Chargers Weekly: How Will Bolts Attack 2025 Offseason?

On this episode of Chargers Weekly, host Matt “Money” Smith is joined by beat reporter Daniel Popper from The Athletic to recap the latest news involving LA and the entire NFL. They recap Head Coach Jim Harbaugh’s first year as Head Coach, preview how General Manager Joe Hortiz will attack the 2025 offseason, and Popper gives his plan for how the Bolts should handle the draft & free agency.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Late fifteen to ten touched up. Welcome to Chargers Weekly,
as we're doing a virtual today. A huge thank you
to Daniel Popper, our guest as kind of flying solo
and probably could have done it solo. It would have
been terrible to look. Get tired of hearing me drone

(00:23):
on and on. So bring in somebody who knows a
heck of a lot about all of the stuff that
Charger fans are seeking right now, and that is information
on how this team is going to improve itself from
what was a heck of a season. Daniel, real quick,
I want to point out Daniel works for The Athletic,
that is a subscription based service. I highly recommend a
subscription to The Athletic, not only for Popper's coverage. He's

(00:43):
the best in the business as far as I'm concerned
in the NFL, but all the draft coverage from our
friends over there is sensational, and obviously all the other
sports they cover in town also great. So subscribe to it.
They're great people, they do great work, and they're some
of the best beat writers no matter of the sport.
Pop Thanks for coming, and I think I'll lead into
the article you posted a little bit earlier this week,

(01:06):
could you kind of broke down the salary cap situation
for this upcoming off season for the Chargers and how
dramatically different it is from what Geortis had to work
with last offseason.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, pretty much one hundred eighty degree difference. First off,
thank you for the kind words. Really appreciate it and
thanks for having me on. But yeah, I mean last
year when when Jim Harbaugh and Joe Hartiz took over
this thing, you know, they were more than fifty million
dollars over the cap. Now they're sixty three million dollars
under the cap. Just to put that in perspective, the

(01:36):
type of swing that you're talking about. So last year
it was about how do we make this functional? How
do we get cap compliant? What moves do we have
to make, what restructures, what cuts, what trades to get
ourselves in a position where we're compliant with the league's
salary cap. That is not the case this year. Obviously,
last year you had a bunch of those veteran decisions. Cut,
Mike Williams, traded Keenan Allen, negotiated pay cuts and restructures

(01:59):
with klo mac enjoyed. This year, they have none of
those issues. There is no weight of having to get compliant.
It's all about flexibility now. And the big question is
how do you use this space appropriately and the best
fashion to improve a team that was a solid club
this past season making the playoffs and winning eleven games,

(02:21):
and you know, there are obviously a bunch of options
in terms of how you use that money to build
the roster here in the off season.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yeah, jump off that last point you made, because look,
it didn't end great. You know, people were bummed the
way it ended in Houston. But to try to take
that fine point and spread it a little bit. Remember
where we were last year at this moment when we
were talking about fifty million over and everybody was preaching,
I hope they just ripped the band aid off. You

(02:48):
can't try to thread this needle. It's too hard in
the NFL. You're going to kick that can down the
road and then maybe you put yourself back a couple
of years. Well, for all intents and purposes, they did
rip the band aid off, and now they're staring at
fifty sixty million dollars in cap space, and they went
eleven and six and then they made the playoffs. As
the number five. What like, I always want to go

(03:11):
back And I know people point that it's, you know,
point to my Chargers bias and I work for the
team and all that, But I say, just remember where
we were a year ago with all of these contracts
and fifty million over and it ends in eleven and
six and a playoff berth a a in a team
that we thought could really make a run if they
could just get that first win, which unfortunately they didn't get.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, And I think that's part of what's encouraging about
this is they were able to stitch together a playoff
caliber roster with all the limitations they had financially. So
what's it going to look like when they actually have
the flexibility to spend? And like I think X like
keeping expectations in perspective are important, right, Like I think
last year, like the best you could expect from what

(03:52):
they had in terms of their situation financially was like, Okay,
can you put this together? Can you find some you know,
bars in the free agent market, can you hit on
some players in the draft. Can you raise the floor
with your coaching? Can you win the games you're supposed
to win? And sneak into the playoffs and maybe have
a shot to win a playoff game. That's exactly what happened,
but that was like best case scenario. I think now

(04:14):
things change. You get into the dance, you're up six
to nothing in the first round of the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
You know, you have the.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Texans backed up at third and sixteen. You're like, oh
what wait a seconds the second quarter, maybe we can
win a game. The reality is like it didn't happen.
But like, if you take a ten thousand foot view
in terms of what the expectations were at this time
last year, I think the Chargers have to be pretty
happy with with where they are, and then you look
at what they were able to do with very limited

(04:40):
cap space. Some of these bargains that they hit on,
whether it was poona Ford, Christian Fulton getting some good
ball out of him.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
JK.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Dobbins had a resurgen season. Okay, you're shopping with you know,
two to three to four million dollars per player. What
happens when you can shell out at top of the
market contract or you can take a similar approach where
you attack it in a bunch of different ways in
the middle market. And now you can add you know,
ten players that can really affect your roster and you're

(05:06):
not you know, having a penny pinch at all.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
Would love because look, you have all the cap space,
but you also have players. You have thirty plus free agents,
so you know you're you're gonna have to spend some
of that cap on your own players. Just you know,
going through it pop as you rank, you know what contracts,
you feel this this you know front office needs to
get done. Obviously Slater's number one, and then that's going
to get done. It'd be a huge upset if it didn't.

(05:31):
Considering the way they talk about an offensive line in
the fact he had an All Pro season, so let's
just shove him aside. I kind of look at it
and it's to me, of all the players and just
positional value and the way it felt like they fit.
It's Poona. Now it's probably Elijah even ahead of Poona
because of what that did for Derwin James to have

(05:51):
Elijah and a lowie. Would you agree Elijah Poona? And
then you know, I think you can start getting into
the tier Tart versus JK. Dobbins. You know, positional what's available,
not that sort of conversation.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, I sort of. I mean I wrote that on
my rankings here, like I kind of have I kind
of I didn't rank him in any order, but I
have like five guys that I would prioritize. It's Poona Elijah,
I would prioritize Khalil Oh.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
Yeah, I'm sorry. I think that's also to me that
one is one. I don't think he says he's not
gonna rotograph, he's not coming back here. It feels like
that's a yeah, we got this right, you know.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yeah, I basically yeah, after the season, I was like,
it's probably fifty fifty whether he retires or not based
on how he talked on Vaggie Day. But if he
doesn't retire, I felt it was ninety plus percent chance
that he comes back. So, but that's the guy obviously
I would prioritize, because like the edgroom is interesting, Like
that's one group that I find kind of fascinating heading
into the offseason because you have Joey Bosa under contract,

(06:43):
klo Mac like you know, probably coming back. You have
Tully who like maybe didn't take as big of a
step as I thought he was going to take a
year two, but you probably have to get younger in
that room. So I find that room pretty interesting. We
can get into that a little bit later, but yeah, Pooa,
Elijah Khalil. I like Morgan Fox a lot as the player. Yes, Like,
that's a guy that can always play for my football team.

