Chargers Weekly: Joe Hortiz Previews Week 2 vs. Raiders

On this episode of Chargers Weekly, Bolts radio play-by-play announcer Matt “Money” Smith, host Chris Hayre, and former Chargers safety Jahleel Addae are joined by General Manager Joe Hortiz to recap the latest news involving LA and the entire NFL. They break down the performance of the offensive line including tackle Joe Alt, guard Mekhi Becton, and center Bradley Bozeman during the divisional win against the Chiefs in Week 1 and provide previews on how the team will continue to develop in preparation for the Week 2 Monday night matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders. Presented by Splitero.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Late fifteen ten touched up.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
What's Up.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Guys, Welcome into a brand new episode of Chargers Weekly.
We are presented by Splittero as always, joined by the
voice of the Chargers, Matt Mundy Smith. That our guy
Jalila die in the content studio today, guys still buzzing
over a huge statement whin twenty seven to twenty one
over the Chiefs in Brazil. If you guys haven't seen

(00:31):
the mini movie, the fans out there watched that first.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
A lot of Matt Money Smith and some amazing calls.

Speaker 4 (00:38):
Bro. Thanks man. I look, I kind of posted it
as well after watching it. And you can't say enough
about the media team, the digital team here and what
they put together. I mean, I'm an old man, so
I grew up on inside the NFL and I would
look forward to NFL films and the voiceovers and the
big plays and the epic, you know, idea of a

(01:00):
football game. And uh, now that inside the NFL has
kind of gone away, I'm so just grateful and thankful
and stoked that that the team here does it, because
that's what it feels like it's like and inside the
NFL for only the Charger game from the week before.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Twenty one minutes, Yeah, twenty minutes. It was forty one.

Speaker 4 (01:18):
Yeah, it was really really good.

Speaker 5 (01:19):
Yeah, money either man got to give money as flowers.
We gotta give money as flowers.

Speaker 4 (01:23):
You don't, you really don't.

Speaker 5 (01:24):
Yeah, you got to be able to smell them. People
want to give guys their flowers on the gun. We
got to give your flowers like here, but quickly fellas
that you talked about buzzing Chris, and it was amazing.
First of all, you go one and on the division
against a very talented teams, former Super Bowl champions and
the Chiefs. You're across seas in Brazil, and if people

(01:44):
don't know, like I played in London twice, like going
over across seas, getting your body adjusted, getting your body
work out there, you know, staying with your nutrition and
staying focused right and staying to the game plan like
it takes a it takes a professional to do that right.
And these guys are displayed. They played lights out offense, defense,
special teams and you it was it was very impressive.

(02:05):
They woke up the NFL world in Week one.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
So many things to talk about in that game. Money,
the lead is justin Herbert I mean just the way
he played, how decisive he was with his decisions. He
he's always been a Pro Bowl quarterback. He looked different,
and I again, I don't know how you can even
describe it, just his his kind of his aura in
the huddle, aura, the slide at the end to seal it.

(02:29):
I mean from from the beginning of the game that he.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Was dialed in.

Speaker 4 (02:32):
Well, you know, I think, look, it's he's incredible. I
mean we know that. And I think for people that
were stuck on and it was the last game he played,
the Houston game, I think it's important to remember you
had one player catch passes for one hundred and ninety
seven yards and the rest of the wide receivers catch
passes for fourteen yards. You had an offensive line in
front of him that allowed a fifty three percent pressure

(02:53):
rate in this game in Brazil, you had an offensive
line that allowed one of the lowest of the week
twenty six percent pressure rate. And he threw passes to two, four, six, eight.
He completed past to eight different receivers and eight one, two,
three four of them had over fifty yards. Like That's
that's what it looks like like when you have complimentary

(03:14):
pieces around an all pro level quarterback this is and
an offensive line that's going to allow barely zero pressures
Makai Beck, then zero pressures Joe Wall Like, this is
what Justin Herbert's going to look like. So, for whatever reason,
people when it goes bad, and I think that's fair
for you know, to say, it's not just Justin. It's
a lot of quarterbacks. But he took a lot of

(03:35):
I thought unnecessary incoming. And I think he reminded people
that when he's healthy and when it looks right, this
is what it's going to look like.

Speaker 5 (03:43):
Yeah, he reminded people that he's him, right, and the
kids nowadays talk about it, but that's what Justin is, right,
he's him.

Speaker 6 (03:49):
He's the guy, he's a guy, he's the captain of
the boat.

Speaker 5 (03:51):
And when you touched on it, right, this team is
probably the most I've been a part of this organization
and been watching this organization for about twelve to fifteen
years now, this roster around him might be one of
the most established talented rosters that we've seen in the
last decade. Right, and you said it, offensive line is
blocking the teloff form. He has weapons out there. He
has weapons out the wall zoo right, and then you

(04:12):
have this defense was playing stifling, the special teams is
playing well. So when you put those kind of pieces
around him, then you can see the flower in the
pot start to bloom, right, And that's what we've seen
with Justin. You've seen his confidence. You see the options
were there. When one option went away, you had Keenan.
If Keena wasn't there, you had qj Almario Hampton running
the ball, cloud or dust pounding away. Offensive line doing
their thing right protecting him like it looked beautiful. It

(04:35):
looked like they were in stride in like week nine,
week ten. So hopefully these guys continue to do what
they did.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, and you know you lose for Shaan Slater too.
Joe walk goes over. Joeal may have.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
Been the best player on the field, you know, and
we were saying that with Justin Herbert on the field.
Joel was that good in that dominant But you know, money,
we talk about the depth on this team, and you know,
Obarian looked the part you have nause. I mean that's
a one to two, that's a quality four two points,
especially a fourth quarter football games. To see Keenan and
Ladd on the field at the same time Keenan had
that touchdown with Ladd on the same side, and Quentin

(05:06):
Johnson the way he performed, and not to mention a
guy like Tyler Conklin. I mean Conklin had two a
huge fifty yards and then you know Will Disley.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
With a huge maybe the biggest catch of.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
The game to extend that drive at the end of
the game before Justin Ice is it with his legs,
the depth?

