Chargers Weekly: Greg Roman On Ladd McConkey's Year 2 & OTAs

On this episode of Chargers Weekly, Bolts radio play-by-play announcer Matt “Money” Smith and host Chris Hayre recap the latest news involving LA and the entire NFL. The hosts sit down with Chargers Offensive Coordinator Greg Roman to discuss Ladd McConkey’s prep for year 2 after a standout rookie season, how the addition of first-round draft pick Omarion Hampton bolsters the Bolts rushing attack, and how having a quarterback like Justin Herbert opens up more options. Money and Chris share what they made of Week 2 of 2025 OTAs, including how the new-look wide receiver room is shaping up with additions like Mike Williams and Tre’ Harris and how Zion Johnson looks taking snaps at center.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Ten touched up. What's up?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Guys, Welcome into a brand new episode of Chargers Weekly,
as always, joined by the Voice of the Chargers, Matt
Muddy Smith. As we get into the month of June,
Mini camp next week, the second week of OTAs underway.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
This week coming up.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Money has a great conversation with offensive coordinator Greg Roman
that I'll let him te up when the time is right,
But Money, we'll start with just observations for week two.
I know you were out there again earlier in the week,
Sanjay laws The theme was kind of wide receivers and
pass catchers at the at the podium this week and

(00:48):
some good stuff, some good nuggets from some of the
receivers and wide receivers coach Don Jay Lol.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, big fan of coach Lawl's. He's a quiet guy,
but when you get him rolling, he's a lot of
fun to listen to and to speak with because he's
very thoughtful, you know. He he attacks the wide receiver
position as a coach in a very technical way, in
a very specific way, and it's I don't want to

(01:15):
say scientific. I think that's kind of maybe overstating it
a little bit, but technical is probably the word you know,
he thinks there's certain things that you need to do
as a receiver in order to find success. And I
think it's hard to argue with him when you look
at where his stops have been. Specifically, you know, what
he did with DK Metcalf is an incredibly raw you know,

(01:36):
it's why he slid to the second round talent that
turned into a Pro Bowl, you know, potential All Pro receiver.
So you see what you know Lad did last year,
and it was just it was a really good eleven minutes,
and you know, hopefully we'll get him on charge. I
let Brock know, Brock's been great to us so far,
you know, Coach Ficken last week and obviously coach Minner.
We're gonna hear from Coach Roman in a minute. But

(01:57):
I said, yeah, we got we got to get him
in because he's someone that seems comfortable just kind of
sharing what he's discovered and what he thinks looks like
success from the wide receiver position. I think my biggest
takeaway from him, Chris, was when he said he kind
of gave these guys some homework some offseason. Hey, let's
see if we can hit this point when you guys

(02:17):
show up for OTAs, so we don't have to kind
of install and do all that stuff. And he said
all of them, you know, and I like the fact
that he said was it perfect? No, But I could
tell that all of them did their homework and they
all at least put themselves in a position to be
where I had hoped they would be when they came in.
And that helps us get a big jump. And I

(02:38):
think that just kind of speaks to the whole competitors welcome.
You know, how invested the players are and how much
they believe in this coaching staff.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yeah, he commands the room. If you guys have not
watched the press or do yourselves a favor and do it.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
It's like ten eleven minutes. And just again, when he
is asked a question, he's got an answer right away,
and he goes into great detail, and you know, just
hearing about this room this upcoming year. He talked about
Ladd and just his ascension from year one to year
two and just how he exceeded every expectation in year one.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
He talked about Quentin said.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Quentin is the starter right now in that room. And
I thought that that was that was notable. That was notable.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
For sure.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
He talked about the rookies and how Trey Harrison, KeAndre
Lambert Smith very smart guys that are getting up to
speed on the playbook but are just not there physically
yet and from a conditioning standpoint, there's still a lot
of work to go. And said Mike Williams, is a
is a veteran in the room right now, and it's
way too early to kind of figure out exactly how

(03:42):
everything is going to shake out. But I got the
sense that you know, Ladd is undisputably the wide receiver
one in that room, and Quentin's gonna have every opportunity
to keep that starring role money.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Yeah, And it's funny because I and I hope this
doesn't come out the wrong way, but but I I
knew it was coming. Man, as soon as Popper said it.
I knew it was coming when he mentioned Lad as
a slot receiver and immediately saying, hey, Lad's not a
slot receiver.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
Yeah, don't like being called a slot receiver.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
He does not like being called a slade. Like, I
knew it was coming because you can tell that, like
that's that's sort of how all of these coaches coach.
His positional flexibility, and you should not be pigeonholed as
a go route specialist, as a slot guy, because when
you hear the words slot receiver, what do you think
just short quick routes. You're the guy that's going to

(04:33):
get the third and four and pick up six yards.
And that's not Lad, not with that four to three
speed and not with what we saw him from a
success standpoint on those outside snaps. So I understood, but
I and I felt like it was coming. And then
for you know the people that are that are all
freaked out over you know, him saying Quentin's the starter,
Like what did you think? Like, who do you know

(04:55):
for all the incoming that Q takes. I'm looking at
the stats right now. I mean it's it's fifty five catches,
seven hundred eleven yards, eight touchdowns, a long of sixty six,
twelve big plays, that's twenty plus receiving three hundred and
six yards of yak. Like that's that's a number two.
That's that's a number two receiver. Like that's that's and
I know, you know some of those are skewed because

(05:17):
of the one really big game, but it's like, yeah,
that's I don't know who else they would have thought was,
you know, the Raiders. The thirteen catch, one hundred and
eighty six yard game helps inflate those a little bit
from week eighteen. And I think his answer when asked
about Q, what do you want from him? Was perfect

(05:38):
and and it's just get better. Yeah, you know eight sension, Yeah, ascension.
He made a huge jump from year one to year two.
If he's able to make a jump from year two
to year three, Chargers are in good shape. You know,
from fifty five, seven, eleven and eight. If you're able
to take another step on top of that to eight
fifty eight fifty earth to sixty sixty five catches eight

(06:02):
fifty and eight or nine or ten, I mean, that's
a huge and I don't anticipate it happening, not with
the return of Mike, not with the drafting of Trey Harris,
not with the addition of Tyler Conklin. Like a lot
of I think that's the one thing about Q that
people should be a little more appreciative, is that dude
like that the Chargers were lacking in receipt pass catchers.

(06:27):
You know, when you think about Josh Palmer being banged up,
DJ Chark was never right the entire season. You know,
Hayden Hurst goes down, He's supposed to be your seam
stretching tight end, like there's you know, there's There was
a lot of bad things going on from the pass
catching standpoint, and Q was able to help them win
some games.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
I tend to be a little bit more positive with
this stuff.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Q was in the worst situation he could be in
his rookie year, and he really took a big lead
in your time. And yeah, he had some games where
he had some drops, he also had some really good
games and some key plays throughout the course of a
four quarter game where Justin Herbert was actually looking to Quinton.

(07:13):
So the way that I read it with coach Lawl
is like, hey, Ladd was in the room last year,
Quinton was in the room last year. Those are my guys.
Those are the starters last year, and they're gonna be
the starters in June. On June fifth, now, let's see
how it works out with Trey Harrison. Let's get him
up to speed on the playbook, Let's get him into
NFL shape. Let's see what KeAndre lamber Smith can do.

(07:35):
You mentioned Conklin, you know Mike's been away from the
Chargers for a couple of years and had this weird
kind of eighteen twenty four months where he had that
ACL injury and just couldn't find his footing with the
Jets and Steelers. Maybe being back with Justin and being
back in familiar, familiar confines will will help Mike in

(07:56):
his kind of two point zero with the Chargers. But man, like,
we should all be rooting for Quentin to be the
starter and to stay the starter, because if that, if
that's the case, then you know he's taking another leap.
And again, if you if you dismiss what he did
last year versus kind of the situation he was put
into your rookie year, you just didn't you didn't watch it.