(07:05):
I love his energy. I love him as a pass rusher.
Just reliable, durable, interior alignment that you know isn't going
to cost a ton. So I like Morgan a lot,
and then JK. Dobbins, I would look in to bring
you back. Obviously, the market. You got to see what
the market is, you know, and and you know, with
the season Saquon's having the season Derrick Henry had, like,
does the running back market change at all in terms

(07:26):
of what teams are willing to spend, We'll see, you know,
but if his market isn't crazy, like, that's a guy
they should absolutely consider coming back, because I think we
saw the difference in their offense when he was playing
versus when he was not playing. So those are the
five guys I would sort of throw out. But there's
like you said, there's twenty seven unrestricted free agents, and
Jim Harbott said, you know, pretty explicitly that they want

(07:47):
to keep this as close together as possible. And I
don't think he's, you know, just just talking there like
I think he actually like loved this group a lot
and wants to try and keep it as together as possible.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yeah. I think with the Dobbins thing, no question, it
was night and day what this team looked like with
him out there versus him not out there. And I
think the thing to remembers, Look, it's a deep running
back draft, and there's some really good runners that are
going to be available in the second, in the third
that they're going to be that you could just drop
in and play. But I think what you saw last

(08:21):
year from Kamani is oftentimes rookie running backs just they're
not up to speed on pass pro. It's hard, man.
These guys are big, they are strong, they've got old
man's strength, and you're giving up twenty thirty pounds to
these guys that are rushing and it's just a tall task.
And to have someone I think that's what people forget.
It's not just running the ball and how explosive and

(08:42):
the fact that Jk's as good as he is in
pass pro makes such a huge difference than losing him
and bringing in another rookie and having that I think
that would dramatically shift that room. Could not agree with
you more on that one.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
Yeah, that was one pleasant surprise for me because you know,
I studied some JK. Dobbins state and I studied some
Gus Edwards tape after they made those signings, just to
see sort of what they were getting. But obviously I
was looking primarily at like, Okay, what are they doing
with the ball in their hands? When I got to
watch JK. Dobbins with the Chargers, the one thing that
jumped out is like, this is an elite, elite pass
protecting back, and a lot of people, I think overlook that.

(09:18):
But the other part of it too is like, yeah,
the guys are bigger, but also the schemes are way
more diverse, and like the defensive coordinators, if they know
that you have a rookie back they're pass protecting, can
just target that guy and expose him in a way
that you know doesn't really happen at that level or
at that consistency in college. So yeah, that's like it's

(09:39):
gonna be interesting. I think like either way, you probably
still add it back, Like if I'm like, if I'm
a GM, I'm probably drafting it back every year, Like
why not, because like you see, you see so many
of these guys on Day three that end up becoming
like legitimate starters, even if it's just for a year
or two and it's lightning in a bottle, But like
take it back every year and you know, on Day

(09:59):
three and see if it becomes something, because like I
feel like that's a position where on Day three you
tend to find productive players more often than maybe at
other positions.

Speaker 1 (10:07):
Yeah, I think you know, it's funny. I'm in the
same boat, and I always say it about corners. I'm like,
take a corner every year because because you can just
take a traits corner like they did in cam Hart
in the fifth round, a guy whose film wasn't great,
but the traits were off the charts. And it's like, yeah,
just just take a traits guy in the whatever Day
three every single year at that position group because it's

(10:29):
so valuable and so often those guys end up coming
from that part of the draft. And look, and we'll
get into the draft in a little bit. I know
you've already kind of gone through it. But it's a
good running back year, and it'll be interesting that they're
in that that sort of slot where it really makes
the most sense to just go best player available. You know,
you kind of when you're in that back end of

(10:50):
the first round, you've got so many needs that maybe
went ahead of you. For folks, it's not a great
quarterback year, so that doesn't help you as much because
you don't get the value of the guy sliding back
because so many quarterbacks were taken. I'd be floor I mean,
I assume both those guys will be taken, so you're
picking kind of twenty instead of twenty two. But anyway

(11:10):
off of that too, just kind of to what you
think and what for people that don't know kind of
how it works, what you think a Rashawn Slater extension
looks like, and how it affects the amount of money
they might have to spend in the free market to
maybe get and you know, what everybody's looking at. And
if since he doesn't give him a second franchise tag,

(11:32):
which is starting to sound like maybe they're not going
to the way that convert, I'd be floored if they didn't.
But if t Higgins is available, it's just it's such
a perfect fit for this team, I think. So what
does the Slater extension look like? What does that do
to their cap situation? And how do you mitigate him
maybe becoming the highest, the second highest, the third highest

(11:52):
paid tackle in the league.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah, so it's actually more than likely going to lower
his capit this year. That's sort of how these extensions work,
particularly when a player is entering the fifth year option year.
So that's what that's where Rashawn Slater is at. He's
entering his fifty year option. That is effectively like an
average of the top salaries of the position. So his
cap hit is over nineteen million. And so when you
sign an extension, effectively like a player gets a bunch

(12:18):
of money upfront as a signing bonus, but for salary
cap purposes, that gets divided over the length of the contract.
So if you sign, if I have a signing bonus
of twenty million dollars, it's a four year deal, it
only counts five million aginst the cap every year, and
then what teams will do is the lower that year
one base salary. And so what a cap pit is
is any base salary that you have plus whatever pro

(12:38):
rated signing bonus so by doing an extension, you're probably
going to lower his capt now. Like the most recent
example is Tristan Wurf's the Bucks left tackle who set
the reset the market at the tackle position. You know,
his cap hit went from the fifth year option of
over eighteen million to like six million this past season,
So you're talking about twelve million guy despite being the

(12:58):
highest paid guy. So even if for Sewn Slater resets
to tackle market, he's almost certainly going to have a
lower cap pit. So that's why, like right now, it's
like the team has more incentive to do a deal
than they did last off season. Last off season, Raehan
was still on his rookie deal, so he had a
five million dollar cap hit. It's tough to lower that.
You're probably going to increase that if you do the extension.
Now you're on a fifth year option. You're gonna get ten, eleven,

(13:20):
twelve million dollars in savings if they do the contract.
How Ed McGuire has always done contracts with the Chargers,
and so there's incentive for the Chargers to get it
get it done now. Rashawn's in a situation where he
could be approaching thirty million dollars a year for thirty
million dollar tackle, and so there's incentive on both sides
to get it done. So like, in that sense, they

(13:40):
don't have to do it soon for the savings because
they have you know, forty six million dollars in spending space.
That's how you know, from what I've calculated, But it
should give them even more flexibility. So I think there's
incentive on the team side to get it done. And also,
like you wanted to see him play in the system,
in the program for a year, and I think he

(14:02):
proved that he's a long term player, you know, for
this team, for this franchise at all quosition.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
I think when they drafted Alt there was some question
thereof you know, if Rashaan gets hurt again, is this
a you're taking the best player that you think is
best for your team. Which I don't think there's any
question looking back on it, that they would change anything
with what they did with that number five overall pick.
But also, like we saw in Las Vegas, if need be,

(14:29):
you can move him to left tackle, find another tackle,
and move forward in a much lower number. But to
me is you know what coach Harboss said after the season,
just you're talking about having arguably the best tackles in
the league, and that allows you to do a lot
of different things. So I would suspect he'll get paid
in The other thing that you brought up in that
article that everybody you know, because of spot track or
spot rack however you want to pronounce it, can see

(14:50):
is that Joey's got a big thirty six million dollars
next to his name, and there's no way that that
stays the same. It's just a question of is it
a you know, do they renegotiate and do they kind
of change some things and get a longer term extension,
or do they take an eleven million dollar hit and
move on and save twenty five million bucks? What does
your gut tell you there?

