 5: ball winning X receiver, that's one thing. But if you
Speaker 5: have two guys who are uncoverable, it's a pretty good start.
Speaker 1: Joshua Palmer understricted free agent. You know a lot of
Speaker 1: conversation about Quintin Johnson in his second year more of
Speaker 1: a mixed bag, but he had some good games. How
Speaker 1: do you view Quinton coming into twenty twenty five.
Speaker 5: I think you can. You can get away with him
Speaker 5: being your third receiver. The problem is, like he's a
Speaker 5: volatile player. I think that's always going to be the case.
Speaker 5: I don't think he's useless. I think there are This
Speaker 5: is just what happens to guys who have drops in
Speaker 5: big moments. They immediately start getting like its spirals, like
Speaker 5: you start taking away everything that they do bring to
Speaker 5: the game. And I do think there are things that
Speaker 5: he does really well. I think he needs roll catering.
Speaker 5: We've talked about this a lot we took about it previously.
Speaker 5: He can't just be an X receiver. That's not his game.
Speaker 5: The ball tracking is an issue. Winning against press coverage
Speaker 5: consistently is an issue. But he's a run after catch streat.
Speaker 5: I think he works on these, like inbreaking routes, and
Speaker 5: I would say from literally the first game I remember
Speaker 5: watching the Chargers this past season, it's like, Wow, this
Speaker 5: coaching staff has such a better understanding of what this
Speaker 5: guy is than the previous group that drafted him. Ironically enough,
Speaker 5: because there was like a couple of plays where even
Speaker 5: in that first game, again he's off. Then he's still
Speaker 5: primarily line up at X in that game, but he's
Speaker 5: off the line of scrimmage, and we're just working him
Speaker 5: on quick in breaking routes and letting him go after
Speaker 5: the catchdowns. Like I could probably like group the amount
Speaker 5: of times he did that as a rookie. On one hand,
Speaker 5: you know, so that is something that he can do.
Speaker 5: But I think he's somebody that you just don't want
Speaker 5: to be throwing the ball to eight, nine, ten times. Again.
Speaker 5: You sprinkle him in like three. I think that's that's perfect.
Speaker 5: Then you can get something out of a player like that.
Speaker 2: I don't know how much you mentioned you're kind of
Speaker 2: trying to go through eight games for reception perception. How
Speaker 2: deep have you gotten into the draft class this year?
Speaker 5: I've gotten about like six seven guys in.
Speaker 2: What do you think of Matthew Golden.
Speaker 5: I think he's interesting. He's kind of the hardest player
Speaker 5: for me to get my mind around right now because
Speaker 5: I think the three four games I've had are a
Speaker 5: little bit of a mixed bag there. It kind of
Speaker 5: gives me like Jordan Addison vibes a little bit right.
Speaker 5: He's not a full field, consistent separator, but he has
Speaker 5: real big flashes, but there are moments where he wins
Speaker 5: like big time catches too, and especially late in the
Speaker 5: season for Texas. So I think he's a guy that
Speaker 5: I don't know if he's a future number one or
Speaker 5: something like that, but definitely someone you can you can
Speaker 5: kind of have in the rotation. And again, he's the
Speaker 5: one I'm probably still trying to get my mind around
Speaker 5: the most in terms of players who are projected in
Speaker 5: the first round. Other guys I think I have got
Speaker 5: like a pretty good grasp one and sometimes that's the
Speaker 5: way it is. I can't remember I was talking to
Speaker 5: you yesterday, because you know, some people push back like, oh,
Speaker 5: eight games, like that's not the that's not the full season.
Speaker 5: Like you can talk to like scouts stuff like that,
Speaker 5: they're finaling reports on like free games, you know. But
Speaker 5: and sometimes after one two games, like I get this player,
Speaker 5: but that's standard, just the standard, and we still do
Speaker 5: eight games, but sometimes even three four, and I'm like,
Speaker 5: I don't quite I don't quite know where we are
Speaker 5: with this guy yet. And that's kind of where I'm
Speaker 5: at with.