(08:17):
You didn't see how how much better he.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
Got the I guess the thing for look, q needs
to be more consistent. Yes, we all know that everybody
is well, and he knows that, and Coach Law knows that,
and Coach Roman knows that, and Coach Harbugh knows that.
That's that's not there's nothing wrong with saying that. What
what I don't understand is just like it's almost like

(08:39):
people are rooting against him. It's and it's just odd
to me. You want Q to be great, you want
him to take a step that like we said, I
I know that that he was gonna get drafted in
the first round. He was was he got, was he on?
Was he on a lot of people's lists, ahead of
a Flowers, ahead of Jordan Addison, ahead of the type

(09:00):
ends Laporta and Dalton kin K. Maybe not, but I
know being around the draft and being in those circles
of what people are talking about, he was going to
get picked. He has that level of talent and certainly
consistency is what has plagued him. And it's one of
the things that he got into when he was at

(09:20):
the lectern and it's experience and just how overwhelming it
was his rookie year and not being sure about where
he was or what he was supposed to be doing,
and how that kind of was able to sort itself
out last year much better. And because he kept saying experience,
experience to what was the difference for him. And so
now you get him in year three and you get

(09:42):
him win the same offense with the same wide receivers coach,
going through the same drills and trying to get him
to be a better receiver of the football, to get
him to be more consistent. Like, I just assume it's
going to be better. And here's the thing. If it's not,
he's not going to play. If it's not. With this
staff exactly, they don't care, you know, like that they don't.

(10:05):
That's the thing. So root for him to be great, don't.
Don't root for him to not be the starter. Root
for him to have a killer camp, to get out
there and to turn it on. That's the one thing
that that like I I struggle with because that that
the pass catchers are the pass catchers. This is what
we're going into the season with. It's a deep room

(10:28):
and someone's going to be stashed on the practice squad
that they're hoping doesn't get picked up. So like there's
no one else. I don't have a vision of, oh,
here comes Tomari Cooper or here, like I just don't
see that happening. It could, But from my standpoint, when
I think about lad Q, Mike uh and then the

(10:49):
two draft picks, that's five. They love Jalen Rager. The
staff just loves him. I mean Lal mentioned him unsolicited
and we've heard coach Hart do that. So I'm not
sure where else you're going to find that, like where
you think are receiver's coming from that's going to still
plant this group.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
Money, Let's not forget Darius Davis that he talked about Darius.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
Davis and I forgot it.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
And the.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
Play speed that's untapped because when you're thinking, you know,
you may not have the speed on the field from
an offensive perspective. And he raved about how just there's
a lot of meat on the bone with Darius Davis
and you know, just to go back to Quentin his
rookie season, Mike's injury in Week three, that was the

(11:37):
worst thing that could have happened to Quinnon.

Speaker 4 (11:39):
Yes, it was.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
That was the worst thing that could have happened to
Quintin Mike goes out for the year, Quentin gets put
in a position where he's not Mike Williams. Right, they
don't have the same series, not what he does. That's
not what he does. And he was kind of put
in positions to do that type of stuff his rookie year.
And you know, we all lived at, guys, we all
lived at a couple of years ago. The season didn't
go great, and it didn't go great towards the end

(12:00):
of the year. So when you have a rookie wide
receiver trying to find his way and in the same breath,
you know, the quarterback goes out for the last few
games of the year.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
You know, the coach.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
Gets removed a few games before the season ends. I mean,
it's not a great situation for a rookie player. So
I thought what Jim Harball did last year was instilled
confidence in Quinton early in the year, early in training camp,
and we saw the flashes, We saw the touchdown in
Carolina and the one hundred yard game in Cleveland, and
he had really good games throughout the course of the year.

(12:32):
So I'm with you, what's a starter anyway, If there's
three wide receivers on the on the field, of course,
we want to see Trey Harris, We want to see
Trey Harrison and Lambert Smith, and I want to see
Mike back in the mix with Justin.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
But I think I think you're just going to see
a lot of I think you're gonna see a lot
of two tight ends, Chris. That's the thing, Like, I
just feel like you're going to see You're not going
to see a lot of eleven you're going to see.
You're going to see twenty one and twenty two. That's
two backs, two tight ends, one back, two tight ends,
two backs, one tight end. To me, that's what you're

(13:07):
going to see with Conklin. Now, I just feel like
you're going to see a ton of Disley and Conklin.
You can see a lot of that pairing out there,
and that then leaves you with two receivers, and you know,
that's that's where I think it's there's potential where Q's
numbers are going to drop because I could if Mike
is right and Mike is what he's been in his

(13:27):
career and what we saw before you know, he got
hurt that year prior, then it's going to be a
lot of Mike and Ladd in Conklin and Disley and
and that's what it's going to look because that's what
they want to play, that's how they want to play.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
I can also see the wide receiver number is going
down as a whole because of Amar and Hampton and
Najie Harris right, Like they didn't get to play that
way last year. Now you have two guys who don't
miss games, and if they can run the football. With
this offensive line with Hampton and Harris, you may not
have to throw the ball a ton, especially in the
fourth quarter of games if you have the lead. So

(14:02):
I just think the office is going to look different
this year and it's going to be fun.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
Yeah, it's going to be better. It's going to be better.
Every every single room got better, even quarterback. Second year
in a row of a new you know, of an offense,
instead of having to deal with trying to figure out
how Greg Roman wants to play what you know, new
running backs new received a receiver that was supposed to
be your ex that goes down justin gets hurt for

(14:26):
three weeks. He then rolls, you know, has a high
ankle spraint, and Cara like, the quarterback room is going
to be better. We know the running back room is
going to be better. I mean Naji and Amari and
are going to form what I believe is a formidable pair.
I just that's my opinion. Tight end room is better.
Hayden Hurst got hurt in that preseason game, was never
the same. They never had a pass catching tight end.
Will Disley was forced into that position and did a

(14:49):
damn good job considering what his history had been. So
now you add Tyler Conklin to Disley, a full season
of fist who blocks his ass off, and the development
of Arondez Guez, that room's better. Makai Beckton is now
your right guard next to Joe Walt in his second season,
who we heard coaches say is going, this is gonna
be the year of ault. This is going to be

(15:09):
that you watch, you thought, you said, and it was
special last year. What he did as a rookie was special.
Offensive tackles do not do that when they come into
the league in their first season. It takes him a minute.
And Joe was able to be a borderline dominant tackle,
you know, in his first year when you just kind
of go and look, Slater did it. And that's why
I think our perception of that position is skewed because

(15:31):
he was so good his rookie year that we assume
that's what it always It doesn't. It does not always
look like that. So just all, every single every single
group is better. And the receivers you now have depth
at that ex receiver that you did not have last year.
So you know, and Lad's going to go into his
second year and the league is unnoticed so they've got
to account for that, and that's going to leave one

(15:53):
on one opportunities for Mike, for Trey Harris, for the
tight ends to be open in this like it's just
all to me. It's going to be better, and.

Speaker 3 (16:03):
It's it's it's year two.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
Like a year ago, they were shaking hands and saying, hey,
I'm I'm so and so nice to meet you. Right,
year two, coach Laws talking about, Hey, did you run
these routes that we talked about that we used to
run a practice last year and everybody ran them and
everybody was in tip top shape. So there's something to
be said about it doesn't matter what.