Speaker 2 (15:12):
My gut tells me that the cap hit is untenable,
and so that's usually how I go about things, is
like just follow the money. So like something has to
happen there. Right now, he has the highest cap hit
of any edge rusher in the league in twenty twenty five,
and so you know, Joey still can make plays, but
I think at this stage of his career, like paying

(15:33):
him at the very top of the market doesn't make sense. Now,
Like I think they are in a flexible position so
they don't have to do anything necessarily, But it just
doesn't make a ton of sense to wear that cap
hit when you have the opportunity to sort of move on. So,
you know, I think the interesting component of it is,

(15:54):
you know, Joey Bosa took a pay kit cut last year, Yeah,
seven million dollars. But yeah, like he and so you're
you gonna ask him to do that again? Would he
be willing to do that again? You know, I had
a conversation with him towards the end of the season.
Some of this stuff didn't make it into the article,
but you know, you know, I think he was happy
with his decision and content with his decision. He wanted

(16:16):
to come back, He wanted to give it another shot
to win with Khalil. But you know, I think the
idea of him taking a pay cut for a second
year might be a little bit tough to stomach, especially
if he says no forces the Chargers to cut him,
and then he might have the opportunity to go play
wherever he wants and test the market and hit free
agency and all of these things. So I think he

(16:39):
try and see if there's anything out there for him,
see if there's any potential trade partners. I know they
shopped him last year. There was a little bit of interest,
but nothing that sort of reached the level where Joe
Ortiz thought they were getting, you know, a proper return,
and so you know, they ended up being able to
negotiate something where it could work. But my gut says,

(17:00):
cap it's untenable, and so something has to happen. I
don't I don't see another pay cut as a super
realistic scenario, though it could happen. So you're looking at
at a cut or or a trade, you know, just
just based on the money, just based on on the
cap pit. And that's part of the reason why the
edge Rusher room is so it's fascinating to me because
if you do move on from Joey, you have Khalil

(17:23):
back in theory, if you're able to resign him. You know,
is twu Lee two plow two ready for a full
time starting role.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
It didn't it feel like they put him in at
the end of that Houston game that he ended up
sort of supplanting Joey when CJ was getting a little
bit loose. And break and contain. I mean, I don't
know what to read into that, but as you go
through the way that game played out, it it felt like,
you know, either and again I don't know what the
circumstances were, but did feel like Tully kind of went

(17:51):
in there towards the back end when it was still
in the balance that that was kind of the pair
that they were running. Am I do you think I'm
reading that wrong? I mean, that's what it looked like
to me.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
I think I think that's fair. I think for me,
it's it's more about like I loved him as a rookie,
like I like, I thought he was just awesome and
you know, being able to play with that level of
power as a young player I thought was really impressive.
You know he was he just felt like a complete player,
and it felt like, okay, like this is the base,
this is the floor, and let's see him sort of

(18:23):
stacked on top of that, and you sort of start
your your imagination runs wild about like what he can
sort of turn into. I don't think he like improved
as much as I thought he had. The Great November
was going to improve. Yeah, and obviously like the sack
numbers were there, but I'm talking like down to down,
you know, run defense, all of this stuff, right, And
so maybe that maybe that's my fault for for setting
my expectations too high. And like obviously, you know, development

(18:44):
is a different path for for for every single player,
and maybe in my mind I thought he was going
to really take that jump to you know, like very
defined starter level type player. And and and maybe that's
that's on me for for not you know, you know,
taking a ten thousand foot view and understanding that you know,
these paths are different for different players. But you start

(19:06):
to start talking about it, okay, like if you feel
good about Tully, you bring back Khalil, you know, thirty
four years old, you have another you know, veteran and
bud Dupree, maybe you can find a guy in the draft,
Like do you feel really good about that room, you
know in that scenario, do you need to add you know,
another piece, you know, do you look in free agency

(19:28):
or you know, more of the veteran route again and
sort of delay the you know, future planning of the
edge room. It becomes very interesting, you know, after sort
of the Joey to Bosa decision is made and the
other part of it too, And I love to hear
your thoughts on this. Even if they do, if they're
able to figure something out with Joey and they bring
him back, it still feels like they need to get
younger in that room, like running it back with with Joey,

(19:51):
Khalil bud Dupree and Tully Toy Polotu and not really
investing in an exit plan a future plan when your
room is really veteran based. That would seem a little
bit misguided to me. So I feel like it's a
position regardless that they have to that they have to attack.
But a big part of the defensive philosophy this year
was this is our strength and we're gonna we're gonna
play through this group. And when they were at their best,

(20:14):
that's what was working.

Speaker 1 (20:15):
Yeah, And I think you know, the important thing to
remember is so the numbers thirty six million, right, if
you're Joey Bosa's agent, you're not taking a cent under
thirty six million dollars guaranteed. Like that's that's just the
starting point. So if you restructure, you're talking about a
signing bonus that's a pretty big chunk of cash in
order to get that number. To a tenable position, and

(20:36):
that's where it gets tough. It's kind of how the
whole franchise tag works with agents and that becomes the baseline. Well,
here's the franchise tag. We've wont to franchise them. Now,
this is the number that we're working off of on
an annual salary. And and that's when things can get
weird and I shouldn't say weird, but can just get tough.
And so that's where Joey's it's an it's it's a
I think it's a hard spot to read because of

(20:56):
what the number is and what the agent's going to
want hunt. You know, my thing is trying to you know,
and you talk to him one on one, and you know,
I've been around him. I mean, he's one of the
few guys that's been here every single year that they've
been here, and I've been here, and it does feel
like he really likes it here, even though he goes

(21:17):
back to Florida every offseason. I don't think he's got
his eyes on playing for the Dolphins or the Jags
to get back to that stag. You know, I think
everybody has the one team circled. If he was to
be a free agent. So that's because he and his
brother are so close to go play up in San Francisco.
But I don't get the sense with a brock Purty
extension coming and a Brandon Ayyuk extension just signed, or
they going to really let George Kittle get out of it,
like it just doesn't. That doesn't feel like a real solid,

(21:41):
big money destination for me either. So it's just a
hard it's a hard player to read what they do
going forward. Anybody that's been around Joey loves him. He's
a great guy. He's a great guy to have around.
He's an incredible player. His body's just betrayed him, you know,
And that's the tough part. I know some people get
frustrated with the off sides and the personal file, but

(22:03):
that's just that's aggressive Joey man. He just he wants
he's gonna jump some snaps because he wants to get
the quarterback. And you take that, you know, you take
it with the goods. So like if it were if
it were me, I'd love to have him back. But
then I think you're also talking and that's again going
I know, I'm rambling here and getting around it. In
a bunch of different ways. But I think that's where