Speaker 1: Golden Keenan, Allen, Mike Williams. Last year, the big debate was, Okay,
Speaker 1: you're gonna keep Joey and Khalil versus those guys. They're
Speaker 1: both unrestricted free agents right now. Mike was obviously coming
Speaker 1: off a big injury, Keenan had some injury issues. What
Speaker 1: did you see from those guys this past year, because
Speaker 1: you know they're also unrestricted free agents who have history
Speaker 1: with Justin Herbert.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And Keenan said, like, I'm only playing in La Chicago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, mine in the Sand or Virginia.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we'll see. I mean, everybody everybody says they're only
Speaker 5: doing something until the checks start coming in. And there's
Speaker 5: also two teams in LA and you know, I think
Speaker 5: he actually would make some sense for the Rams if
Speaker 5: he's a kind of low cost edition. Although I was
Speaker 5: talking with our another one of our former workplace proximity
Speaker 5: associates and I mean my business partner slash friend, James
Speaker 5: co yesterday that if he was to replace Cooper Cup
Speaker 5: in the Rams offense, it's interesting from a receiving perspective,
Speaker 5: but you are going on to the other end of
Speaker 5: the spectrum from blocking, you know, standpoint, like Cooper is
Speaker 5: one of the best blocking receivers in the league, and
Speaker 5: Keenan was definitely that was an issue for him in
Speaker 5: Chicago last year. And it is kind of hard in
Speaker 5: Chicago last year, Like I kind of want to give
Speaker 5: all those guys a pass because these are, like, especially
Speaker 5: the two former Pro Bowl receivers, These are you know,
Speaker 5: proven guys like DJ Moore think about and I'm off
Speaker 5: on a tangent here, but like DJ Moore, he's a
Speaker 5: guy that has played in some rough situations in throughout
Speaker 5: the course of his career. And this is probably the
Speaker 5: first time you can look at the film and be like,
Speaker 5: I don't know if this guy's fully bought into what's
Speaker 5: going on here, and even some of his public comments,
Speaker 5: which again is outrageous. This guy has played for some
Speaker 5: weird coaching staff, so there was a lot going on
Speaker 5: in Chicago last year. I think Keenan showed you he's
Speaker 5: one of these players that sometimes with wide receivers you
Speaker 5: just fall off the cliff. Other times there's a little
Speaker 5: bit more of like a steady tick down. And I
Speaker 5: think he could still be useful to the right team.
Speaker 5: I don't know Chicago. I don't know if LA the
Speaker 5: Chargers are that right team. Mike Williams. I mean, I
Speaker 5: think it was tough last year. I just think it
Speaker 5: was tough to.
Speaker 2: Expect the injury.
Speaker 5: He's a big guy.
Speaker 1: He's never been like a two different teams.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and he's never been an above average separator either.
Speaker 5: I also thought that him and George Pickens kind of
Speaker 5: have like a very overlapping skill set there in Pittsburgh too,
Speaker 5: so you're kind of looking a little too samey. And
Speaker 5: I mean Russell Wilson, like every offense just kind of
Speaker 5: becomes the Russell Wilson offense, where you're looking at deep
Speaker 5: shot wide receivers, tight coverage go routes, fades and things
Speaker 5: like that, which is Mike Williams's skill set. But I
Speaker 5: mean you're you're asking a lot for basically two guys
Speaker 5: play the same position and play the position the same
Speaker 5: way to be on the field at the same time
Speaker 5: and thriving. Right.
Speaker 2: All right, well, reception perception check it out. He was
Speaker 2: all over lad last year and uh, you know, business
Speaker 2: was good last year, business was booming. So let's hope
Speaker 2: that the combine turned some of these dudes out there.
Speaker 2: Are you doing tight ends?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 2: I know you well, you thought it was. I was
Speaker 2: listening to one of the I remember when you were
Speaker 2: lovely know you were kicking it around. You were kicking
Speaker 2: the idea around. What was it last year or the
Speaker 2: year before you were talking about tight ends, isn't am?
Speaker 2: I not right? Am?
Speaker 5: I remember you are remembering that the audience desperately wants
Speaker 5: to see some of the tight end charting. There's two
Speaker 5: problems with that. One. The technical answer is I've been
Speaker 5: doing reception perception for ten years now. There's a very
Speaker 5: over ten years. There's a clear database, like I can
Speaker 5: tell you what each metric tells you like this. This
Speaker 5: matter is because of this, and this is where we
Speaker 5: know that this guy should play all that stuff, and
Speaker 5: we're starting the database over. If we're like including tight ends,
Speaker 5: it is a different position. Even if these the lines
Speaker 5: can get a little blurred. The non technical answer is
Speaker 5: I'm happily married man. I'd like to stay happily married.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 5: I got enough damn work with. There's like fifty sixty
Speaker 5: wide receivers. I need to charge up grind Will Disley
Speaker 5: tape for us. Tell you what, gritty guy, all right,
Speaker 5: it's grit.