Speaker 3 (16:24):
The position group is. Year two in a program with.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
The same coaches, and that goes for not just Joe Alt,
but it goes for it goes for Trey Pipkins, it
goes for for Zion guys, who were you know, again
in a in a first year program with this offensive
line and just kind of meshing and doing what Coach
Harbon company we want to do. And I guess that
kind of leads me to maybe observations from from this

(16:50):
week he said, Zion taking the first team set of reps.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
Right, Yeah, we didn't see it. Last week he was
working off to the side. Bradley Boseman was taking all
the first team reps at center, and you know, you
Branson Taylor at guard who they're excited about. By the way,
talk to a couple of people and they are very
excited about him. I thought maybe he was going to
be more of a hey, we're taking a flyer. We
kind of like the traits, And that's not the vibe
that I got at all. I got. There were people

(17:14):
that were raising their hand for this guy and believe
that there is a lot of untapped potential at guard
and that had he not been injured play tackle, but
he was hurt last year, and they said, you know,
what they saw in his early seasons at Pitt and
what they believed he would have looked like with a
year more of experience and strength and mass, that this

(17:36):
is someone who could have been a Day two pick.
And they still projected him as guard at a guard
because of his strength and the and his movement, you know,
sort of the what they what they like about him.
So just that's a sidebar. So on Tuesday, we saw
a ton of zion at center that he was basically
your first team center the whole the whole day, and

(17:59):
Bradley Boseman was your first team left guard. So that's
at least, you know, it's kind of speaks to what
we saw the week before. It's like, okay, well this
is exactly That's the thing about coach coach arbad does
not BSU. He said, you're going to see both of
these guys get a lot of snaps at center, and
both of these guys are going to g a lot
of snaps at left guard, and we're going to figure

(18:20):
out what's the right combination. I do get the sense
that that's the starters, that it's going to be some
sort of Zion and Bradley, and whichever one they feel
is best at center, they'll put at center, and that's
how this is going to go. And then you'll have Slater,
Beckton and all, and that's likely what the offensive line
is going to be. I think that's that's kind of

(18:41):
the vibe that I get in talking to someone. They
just said, Look, the thing about Zion is he he
is a prototypical high level center. The way he's built,
his smarts, his ability to get to the second level
because of his athleticism, like he's got all of that,

(19:01):
so we figure, let's get a look at it. Let's
see if that makes more sense than guard because of
just the traits and what works at center, and that
Zion has all of that, and that's why they're doing
this to see, hey, can we take a can we
take a guard that his rookie season was solid, took
a little bit of a step back, and you know,

(19:24):
and kind of his bit had has had these ups
and downs. We've seen great things from Zion and we've
seen struggles from Zion, and it's like, okay, well maybe
put them here. We're gonna see a lot more great
And if that's the case, then we're good. Then then
this this problem is solved now then I think it does.
I think you'd be foolish to think that left guard
is just totally fine. You know, a position that Bradley

(19:45):
Boseman hasn't played for a half decade. I think that's
where now you're like, okay, are we are we good?
There is that more of an open competition then at
left guard. If Zion wins the center competition, what does
that do for that spot? I think all of that
is just you know, we got till September fifth for
them to figure all this out. I just like the
fact for all the people that were complaining about the

(20:07):
lack of movement in the off season to try to
get that that interior line fixed. The guy Becktn is there.
That is a massive upgrade, just a one five hundred
percent upgrade. So you've already got that, and then this
is a signal that they know. They know, that's why
we're going through this and that's why there is currently

(20:27):
a competition there.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
I'm excited to see it and it kind of shows
me what we saw last year too, like coaches an't
afraid to experiment. I remember or Jordan mcfedd was supposed
to be the fullback and then Scott matt Locke kind
of came out and took it from everybody, and Matt
Locke had a heck of a year played both ways.
We talked about Hortes churning the roster each and every week,

(20:50):
like these guys are constantly tinkering and trying to identify
ways that they can make this team better. And you know,
I remember when Zion was drafted money and talking to
guys like Rick Sarah Tell and all these draft analysts
everybody was super super high on Zion and talked about
his smarts and it could be a great fit at
center and you know, doing it now on June fifth

(21:12):
and figuring out what you have there and kind of
taking the summer to figure out what the lineup is
going to be day one and trading camp.

Speaker 3 (21:20):
It's not a bad thing.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
Yeah. I think people forget when Zion was drafted, he
was the number one. I mean, look, Kenyon Green, the
Texans took him before the Chargers took Zion, but for
most people, he was the number one guard and he
was the Well the Chargers picking at seventeen, and you
think about what they have in Justin Herbert. They invested
in the offensive line of Rashaan Slater. Is this time
Telesco you know, having some scar tissue because Andrew Luck

(21:43):
never got a good offensive line in front of him.
This could be a spot and this could be there.
Zach Martin like that's that was the discussion around Zion
because of you don't draft the guard, you draft tackles,
and you're willing to take a flyer on tackles because
of how hard it is to find them in the position.
You very rarely take a flyer on guards. You're taking
a guard because they have been dominant in college and

(22:05):
that's what Zion was like. So it was in there
and now they just gotta they gotta find it. But
you know, follow that that, follow those breadcrumbs and try
to find it because they at let us, like we said,
you know it's me and look it's yes, it's hopeful,
it is. It is. It is trying to see the
glass is half full, no doubt, I'm willing to acknowledge

(22:28):
that with some of the struggles that that have happened.
But it's it's there. It's like, it's all there. It's
just a matter of why isn't it working at the
level we thought it would. Can we figure can we
identify why the why? And then can we come up
with an answer? And I think this is all part

(22:48):
of that process of trying to come up with the
answer for an individual that has everything you could ever
want in a player for the interior of the offensive
line position.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
Massive upgrade you mentioned Makai Beckton. I also think just
from a depth perspective, right, if Tray's your your swing tackle,
who could play guard, that's great. Jamari Sawyer has some
starts under his belt. So you have that guy Andre James,
so you have more depth than you did last year
at the offensive line. And again maybe maybe Ota is

(23:22):
in mini camp in the beginning of training camp leads
you to believe you need somebody else. And then you know,
as I mentioned, Joe Ortiz is not afraid to find
another player to bring in if if something.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
Isn't working, there's guys out there. Brandon Sheriff's out there,
Will Hernandez is out there. Dudes are out there. If
you feel like that's a better solution, you know, yeah,
so go ahead, Chris.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
No, I was just going to say, do you have
anything else? I was going to tee you up for
Roman because I.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
Was just going to say, you know, defensively. You know,
obviously bud Dupree gets the one year extension. It's an
interesting one. Just is it them trying to you know,
because it'll maybe Ree up a million or two million,
but like it's an interesting time to do that extension,
to put one year on that, but they did. So
Whenever I see something like that, I always go, Okay,
what's it's the motivation here? Why are they doing this?

(24:11):
And for someone in this in the case of Bud
as kind of your your third or fourth edge depending
on how Canard comes along or what it is that
you're looking for. You know, he's more of a DPR
and you know, whereas Bud is is kind of more
of your run setting edge that can you know, also
get some pass rush for you. But okay, so why
do they do that? And like I'm anxious to see why,

(24:33):
Like what is it that went into that and what
could be coming behind it? And you know, I don't
think it would impact the Rashawn Slater signing it all,
you know, that getting an extra million or two million bucks.
But to me, that's kind of like the biggest thing
I'm looking forward to as we record this on a
Thursday for next week is on Tuesday, I'm I'm hoping
that I see Rashawn Slater out there. That would signal

(24:56):
to me that, you know, the negotiations are what they are,
that they're they're going there, they're lobbing stuff, numbers back
and forth, and they're figuring it out and at least
they have a foundation and now they're just trying to,
you know, get those bolts so we can lay the
two by fours on top of the of the bolts
and then you know, get the nut to screw him

(25:17):
in and start building this house. And if he's not
there and you can get fined and it's mandatory and
you decide not to show up to mandatory, then I
get a little nervous. Oh wow, maybe they're a lot
farther apart, and how much of this is medical and
them saying, hey, you can't expect us to take on
all that. You've got to take someone's you know what
I mean, if it gets to that. So that's my
number one thing for next week.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
Is yeah, that'll be number one. That would be defining
in there storyline list on Chargers Weekly.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
I think at the very least with Bud, Bud fits
so well in that locker room from the beginning of
them and they love them so again it brings another
veteran presence to go with Khalil and knowing that Bud,
you know, has it has that one year extension.