(22:25):
the draft becomes interesting because it is a deep edge draft,
and so at pick twenty two you could have, you know,
like a Mike Green staring at you. If you think
that that's and they've you know, and this team has
done there should say this new regime has done a
great job of drafting and identifying talent. And you know,
outside of a boy Bee who really didn't play, everybody

(22:45):
else you know pretty much raise their hand at least
at some point. So that's you know, that's where it
gets interesting. And edges edge is just one of those
you know when you're sitting at twenty two and you're like, oh,
do we take the tight end because here's Colston lovelin it. Look,
he's great and that's a natural fit and we can
get into all that. But it's like, okay, the same

(23:06):
thing with Joe Walt and and Thelik Neighbors. It's like, okay,
well they got Joe Walt and Lad McConkey in the
second round. Because you can get that wide receiver there
if you've got an edge staring at you or a
corner or you know, even if you had like you know,
the number one guard sitting there. It's like, yeah, I
get it, but those are premium positions. And that's where

(23:27):
I wonder what they do at twenty two if there
is if that edge room or if that edge class
is deep enough where they're like, this is a premier position.
You know, it'd be nice to draft the tight end.
It'd be great to draft the tight end, but might
be able to find one in the second or third round.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
Yeah. The interesting part of it is they're gonna You're
gonna have, you know, a solid idea of what this
is by the end of April. You know, so you're
projecting it now, but like by April you're gonna know
exactly right. That's the interesting part of it is like,
you know, we talk about this stuff for four months,
but ultimately, like by April twenty fourth, you know, they're
gonna know, Okay, Joey Boss has gone and edge is

(24:02):
something that we really need versus like, oh maybe we
can you know. So I will say this totally random,
but you brought up the off side thing. I would
suggest everybody to go look at the list of players
that lead the league and offsides every year. Who do
you think it is it's Miles Garrett, it's Micaeh Parsons,
it's Chris Jones. You know, every great edge rusher does this,
and I understand the frustration. And it feels like when

(24:24):
it when it rains at poors and he'll have like
three in a game or like two in a series
or something like that. But it's like every every you know,
I've looked into this because like I've I've heard the frustration,
and I've looked at the list, and I'll I'll tweet
it out if people like you know, want.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
To, you should tweet.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
I should. But it's it's honestly hilarious. You rank you know,
you know a single season leaders in you know, neutral
zone infractions, off sides, et cetera. And it's like all
of the elite edge rushers every single year.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
So that's what they do. They're trying to time it
up and they're trying and now look the neutrals are
the lined up in the neutral zone. Is incredibly frustrating,
but again, it's just trying to get an edge, you know,
can I find an edge? And it's just part of
their mentality.

Speaker 2 (25:02):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So you know, the other interesting part
of this is he's on the final year of his deal,
so it's either like taking a straight up pay cut
or it's an extension if he's going to stay, you know,
like they could, I guess, in theory restructure in add
void years, which is what you're talking about as far
as like turning you know, basellary and signing bonus. But

(25:25):
then you're talking about, Okay, if you turn let's say,
you know, he's a twelve million dollar base salary. Let's
say he turned eleven of that into signing bonus and
pro rated over three years. You know, now you're looking
at like a seven to eight million dollars dead money
hit after next season when his contract voids. Like is
that something that you want to do, because in reality,
what you're doing is you're kind of stringing it along right,
like you're trying to keep the window open as long

(25:45):
as possible, and so, you know, if he's going to stay,
it feels like an extension situation. But are you really
going to extend a guy that's had all of these injuries,
you know, which is which honestly just sucks. Like when
the guy is healthy, like that Raider game, man, it
was so fun to watch him play in that season
opener when he was like feeling good and just the

(26:06):
effort that he was playing with. You could see how
badly he wanted it, how he was really making impact plays,
not just as a rusher, but like in some scramble situations,
chasing guys down, you know. And then he gets hurt
and it's like you just see him battling, you know,
on tape. It's just like every play, you know, he falls,
he gets up and he's limping and he's shaking out
his hip and it's just like he just was never
comfortably talked about that psiatic nerve pain that he dealt

(26:28):
with all seasons. So like that's a tough part of it,
and that's the business of the NFL, right, Yeah, Like
you got to look at and say, you know, are
you going to extend a guy that we we can't
really rely on to stay healthy and you know, his
play gets affected when he is when he is injured,
Like he's still really good, but you know, to pay
him at this level thirty six million dollars, like he

(26:49):
needs to be a highly highly productive player because you're
not spending that money, you know, else around the roster.

Speaker 1 (26:54):
Yeah, and I'm trying to think of the free agent class.
I know it's Son Reddick because obviously that was very public.
There's that. I'm trying to think of who else is
I don't know if you've dug into it yet, Pop,
we can probably just pull it up real quick and
look at who's going to be a free agent on
the edge. That's the first one that pops into my mind.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
So, you know, if you do a Sweat has Reddick?

Speaker 1 (27:12):
Okay, so what damn Browning.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
To Marcus Lawrence.

Speaker 1 (27:19):
Yeah, if you go Sweat and Reddick, I mean you're
drap on guys in their twenties that are what's Reddick
twenty eight? Probably I would guess twenty eight.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
Twenty Redick is just just over thirty, just turn thirty.
Well there, yeah, and then Sweat is twenty seven, gonna
be twenty eight by next season.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
So you know, I think the question is what what
is what is Joey's number versus what's the number from
a I'm not saying that those guys are at the
level of Joey when he's healthy, but you know, we've
seen a Son Reddick put up fifteen SAX seasons over
and over again. It's just a question of what is
that did look like, you know, how big of a
deal is it? And yeah, they have the money to

(27:59):
go into the Marshall, let's get into that. Let's get
into the the popper plan of how you would go
about spending the forty three you know or whatever it's
ultimately going to be, you know, how you want to
spend the money this offseason.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
Yeah, so you know, I have them at like about
forty six million to spend on twenty twenty five cap hits,
and so that means, like I kind of compared it
to twenty twenty two because it's actually very similar numbers.
I had them at about forty four point five million
in spending space that year. And what they did they
overhauled their defense. They spent right like and it was

(28:35):
the clol Mac trade because they had to take on
a considerable amount of salary in that they extended Mike
Williams at twenty million dollars a year. They obviously signed J. C.
Jackson at the top of the corner market. They got
two starting defensive linemen and Austin Johnson and Sebastian Joseph Day.
They signed Gerald Everett to a relatively expensive tight end
contract and so like that's what you're talking about, Like,

(28:55):
you know, yeah, this was six to seven, a lot
of money six to seven, like high caliber starters or
what they thought were going to be high caliber starters.
But that's obviously like a cautionary tale and spending money, right, Like,
you can have space and you can make all of
these moves, but they have to be.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
What kind of irreacting all those guys make, you know,
and all that money spent, you know, how would you
rate compared to what Joe Ortiz did with veteran minimum
contracts for Punaford and Pier Tart and Elijah Mold and
the JK. Dobbins. Look at the difference, you know, and
you gotta know how to spend it. So sorry I interrupted,
you keep going.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
No, no, no, It's exactly what I was getting at.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
Right.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
It's like space is good, but space does not equal success.
You know, it has to be spent in the right manner. So,
you know, I think if t Higgins hits free agency,
and that's a big if, right, but if he hits
free agency, you have to be in that competition.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
You have to be, no doubt, He's twenty years twenty six.
He's young man. I think he's I think he's twenty.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
Six, twenty six, and I think turning twenty seven during
the season next year a little for the season like that.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
That get guys on the other end, when you can
get guys on that side of thirty that are that good.
He just turned twenty six on January eighteenth.