Speaker 2: It's it team grit, all right, Matt. We appreciate it, man, appreciate.
Speaker 5: You, guys.
Speaker 1: Thank you well, Maddy another one of our favorites. I
Speaker 1: can't believe it's been a year since Lancier Line joined
Speaker 1: us and it was a draft where Joe Alt, Oh.
Speaker 2: Can you here, I'm just coming down a little bit too loud.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm sorry.
Speaker 6: No, it's just my radio, you know. Just I just
Speaker 6: go to the producer, I say, on the what is it?
Speaker 6: I don't even I've been to radio twenty seven years.
Speaker 1: Chargers Weekly hosted around on the return, I was I
Speaker 1: was just gonna find my game.
Speaker 2: I need a little bit more me in my air,
Speaker 2: more me in my air. Please, that's that's that's a
Speaker 2: routine for me. I like me, me like me, some
Speaker 2: me exactly.
Speaker 1: At last, we were just saying, how you know you
Speaker 1: gave us all this great insight on the offensive line
Speaker 1: h last year, and the Chargers selected the best offensive
Speaker 1: lineman in the draft in Joe Alt, and now the
Speaker 1: bookends off for Shawn Slater and Joe Alt gonna be
Speaker 1: with the Powder Blue for the next decade plus.
Speaker 4: However, you may need to go back to the.
Speaker 2: Well, here we go, this is how we get it started.
Speaker 6: You may need to go back to the well. I
Speaker 6: like the book, NDS, I like your book. I think
Speaker 6: you go you always go guard. Well, if you can't,
Speaker 6: well you go best player available.
Speaker 4: Well, because you.
Speaker 6: Know, I covered the Houston Texans and uh so obviously
Speaker 6: really in tune with with that match up the Chargers
Speaker 6: and Texans. Yeah, and uh DJ and I talked a
Speaker 6: little bit during the week about strengths and weaknesses of
Speaker 6: the Texans and I, you know, I kind of gave
Speaker 6: him a scouting report. He gave me the scouting report
Speaker 6: on Chargers, and the one thing that really stood out
Speaker 6: was this could be trouble because the Texans can mix
Speaker 6: it up a little bit on the interior as rushers,
Speaker 6: and that was an issue for the Chargers last year.
Speaker 6: And I think that, you know, strengthening that immediate weakness
Speaker 6: has got to be a priority. And I don't I
Speaker 6: don't know that you do it with one pick. You know,
Speaker 6: you may have to do it free agency and a pick,
Speaker 6: but this isn't a good free agent market, so you
Speaker 6: may need to go two picks.
Speaker 4: But the good news is it's pretty good guard draft.
Speaker 6: You got some centers you can look at, so it's
Speaker 6: it's it can be taken care of. Probably need to
Speaker 6: do it inside the first four four rounds, though.
Speaker 2: Let's uh, you know what, Let's start just I want
Speaker 2: to make sure I got it right. Let's start with
Speaker 2: the free agent market. You said it's not a good
Speaker 2: guard market, but obviously.
Speaker 4: It's not a good free agent market in general.
Speaker 5: Yep.
Speaker 2: There may be a couple, so that's what I want
Speaker 2: to get at. So let's say if they try to
Speaker 2: mix and match, right, I don't know. I don't Maybe
Speaker 2: they'll spend twenty two twenty four million bucks on Trey Smith.
Speaker 2: I don't know. If I see him doing that. I
Speaker 2: don't know if I see Kansas City.
Speaker 4: Let great fit. I don't. If I'm Kansas City, I
Speaker 4: can't let them go, right, I just I just can't.
Speaker 6: You'll catch a French Chargers, Yeah, you'll catch a You'll
Speaker 6: catch a tag for me from me before where I'll.
Speaker 1: Let you go.
Speaker 2: Okay, So then let's go. I'm just going through the
Speaker 2: PFF rankings here. I don't know if these would be
Speaker 2: your rankings, but next in line as will Fries look
Speaker 2: good before he got hurt?
Speaker 5: Solid?
Speaker 2: That fit?
Speaker 4: So I think that's a fit.
Speaker 2: Fit take million bucks a year?
Speaker 4: Well is that what guards get with here?