Speaker 2 (05:21):
It really all positions.

Speaker 4 (05:23):
Yeah, And I think it's critical moments, right, it's shining,
you know, it's what is it that coach Charbas says,
you know, giving your best when your best is required.
And I think that's what we saw in this game
third down and you look at Justin on third down.
I think there were ten third down dropbacks. And of
those ten plays, I want to say four went for
first five went for first downs, two went for touchdowns,

(05:46):
one he used his legs to ice the game on
a third and thirteen. I mean that tells the story.
You know, you look, you look back and I think
and also I think it's important we can go through
the players and look, the players have to play and execute.
But Greg Roman called a heck of a game. And
it started with no doubt. I mean it started with
the inactives, you know, when we thought this was going

(06:06):
to be bully ball and twenty two and thirteen, and
then you get your inactives and you're like, wow, all
six receivers are active, and you don't have Tucker Fisk
or Ron de Gadsden on here. You're going to be
playing a lot of eleven and they played a lot
of twenty one with Scott Mallock. Or you know that
you mentioned that Tyler Conklin that was that fullback sale
route that he caught as a fullback, so he got creative.

(06:27):
But man, you go back and watch the film and
there are guys that are just wide open. And it's
when you're watching the completion the lad you want to
look on the other side of the field and there's
Keenan wide open. There's Tyler Conklin wide open. Like he
did a heck of a job of recognizing what Spagnola wants.
Did it was it was an OCDC showdown on both
sides of the ball. And Jesse Minner and Greg Roman

(06:48):
got out of here with wins because each of them
I thought did a masterful job of not pressure, not
telling your ends to get too aggressive against Mahomes, just
keep him in there. And I know he got loose
with a little bit of runs, but there were outside
of that fourth throw, there were really none of those
Mahomes I'm extending to play. It's hard to be sticky,
as you know, Juliel, that long, backbreaking throws. And I
thought they did a really good job, the coordinators on

(07:11):
both sides of the ball.

Speaker 5 (07:11):
Yeah, Money, you touched on a great point. And I
remember playing Mahomes and we would the week leading up
to Mahomes, We're preparing for him, and they say, well, guys,
he likes to escape in the B gaps. For y'all
at home, do not know what the A and B
gaps are. You have your center, you have your guards,
you have your tackle, you have your A gaps, your
B gaps, your sea gaps.

Speaker 6 (07:27):
Right, Mahomes like to escape through the B gaps. So
they called it.

Speaker 5 (07:30):
Pass rushing integrity, stay in your lane, don't rush up
the field, kind of cloud the middle, right. And then
when they didn't do that, they had a spy. They
had Dayon spying him. As you've seen, dayone had the
sack right. So it was just an awesome game plan
the guys executed at a high level and you've seen
the results from it.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
By the way, Jill Ort is going to join us
here in a few minutes to talk about the game
and kind of push you.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
Forward to the Raiders.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
But let's dive in a little bit more defensively, and
that's one of the things that Derwin said that the
toughest thing with Mahomes is just's he's a maestro with
his legs and he find ways to extend plays with
his legs. And I think just you didn't see the
pass rush as much in this game, but maybe that
was more in just hey, we have to slow Mahomes

(08:11):
and make sure that he doesn't beat us with his legs.
And that gap integrity you're talking about.

Speaker 6 (08:15):
And I think that was the biggest thing.

Speaker 5 (08:16):
I think the gap integrity is what allowed them to
have sticky coverage, allowed them to keep Mahomes in the
pocket because a lot of times guys rush Mahomes and
they want to get sacks, and your spin move, you're
running te stunts, you're running tackle stunts, and then you
know guys are getting out of their lanes.

Speaker 6 (08:31):
The rush lanes and then what does Mahomes do.

Speaker 5 (08:33):
He either scrambles through the B gap, he gets a
first down, and he scrambles to the B gap, goes lateral, and.

Speaker 6 (08:38):
Then he fires a fifty yard bomb over your head.

Speaker 5 (08:40):
Right, And as a dB, people understand, like, it's hard
enough to have to cover somebody for the first three
to four seconds of the route.

Speaker 6 (08:46):
Right, it's a reactive business. As a dB, they know
what they're doing.

Speaker 5 (08:49):
You're playing against the best, fastest, biggest, strongest physical specimens
in the world.

Speaker 6 (08:53):
Then you have to react to him. And then once Mahomes.

Speaker 5 (08:56):
Escapes, now it's another extended four to five seconds, and
that's what he makes his money. Right, It's almost like
how Antonio Brown and Ben Roethlisberger used to do right,
unscripted plays, unscripted passes. And I thought the charges secondary
plastered really well on the wide receivers, and I thought
that the rush was really controlled and it was a
lot of integrity which allowed him to be successful.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (09:15):
The other part of that too is you know when
you reckon and look, there was a decided shift after
the first three drives that did not go well, and
it seemed like Mahomes and DJ made this point in
the booth. You know, was just hell bent on providing explosives.
We're going to be explosive this year. And it wasn't
the right thing to do. It wasn't working, and it
cost him. You could argue it cost him three Now,

(09:36):
I missed that one throw to Thornton on the right
side that could have been a big play, and Hollywood
Brown dropped the ball on the left side that you know,
could have maybe if he spins out of that ghost.
But at point being when they adjusted and it became
a quick game, what did you see? Three tips from
tier Tart, one tip ball from Deshaun Hann like the play. Yes,
smart players, man, you got smart players, Like you said,

(09:58):
don't be going for the hero sack. Think about what's
going on, recognize what the state of the game is
and adjust accordingly. And man, those three tipballs by Tierra
and now, look they weren't the three best plays they
made with his hands, but they're pretty darn good. And
especially on the two point conversion, you know, I mean
that changed the tone of the game.