Speaker 2 (30:12):
Just turn twenty second, turn twenty.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
So there you go, Like that's that. I know he's
had a little bit of injury issues throughout, but like
it's just such a perfect fit. It's such a perfect
that's the way that whole thing then comes together, right.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
I mean, like you probably would have a tough time
genetically engineering like a better fit for what the Chargers need.
Like it's exactly what they need, right, Like, because that
was the big issue this year is like Ladd is
obviously a star, but he's gonna play in the slot
seventy percent of the time. Like that's where he's going
to be in his career. So in order to raise
the offense to a different level, you need that guy

(30:47):
in the outside that can be a factor in fifty
to fifty ball situations down the field. They just didn't
have that guy and like they tried to find that
in DJ Shark, who has that in a skill set,
but obviously that didn't materialized, and we saw what happened
where they're trying to get Quinton Johnson in those situations
and it's just not what he does. What he does
he can't right now in his career, Like he looks
like he should be able to catch fifty fifty balls,

(31:09):
which is why he gets the opportunities because you're like,
you should be able to do this, but it's just not.
It's just not in his skill set. And so you know,
you need that guy on the outside. And and t
Higgins is as good as anybody in the league at
that exact thing. He's just a ball winner. And so
you know, it unlocks Lad McConkey, takes stress off him
because if you go watch the Houston tape, they were

(31:30):
doubling and even tripling him. He is the only guy
that you have to worry about right now. And then
the other part of it is if you get a
guy like that that fits that skill set, it allows
Quintin Johnson to do what he does well, right, you know,
so everything sort of fits into place when you find
that guy.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
So that to me, is like not one twelve, you
make the call.

Speaker 2 (31:50):
That's the full crumb of the entire offseason is like,
if that guy's available, go after him and see what
the market is. I mean, you know, I think PFF
Project did it four years twenty eight. I feel like
he's gonna get if it's if it's like an open
market situation, it feels like he's gonna get to thirty.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
But like if you're if you are costs, if you
are real about contending for Super Bowls, like, that's a
guy that you should absolutely be after. And obviously Joe
Bartiz is gonna be very familiar with him, you know,
having been within with Higgins and the Bengals in the
division for a long time. Now after t Higgins, like

(32:28):
there's not really anybody in the receiver market that like
excites me considerably, which is fascinating, Which is like why
I call it the fulcrumb, right, because if this guy's available, okay,
then receiver that has to be like your priority to
go after this guy. But if he goes elsewhere or
doesn't become a free agent, then I think the priorities
changed because it's a lot of like Elder guys. You know,
it's like Amari Cooper and dere Hopkins Stefan Diggs, Right, yeah,

(32:53):
just like guys that don't really move the needle for me.
And you know, maybe you know you look to the
draft instead, but like the one market that I really interesting?

Speaker 1 (33:01):
Or what do you think about a trade market deal
for DK? Like that's I guess that's I don't know
why they want to move on from DK. I don't
know what happened up there why you would want to
when you have a Tyler Lockett who is you know,
really getting along in the tooth, and now you're going
to move on from another wide receiver that that part
of it doesn't quite line up for me. But if
he becomes available and you can't get to Higgins, then yes,
I think that probably becomes priority Plan B.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
Right, Yeah, I know I like that idea a lot.
You know, he's he's not T Higgins, but he does
like to fit into, you know, the same kind of
role that we're talking about as like an outside guy
that can really attack sort of down the field. I
think it's a cap situation with the Seahawks. They're kind
of up against it, and you know, he's got a.
I think he's twenty upper twenty cap hit. So but

(33:46):
like if you trade for him, you're taking on his
base salary of like just over eighteen million dollars. Obviously,
he has the connection with Sanjay Low, which is you
know there's a familiarity there. You know, that's you know,
Sanjay Law is the Charges' receivers coach, and he coached
DK mexf in Seattle and was a big part of
Metcalf's development, and so that's really interesting to me. The

(34:07):
money makes sense, you know, like I think eighteen million
for DK Metcalf is that's solid, Like, that's totally palatable. Uh.
The question is, and you know I talked about this
on on Hops with Pot of my podcast, but like
would he want an extension? You know, he's in the
last year of his deal, So like if you give
up you know, let's say a third round pick for
DK Metcalf, you only give up that third round pick

(34:29):
if you know he's gonna play. And so if it's
gonna be a situation where he wants an extension, that
does muddy it a little bit. You know, what is
he going to be looking for? You know, like if
if you make that trade. Does he want, you know,
thirty million dollars a year? Yeah, right, That's that's where
it gets a little bit hairy. But like, if it's
a situation where they can give up a third round
pick and get him in at eighteen million and he'll

(34:50):
play for a year in your system and then you
can figure it out after that, I think that makes
a ton of sense. So yeah, like the you know,
the trade market is obviously another ad I knew that
you absolutely have to look at. But the other position
I was going to mention in terms of free agency
is guard and Listen, I'd love to hear your thoughts
on this because I watched the film from the Texans game,
and like, I just don't see a scenario where Joe

(35:12):
Hortiz and Jim Harbaugh watch that tape and are like
comfortable with what they have on the offensive line, particularly
on the interior. Yeah, exactly, exactly, Like there's a certain
way that they want to play offensively. They want to
be enforcers, they want to be physical, and they want
to dominate the line of scrimmage and that did not
happen in that game. And so like, I think that
a lot of people are looking elsewhere. But to me,
like that is the philosophy. And so the fact that

(35:35):
they weren't able to do that in the biggest stage
tells me that, like that's that's somewhere they're going to
attack this offseason. Now, obviously Trey Pipkins was hurt, didn't play,
Jamari Salier didn't have a very good game. But the
guard market is deep. The guard market is really deep,
and you have options. You have options like if you,
if you, if you're the type of GM that loves
to look for, you know, younger ascending players on the

(35:57):
free agent market, plenty of those guys at the guard position,
if you, you know, are in a situation where you
really like a veteran guy. You know, let's say they
draft a center and they're they're playing a rookie at
center and you'd like a more veteran guy at right guard.
Plenty of those guys Kevin Zeitdler, Brandon Shurf, like a
ton of ton of like quality functional veteran right Zach
Martin if he doesn't retire, right. Yeah, So like that's

(36:20):
a situation where like Trey Smith, obviously we didn't mention,
but like they could shop at.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
The he's going to get a big number, right, But
and to hurt your chief competition in the process by
the way of doing that, you know, I mean you
had to kick one guard out to tackle because your
tackles were so bad, and now you're down to the
strength of your offensive line. If you can cut a
leg out from under that table, that's a big win
right there, if you're capable of doing that. Because look,

(36:46):
they hit a freaking home run with Tray Smith and
Creed Humphrey. But outside of that, they have done a
poor job of drafting offensive lineman, Like they cannot get
it right when it comes to drafting tackles, it's been
a mess.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
Or paying tackles stanly N Taylor that money, yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
Exactly, Or trading for Orlando Brown who was just average
at best and giving up a one for him, Like
that's sue, I'm not to ease you know, we'll see,
but man, that was a dude's unplayable.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
I mean, he was unplayable.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
Yeah, So to me, that's an interesting one because he's
one of the best guards in the league and you
can take him away from your competition and force them
to have to figure that out as well. It's just
to me, that's a that's probably gonna be a pretty
big number.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
Yeah, that's the thing. The guard market is absolutely exploded.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
So you know, twenty what do you get? What did
Hunt get?