Speaker 3 (25:58):
I think that's as it's a good thing probably for
the locker room.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
You know, that's a good point. You know, We've done
so many great interviews during the offseason with coaches and
like it's almost like this coaches GM series where you
get to learn a lot more about the player the coach,
rather the philosophy the players through the coach. So horties
the Jesse Mental one was fantastic. I thought Ryan Ficken

(26:25):
was great last week, learning more about his journey and
just kind of how he coaches special teams. And you
were lucky to talk to Greg Roman earlier this week. Man,
so I'll see you up for that.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah, I'll just set it up like this. Find a
comfortable chair, if you're hungry, get a snack. If you
have to hit the head, go hit it real quick.
I did not anticipate him hanging out as long as
he did, you know, on what was a busy day.
But we just started talking and then we looked at
our watches and it was like forty minutes had passed.
So get comfortable and because and he's very forthcoming and insightful,

(27:00):
and it was it was a lot of fun. Well
join right now by Chargers offensive coordinator Greg Roman and
coach been a while now. We appreciate you coming in
And I guess I'll just start with something that you
hear regularly in football, and that's you know, another year
in the system, same system, continuity. Why is that important
and how how different is it maybe for Justin and

(27:21):
the offense that this is the second year partnering with
you and trying to get this thing going.

Speaker 4 (27:26):
Yeah, I mean, great question. I think if you were
watching our practices this time of year last year and
this time of this year this year, it would answer itself.
If that makes any sense. I think it's really important.
I think it's it's a huge the benefit of having
time on task together, working together, understanding each other better,

(27:51):
understanding what I'm looking for, understanding what he how he
might prefer to do things that working symbiosis, so to speak.
You know, it's you know, it's very important. And you
know our guys are out there working right now and
it's completely different than it was this time last year. It's, uh,

(28:13):
you know, we're a lot further ahead. We you know,
we kind of understand where we are a lot of
work to do, but it's very exciting.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
So I said, try and I mean to keep it
going and build on that from from last year. And
because a lot of times you'll hear people say, oh,
a lot of it's the same. It's sort of terminology
and vernacular and things like that. But kind of give
us an idea of what you walked into, sort of
what the guys that we're already here we're working with,
and what you wanted to implement because we heard one

(28:42):
sort of word it felt like over and over again
that's physicality, being a physical team, and how you tried
to implement that and maybe where you felt like you
were at the end of last season versus where you
think you can go with it this year.

Speaker 4 (28:53):
Yeah, physicality has got to be a part of it.
It's got to be, you know if if if not,
it'll hold you back this league. You know, I could
point to the most recent Super Bowl champions for example.
You know, if you can control the trenches, it really
gives you a lot of flexibility to open up what

(29:14):
you do and do a variety of things. Well, So
that's gonna definitely be a big point of focus for us.
You know, last year coming in it was we had
a great offseason and then justin kind of missed most
of training camp. So the months of September for us

(29:35):
last year was training camp in a big way, and
we got out of it too. And two and then really,
if you want to look at our offense, you really
need to look at it from October through the end
of the year and see where we rank and all that.
I think, you know, it's pretty telling because that first
month we were literally it was just just had just

(29:59):
gotten back in the PRAC this field right before the
opening day, and you know, that first month was me
figuring things out, everybody figuring things out. It was a
little choppy at times, a little choppy.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
So yeah, and then Carolina he gets the injury, you know,
the ankle, and you know, we know what that looked like.
So how does that then? So you've got these three
weeks no training camp, then Carolina and it comes back.
You see it humming those first you know, two and
a half quarters. Then that injury comes. How does that
affect what you're able to do so early in the season.

Speaker 4 (30:29):
Yeah, I mean it was kind of a perfect storm
last year in that regard. I mean, he's just so
double tough that he insisted on playing against Pittsburgh and
Kansas City. So it really changed kind of what we
did and we had to try to bob and weave
a little bit there, rope a dope if you will.
But it's tough to do in this league. I mean,

(30:50):
you got to be able to go out and execute.
And I think once we had that bye week early,
you know, I think that's when he was able to
kind of get himself healthy, had had some real time
on task underneath him because he'd been He's been in
several systems in the prior couple of years, so this

(31:11):
was another system more you know, total learning, which he
completely immersed himself in. But when you watch him out
there right now, I mean he can run practice. You know,
he can run the practice. It's a big difference.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
Yeah, going back to when you said trenches, and I
think when someone says trenches, we immediately think O line.
But it's not just a line, right, Like you're going
to control the trenches kind of based on what the
entire offense is capable of doing to control the trenches.
So maybe kind of take us through sort of what,
you know, what leads to you being able to dominate

(31:44):
in the trenches versus just having five guys you know,
playing or a tight end that's block and they're really good.

Speaker 4 (31:50):
Yeah, I mean, I think that's where it starts. That's
where it starts. I've been fortunate to have been around
a lot of really good offensive lines, and tight ends
over my career and UH it starts with who you
have and and their abilities and commitment to uh to
playing that style, and then from there it comes down to,

(32:11):
you know, making things match and work, and you know,
what can we really do? Who are we? You know,
are we doing what we should be doing relative to
you know, our skill set and where we're at. We're
always going to try to push the envelope, try to
keep teams off balance a little bit, probably more so
in the coming this year and the moving forward Last

(32:32):
year was a little bit a little bit more straightforward
type of offense. I think we'll probably open things up,
move things around a little bit more this year. But
when you can control the line of scrimmage and you're
I think, I think what you need to do is
look at the the the opposite situation where you can't
control the line of scrimmage, and then work backwards, because

(32:53):
if you can't, then your running game is going to
be very spotty at best, uh even poor and anemic
to where people don't even respect it. Uh, and your
pass protection will be suspect. So now you basically are
backing yourself into a corner where you got to throw

(33:13):
the ball quick. Uh, your quarterback better. Weal to anticipate
and throw throw the ball, you know early, get it
out early. And now all of a sudden, you start
to build this profile where defenses can say, well, we
ain't worried about the run and we know they're not
going to do anything where he's got to hold the
ball too much because they can't pass pro uh. And
now you're playing in this little box and that's not

(33:35):
a good place to be. So conversely, you know, you
got the you got some studs up front, some guys,
you got that old line humming. Pass protection is good
run games effective. Now now we have we hold all
the cards at that point and it's up to us
to execute. So it's a great formula. Last year, the

(33:55):
running game was not where we wanted to be at all. However,
I will say that there were some really timely runs.
You think back to the Denver game, the Cincinnati game,
the Raiders games. There were some really timely, big, big
runs that we hit that really helped us win the game,
some really good situational running. But overall, we really feel

(34:17):
like we can make up big strides in that area
this year.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
So just on that, why why do you think it
you know, didn't go quite how you wanted it to go,
because clearly you've got a brand new running back room.
You got Anaugi in there, You've got Amarian Hampton your
first round pick, you know, and so I know a
lot of people look at the backs, but just kind
of that whole operation and what you may be.

Speaker 4 (34:36):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's gonna It's just there's
a lot of factors involved. I've been around some really
good running games as the Cornet, and I know what
it looks like and I know how to do it.
I really feel like we're gonna make some big strides
there this year. And you know, I said it last year.
Can you imagine Justin Herbert with a really good running game?

(34:56):
And uh, you know, I think, uh, I think it's
so to be really excited about for us and all
our fans.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
So just you know, going back to that the games
that you know, the running games you've been involved in it,
I just you know, I was calling Stanford games when
you guys were there and watching Toby Gearhart Wreck Shop
and just that level of physicality and calling Pac twelve
Pac ten games, Pack twelve games was really fun. Just
to see how you were able to take advantage of
what was a you know, for I guess lack of

(35:24):
a better term, kind of a lightening ass defense sort
of conference. And then you know, we talked about San
Francisco last week. I think we were having this conversation
on the pod about Frank Gore and then just all
the physicality you had in Baltimore. So with this group, yeah,
so like and it looked like, you know, you got
JK and you got Gus last year and his sound's
a big guy. It looked like, yeah, let's try to
do it. So what about this group excites You can

(35:45):
see you kind of sitting up a little bit about
this particular group of guys that you have going into
this year.