Speaker 3 (10:16):
So the two point conversion, the momentum swing back to
the Chargers.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah, in a little bit of a way.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
You know, you think you're gonna be have a tie
football game, all of a sudden, Tier knocks that down
is twenty eighteen. You need that nastiness on the defensive line, though,
you know, I'm just I'm looking at some of the
stats in terms of the quarterback hits and sacks.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
I don't know if you can maybe take us.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
Through a game plan on a guy like Patrick Mahomes
and maybe why we didn't see as much quarterback hits
in sacks as it's really just kind of making sure
that he doesn't beat you with his legs.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
Right.

Speaker 5 (10:46):
Yeah, It's kind of like how you prepare when you're
playing Lamar Jackson.

Speaker 6 (10:49):
Right, I keep talking about it.

Speaker 5 (10:51):
You have the guys in lane one and lane nine,
those are your defensive ends, and they're humming up the field.
And then when you hum up the field, you're creating
you're creating extra gaps for these quarterbacks to escape.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
Right.

Speaker 5 (11:00):
What they're saying is, let's keep Mahomes in the pocket.
Many quarterbacks in this league are not patient enough to
dink it down.

Speaker 6 (11:05):
Dink it down.

Speaker 5 (11:06):
The only quarterback that I played that was patient enough
to do that was Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. Right,
they get frustrated, they get agitated, and they want to
take that shot and then that's when you make them pay.

Speaker 6 (11:15):
So the charges did a really good job.

Speaker 5 (11:16):
And then you talk about the batted passes, that's something
that's practiced, right, That's something that's talked about in the
film room, like, look, we're gonna rush with integrity. If
we can't get to Mahomes as soon as he lets
the ball go, we I hand the ball and we
try to knock it down.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
Right.

Speaker 5 (11:29):
That's another defensive tactic that you use against a quarterback
that you want to keep in the pocket. But you're
not sending extra heat, you're not sending aggressive rushers towards him.
So listen, I think the game plan by the defense
was absolutely amazing, right, and they.

Speaker 6 (11:43):
Have to build off it.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
Right.

Speaker 5 (11:44):
It's a one week season, week to week league.

Speaker 6 (11:48):
You're one to zero, but what they did down there
in Brazil it was beautiful.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
Yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 4 (11:53):
I just think to kind of the last thing is
just you mentioned the gap integrity and how well they
played the run. You know, it's because I think what
happens is you look at a box score and you'll
see that Pacheco ran for five yards per care it
wasn't working like without Patrick Mahomes scrambling. They effectively shut
down the run. And you know, as we a little
bit later after we talked to Joe talk about the

(12:13):
raider game, how important that's going to be, and what
they're trying to do with Ashton Genty there to give
Geno Smith that time in the pocket for play action
to work. How important it is to just shut down
the run. And I thought they did that, and without
those Mahomes scrambles, there would have been no semblance of
a run game. And you know, that's what this team
is all about. Let's let's shut that down. It's why
they signed the bodies they signed in the offseason. That

(12:34):
that meat along the interior of that line, and I
thought they were incredibly effective. And even you know, think
about the one the sweep, the Xavier Worthy sweep where
Tarheeb you know, sets that edge and allows Khalil to
catch up and make that shoe stream tackle for one
of the fastest players in the league. And that was
the sort of stuff that might, you know, just look
like a tackle in the box score, but when you

(12:56):
see the way they're playing it, like, oh yeah, Jesse
Miner's got these guys humming man.

Speaker 5 (13:00):
It's crazy because we would always, you know, we would
look at stats and the guy might have two interceptions
or you might have two sacks after the game and
it's like, but what does the film look like?

Speaker 1 (13:09):
Right?

Speaker 6 (13:09):
You talked about it, like in the box score.

Speaker 5 (13:11):
It might not look pretty, it might not look jazzy,
but when the watch the film, you're like, well, okay,
that's why it happened.

Speaker 6 (13:17):
This is what happened.

Speaker 5 (13:17):
And when you turn on the film, the all twenty two,
the Chargers were flying around.

Speaker 3 (13:21):
Yeah, we can six days later we could go like
forty minutes on this case. Fin we're moving on to
Las Vegas, but first a great interview with general manager
Joe Hortiz. Chargers Weekly is presented by Splitteraro, helping homeowners
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(13:41):
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Speaker 2 (13:55):
Slash Chargers all.

Speaker 3 (13:57):
Right, as promised, Joe Ortiz joins us on Chargers Weekly.
And Joe, you've been in the league a long time.
Just where does this trip in Brazil rank for you
in terms of just just an indelible moment in your career?

Speaker 1 (14:11):
Man, Yeah, it's cool.

Speaker 7 (14:13):
You know, the neat thing about the International Games is
you get a chance to go places you've never been
and you probably wouldn't go to if you didn't have
the opportunity through the NFL. And you know, it's neat
to go there. And it was fun to see what
Brazil was like. And I know we're there just a
short amount of time, but I need to see the
people of Brazil and the communities that we were going

(14:36):
through to practice, and it was a lot of fun
for everyone.

Speaker 5 (14:40):
Joe, I think the biggest question, you know, for many
fans and me as well, when Racehans later went down.
Obviously Joe moved to the left tackle and was like, Okay,
what is it gonna look like on offensive line? But
the offensive line against the Chiefs in Brazil absolutely bald
right top to bottom. Ye, what can you say about
those guys being able to transfer from different positions play
as one when they probably weren't doing it as much

(15:01):
in training camp before the injury happened.

Speaker 7 (15:03):
Yeah, you know, I think you know, obviously, you never
want to see anyone go down right and uh, you know,
broke my heart personally four of her shots and uh,
you know, and where he was excited to.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
Get the contract done and really kick off this year.