Speaker 2 (37:32):
You got? I mean twenty million a year? You know
linz Strem, Ye know, Linz Strom with the Falcons is over.
He's like like twenty and a half now, he's like
top of the market. So but like young guard hitting
free agency with the way the market has exploded, Like,
are you gonna pay twenty five million dollars for a
guard or like I think the free agent class is

(37:54):
deep enough where you could shop mid market. But the
interesting thing is, like, right, I think, like you know,
trade Kipkins was battle through a lot of injuries this year.
I give him a ton of.

Speaker 1 (38:02):
Credhrase twenty seven. He's twenty seven.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
Right, there's a bunch of these guys that are you know,
so you know, I give Tray a lot of credit.
You're good. I give Tray a lot of credit because
like he's a tackle, Like that is his natural position
and it's where he played in his entire career. And
they come in and they're like play guard and he's
like all right, and he goes in and like he
was functional there, you know, and you have to give

(38:25):
him credit for, you know, not complaining and doing what
the coaches asked him to do and battling through a
bunch of stuff this year. But I wrote about this
in the in the cap piece. They paid him as
a tackle. Right now he's a guard, and so that
changes things because they the contract they signed for him
was was really reasonable as a starting right tackle, and

(38:48):
now he's this is the third year of that contract.
This is gonna the biggest capit of the deal. And
so now it's over nine million dollars for Trey Pipkins
at right tackle. Okay, at right guard. The market is
different and that changes. So now instead of paying him
a lower half of the league contract for tackle, you're
now paying him a top half of the league contract

(39:09):
at guard. And so, can you find a better option
than Trey Pipkins for nine point five million dollars And
the answer is in year one of the of of
a free agent deal, the answer to that is probably yes.
And so that's gonna be really interesting to me sort
of how they approach the interior because to me, like
I think that it's like pretty clean you know, the

(39:30):
there's a there's a you know, deep free agent guard
market where you can find a starter there and then
you know, bring Bradley Boseman back as a backup draft
a rookie, and you know, that feels like a quality
solution to you know, the interior line.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
Yeah, it's you know, if because of their cap situation,
and it feels like the Colts are gonna have to
do a lot of moving around this offseason. Like it's
too bad Ryan Kelly has just had the the injuries
that he's had, because that would word, heck, just take
two fifths of their offensive line and drop them in
and be good with it. But you know, last year
and that was sort of the interesting we thought for sure,

(40:07):
you know, especially when they brought on Nick Hardwick to
be their assistant whole line coach. We're like, oh, they're
gonna you know, there's so many of these centers just
floating around in the third, fourth, fifth round, norse Ed
Bordolini and all of them, that it would have just
kind of fit perfectly. But I think that also speaks
to this looks like it was a team that really
did operate on a best player available sort of you know,

(40:29):
draft board vertical as opposed to horizontal, so centers look
interior alignment, you find them all. You know that that's
again we talked about premium positions when it comes to
first round in your first round picks, and how often
times that is just maybe the way you go. Unless
I can't remember the guys in it. What's the guys
that Tyler Shoot, what's his last name out of Alabama?

(40:49):
Tyler Tyler Booker Boker. Yeah, Like if he's sitting there
at twenty two, Okay, I get it. That's that's a
different deal. And you talk to people around that program
and they say, yeah, this is the st o that
stirs the drink on the offensive line, this is the leader,
this is the guy that got everybody in line, and Okay,
great that I get. Otherwise, yeah, you wait until those

(41:10):
middle rounds, especially at center, and that's the way you
can try to Yeah, especially with his coaching staff, you know,
you can try to figure out that position.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
Yeah. Yeah, And I think last year, you know, Bradley
Boseman's very familiar with the scheme. You know, you know
what you're getting with Bradley Boseman. That that's one of
the things that the reaction was kind of surprising to
me because if you watched his film, and I did,
and I wrote about it, like he is who he
is as a player, and they knew exactly what they
were getting. And then they put him out there and
he played exactly how anybody that had watched him would expect.

(41:40):
And everyone's like, what is this. It's like, well, this
is what they were doing.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
Like he's good going that way, Yeah, he struggles going
this way right, and and.

Speaker 2 (41:47):
And you know you're also you're also you know, bringing
in the leadership right and no one I understand people
on the outside don't get to see it, but that
O line room loves Bradley Boseman. Like what he's able
to do in the room, you know, getting guys up
to speed on the scheme because it's familiarity with Greg Roman.
All that stuff matters, you know. And and like he

(42:10):
gave him he played more snaps than anybody on the offense.
Like I think he gave them exactly what they were expecting.
And so you know, they felt like, Okay, we go
get Bradley Boseman. He was like under a million dollars
against the cap, will stop gap it, He'll help sort
of integrate everybody into the news program and then you know,
we'll figure this out for next year. And I think
like it worked fine, like eleven wins, they made the playoffs, guys,

(42:32):
you know, like exactly it did go how they expected, right,
exactly exactly.

Speaker 1 (42:35):
Their starting center was a nine hundred thousand dollars player,
you know, and that's.

Speaker 2 (42:39):
What he played over a thousand snaps.

Speaker 1 (42:41):
Yeah, yeah, that's what it had to be. Yeah, it's
just the reality of the situation. So it's okay, so
let's go, let's ship from free agency and I'll say this, Uh,
let me just make sure I pull this up real quick,
because you know, I think you look at Will Disley
and you know, trying to figure out what the the
tight end room clearly needs. They need a stretch tight end.

(43:04):
They need to find someone that can get downfield. I
think Will played his tail off and had a heck
of a season. There's no doubt about that. You know,
you can kind of try to pick it apart and say,
should they have played Stone smart a little bit more?
Could he have given them that certainly looked like it,
you know, like when he was given opportunities, man felt
like he made some incredible catches and showed off that

(43:24):
athleticism and delivered and maybe just needs to get some
more snaps and have the staff feel a lot more
comfortable with him out there. But you know, you look
at the tight end is such a shallow position, man,
There's just not a lot of them out there. You're
not going to find You're just not going to find
guys in the free agent market, which is why again

(43:46):
going back to number twenty, is it they're picking twenty two? Right? Yeah,
I keep saying it. I want to make sure I'm right.
So what makes it? That's what makes it interesting. Tyler
Warren's not going to be there, no chance. But if
Colston Lovelin is there, that's where it gets real interesting.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
Yeah, I mean, I'd love to see Justin Herbert be
able to grow with a young, dynamic tight end. It's
just the one thing that we really haven't seen, yeah,
in his career because he right, because he had Hunter
Henry who left and you know that combo was fantastic

(44:25):
and he was.