Speaker 4 (35:50):
I mean, I think, Joe, you're going to see a
hands down all pro this year. You know, I mean,
hands down all I can see it right now. Why
I think last year? But yeah, last year was you know,
what was he twenty years old? He was like, you know, Clifford,

(36:11):
the big red dog, you know, figuring things out now
I can tell. I mean he's really worked hard this offseason.
His body is like, you know, he's like three hundred
and thirty pounds. You know, he's kind of getting into
that that man strength, you know what I mean, And
he understands. He walked right into my office the last
day of the day after the season and went through

(36:33):
a litany of things that he feels like he's going
to do better, and he's already doing him out here,
like just little detail things, you know, elite level type stuff.
So he's going to take a huge jump. Makai Beckton,
who we added. You know, I've loved this guy forever
and we're just really fortunate that he's here. I mean,

(36:54):
he's three hundred and sixty five pounds of a wrecking
ball and that's going to make a big difference. Yeah,
big difference, you know. And then the rest of our
old line, whether it's Slater, Zion Bozeman, and then you know,
Jamari Sawiers come back in great shape. He's down thirty pounds,

(37:14):
he looks great, he's moving great. He's still a big,
physical guy who knows how to play. So really impressed
with that too, So you know, excited about it. And
we got our goon tight end squad too. You know,
we got Fisk and Scottie Mattlocke who you know, they
are they kind of like the enforcers on a hockey team,
you know, we throw them out there, you know, try

(37:35):
to get medieval.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
So I think I saw that my favorite stat from
last year, and I wish I remembered the exact number,
but the Chargers ran more plays with eight or more
players two hundred and fifty pounds or heavier than any
other team. And I think you clocked in somewhere around
forty to fifty plays and the next highest was like eleven. Okay,

(38:00):
oh my nights was obviously Matt Lockfisk, Disley all out
there with the offensive line. Just the benefit of that,
what you see in that sort of offense when you
put eight of those guys on the field.

Speaker 4 (38:12):
Yeah, yeah, I think it's a it's a huge advantage.
And I think defensive coordinators would agree with that because
most teams, you know, they come out, they're in one
personnel group, you know, a lighter personnel group or whatever
that is. And you know, that's when defensive coordinators can

(38:33):
really get into their extensive nickel package, all the exotic
things that they work on. And when you start getting
those bigger fellows out there everyone you add, the more
you regulate what the defense is willing to do. So
they're going to play a very much simpler style of
defense generally speaking. So now I've cut their call sheet

(38:54):
all the way down to that, and now we've got
the ability to run the ball with big big folks.
Try to create some matchup issues for them. And oh,
by the way, the play action pass, you know which
came first, the chicken or the egg? You know, they
work hand in hand. They're the same. To me. People
look at rushing stats. I don't. I look at run

(39:17):
and play action together how effective they are because they
marry together. And if they're overplaying the run, we should
be great in play action pass. If they're respecting the pass,
we should be good in the run game. So you know,
the bare bone stat line doesn't do it for me.
You know, I want to dig a little deeper.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
Where do you think that was last year?

Speaker 4 (39:39):
Very good? I believe we were second in the league
in play action pass behind the Lions. Who watching them
last year, I think they might have had the best
play action passing of all time. That's I think somebody
told me that. I don't know if that's true, but
when you look at it, it might have been. It was
it was damn impressive, but we were second, so that

(39:59):
was quite a jump from where they'd been prior the
run game. If we once once we get that thing elevated.
Now now now we're really we're cooking with gas.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
Yeah. One of the things that we talked about as
well is just you've always had, you know, you've always
done great work with tight ends, you know, just every stop.
Like I said, going back to those Stanford days and
watching you know, Fleeener and toy Lolo and those guys,
and then to San Francisco and obviously what Vernon Davis
became when you guys got there to Baltimore. Just kind
of what you were able to do last year. You know,

(40:33):
the injury to Hayden certainly hit you hard there and
that that preseason, but just kind of what you saw
on Will and what his profile was versus what you
were able to do, you know, using him in that
passing game, and and now what you see you know
in front of you with Tyler and and with Tyler
Conklin and the drafting of Gadsden as well.

Speaker 4 (40:50):
Yeah, I think, uh, you know, Will last year, once
we kind of got a feel for him, we were
able to kind of deploy him towards his strengths, which
you know, he's got a nice feel for the passing game.
I thought he felt he'd built. He spent a lot
of time working with justin built a good rapport with him.
Really excited about Tyler Conklin. This guy, I think is

(41:13):
a little bit of a genie in a bottle where
nobody's gonna really think, oh, you know, that's not that
big of a signing or this or that. But man,
I'm telling you, just being out here with him, this
guy's got a chance to be special.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
What do you like? What is it? What do you see?

Speaker 4 (41:27):
I think this guy's an underrated guy in the passing game,
and I think he's a good blocker, so he can
be a nice complete tight end. But uh, I love
his attitude. This guy's one of us, And uh really
really glad we got him. Joe and and Joe and
the crew went out and got him, and then really
excited about Gatston too. He had some really nice plays

(41:50):
in practice the other day. You know, he's right now,
he's more of a passing game orient a tight end,
so we're gonna try to round him out. But I
think he's got huge potential as his career builds. We'll
see how much he can do this year and how
much he can contribute. We're counting on it. But I
feel confident knowing the guy and watching his skill. This

(42:13):
guy's gonna be a player for the Chargers, big time
player as time moves forward. And then, you know, Ladd
was such a such a surprise, not a surprise, but
he was such a such a weapon, I mean, just
so dependable, and we were able to do things with

(42:33):
Ladd and year one that you generally don't do with
a guy until year three or four. You know, his
his IQ is football IQ. We a lot of different
things that create give him options to get open and
stuff like that, you know, next level, graduate level stuff
as I like to call it. So we're really looking

(42:53):
forward to growing in that department too, because our receiving
corps right now, compared to this time last year, it's
and day.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
So let's let's get into that. Just because you know,
like you said, Lad, you know, surprise you you shouldn't,
you know, I always hate saying that because it suggests
the guy you didn't think was capable of doing that.

Speaker 4 (43:10):
That's not the case of mehing No, it's a rookie.
You know, you expect a rookie to come in and
set the all time rookie right exactly like the Chargers,
which is the Chargers have had amazing receivers here.

Speaker 1 (43:19):
What's crazy what he was able to do? Yeah, no doubt,
but just what you you know, when we saw Q
take a step from where he was his rookie year.
But then it just felt like with the injury to
DJ and Mike Williams being gone, and you know, Simmy
filled that role for a sec, but just it felt
like you needed that that X receiver out there that
that you were looking for. And I don't know if
that's fair or not to like say, it just never

(43:41):
quite felt. Now we look out there and there's Mike
Williams and there's Trey Harris, and you feel like, okay,
I can now see how this is all lining up.
Kind of Is that fair what you felt like you
had last year to have a complete passing game versus,
like you said, what you see out there this year.

Speaker 4 (43:55):
Well, I think it starts with, you know, where the
receiving group is at in terms of fundamentals, how they
play the game, down in and down out. And I think, uh,
you know, Sanjay Low has done a great job working
with these guys. I mean they're a completely different unit
now from a discipline standpoint, being on point, playing and
down in and down out. And then uh, you know,

(44:17):
I think we've added a lot of talent, you know,
really excited, really excited about our two draft picks. You know,
I think those guys are affording themselves well. And then
you know, Lad's gonna get better and better, and Q
is having a great spring so far, so I see

(44:39):
him taking another step this year. And then Jalen Rager, uh,
you know, JJ Dez, all the you know, and obviously Mike,
you know, all these guys are going to factor in.
So love how that group's playing right now. And excited
about them, the rookies. You know, we're just going to

(45:01):
keep pushing them, pushing them, pushing them to to you know,
get up to par with the Vets.

Speaker 1 (45:06):
So when you have someone like Ladd, who's you just
you know, like, I know, you don't like, you know,
you said the stat thing, but when you look at
the stats and it's you know, the only other slot
receiver that was more effective than him from the slot
with City Lamb, that was it last year? And then
Lad's right there. So but we saw you use him
outside and he was incredibly effective outside as well. So like,
what is your vision, you know, with with Ladd, and

(45:29):
what is the best way Is there a best best
way to deploy him? Is it the slot or is
it being able to move him around a lot?