Speaker 7 (15:17):
But credit to all those guys, you know, happened early,
had some time to gel Joe, you know, obviously spending
all the time at left on the left side in
college certainly is familiar to him, and uh, but it's
really a testament to all of them as pros. You know, like, hey,
you're communicating with the designs, communicating with someone different now
and uh, you know, they all stepped up and uh
and played great And it's really the work they put

(15:39):
in and credit all goes to them.

Speaker 4 (15:41):
When you have when you have a quarterback like justin Herbert,
how much of your job is designed specifically about him,
as the sun and the planets that orbit around him.
I just kind of think about how the offense looked
last year, Yeah, versus what we saw in that week
one and the pieces that you put into.

Speaker 7 (15:56):
Place, right, Yeah, yeah, that's when I got this job.
I was afforded a great opportunity having Justin Herbert as
my quarterback. You know, a lot of a lot of
new gms have to go out and find a quarterback,
and certainly Coach and I when we got here, we
didn't have to do that.

Speaker 1 (16:12):
And uh yeah, you just want to.

Speaker 7 (16:13):
Give surround him with as much challenge as you can.
And I think I said it from the jump. You
surround him with as much town as you can on
both sides of the ball, but certainly with offense. Let's
get him some playmakers. Let's get them guys that can
protect for him, ball carriers, everything.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
You know. So that's always the goal, and it will.

Speaker 7 (16:28):
Be as long as I'm here, just to constantly put
as much talent around Justin Herbert because he is he
is the guy that this this team revolves around.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
And and you saw it the other day.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
Justin just everybody's been saying it.

Speaker 3 (16:41):
He just for some reason just looks different, you know
when you see it, and you know, you go back
to six seven weeks ago, you know, Mike Williams retires,
you know, three four weeks in the camp, Keenan comes
in and we're seeing Keenan lad on the field together. Yeah,
third down and I feel like it just brings this
dimension Joe to the offense.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
That it was there last year. But just the fact that.

Speaker 3 (17:02):
That Keenan can come in here and pick up right
where he left off with Justin. You know, what was
your reaction to seeing what he was able to accomplish
on on the field least Friday.

Speaker 7 (17:10):
Yeah, you know, we talked about it before we even
actually brought Keenan in, like just yeah, you know, hey,
if we get Keenan back here, like we're gonna be fired.
There's gonna be third down plays and touchdowns that you know,
just the chemistry that him and Justin have and Keenan
such a pro and that's what you know, when you
bring Keenan back in, it's like he's gonna he's he
knows how to get open, he knows space, he's got

(17:32):
spatial awareness, he he knows defensive structure. So like he's
just going to be such a resource for us. And
then you got the playmakers and Ladd and qu out
there and just there's a lot of options for.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
Justin and uh, and it's gonna be fun to watch
it go.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (17:47):
So, Joe, you talked about bringing in talent and we've
been touching on the offensive side.

Speaker 6 (17:50):
But when you came in here day one was here, right.

Speaker 5 (17:52):
He is has sended so much as a leader, seeing
him grow from year one to year two, right, and
he's just continued to grow each and every years I've
been here part of this organization. What do you see
from him not only as a leader on the field,
but off the field that makes him the player that
he's been coming to be.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
Yeah, he's fun.

Speaker 7 (18:10):
He's like we actually interviewed dayon when I was in
Baltimore and just his passion for the game. I remember
talking to him in Indye you know, came out and
we kind of laughed about it when pre draft last
year in twenty twenty four years, like, yeah, I thought
you guys were going to take me and I was like,
well we might have, you know, but you were gone.

(18:32):
And I'm glad. I'm glad we didn't, you know, And
I'm glad you're here. And just to watch his growth
has been awesome. He loves the game. He's not he's
so charismatic. His energy is great. A smart football player
and obviously talented, but you just the success he had
early last year, you've just seen it match his intensity

(18:52):
for the game off the field and his passion for
the game off the field. And yeah, he's grown into
a great leader for us. And it's great to have
good young leaders like him.

Speaker 4 (19:00):
I want to go back to the Keenan thing because
you know, just even if you just look at the numbers, right,
it's slot usage, you know, it's high. It's it's eighty
percent for Lad, It's eighty percent for Keenan in twenty
twenty four, Like, what was that conversation like when you're
because I think a lot of people on the outset
were like, how is this going to work? Is it
going to diminish Lad a little bitter? Can these two
guys play together? And then we see it yeah, and
it's like, oh, yeah, it makes sense. So what was

(19:21):
what was that conversation like with you and the coaches
about how this thing could actually kind of look like
it did.

Speaker 7 (19:26):
Yeah, it's having faith in the coaching staff and and
and Greg and his staff to say, hey, you know,
can we put them out there at the same time?
And absolutely, you know, you can line guys up in
different spots. The thing about both Ladd and Keenan is
the pros like they and they know how to get
open wherever they are, and so.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
The whole slot.

Speaker 7 (19:45):
You know, lad can play outside, Keenan can play OUTSI
we did that the other day, and so it really
wasn't a big concern about having them both on the field.
And you just put your you know, your best playmakers
out there and h and let them go.

Speaker 4 (19:57):
And the slot a bunch too.

Speaker 7 (19:58):
The whole we see how where you know, and that
was right, and he created the mismatch and look at
Q's touchdown.

Speaker 1 (20:03):
He was in the slot and created.

Speaker 7 (20:04):
The mismatch on the safety and paid paid dividends. So
uh yeah, the more the more visually you can be
as an offense, the harder you yard to defend Joe.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
I think one of the things that we forget last
year was Justin is such a big chunk of training
camp and then he had that injury early in the year.
Being able to be healthy year two with Greg Roman,
it seems like those guys really click this offseason.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
I don't know if you could just walk us.

Speaker 3 (20:29):
Through just that that relationship and just how it's really
paid dividends early in the year so far.