Speaker 2: I mean, you know Houston needs them, Chargers need them.
Speaker 2: Everybody needs a line, right.
Speaker 6: Well, I'd like him for a little less if I could,
Speaker 6: But no, I mean, if if money's not an issue,
Speaker 6: then yeah, fries and would make a lot of sense.
Speaker 6: A guy like Gray's able, you know, who can play
Speaker 6: center or guard. You know, in a perfect world money
Speaker 6: you want tackle guard or guard center. You always want
Speaker 6: position flexibility, but you'd also like not just like get
Speaker 6: you out of a game and an emergency, you'd like
Speaker 6: I can start like Landon Dickerson when he came out
Speaker 6: of Alabama, he was a center at that time, but
Speaker 6: he can play guard, and the idea was he'll eventually
Speaker 6: go to center when Kelsey's gone. So you want guys
Speaker 6: who have dual starting flexibility when possible. The tackle to
Speaker 6: guard thing is is usually you have a guy's kind
Speaker 6: of short armed or not big for whatever the case
Speaker 6: may be, or not maybe quick enough depending on if
Speaker 6: you're going to more of a gap scheme like the
Speaker 6: like the Chargers have, and so you want somebody who's
Speaker 6: got the pass pro finesse.
Speaker 4: And so I think there are.
Speaker 6: Some players that that can be found in free agency
Speaker 6: who fit immediately, who are veterans and they won't have
Speaker 6: the the bumps in the road that you're going to
Speaker 6: have with the rookie.
Speaker 4: So if you can't get one.
Speaker 2: What about Tevin Jenkins?
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe too much mad case.
Speaker 6: I mean, Tevin is a talented player, but they've had
Speaker 6: to really hustle over there to get him motivated. Although
Speaker 6: he came off of a really good season, like he's
Speaker 6: when he's motivated, he.
Speaker 4: Plays really really well.
Speaker 6: But you know, I don't know what the Chargers room
Speaker 6: is like, I don't know how he fits into that room.
Speaker 6: That's always a question that that that I guess the
Speaker 6: study from the front office is.
Speaker 4: Going to have to do on this.
Speaker 2: Let me just throw the rest of these at you.
Speaker 2: Tell me if if one of them jumps out at you. Zeitler,
Speaker 2: James Daniels, McCarry. How about Aaron Banks taking a flyer
Speaker 2: on him?
Speaker 6: Aaron Banks is big and strong, might be a guy
Speaker 6: that you get cheap, and then you might. What you
Speaker 6: do is you go probably twice in the offensive you know,
Speaker 6: you go once in a fifth round, you go another
Speaker 6: time in the first or second round, and then you say, okay,
Speaker 6: we got some competition. Now we got three new we
Speaker 6: got three new faces we're throwing in the offensive line room.
Speaker 6: Let's let's get to it. Because to me, I mean,
Speaker 6: just about every job should be up for grabs. There
Speaker 6: should at least be real competition there because you got
Speaker 6: too much, you know, I mean, there's still some holes
Speaker 6: you can get better running back, can get better wide receiver.
Speaker 6: There's there's some spots to get better in the secondary.
Speaker 6: But you're not that far off if you're the chargers.
Speaker 6: So you have to your your approach needs to be
Speaker 6: pretty it needs to be pretty aggressive. And this is
Speaker 6: only year two for this, you know, for this particular
Speaker 6: group of coaches, and and so if you didn't get
Speaker 6: it done in year one, your job should be up
Speaker 6: in the air.
Speaker 1: Two. Lance's kind of a two part question here, George.
Speaker 1: He said yesterday that they may experiment with experiment with
Speaker 1: a Zion Johnson at center. Uh, you mentioned Gray Zabel,
Speaker 1: a guy who has a lot of positional flexibility in
Speaker 1: the interior. A. What do you think of Zion potentially
Speaker 1: at center?
Speaker 5: And B?
Speaker 1: Would Graysabel be a solid pick at twenty two or
Speaker 1: is that somebody that slide to the second round?
Speaker 6: You know, I'd say it's too early. But here's the thing.
Speaker 6: Cole Strange was a first round pick from New England.
Speaker 6: You know, New England has gone Logan Mankins in the past.
Speaker 6: They went you know, New England always believed in if
Speaker 6: we get a good guard, we're gonna draft good guard
Speaker 6: and we don't care.