Speaker 4 (45:36):
Oh? Yeah, we're going to move him around. I mean,
you know, the guy's got some serious talent and a
serious will to get it get it done, even in
the playoff game. Look at his production on the playoffs
Cariple team.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
It was crazy.

Speaker 4 (45:52):
Yeah, so you know, he's a guy that we're just
going to continue to grow with and uh, you know,
but you know, and when they double Lad, you got
to play the percentages. The ball needs to go somewhere else.
And they started doubling them pretty early in the year. Actually,
starting in week five, we started to see some real
like double coverage on Lad and continued throughout the season.

(46:17):
So that's going to open up opportunities for everybody else
and we got to be ready to take advantage of those. Yeah,
you know, and justin you know, watching him out there
right now, like I said, he could run the practice.
He's just got everything. You know, he owns it now.
And uh, you know, if you're a receiver, you want
to play here because that you know he can put

(46:38):
the ball. You know, I'm not speak you know, you
go out and watch him every day. He can put
the ball wherever you want it, wherever it needs to go,
and that everybody can't do that. So you know, he's
only going to multiply these guys' skills, you know, but
overall the mindset where they're at, the competitiveness, understanding the offense.

(47:02):
I think the receiving core is going to be I
think we're going to create some issues for people this year.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
Hopefully we went this long and that's the first time
we really brought up Justin, you know, outside of talking
about you know, his second year in the system. So
just your what, I guess, what your impressions were coming in,
what you thought you were gonna to get with Justin
versus you know, what you discovered after he got here
and you worked with him, and how that maybe affects

(47:28):
year two and what you're you know, sort of envisioning
being able to do with him.

Speaker 4 (47:33):
Yeah, I mean it's straightforward. You know, we want to
have a balanced attack so he's got to be in
charge and completely in control of the running game as well,
and all those mental gymnastics of getting us in the
right play that type of thing. But overall, I mean,
I mean, this guy's a sniper and uh, you know,
I think he should be in the MVP discussion every year.

(47:55):
I know he was last year, and uh, you know,
he's that type of play. He's an MVP type of player.
He doesn't care about all that. He just wants to
go out and win. And uh but I mean as
far as his mind, it's it's it's you know, highly impressive,

(48:16):
highly impressive ability to uh take in a ton of
information and uh disseminate it quickly, very very you know
A plus. His ability to throw the ball a plus,
toughness a plus. Uh, this guy, this guy is a
special person, special player, and uh, you know, we're looking

(48:37):
forward to, uh, you know, really trying to push the
envelope this year and see how good we can be.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
We've seen you do great things with quarterbacks, you know,
using their feet and just kind of how much of
that injury last year maybe went into not seeing as
much of that from justin as a lot of people
thought you know, they see the offense you have and
they're like, man, this is going to be fun. And
I would just assume that that was was part of it.
Is that do you think? Is that right? You think
we'll see a little bit more of that this year?

Speaker 4 (49:04):
Yeah? I think so. I mean, I think when he
used his legs, it really affected the games. When you
look at the Denver game, the Bengals game, the Carolina game.
Off the top of my head, you know, he can
really affect the game with his legs. He's a great athlete,
and it creates so much stress on the defense when
they have to defend that. Now, that was off the

(49:24):
table most of last year. It started to pick up
a little bit more towards the three quarters of the
way through. So you know, I think hopefully, you know,
we're gonna work on becoming better at the second play,
so to speak, whether it's him scrambling to throw or
scrambling to run, you know, we'll do We'll definitely have

(49:45):
some quarterback driven run game stuff available. How much of
it we do it will be dependent on what we
need to win a game, you know. But but yeah,
I mean, his ability to affect the game that way
is well documented unfortunately last year. I mean jeez, early
in the season, you know, it was like he couldn't

(50:06):
move hardly at all. So so, yeah, that's exciting. Another
exciting thing.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
Well, yeah, that kind of one of the things you hear,
one of the sort of debate points is that it's
more dangerous for the quarterback to be in the pocket
historically looking at injuries to quarterbacks than it is for
them to be outside running around. Do you subscribe to that?
Do you worry at all about your quarterback being out
there running?

Speaker 4 (50:26):
It's all how you handle it. And uh, I always
say this, when you're in the pocket with your eyes
glued downfield trying to you know, you're not in control
of that. But if you're out in space, you're in control.
And uh, I've I've lived it, Yeah, as a coach,
not as not as.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
A as a coach, I've.

Speaker 4 (50:45):
Lived that whole thing every day for a long, long
period of time. Where and you find you come to
find that if you manage when you're outside the pocket,
and you manage it the right way, it's actually a
great advantage for you.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (50:58):
And you know, you probably have less chance of getting
dinged than you know, sitting in there with the bodies
that you don't know how they're getting. You know, you
get one o linement that gets bent back or opened up,
and then you got bodies falling and et cetera, et cetera.
When you're in space, I'm gonna run out of bounds,
I'm gonna run and get down, I'm gonna slide, I'm
gonna throw. You know, you're in more control. You've got control.

(51:20):
You got the wheel at that.

Speaker 1 (51:21):
Point, Yeah, you know, and it's it's it's odd to
think that. But at the same time, you know, I
think back to Carolina, right and you're up, and it's like,
you know what, because you've said he's double tough, right,
So how how is how tough is your job? When
you're like, no, is that hard to say, Hey, let's
just every now and then, let's let's, you know, make

(51:41):
sure we don't take those those hits because we've seen
him take them in and usually he just pops right
back up and he's justin Herbert. He's a giant, he's
a titan out there. So you don't think twice about it.
Is that hard for an offensive coordinator to say, sometimes
just kill the play.

Speaker 4 (51:54):
It's Okay, Yeah, I mean it's a discussion. It's a discussion.
He's a reasonable person, so I can have a discussion
of him, you know, and you know, once if somebody's reasonable,
I can we can reason things out. But I mean,
there's there's something there. There's that sweet spot, there's a
fine line, the delicate tap dance, all those all those

(52:17):
sayings of you know, how much is good and how
much is you know, you want to draw the line.
So in the heat of battle, I'm gonna leave that
up to him. But we're going to have those discussions
and say, you know, we're gonna try to leverage probabilities,
We're gonna try to leverage percentages for you know, for

(52:38):
us short term, long term and just making great decisions
out there, you know, in the heat of battle. So
but yeah, I trust him with that. I trust him
and we have good discussions about it.

Speaker 1 (52:52):
Right another discussion, where do you come out. I don't
know if this is the right way to phrase it.
Just the quarterback sneak the I think the tush push
is something entirely different, which is kind of what I've
said on here and talking to players, you know, having
done this, you know, as long as I have is
that's a rough play for a quarterback man. They're getting there,

(53:12):
their butts kicked when they sneak the ball, and defensive
players can take some shots at them when they're in
there doing it, so were, but it seems to be
an incredibly effective play. So kind of what is the
balance there and how do you feel about the sneak
versus handing it to a back and trying to get
short yardage that way?

Speaker 4 (53:29):
Mm hmm, Well, it depends who you are. And you know,
for example, the tush Push is basically owned and operated
by Philly. Yeah, and you know, I think their quarterback
squat's like seven hundred pounds, right, So that has a
lot to do with it, a lot to do with it.
And you know, they they've kind of taken that play
and made it their own and become experts at it.