Speaker 7 (20:34):
Yeah, you know, Greg does a great job communicating with
Justin and vice versa, and they're constantly talking one about
the game plan about what Justin likes, uh, you know,
things that we think will work, and and uh and
really Greg does a great you know, I've obviously been
with Greg a long time, and he does a great
job always communicating with the quarterbacks and pushing the quarterbacks
to be their best. And I think he did a

(20:55):
lot of that this offseason with Justin and encouraging them
and and you and Justin is the type of guy
that really can take the bull by his own horns,
you know, and everybody the horns and.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
Do it himself. And uh.

Speaker 7 (21:06):
But it's it's been great the chemistry and the evolution
of our offense to watch it grow and uh, yeah,
the injury last year it limited Justin.

Speaker 1 (21:14):
It certainly did.

Speaker 7 (21:15):
And uh, now you're seeing one hundred percent Justin out there.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
And he's a he's a dual threat. And I've watched.

Speaker 7 (21:21):
Him run those gassers and the only reason I know
he's human is because he's sweating.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
You know.

Speaker 7 (21:27):
It's just he's not breathing heavy, and he's I mean,
I think about it, like last year, I'm like, he's
not even breathing heavy, Like, how do we This guy
doesn't even seem real. He's so fast and athletic and
uh him using his legs. It's just another another dimension
that teams has to defend.

Speaker 6 (21:43):
Joe one of them.

Speaker 5 (21:43):
This is one that I'm excited about being a former player.
Like listen, it's one of the most scrutinized businesses that
you can possibly be in and seeing we talked about
Q and his first few years obviously has a label
of drop, having major drops and gains, gets a concussion
of bad concussion in the preseason and right unlucky, and
then he comes out in Brazil on foreign soil and

(22:04):
goes for two tuddies. Right, can you talk about for
the people at home don't know, like when this business
and having that kind of resiliency, how big is that
for a guy?

Speaker 1 (22:12):
Like that's huge? All right?

Speaker 7 (22:13):
So like that's really the separator, right, you know what
you played in this league.

Speaker 6 (22:17):
You have to be.

Speaker 7 (22:18):
Resilient, you have to overcome adversity, bad games. And I've
talked to Q about it, like and I got here,
and I like Q coming out of college, and I
think you was a hell of a pick by the
Chargers before I got here. And the physical, talented, great kid,
passionate about the game, loves the game, works hard, and
certainly has elite athletic traits. And yeah, you know, receivers

(22:40):
drop balls.

Speaker 1 (22:40):
They do.

Speaker 7 (22:41):
And I watched some games this weekend where I saw
really good receivers dropping balls. I'm I'm not going to
name them, but you know, we know who they are,
their household names, and it's going to happen. It's how
you respond and how you bounce back. And you know,
Q's had some tough games in the past, and he's
had some. He had a tough game last year and
he responded and and uh and I feel like, hey.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
You just got to wash it and move on.

Speaker 7 (23:04):
And Q's doing that and uh, and he's letting his
athletic talent and play making abilities shine.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (23:10):
I think you have a type when it comes to
offensive lineman. You Uh, you draft arguably the biggest left
tackle in the you know, all he's left tackle now,
but you know, one of the biggest tackles in the league.
You signed the biggest you know, offensive lineman in the league.
Bozeman's a giant center. Is that fair to say? Because
going back and watching through the film, there's a couple
of those blocks that Makai gets next level.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
And he just wrecks.

Speaker 4 (23:31):
Dude, It's pretty fun to watch throws them off exactly.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
Is that?

Speaker 2 (23:35):
Is that fair to say?

Speaker 4 (23:36):
Like when you were building an offensive line, is that
what you're kind of looking for?

Speaker 1 (23:39):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (23:39):
And our Yeah, absolutely, I mean you want to you
want to protect the quarterback.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
Big protects the quarterback.

Speaker 7 (23:45):
You know, certainly, big athletes are the best you can get,
right and uh but big, tough, physical is what we
wanted to be when we got here, and and that's
what we're gonna continue to strive to be. And uh,
it pays dividends in the run game. It keeps the
pocket from collapsing on Justin. And that's what you're trying
to let Justin sit back there clean and just pick
them apart.

Speaker 6 (24:04):
He likes base dam monsters money.

Speaker 4 (24:06):
Yeah, if I could know just a piggyback on that,
because that was kind of the big question, you know,
especially coming off the Houston game as the last game
that people saw, like what how are we gonna kind
of what is this going to look like the following year?
Just coming in with Boson and Zion and what you
saw from the last and why you were comfortable with
that great.

Speaker 7 (24:23):
Yeah, those guys are again I go back to players
being pros.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
They're so committed to the craft, they work so hard.

Speaker 7 (24:30):
They're both smart, tough, intelligent players, great teammates like Okay, yeah,
maybe they have a bad game here and there.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
Everyone will. Everyone does, and to.

Speaker 7 (24:39):
You know, to knock a player because of a bad
game or I know what they're about and they're about winning.
They're about being great teammates, and they're about putting the
time in, the work in, and so I trust them
and uh.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
And then you get a chance to add a guy
like Mackay and it just it just has a ripple effect.

Speaker 7 (24:55):
And so yeah, we've we felt good about going into
it this year. And then versatility and Zion showed that
some of that in camp working at center, and I've
seen Bose play left guard in this league. And so
you got some versatile guys in there that work together,
understand the game, and can play off each.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
Other, and that's what you want. Joe.

Speaker 3 (25:13):
This obviously predated you, but just the big talking point
going into this game where you lose seven straight to
the Chiefs. You had a lead in five of those
seven games, tied in the sixth. It felt like a
moment and I realized there are sixteen more games to go.
But with justin ICE's that game and you close the

(25:34):
way that you closed Tier with that huge bat down
to the two point conversion. Just little moments like that
in an effort to close a football game. What do
those moments do for a team in terms of just
breeding confidence and momentum.