Speaker 4: We're not gonna play games with it. We just will
Speaker 4: do it in the first round.
Speaker 6: I don't think that's the worst idea in the world.
Speaker 6: Is that a little early for grays Abel? I guess,
Speaker 6: but who really cares if he becomes a ten year starter? Like,
Speaker 6: what difference does it make if you drafted him if you,
Speaker 6: because he's not going.
Speaker 2: To be there when you draft him the second round,
Speaker 2: we'll be there fifty five, so he's not going.
Speaker 4: To be there.
Speaker 6: So either you're trading back and hoping that he's still
Speaker 6: on the board or you or you take him there.
Speaker 6: So I don't know, I don't know how you how
Speaker 6: you work it, But that's a guy that would make
Speaker 6: sense coming in at playing. If if Zion could give
Speaker 6: you the snaps, that's great. Can he is he a
Speaker 6: good snapper? Can he identify fronts? It may not require
Speaker 6: that Zion is a very smart guy. Is he football smart?
Speaker 6: I don't know. You're gonna be BookSmart. You may not
Speaker 6: have a great feel and instinct. Sometimes it doesn't matter.
Speaker 6: Sometime the guards are making the calls an identifying the front.
Speaker 6: So Gray is a tough guy, as you mentioned he
Speaker 6: has he has He has three for one position flexibility,
Speaker 6: probably more emergency right tackle in the league, but starting guards,
Speaker 6: starting center, very strong core so he can hold up
Speaker 6: to bull rushes. He was fantastic at the senior well,
Speaker 6: just really really good and much better than I had anticipated.
Speaker 6: But you always love having a guy with tackle experience
Speaker 6: in because they're just they're just they're going to be
Speaker 6: more savvy and they're going to be more technically sound
Speaker 6: in pass pro. And for me, that's obviously like a huge,
Speaker 6: huge get. But you can't really sacrifice, like Jim Harball
Speaker 6: is not going to sacrifice your ability to be tough
Speaker 6: and kind of move people around. But that the duo
Speaker 6: blocks and the gap scheme stuff. So Grey's abel actually
Speaker 6: fits that too. So he's one of those guys that fits.
Speaker 2: What if he let's say he's there, Booker's there.
Speaker 4: I mean Booker, you race it up and it's over.
Speaker 2: That would be it that Yeah, But I'm saying so.
Speaker 4: Because Booker's wired the way you want him to.
Speaker 6: He's big, like like like Hardball likes him, and he's
Speaker 6: strong and physical, so hert I mean, Booker should be
Speaker 6: one of the guys who's at the very top of
Speaker 6: their list because he's also considered the leader at Alabama.
Speaker 6: It's not Milrow, it's not anyone on defense. The leader
Speaker 6: is a guard of the team of the team. So
Speaker 6: now you've got a guy in a room that's already
Speaker 6: got a strong room with all you got a lot
Speaker 6: of football character. Now with Alt and Schlater and Booker.
Speaker 6: And you know in Zion Johnson he's got a lot
Speaker 6: of football character as well. You got to really you
Speaker 6: got the right kind of room if you got Booker.
Speaker 6: I just don't think Booker is going to be there.
Speaker 6: I know he's not gonna be when you're drafted. So
Speaker 6: because because what I'm telling you is what a lot
Speaker 6: of teams want. And it wouldn't shock me if somebody
Speaker 6: moved up. It's crazy to move up for a guard.
Speaker 6: But there's not a lot of first round guards. So
Speaker 6: thirteen fifty yeah, I mean, you know that's not where
Speaker 6: I have him graded, but where you have to slot them.
Speaker 6: And now DJ loves all the intangibles. The people at
Speaker 6: the Alabama program speak extremely glowingly of them. Well, if
Speaker 6: you think they're doing that to DJ, to myself, what
Speaker 6: do you think they're telling the NFL teams, they're telling them.
Speaker 1: The same thing.
Speaker 6: And so teams who say, man, we need somebody inside
Speaker 6: who's tough, who's a leader, Who's Houston Texans?
Speaker 4: Who I cover? They need somebody inside who's tough, who's
Speaker 4: a leader? Will you draft ahead of them?
Speaker 6: So, I mean, you can't play games with it if
Speaker 6: Booker's there, Race the card up, but I just.
Speaker 4: Don't see what are you?
Speaker 1: Twenty two two?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I just I think he goes inside the top eighteen picks.