(53:51):
It's a very physical play for everybody involved the whole line.
That is a physical play. But they got you know,
they got to a body type of quarterback that's really
good at it, and you know, it's a highly highly
effective play. I mean with them, you just can't let
him get in third and two or less. You know,

(54:11):
that's what you got to win first and second down,
I guess. But as far as us, you know, we'll
use it as a weapon when we feel like it's advantageous.
Justin's a really good at it. He's a big physical guy,
and h third and one, when you look at it historically,
is usually a two for three proposition two out of

(54:33):
three league wide. You'd think it'd be more than that.
You know, it's one yard, but they're geared up for it,
and you know, do you want to throw a low
percentage pass or can we figure out a way to
get a yard? So you know, I think you're gonna
do some of that throwing the ball at times, but
if you can get a look where you can sneak

(54:55):
that thing, it's it's the simplest, easiest way to go.
And he did a great job with that yest year.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
Where do you this is going to perhaps expose me?
Is the more on that I am, But I would
love to know where do you come out on packing
it in and using all this size versus spread it
out and just having five guys there on the line
of scrimmage on a third and one, even if he's
under center or something and trying to.

Speaker 4 (55:18):
Get it that way depends who you're playing. Yeah, it
really does, and what they do and whatnot. I mean,
you know, as a general statement what you just said,
pack them in or spread them out, Like, I'll take
that to the length of our entire offense. Like I
want to be able to do both, right, you know,
And I think if you can do both effectively, you

(55:41):
can have sustained success over the course of a seventeen
game season and the playoffs where you're hard to kind
of get a beat on, you know, a little bit
harder to isolate, or you know, you can be a
little bit a little bit you know, you could open
things up more and what you do and what they

(56:02):
have to prepare for than just the stock. Hey, we're
coming out in three wides and doing this like everybody else, right,
and they're defending what they defend every week. Just can
you do it better than the last team? You know?

Speaker 1 (56:16):
Right?

Speaker 4 (56:16):
Oh, and by the way, they're gonna come up with
this other couple of wrinkles that you know, off of
what they did the prior week or we you know
what I'm saying. Oh, yeah, there's a lot there. There's
a lot to unpack there.

Speaker 1 (56:29):
So it just in terms of you and the way
you've you've built offense and called offense and what you
visualize as an effective offense. Over the years, we've kind
of you know, we see this pendulum, right, we saw
a wildcat for a year and a half here in
this league. Just has it always been the same for you?
Have you shifted sort of what you think offensive identity
should be as based on kind of what the league

(56:50):
has become or do you feel like you've you know,
Greg Roman, offense is this and I feel it's effective
this way?

Speaker 4 (56:57):
Well, I mean, you know, to me, number one, I'm
gonna look at winning. Winning is the stat that I'm chasing.
I don't you know, people don't judge offensive coordinators generally
on winning. I do, and I don't care because my
job is to help my team win. And whether that's
you know what we did in Carolina last year where

(57:19):
we ran the ball five hundred times, or later in
New Year, you know where we open it up and
you know, throw it, that doesn't matter to me. What
can our players do? Who are we playing? What do
they do? All that thing's gonna fact all that stuff's
gonna factor in. But you know, a toughness, a mental toughness,
the ability to get tough yards when you have to

(57:40):
have them, like some teams you know used to I
used to coach defense when I first started. We used
to go against the run and shoot and they go
right down the field and then they couldn't do anything
in the red zone. And if they had the ice
of game at the end of the game, they could
never do it. Or sometimes they could. But you know,
you have to have that, you know, I want to
have that ability to where I can dictate, Hey, if

(58:02):
they're going to overplay this, we'll overplay that, you know,
but I'm always gonna hedge my bets on who we have,
you know right now, you know, a guy like Justin Herbert. Yeah,
we're gonna throw the ball quite a bit, but you know,
if we can run the ball really well too. Now
you know, now you're talking about checkmate, that's what we're chasing.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
Where'd the whole tight end thing just kind of your
success with tight the way you used tight ends, Where
did that, what does that stem from? And how did
you well kind of build that out?

Speaker 4 (58:35):
You know, for I've I first started coaching tight ends
when I was like I was super young. Our our
tight end coach Don Brow had an illness he had
to deal with at the time. And then I got
I got thrust into coaching the tight end position way
before I was ready for it. And I had a
guy named Wesley Walls, a tight end who's a perennial

(58:56):
All Pro player who basically was given all the tricks
of the trade. So that was a really good experience
for me as a young coach in the league. But
I got to say that once we got to Stanford,
I mean we had seven tight ends in two years.

Speaker 1 (59:14):
Yeah, it was crazy.

Speaker 4 (59:14):
We had seven tight ends and two years of played
in the NFL and the two years that I was there,
And it's credit to them and and whatnot, but but
that's where you know, we definitely you can do a
lot of different things with tight ends, and we went
we went crazy with it there. And uh then I
go to San Francisco when we got Vernon Davis and

(59:35):
Delaney Walker who was just becoming a tight end transitioning
from receiver, and uh man, we had some success with
those guys, you know, and then I had Charles Clay
and Buffalo and Mark Andrews and a really good group
of tight ends at my time. In Baltimore, really good room.

(59:57):
So you know, I've just been very fortunate to be
around really really good tight ends, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
And then just to flip it forward quick, you know,
we'll wrap this up. You've given us a lot of
time here to this year. You talked about Aronde a
little bit earlier, just you know, because it seems like
you want your tight ends to be able to block,
you know, and that's important. And we saw kind of
the way he played at Syracis. I mean, he just
looked like a wide receiver out there at times, dunking
on guys. Just how you're able to use someone like that.

Speaker 4 (01:00:23):
Yeah, I mean to me, like running backs are different,
tight ends are different. Everybody's different, really, but tight ends
will get deployed. He'll he'll be a tight end, but
you know, he's probably gonna do a little bit heavier
load in the passing game as he becomes a really
proficient blocker. But yeah, I'm gonna deploy guys. There's no

(01:00:46):
cookie cutter thing here. We're going to put certain guys
in on certain things, and you know we're gonna definitely
make the defense honest with a guy like a Rondez,
you know, as far as run pass, et cetera. What
we're doing with him. But you know, we're always gonna
favor a guy's skill set, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
Right, just I would assume you have a lot of
input when they're out there looking at free agents and
and Najia Harris gets signed, and when you're in the
first round at a mari and Hampton gets drafted with.

Speaker 4 (01:01:16):
Yeah, I'll tell you what, Hey, Naji, I'll tell you what.
Watching him out here right now, I am blown away
with this guy. His knowledge of the game, his ability,
his movement skills. It's exciting. It's exciting. And then o'marian, jeez,
really excited. And then I'll tell you what. Kamani's looking

(01:01:38):
really good. He's really taking a step. He's got some
he's got an extra gear this year. He's really asserting
himself out there, right and uh, you know and Jay
Pat and I mean, we got we got, we got
a heck of a crew there, really looking forward to
working with.

Speaker 1 (01:01:53):
Seems like Sanders is someone that that coach has talked
about is.

Speaker 4 (01:01:55):
Yeah, well yeah, rocket, he's uh, he's a big physical dude. Yeah,
I'm really looking forward to seeing that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:02):
Right on with this group I get, you know, just
real quick, last one offensive line because you know we
see Zion out there taking snaps or snapping the ball.
To just sort of your guess idea of what this thing.
I know we talked about it right there at the start,
but just that particular section Bozeman Zion, you know, inside
a slater and how you think that could look at

(01:02:23):
at left guard and center?

Speaker 4 (01:02:25):
Yeah, I mean to me, I mean there's a lot
of options there. You got bose you got Zion, and
then center guard. You know, shoot, I think Boseman started
it left guard. I want to say the year we
uh set the all time rushing record and led the
league in points scored back when he was younger, so

(01:02:46):
he can play guard right. And then Jamari Slier is
a guy to UH to be very aware of there too.
So we got and then we got some young guys.
You know, we drafted young kid at Taylor, and we'll see,
you know, he's gonna have every opportunity to uh challenge
for that position as well, So we'll see how it unfolds.

(01:03:10):
But I think we've got some really good options, some
really good guys there, and you know, the Zion at
center We're definitely gonna give him time there and see
how it goes and see how that all work. That flows.
But if we can if he can play center, well
hey he might start, but he also that that might
if he doesn't start at center, you know, maybe he

(01:03:31):
can slide in and if we need him at center
as well. So we're just trying to build quality, depth
and options. But Zion, man, when you look at him,
he is like a prototypical center.