Speaker 1 (44:25):
Just letting him walk. Just a massive mistake, letting that
guy walk.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
I think that you know, I think they had their
number and they weren't going to go above it and
then you know it came down to about five hundred
thousand dollars a year or something like that, you know,
like yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
And I get it. Hither his season he had injury issues,
but at the same time, it's like, hey, our quarterback
just had a rookie campaign for the Ages and this
was his favorite, Like this was, you know, one B
to Keenan Allen's one A. When it came to what
he looked for, especially in the red zone, it's like
just yeah, just let let let your twenty one year

(45:00):
old quarterback habit man. Just give it to him and
figure out the money somewhere else.

Speaker 2 (45:04):
Yeah. Yeah, And it stinks because Hunter went to New
England and they've just been so bad that like he
was just you.

Speaker 1 (45:10):
Know, and he stayed healthy the entire time, right whatsoever. Yeah,
So anyway I interrupted you, but yeah, no, no.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
It's exactly right, Like so they let him walk. It's
it's Jared Cook, it's you know, Jerald Everett. You know,
it's they're they're rolling through. But you know it's Will
Disley this year, and it sucks for Will, like like,
you know, he had a great year, like he was
way better in the passing game than I expected. His
yards after the catch stuff was like elite, elite, like

(45:37):
he was, you know, I checked like towards the end
of the season he was like top five in the
league and yack per reception. And I actually told him
that in the locker room and he was like floored. Yeah,
And I was like, I was like, you're an athlete, Will,
and he's like, he's like a.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
Man's making guys. He was making guys missed with his
jump cuts. It was hilarious.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
Yeah, So, like considering the season that he had to
have two big drops like that in a big game,
you know. But I think like at the same time,
you know, in the player offter, weaknesses get exposed, and
you know, I think like it was a very you know,
glaring example of of sort of what they need. So
I would be all in on, you know, taking a

(46:12):
tight end on the first two days of the draft.
Certainly at twenty two if Colson Lovelin's there and get
a tight end in here that Justin can grow with,
you know, a guy that can really you know, attack
the scene. You know. I think, you know, I think
we saw Stone Smart do some of it. But I
think the issue with Stone Is there's a there's a
ceiling on what he can be as a blocker, and

(46:35):
there are certain things that you have to do as
a tight end in this offense. And I think Stone
Smart has improved as a blocker. But at a certain
point you're looking at you know, Tucker Fisk and Scott
Mattlock who played a lot of those you know kind
of tight end snaps and you know, three hundred pounds
two sixty, and then you got Stone Smart. It's more
of like a you know, receiver tight body, and you know,

(46:57):
I think that's what happened as far as as the
playing time, but it's a need, you know, like I
think for me, it's it's tight end. You know, you
got to have somebody that's gonna be able to difference
be a difference maker down the field. In the passing game,
it's receiver, you know, getting that outside guy that we
talked about, and then it's you know in tier o
line and then edge and corner. You know, those are
sort of the positions I'm looking at. But tight end

(47:19):
is like, you know, I think those top three those
offensive positions receiver, tight end and intier o line or
like one A B and C for me, and I
could see them, you know, attacking all three of those
positions very early in the draft.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
Yeah, you know, look, I don't know what to make
outside of the numbers. Are the numbers. You know, this
is the number one scoring defense in the league. And
they did it with an injured Joey Bosa, a thirty
three year old Khalil Mack, a veteran minimum pulling it forward,
you know, a low numbered Morgan Fox, a basically rookie

(47:54):
linebacker in Dayon Henley, two rookie corners Derwin. So I'd
lay that all out because I think Jesse's pretty special,
and he's he's pretty special. It's scheming him up. So sorry,
coach Minner, you're so good at this that we're not
going to give you anything else. You're just gonna have
to work with kind of this because we're gonna just

(48:15):
put it all. I just I would love to just
And they did it last year, right number five Joe
Walt trade up to thirty four Lad McConkey with their
first two picks. I just I wouldn't mind seeing do
it again, you know, do it again. Maybe it's it's
either tight end or it could be you know, if
Booker's there that interior old Ligneman, and then in the
next round it can be wide receiver or tight end

(48:38):
or center or or guard in that round. I would
just love to see them get that side of the
ball sort of right with this one more draft, considering
how well they did with Joe Walt and Lad McConkey
last year.

Speaker 2 (48:53):
Yeah, not one hundred percent agree. You know, I think
like edge and corner are spots that I think they
should probably you know, look into. But I think you're
exactly on it. Like it's a blessing and a curse, right,
Like you have this, you know in Jesse's position, right,
Like you're you're a great coach. You're obviously really good
at this, but like now you're also gonna be relied
on to get more out of less because you've proven

(49:13):
you can do it. You know, like think about, like
just some of the stuff that happened this season just
blew my mind because I've never seen anything like it.
You know, trade for a live and Molden ten days later, interception,
you know, right, claim Marcus Mayoff waivers three days later, interception.
You know, Eli Apple signed to the practice squad three
weeks later, forty snaps on the outside playing playing decent

(49:34):
ball and it's Jesse and it's his staff too, right,
you gotta give credits to these assistants as well, Steve
Clicksfield and Leary. Yeah, Mike Elston like the whole crew
that they've got just a fantastic staff overall. I like,
I think the coaching staff is brilliant top to bottom,
but particularly defensively, I think they got really a lot
of really good, rising young coaches. I think, you know,
multiple defensive coordinators are already you know, on staff with

(49:58):
the Chargers. But yeah, no, I I think I'm totally
with you. You know, Like I think to me, the
biggest weaknesses on the team are are offensively and that's
partly because you know what Jesse Minter is able to
get out of the existing pieces and the talent that
he has. But yeah, receiver tight ends in tier O
line and like, if you can if you can find

(50:18):
solid pieces at those spots, you know, I think you're
going to see, you know, the version of Justin Herbert
over the course of the season that you know, we've
we've seen that times during his career.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
Yeah, and I think if you know, just to kind
of wrap this up here. The thing about that side
of the ball too, is if you take coach Arbaugh
at his word, and it seems like pretty straight shooters
as far as I can tell, Like, that's the side
of the ball where you can bring all those guys back,
where you can keep it together and it's not going
to have a huge financial impact on your team. Right.