Speaker 2: You mentioned flexibility, what about Membo?
Speaker 4: That's another one.
Speaker 5: Maybe.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you have to trade up to get Membo. But Membo.
Speaker 6: You know, it's funny I talk to a team that
Speaker 6: isn't quite as high as I am on them, but
Speaker 6: they're just wrong. I'm right and they're wrong. Mimbo is
Speaker 6: really going to be good. He is very tough. He's
Speaker 6: he's about three hundred and thirty pounds of solid mass.
Speaker 6: He's a little shorter than most tackles, but he's got
Speaker 6: thirty four inch arms, which makes up for it because
Speaker 6: he's got that wingspan. But what makes Membo different to
Speaker 6: me is, you know, he's mostly been in an outside
Speaker 6: zone scheme. A lot of inside outside zone, which is
Speaker 6: a move based offense blocking scheme. For those listening what
Speaker 6: the Chargers do and what Jim did at what Hardball
Speaker 6: did at Michigan, there's a lot of double teams and
Speaker 6: then you work up to the linebacker called duo blocks
Speaker 6: or gap scheme. But I think Membo can do that.
Speaker 6: Like he's strong, he's got really good hands, He's very
Speaker 6: technically sounded, he's tough.
Speaker 4: He's very tough.
Speaker 6: So from a from a culture fit and from a
Speaker 6: scheme fit, Membo is fantastic and he gives you the
Speaker 6: potential to step out at right.
Speaker 4: Let let all roll over to left tackle.
Speaker 6: If something happens Slater and Membo to right side, maybe
Speaker 6: Mimbo go's left side. You know, he can slide, he
Speaker 6: can play an emergency swing tackle if you're not happy
Speaker 6: with your swing tackle. But I think he is a
Speaker 6: long time starting guard and a good one if you
Speaker 6: got your hands on him. But he goes before Booker
Speaker 6: potentially lace.
Speaker 1: That was my next question to you is we saw
Speaker 1: All go out with a knee injury earlier in the year,
Speaker 1: missed the game. Slater has had some injury history. What
Speaker 1: about just adding to a strength and like the third
Speaker 1: or fourth right and getting another tackle that maybe has
Speaker 1: that positional versatility to kick inside the guard. Are there
Speaker 1: any guys you can think about and maybe those mid
Speaker 1: rounds that the Chargers may be attracted to.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think if you start looking at third and
Speaker 6: fourth round probably you know Anthony Belton from NC State
Speaker 6: is a name. He's a big massive guy, but he's tough,
Speaker 6: he's physical, he's got a little better feet than you're
Speaker 6: maybe expecting.
Speaker 4: I think a player, and I'm trying to think, you.
Speaker 6: Know, specific to to I think Jack Nelson from is
Speaker 6: more of a four round type of tackle from Wisconsin.
Speaker 6: But you know, he's a big ten player and he
Speaker 6: comes from the same type of mentality over at Wisconsin
Speaker 6: that that. You know, it's when you when you try
Speaker 6: to figure out what a team is gonna do, you
Speaker 6: really sometimes you have to try to get into the
Speaker 6: personality of the team. And with Hardball, there's no He's
Speaker 6: not sneaky exactly. I mean he told h he basically
Speaker 6: told us he was drafting an offensive lineman last year.
Speaker 6: Like you know, most teams try to smoke screen. I
Speaker 6: don't think he's capable of it. But he's also he's
Speaker 6: also like easy for me to read because I can
Speaker 6: just look for Chargers. I go look for Michigan, Michigan
Speaker 6: men boy, the boys in blue, and I'm looking for that,
Speaker 6: only it's a it's a lighter color, more a softer
Speaker 6: blue now, but it's not softer in the interior, you know,
Speaker 6: in the trenches. So Charles Grant loved Charles Grant, and
Speaker 6: he is a player.
Speaker 2: That's he's third at the latest.
Speaker 6: He could be a riser and I'd kind of plugged
Speaker 6: him into the third fourth at first when I first
Speaker 6: watched him, and I thought, boy, this is a guy
Speaker 6: that is going to be a steal. Well, if I'm
Speaker 6: thinking he's a steal in December, he's probably gonna test
Speaker 6: well and he's not gonna be a steal because offensive
Speaker 6: lineman get pushed up, so he won't be there for
Speaker 6: the Chargers third round pick, I don't think, And he
Speaker 6: could end up going in a second because he is
Speaker 6: a tackle guard flexible player too, but he is a
Speaker 6: tremendously quick zone scheme guy, so I don't know that
Speaker 6: he would fit schematically.