Speaker 7 (25:47):
Yeah, well, you know, certainly you walk out of the
game one moment and now we got to keep it going, right,
It really is on to the next game. The moment
itself was great, you know, And you know, yes, I
may not have been here for part of that seven games,
but I had my own streak against negative streak against
them when I walked in here, so I've certainly been
on the other end of some tough losses against them.

(26:07):
So it felt great for everyone. And uh, there's no
doubt you want to be excited about it. It's a
big win, like coach said, and and we all felt that.
But now it's time to move on and get to
the Raiders and and and try to keep going.

Speaker 6 (26:20):
Joey keeps saying it felt great.

Speaker 5 (26:22):
And I remember playing and going to London, and it
could be in away game of going to London, going
across seas and there's nothing that feels better than.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
The ride home right home.

Speaker 5 (26:32):
Like they're talking, but just tell us how how emotional,
how exciting?

Speaker 6 (26:38):
What was that fight was?

Speaker 4 (26:39):
What?

Speaker 5 (26:39):
Fifteen fourteen fifteen? It was like eleven hours with your
best friends? Right, yeah, how'd that feel? It feels great.

Speaker 7 (26:47):
It's like, you know, the negative about being in la
We have a good number of long flights home, you know,
so the more you can get that you're enjoying the
flight home, the better. And uh, to start off with
a twelve hour flight after a win, it was fun.
The guys were fired up. Everybody, the whole plane was
fired up. There was a great buzz on it. Excitement
you just even walking through the airport. You know, you

(27:10):
weren't dreading getting on a twelve hour flight. You're looking
for the looking forward to the twelve hour flight to
celebrate and and and and enjoy it.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
You know.

Speaker 7 (27:17):
So rides home after a game after a win, it's
a happy ride you know, it makes it a shorter trip,
you know, definitely.

Speaker 4 (27:25):
We saw a couple already this week, but just constantly
churning the practice squad. Obviously a bit of a hit
there with DP with Denzel Paraman and we see Malga
get put back on. Kind of walk us through how
I think for fans that are that are watching and listening,
like what your day is like as it pertains to
the practice squad and how many rosters you're looking at
and how many players you're looking at, and how much

(27:45):
churn really kind of goes into that because we'll see
those guys called up and playing games this season.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
Absolutely so the practice squad we do a lot of work.

Speaker 7 (27:54):
Our pro scouts do a lot of work in the preseason.
We evaluate every team, every player who's cut. So we
have a list of Okay, one do we want to
claim them, Two do we want to try to get
him over here at our practice squad if they're available,
and then three if they're not on a practice squad.
Who's out there that we call it the short list,
the ready list, and so who's out there where one

(28:15):
they may be an upgrade to our practice squad if needed,
and then two if we have an injury, you know,
we need to add depth at a position.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
Who's out there ready.

Speaker 7 (28:24):
Obviously we're familiar with Maga because he was here, knows
our defense, knows our special teams, you know, so he's
an easy ad.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
But you're always looking out there. You know. We did
it with amr.

Speaker 7 (28:33):
We brought him in last week of player that our
pro guys Lou and Denny and Tyler all liked and
so got a chance to add him and been excited
about him.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
But we're always.

Speaker 7 (28:42):
Constantly looking to see you can improve the team through practice, squad,
you can improve the team through the bottom of the
fifty three. But we're always kind of looking to see
if we can do that, and we won't stop because
our goal is to make the team better, not only
through the draft, not only through free agency, but over
the course of the year and trying to be at
our best.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
At the end of the year.

Speaker 3 (29:01):
Joe just pushing it forward to to Monday night and
really just these first three weeks. It's it's very rare
to play three straight divisional games to open up a season,
and everybody has a different schedule. Some some teams will
play for their final five against divisional opponents. But just
I don't know if you can walk us through the
just the heighten awareness that you guys have had since
that schedule came out and just watching that that mini

(29:22):
movie and hearing your calls, it was so good. But
just here here coach in July talking about the division,
just how important to get off to a good start.
I don't know if you could just kind of walk
us through what this place has been like, knowing.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
That you start right away with the Chiefs, Raiders and Broncos.

Speaker 7 (29:38):
Yeah, you know, I I will say this, And in
the NFL, it really has to be a one game
season each week, and so you know, but you know
what's coming behind it, and you know, so we're certainly
aware that we have three division games out the bat,
and you look at it as a chance. It's a
great opportunity for us to get off to a great
start within the division and take it one hot. We

(30:00):
got a victory versus the Chiefs, now that would make it,
make it stand up, make it matter against the Raiders,
and then we'll move on the next week. But yeah,
you certainly have a chance to see where you stand
right out the gate and uh and give yourself, you know,
a good footing for the rest of the.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
Season, Joe.

Speaker 5 (30:17):
Since we're touching on the Raiders and everyone knows Charging
Nations just Raiders week, you know what time.

Speaker 6 (30:21):
It is, right, So listen, you watch.

Speaker 5 (30:23):
You look at the Raiders, and you see Geno, and
you see gent and you see Kobe Myers and all
the defensive side. You got Max Crosby who Rex games.
And I know you're watching film like the coaches. What
do you see from the Raiders that stands.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
Out to you?

Speaker 5 (30:36):
And what do you think that the Chargers have to
do as a team this week to be successful?

Speaker 7 (30:41):
Yeah, you know, I think we got to play our
brand football, and we got to be disciplined and which
we were last week. And in just any errors, we
may clean up on it, you know. And uh, but
trust what we do certainly and and and play our game,
but we got to be ready. Like Ginoll watch that
game and he made some spectacular throws in that game.
I mean, he was on was on point and uh

(31:01):
and he's a talented player and who's kind of went
through some of that adversity, right and perseverance and uh
and and it's paid off for him and certainly we
know Maxwell and when you watch them, they played a
good physical game, you know, really respect the way they play.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
They got after it on both sides of the ball.
H physical and aggressive. So it'll be that type of game.