(50:51):
You can bring back Punaford and tier Tart, Elijah Molden,
you know, Denzel Paraman if you want, because I hear
he's great in the room and exception. So like you
can do all of that and just bring the same
group back, and then you can use the draft and
free agency to take your big swings to to get
that guard, to get that wide receiver, and then through

(51:15):
the draft, you know, get a center, get that tight
end wide receiver, and with your high picks, with your
you know, your high value picks. And you know that
DJ said something that that I thought, you know, kind
of crystallized it perfectly for me. It's like, so this
is the worst this is. It doesn't sound right. I
don't mean to make it sound like a negative, but

(51:36):
this is the worst team that Jim Harbaugh's gonna coach
like movement wise, yeah, talent wise, on paper, every single
team moving forward is going to be better than the
one because of the situation he walked into last year
and and that team went eleven and six, and you know,
the defense played absolute lights out in the playoff game,
and I'm not going to hold a second half against

(51:56):
them because of the turnovers and how it you know
that from the offensive side of the ball, how it
got away from him there. Like that's if that's the floor,
just imagine what the ceiling can be. So if the
floor was that defense continuing to play at a high
level like they showed all season, then that's to me
where you just kind of bring it back and let's
figure out the other side of the ball and how
we can get it right.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
Yeah, yeah, one hundred percent, you know, And there's just
like a couple tough situations to sort of sort through it,
you know. Defensively, Like I think, like Elijah Moulden's really important,
and I mean we've talked about this throughout Derwin's career,
but I think we finally saw it realized this season.
When you have a guy like Elijah Molden on the
back end, what it allows Derwin to do like he

(52:38):
was effectively a full time slot corner right over the
second half of the season, and he was great at it.
Oh my god, Like getting him around the football forty
snaps a game like that, what he could do as
a blitzer, what he could do in the run game.
He was like, he looked like his old self because
they were able to play him closer to the line
of scrimmage because they had Elijah Molden. So like, I

(52:59):
think got to come back. I think he's got to
come back. He wants to be here, Like can they
work something out? But you know, Alobe Gilman and Elijah
Molden on the back end, you love that safety pairing
with because of what it allows you to do with Derwin.
And then you know the other one is as we
talked about, is Joey in the edge room and and
sort of figuring that out. But you know, the interesting

(53:21):
part of the defense is like they got two rookie corners,
fifth round corners playing starter level football for them and
making making plays. So like, who are these guys in
the fifth round and the fourth round? You know they
have ten picks, they have three picks in the sixth round,
Like who are some of these guys? Like maybe you
can draft some tradits guys on defense on day three

(53:43):
and throw them into this ecosystem and you're getting started
over play, which is like it's a change right Like
in the past here like those picks were just you know,
throwing darts at a wall. Now you know it's still
is that, but yeah, they've proven that they can find
legitimate guys there, so you know, and and you feel
like the coaching is going to elevate it. So I
think you work through a couple of those things defensively,

(54:05):
but I think for the most part, like you keep
it as is and bring some of these guys back
and add some talent, young talent, and you know, you
expect it to be, you know, close to a top
ten unit every year, regardless of who the players are.
And then you really, you know, attack the offense to
get it into a place where it's a little bit
more consistent.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
Yeah, I'm trying to get the age on Elijah. I
don't know, I can't find it, but anyway, he like,
so it's Elijah Lowey, both young players right derwin for
all it. Yeah, he's pretty much still Elia twenty six. Yeah,
So there you go. You have a twenty six year
old and then you've got, for really all intents and purposes,

(54:44):
a rookie linebacker in Dayon Henley. And if Colston can
be healthy, I still have full faith that he's going
to be a special player in this league. So now
you've the youth of Aloe and Elijah in front of that,
the youth of Dayon and Junior outside, the youth of
cam Hart and Tari still. Like it's it's really exciting

(55:05):
to think about what this defense can be as all
of those players enter their prime and and they're on
these affordable deals I should say under their prime, but
get a little bit more experience under their belt and
in this system for another year, right, and and what
that can free the you know, free the front office
to do in the draft and in free agency for
the other side.

Speaker 2 (55:25):
Of the ball. Yeah, And that's what's going to be
super interesting about this is just the continuity aspect of it.
You know, like I can't remember the last time, you know,
there was this much continuity and as many reasons for
optimism about why that continuity should lead to improvement on
both sides of the ball, you know, and so like, yeah,
the defense was really good, but now all these guys

(55:46):
are going to be in it for another year and
instead of having to learn a new playbook in April,
they're just stacking. And it's the same thing offensively. You know,
justin Herbert has gone to so many different offensive coordinators.
Really only once in his career did you have the
continuity from twenty one to twenty two with Joe Lombardi.
And he you know, got hurt at her the second
week of the season, so we never really got to
see that realize. So, you know, eleven wins make the playoffs,

(56:11):
You keep the coaching staff intact, you add talent to
this ecosystem where you know there's continuity schematically, and like,
this is how good organizations do it. This is how
you get you know, improvement in your stack seasons, and
this is how you get to a point where you
really can contend, you know, And I think that's encouraging.

Speaker 1 (56:31):
Well, I wrap it with this because it's what's still
happening out on the field, and I think you have
to remember, yes, Patrick Mahomes is the best quarterback in
the league. The Chiefs are a dynasty and the likes
of which we've never seen if they win this third
super Bowl in a row, and what is it. It's
an incredibly talented quarterback with a head coach slash offensive
play caller that have been together for seven years. So like, look,

(56:55):
with that, you can do.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
At the continuity on defense too. I mean that's a
big part of most iteration iteration of the Chiefs.

Speaker 1 (57:02):
Yeah, yeah, it's it's continuity. It is so imploment trying
to take anything away from them, but it just that's
that's what it can become when you have that sort
of same with the Bills. You know, for all the
incoming they take look they're in the championship game or
they're taking on the Chiefs year in and year out,
and there is a little you know, look there's fluctuation
with offensive coordinators and trying to find that. But in

(57:24):
terms of the defense, the quarterback, you know, sort of
the way that they play is similar, and like that,
you just it's what you need. You've got to have it.
And I feel like they finally do and that's you're
going to see. I think you're gonna be able to
see that you put the word used was perfect. You're
gonna be able to stack and being able to stack
is such a huge advantage going into training camp from

(57:45):
having to figure something out all off season and then
kind of get your eyes on how it looks and
how it feels through those four weeks.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
Yeah, hundred percent. Yeah, yeah, protect up the middle a
little bit better, you know, give Justin Herbert cleaner pockets,
and given somebody that he can throw the ball to
down the field in fifty to fifty ball situations, so
he has an outlet and all of a sudden, you're cooking.

Speaker 1 (58:05):
Yeah, exactly right, all right, I said at the start.
I'll say it again on the end. Subscribe to the Athletic,
follow Popper on all of the social media channels you can.
I'm sure you already do if you're listening to this.
So it's Chargers Weekly on January thirty. But yeah, great stuff, Pop.
I appreciate you sitting in today and I'm sure we'll

(58:26):
do it. Are you going to Combine hy, I'll be there, Yeah, okay,
So I'll see you down there at com We're going
to do Chargers Weekly from Combine again, so you'll get
pods all week long from Indianapolis as we bring all
our friends over to chat. So we'll probably do it
again down there, popping about a month.

Speaker 2 (58:42):
Awesome, sounds good. Thanks for having me money.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
Absolutely all right, everybody, Thanks for checking us out. We
appreciate your rate and reviewing, sharing with all your friends,
and making sure you comment because we love to dig
into those and maybe use those for future episodes. Some
things you guys want to discuss, all right for Daniel
Poper met Manny Smith here, Thanks for watching Chargers.

Speaker 2 (58:58):
Weekly Streaking Step