Speaker 2: What about just center, if they're going to maybe try
Speaker 2: Zion at center, if they bring back Bozeman on a
Speaker 2: you know, lower number contract. Everybody loves him in the room,
Speaker 2: so I'd be really surprised. And then if they're going
Speaker 2: fishing in those late rounds for you.
Speaker 4: Know, if you want to fish in the late rounds.
Speaker 6: Jake Majors from University of Texas Money and I talked
Speaker 6: about him the other night. One of the smartest centers
Speaker 6: in the whole draft, really really football smart. He's tough,
Speaker 6: he has good size, so he's not like one of
Speaker 6: these three hundred and two pounds centers that has to
Speaker 6: try to eat all day to keep his weight on.
Speaker 6: I mean, he's in a three fifteen range, I think
Speaker 6: something like that. I don't know where he will be
Speaker 6: if he's weighed here, what he's going to be here.
Speaker 6: But he's a hardy. He's a good hearty size for center.
Speaker 4: What do you have on him? Money?
Speaker 2: I got him at Let's see, they don't have it here.
Speaker 4: Let's see for that look yep, so that's where he plays.
Speaker 2: See your guy, Well, this is the guy that Lance
Speaker 2: and I were talking about. Then I went back and
Speaker 2: watched the Michigan game and I was like, he's holding
Speaker 2: his own against Kenneth Grant. He's holding his own against
Speaker 2: Mason Grant. He had a good game that day.
Speaker 6: You got to see what the Longhorns look like. A
Speaker 6: good look against Michigan. And I love watching best on best,
Speaker 6: and he more than held his own against those two guys.
Speaker 6: And he's smart, he's durable at the point of attack,
Speaker 6: and you know, he's the type of guy that I
Speaker 6: think can become a starter, even if you're taking him
Speaker 6: in the fifth or sixth round. And and and that's
Speaker 6: what you love to find. There's a lot of centers
Speaker 6: who start in this league that were fifth, sixth, seventh
Speaker 6: and undrafted, usually like fifth, sixth and undrafted. You find
Speaker 6: it all the time, and you have to so you
Speaker 6: can afford other players. You have to go find late
Speaker 6: round guys.
Speaker 1: Lansay, if I get you off the offensively just for
Speaker 1: a second, goes hand in hand.
Speaker 5: Though.
Speaker 1: I don't know if we're seeing a running back renaissance.
Speaker 1: You see what Saquan did and to lead the Eagles
Speaker 1: to a Super Bowl victory. He saw with Derek Henry
Speaker 1: did in Baltimore. The Chargers could use an Omari and
Speaker 1: Hampton and Ashton genty. How do you view this running
Speaker 1: back class and who do you think would be the
Speaker 1: best fit from a running back perspective, knowing what you
Speaker 1: have on the offensive line right now on the book ends.
Speaker 6: Well, I think it's a really good it's a really
Speaker 6: good running back draft for what you guys do. There's
Speaker 6: some hammerheads in here. There's some tough guys, some physical players,
Speaker 6: and it happens to be very deep. I mean, you
Speaker 6: can go find guys in a fifth round who are
Speaker 6: gonna fit and maybe sixth who can come in and
Speaker 6: give you good number two carries. You want to find
Speaker 6: a number one, number ones or in this draft as well,
Speaker 6: Amara and Hampton.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 6: To have two first round maybe three for round running back.
Speaker 6: I think Travion Henderson is going to test well and
Speaker 6: he could be a real wildcard after what Jamior Gibbs
Speaker 6: has been able to do.
Speaker 4: Ashton Gent's gonna go high.
Speaker 6: But Omarion Hampton is the perfect kind of right down
Speaker 6: the middle, no no gatherers feet. He's he's accelerating through
Speaker 6: into and through contact. He's a big guy, He's been
Speaker 6: extremely healthy. He's a number one back who's gonna get
Speaker 6: a lot of carries, maybe in the first round.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 6: Quinn Shawn Judkins is another tough guy, very tough, physical,
Speaker 6: not as explosive in terms of hitting the big chunk
Speaker 6: plays that's typically not really a concern for a Jim
Speaker 6: Harball type offense.
Speaker 4: I mean, if you get it, you get it. If
Speaker 4: you don't, you don't.