Speaker 4 (31:21):
I think physical aggressive would be your D line. Just
interested in because you had the money to go make
a splash if you wanted to, and there were some
big time D tackles out there, but just kind of
hearing listening to to coach Minter about you know, throwing
volume at it instead. And and you look at the
game against the Chiefs to Sewan with a huge sack
tier with the three batted balls, just kind of why

(31:42):
or I shouldn't say why, but but the idea behind
taking that approach, behind going to get Nakuan and to
Shawn and kind of filling that with volume, because it
certainly worked in Week one.

Speaker 7 (31:50):
Yeah, So depth is huge in the NFL, all right,
and especially at the position where you're going to rotate
players in and out and you don't want to drop all,
you know, so if you can add a lot of
good players versus one good player, you know, to me,
it's volume and it's waves, and so they can't take
a playoff when we're bringing somebody and who may not

(32:12):
have quote unquote started the game, and that's that's the philosophy.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
And we want guys to fit our scheme.

Speaker 7 (32:17):
Big physical players and that's what they all are, and
they know how to play.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
With technique and they know they just fit what we do.

Speaker 7 (32:24):
And uh, you know DeShawn, I've always had a lot
of respect for him as a player, just scouting him
and watching him on opponents over the years. And to
be able to bring him in nay Kuan, a young
talented player who we think is of sending and then
able to retain Tierra was exciting.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
And then you know, they and we had a Tito and.

Speaker 7 (32:40):
Knew we already knew going into free agency where Justin
was heading. You know, we we saw what he was
doing in the offseason. We saw the games he was
making in the way. Yeah yeah, sorry, yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry, yeah,
well we're staying on d line.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
Yeah, we kind of had a good idea where Justin
Herbert was going to but yeah, no, so a boy be.

Speaker 7 (33:01):
Like, we knew what we were having, what we had
coming back, and the chance to add multiple players to
really felt like help solidify.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
The whole group.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
Just as a general manager, you're building for this year,
you're always building for the future as well. I don't
know if you could take us just from from last
year to this year and just the culture that you
and Coach Harpball set in year one win eleven games,
but just to see what week one look like this year,
Like what are the biggest maybe areas of improvement and

(33:31):
just strides that you guys have made in this program
from year one to year two.

Speaker 7 (33:35):
Yeah, I just I think when we got here, the
goal was to improve depth and just make the whole
fifty three man roster better. And I think we did
that the first year, and we just added to it
this past year and just having versatile players and guys
if somebody goes down, someone can step up, like a
Troy Die who we had last year and we brought
him back, and Denzel goes out early and Troy comes

(33:57):
in and.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
Plays gold football for us, you know.

Speaker 7 (33:59):
And you know, so I think from a roster standpoint,
you look at our wide receiver room Honestly, me personally
and again it's where I've been, you know, and but
to me, it's the best receiver room I've I've been
a part of you know, and that's no knock against
but that's what I believe in in terms of the
talent that's out there in the depth of the room.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
So you know, so we just we continued just to.

Speaker 7 (34:20):
Try to make the roster as strong as we can,
and I.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
Think that showed the last week.

Speaker 7 (34:24):
But really it all comes down to the guys on
the field, you know, the coaches, and they did a
hell of a job in the game and it just
shows that their belief in themselves and uh and and
their commitment to the team. And I think that that
played itself out on on Friday.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
LA's Friday.

Speaker 5 (34:40):
Yeah, So Joe's usually being being around the NFL, right,
there's coaches that have specific schemes, right, and there's the
front office that may not understand the scheme. So the
front office are bringing in guys who they think, may
you know, fit the who are available, but they don't
actually fit what the coaches want to do with the
body type, the physical what what they look for in
line back or a safety. Can you tell the people

(35:02):
at home, because the reason why the charges are so
successful is because our front office knows what this coaching
staff wants, what they're trying to do. What they're trying
to build. What's what's the scheme? Can you talk about
how much work goes into that? Are you staying in
meetings with them? Are you talking about it every day?
Or what does that look like?

Speaker 1 (35:17):
Talk? We talk about it a lot, you know.

Speaker 7 (35:19):
And my familiarity obviously with Greg and Andy Bischoff and
Mike Devlin working with him in Baltimore and Jesse Mentor
on defense, and so.

Speaker 1 (35:29):
You know, I'm familiar with them.

Speaker 7 (35:31):
But just because I'm familiar with them, doesn't mean the
rest of this our staff is familiar with them. And
so it's the constant communication and our staff being on
the same page with them, and that's conversations.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
That's free agency in the draft. But when we.

Speaker 7 (35:46):
First all got here, bringing the coaching staff in and
talking to our scouts, our college scouts and our pro scouts,
this is what we want in a D line, and
this is what we wanted on the inside back or
an edge you know, outside backer, say these corners, you know,
so them knowing what we're looking for, locking it in.

Speaker 1 (36:05):
And let's go find those guys. And that's what you do.

Speaker 7 (36:07):
You gotta find players that fit what you do. You
can't force a square peg into a round all because
we'll be sitting there, like, you know, the coach like
what are you doing, and we'd be like what you know,
like you know, let's let's get guys. We won here,
and that's that's the goal. Whether it's free agency, whether
it's the draft, and you know what, I gotta be honest,
there's times where people may be like, why aren't they

(36:28):
going after this player? Because he just he's not our
type of the type of player not the person. Might
be a great person, but just doesn't fit what we
want to do offensively or defensively.

Speaker 4 (36:38):
So last one for me, Joe, you look at the
box scoring. It probably doesn't tell the story, I don't think,
just going back and rewatching it, but just your thoughts
on your your first round pick and Omari and it
felt like he was this close to pop in one
for about forty to fifty and you could just kind
of see it. Just sort of what you took away
from that.