Speaker 1 (01:03:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:03:43):
I mean he looks like DERMANI Dawson the second, you know,
So you know it'll be interesting, man. I mean, we're
gonna have to find some figure things out as we go.
But these guys are attacking it. Zion's attacking that like
nobody's ever seen the way he's I can't even tell
you how many times how many snaps he's he's done
this offseason. Thousands?

Speaker 1 (01:04:05):
All right, last one? Do you still have the RV?
Did you? Guys?

Speaker 4 (01:04:09):
Oh? Yeah you do? So where is the art right now?
It's down in Coasta, Mesa.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
It is.

Speaker 4 (01:04:14):
It's yeah, it's just part I gotta check in on that.
I gotta check in on it. I haven't been there
in a while.

Speaker 1 (01:04:18):
Now, did you already own it before you. Yes, okay,
you're an RV guy. Yes, you'll cross country.

Speaker 4 (01:04:23):
We did one trip in twenty nineteen from Baltimore. Uh.
We had a great trip, amazing family trip out to
Yellowstone and up to Montana to see some friends of ours.
And then I made the drive back in four days miraculously.
I was insane.

Speaker 1 (01:04:39):
Okay, so you're an RV guy. They didn't just drive
it off the market and an HD there. No, No,
that's that freaking plant right now, right.

Speaker 4 (01:04:47):
Well, no, that was to the side. I got to
look at the beach.

Speaker 1 (01:04:49):
You didn't you at a stall that you look at
the beach? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:04:52):
Oh yeah. I was staring at the beach for five
months lived there. That was quite an adventure.

Speaker 1 (01:04:56):
You guys were cross the street, right. You didn't do
the beach lot, right, You did the.

Speaker 4 (01:04:58):
One right across the street. Yeah. Yeah, the beach lot.
You could only stay there for like ten days at
the longest. So five months, five months straight. That was fun.
It was great to get my family out here though,
and get up to Manhattan Beach and you know, as
the boat got finished here in El Segundo. So but
exciting times. Exciting times, but Yeah, we're gonna wait, probably

(01:05:19):
wait till next year and take the RV and do
the California thing. There's so many things in the state
to see. It's it's incredible.

Speaker 1 (01:05:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:05:26):
So uh my wife saw like on me about doing
that next year. So so, uh, that'll be on the
you know, that'll be on the books.

Speaker 1 (01:05:33):
Good deal. You can drive the Vince Lombardi Trophy around
in it, you know, that's right there on the dash.

Speaker 4 (01:05:38):
That would be I don't know if they're gonna let
me borrow it, but.

Speaker 1 (01:05:40):
You know, you make you just tell everybody that it's
the one.

Speaker 4 (01:05:44):
Yeah. But yeah, it's exciting. We're all so excited. It's
a great time to be a charger.

Speaker 1 (01:05:49):
Yeah, so wait, we'll appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (01:05:50):
Coach, thanks, thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
Well, Mandy, great job with that. There was a long conversation.
Where were a few your takeaways?

Speaker 1 (01:05:58):
Yeah, we missed you, Chris. I wish you could have
been up there because it was really fun just kind
of digging in with Coach and I. To me, the
number one takeaway is you can see how much more
comfortable he is with what he's going into the season with.
And I think it goes back to something we talked
about at the top of the show, just what a
tough obstacle that was losing justin a week into training

(01:06:22):
camp and how much that set them back, and then
him sharing with us that ankle injury in week two
really just kind of affected the way they had to
call the offense the rest of the year, and how
he didn't quite get humming and you know, and then
he was saying like, hey, you could see it when
his ankle started feeling better and we're starting to sling

(01:06:42):
it around a little more. So I think it's so
important to remember. And then the way he talked about
Tyler Conklin and how he's saying, oh, this guy's going
to have a season. You know, it tells you, yeah,
he needed that player for his offense, and Beckton and
the effusive praise he had for Bechten and like it
to me, that's I think it's impossible for me to
take anything else away from it. Right Here's you know,

(01:07:04):
an offense is a scheme and it's plays that you're calling,
and it's it looks like he's got more guys that
he is now comfortable calling an offense. You know, he
kept saying play action and that what I want to
do in play action, and that's how we want this
thing to roll. And you can kind of see, yeah,
now he's you know, I don't want to see he
had one hand tie behind his back. But you feel

(01:07:25):
a lot better about all the pieces he has knock
on wood. You can stay healthy about what his vision
is and what he wants to do and what he
wasn't able to do last year.

Speaker 2 (01:07:35):
You know, Lad mentioned play action too in this press conference,
and I think sometimes we forget in Undoubtedly there's going
to be adversity this year. There's going to be something
weird that happens that they're going to have to overcome.
All thirty two teams have to do that. But to
not have your quarterback for a bulk of training camp,
and then to have your quarterback play such a high
level in weeks one to two and then get hurt

(01:07:56):
going into Week three against Pittsburgh in a hostile environment,
to play on one leg against Kansas City the following week,
I mean, those are levels of adversity that not a
lot of teams have with their star player at the
beginning of a season, with a brand new coaching stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:08:12):
Yeah, and I guess I just put a button on
it with this that. The other thing I took away
is that I don't think we're running the Toush push,
you know, just kind of way. He talked about how
special Jalen Hurts is and how you've got a quarterback
that can squat nine hundred pounds and you know that
it just changes what you're able to do. He did
obviously point out that, yeah, Justin can sneak the ball
and he's a hell of a weapon when you want
to sneak it. He's like, but the Toush push, Like,

(01:08:34):
that's just a team that is built to do that,
and that's what they do really really well, and you've
just got to figure out a way to stop it.
So that's the other obvious thing, you know, Like, I
don't think we're going to see Justin Squatt in his
six foot six frame, you know, behind Zion or Bradley
and have Matt Locke or Tucker Fisk or one of
these guys behind him shoving them forward.

Speaker 2 (01:08:55):
Yeah, Well, identify other ways to get in the end
zone in order to get first downs.

Speaker 3 (01:08:59):
On four than short. Next week's gonna be fun.

Speaker 2 (01:09:02):
The mandatory mini camp and uh, you alluded to a
money I think the Rassan Slater situation and seeing him
hopefully next week will be uh the lead, and then
just getting everybody together again. It'll be media day, so
it'll be it'll be a lot of fun. And then
I think there's another OT a week before they break
for the summer for a little bit afterwards.

Speaker 3 (01:09:22):
Is that Is that right?

Speaker 1 (01:09:23):
I don't I have the whole June schedule. Not to
get too deep into the weeds here, but I.

Speaker 2 (01:09:31):
If you're listening to this on June fifth, you're in
the weeds.

Speaker 3 (01:09:33):
Baby.

Speaker 1 (01:09:34):
You love this great point. Here we go June media availability.
I just show it as oh, you know what, Yes,
you're right. So we have OTA, we have a veteran
mini camp tenth, eleventh, twelfth, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then
on Monday phase three the one day media viewing at noon,
and then they're going to make some position coaches and

(01:09:55):
rookies available on June sixteenth, and then they'll break. Everyone
can take their vaca and then obviously it's a team
that's going to have to sort out training camp a
little bit earlier because of the Hall of Fame game.

Speaker 4 (01:10:05):
Cool.

Speaker 2 (01:10:06):
Yeah, So hopefully next week, we'll be able to get
either player or coach or somebody around mini camp. We'll
try to arrange that and get some more guests onto
here or spend a lot of fun during the off
season to hear from these guys, and it'll will relaxed
setting before it really starts to get real in mid July,
which is July thirty.

Speaker 3 (01:10:24):
First, we have a preseason game.

Speaker 1 (01:10:26):
We'll be in Canton on Thursday game to get four
preseason games.

Speaker 3 (01:10:32):
Yeah, my goodness.

Speaker 2 (01:10:34):
All right, well, dude, great job with coach Roman. We
will see you guys next week for money. I'm Chris.

Speaker 3 (01:10:41):
This has been Chargers Weekly.