Speaker 6: If you if you want to have a hardcore player
Speaker 6: like a Judkins in the first running back spot. Then
Speaker 6: just go find a guy with a little more a
Speaker 6: little more juice at the second running back spot.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 6: But then you get to players like I think another
Speaker 6: guy that would fit would be Cam scattaball as a
Speaker 6: as a second. Now i'm making him a second. I'm
Speaker 6: trying to beat you up by committee. So I want
Speaker 6: to have the first guy who beats you up. Then
Speaker 6: I want to have the second guy who comes and
Speaker 6: does some of the same stuff. In that case, my
Speaker 6: third running back needs to be the splash and dash
Speaker 6: player who maybe gets three or four carries but does
Speaker 6: all the third most of the third down work for you.
Speaker 6: But you can go into the like the fourth and
Speaker 6: fifth rounds Montreal Johnson out of Florida, Jordan James out
Speaker 6: of Oregon. These are guys who are extraordinarily physical and
Speaker 6: who have a certain mentality, And this is a great
Speaker 6: draft for mentality running backs. You know, guys that are
Speaker 6: gonna get between the tackles and keep it between the tackles.
Speaker 6: It's just that, you know, you got to do the
Speaker 6: work on how many of these can catch passes as well,
Speaker 6: how many of these guys keep it on the track,
Speaker 6: Because what you don't want is. You don't want players
Speaker 6: who try to bounce it. You know, you can have
Speaker 6: a physical player who likes to kind of every once
Speaker 6: in a while drift into the world of finesse and
Speaker 6: think he's going to be a slick I remember watching
Speaker 6: Chris Carson.
Speaker 4: Remember Chris Carson.
Speaker 6: Yeah, when he came out of Oklahoma State, and I
Speaker 6: just kept seeing like he's so big and strong, why
Speaker 6: does he keep dancing around and trying to be a
Speaker 6: finesse back? And I read an article where his running
Speaker 6: backs in the same room with him gave him hell
Speaker 6: over the same thing, like, dude, you're so big and strong,
Speaker 6: you got to just be running over people. When he
Speaker 6: got to the league, that's what he became, is a
Speaker 6: running back coach or an offense coordinator or maybe a
Speaker 6: veteran got in his head and said, you're so big,
Speaker 6: what are you doing?
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 4: Just go run over people? And he was a he
Speaker 4: was a nightmare for a little bit. Like he was
Speaker 4: a really physical back. So good draft have physical backs.
Speaker 2: Great stuff. He writes all the tree. You hit up
Speaker 2: NFL dot com and you click on a player's name,
Speaker 2: and that is all Lance. He's done the great He's
Speaker 2: done the bio. He's done the write up, he's done
Speaker 2: the comparison, seven hundred eight, So we're talking about.
Speaker 4: Fifty five hundred over the last eleven drafts.
Speaker 6: But right now we're sitting at about three forty five
Speaker 6: three for that one hundred and forty five to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they don't push back on Lance. Man knows what
Speaker 2: he's talking about, and we appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 2: Thanks brother, you're the best.
Speaker 1: Thanks guys, So buddy, we are spoiled. Two more podcasts
Speaker 1: this week. This one was.
Speaker 2: Fun, absolutely great one.
Speaker 5: Today.
Speaker 2: We'll have great one tomorrow. Mina's gonna join us, so
Speaker 2: Mina comes from over at ESPN. We'll have danme Brugler,
Speaker 2: our friend from the Athletic puts together The Beast another.
Speaker 2: You know, we talked about Lance in this one. Danged
Speaker 2: the same way, six seven hundred names that he's grading
Speaker 2: and putting up reviews on. And it's Brett Coleman exactly,
Speaker 2: our friend that you see if you go to Charger games,
Speaker 2: you see him breaking it down up on the giant board.
Speaker 2: Just incredible at watching tape and breaking players down. So
Speaker 2: most definitely gonna be another Gret one tomorrow.
Speaker 1: It's easy to forget because we've had like so many
Speaker 1: twenty guests this week. Exactly we'll do it. Should we
Speaker 1: do a Prime forty seven recap? No no, no, so
Speaker 1: not do that that. We'll skip that one. Use your imagination.
Speaker 1: And I need to go take a nap.
Speaker 5: For buddy up.
Speaker 1: Chris, it's been charges weekly. We'll see you tomorrow.