Speaker 7 (36:54):
Well, yeah, he just you know, hey, a couple read here,
maybe a step here, you know, maybe you know, a
block here. But the way he rides the ball, he
was so physical. You look at that fourth down conversion.
You know, he earned that, you know, and you watch
the runs he had, like the extra yards he was
getting after contact, hitting the hole with burst and acceleration

(37:17):
and violence. And then he did a great job in
pass protection.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
Outstanding job in pass protection.

Speaker 7 (37:22):
You're asking a rookie back against the complex defense to
go in and produce as a pass protector for Justin
did a fantastic job.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
So just excited where he's gonna go from there.

Speaker 3 (37:33):
Joe, just to put a button on this conversation, man,
I wanted to give you up to just bragg on
your staff a little bit to go six thousand miles
to Brazil and to you know, account nutrition, hydration, sleep,
everything that goes into a trip like this for your
players to perform at the highest level. Man, it was
it was pretty cool to see everything that went into it.

(37:55):
Just the people that are not playing in the game
and the impact that they had.

Speaker 7 (37:58):
Yeah, there's so many but just like Marco are in
training and then our whole training staff, Marko and sal
and everyone. They did a great job, Smitty getting all
the equipment down there, you know, and his staff, I
mean phenomenal, John Weidmeyer and Christina de Ruder setting up
all the travel and logistics stats in with all the
security bill, I mean, just phenomenal, Grant and Kate with

(38:24):
nutrition like everything.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
There's so people have no idea.

Speaker 7 (38:27):
Josh phenomenal job setting up all the media, you know,
and his staff job.

Speaker 1 (38:33):
So I had to make sure I got him in there.
But no, like, there's so much that goes into it.

Speaker 7 (38:38):
It's not a one day road trip to to Las Vegas.
There's a ton that goes into it. And uh, man,
it was seamless, and uh it was. It was everyone
did a great job. And if I didn't mention someone,
I'm sorry, but like it, it doesn't go without recognition,
and uh it just allowed us to treat it like
a normal trip and uh, the coaches and the players

(38:59):
and it was really it was great.

Speaker 6 (39:02):
It was.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
It was really a.

Speaker 7 (39:03):
Heck of a job on everyone involved and the preparation
that went in the meetings, the advanced trips to Brazil
and they you know, all the stuff that they did
to make that seamless was great.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
What a way to start twenty twenty five. Let's do it,
Joe the best. We will see you in Vegas. Yep.

Speaker 3 (39:19):
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(39:45):
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we appreciate Joe giving us so much time before this
big another national televised game Monday night Football against the Raiders,

(40:08):
and you know, guys, we saw the Raiders beat the Patriots.

Speaker 2 (40:11):
And again it's week one.

Speaker 3 (40:13):
We don't know how good anybody is at this point,
but Gino looked really good twenty four to thirty four,
I think three hundred and sixty two yards and it's
gonna be a challenge slowing him in brock Bowers. And
of course Ashton Gensy you mentioned right before the breakdough
the numbers weren't there but they're trying to do some
stuff with the rookie.

Speaker 4 (40:30):
You know, I think if you don't watch and I
just said the whole I'll watch the film.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
That's not what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (40:35):
If you don't watch the game back, you would look
at the box score and see Ashton genty average two
yards per carry. I think six of those were late
in the second half when they were just bleeding the clock,
and they were like carries for loss. It was like
carry lost a two, loss of four, loss of two.
So it adjusted when you watch it back, Dude, He's
what you expect him to be. Man, there's juice, there's physicality,

(40:58):
there's yards after contact. They were blocking it up and
he was ripping off some pretty darn good runs early
on in that game. But to me and you you
already said it, I mean three hundred and sixty two
yards ten point six per attempt, gino, I mean it
was I hate to say it, man, it's Raider week.
But it was a fun watch.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
Man.

Speaker 4 (41:17):
It was fun to watch what Chip Kelly was doing
and scheming these guys wide open twenty twenty five yards
down the field for chunk plays all game long. Man,
It's it was impressive to watch.

Speaker 5 (41:28):
Yeah, and he's he's their first round pick, and they're
gonna they're gonna feed him the ball. They're gonna get
him going. That's without of doubt, right, And I think
when you watch the Raiders, they were most successful in
the air, and the Chargers love to play the too
high safety look. So if you're able with a seven
man box to stop asking gent and stop that running game,
then you get to keep the roof over the top
of the defense, right, you get to play back, keep

(41:49):
everything in front of you. Like you said, Chip Kelly
did a great job of, you know, designing plays that
got guys open. Jacobe Myers is a really good threat
for them at the receiver position. Obviously, brock Bauers, we
know what he can do. He's a generation in the Unicorn. Yeah,
I mean, I don't want to say generational because everyone
throws that word around. Now, he's generational. So listen playing
the two high shell, having Durn at the big nickel, obviously,

(42:11):
a lot of teams like to put speed into the
field motion bring your nickel into the box. Now he
has to take on three hundred pound guards. But having
during at the big nickel, I think having two safeties
behind him with the low heat right and Elijah Molden.
You keep your cap on the defense, but you're able
to play the run. And I think they'll have a
good formula for him.

Speaker 3 (42:28):
If it's Thursday and a broad got banged up in
that game. Let's just assume he plays. How do you
defend him? Do you defend him with Derwin Like, what
are the maybe one or two ways that that are
maybe the best way to try to slow him a
little bit?

Speaker 5 (42:43):
Durwin James Like, that's what That's why Durren James has
paid what he's paid, right. He's a guy that can
take away your best tight end. He's a guy that
can cover your number three wide receiver. But there was
a time and place when we played Rob Gunkowski and
it was the Tom Brady era, and it was a
way that coach Bags would would kind of, you know,
try to take him out of the game. If he's
lined up at the if he's lined up by the core,

(43:05):
if he's split two yards from the core, the defensive
end that was to his side didn't rush right away.
The defense end that was to his side. If he
was lined up in the corps or two yards or less,
to excuse me, two yards or less. They would always
jam him first before he got out of his route, right,
So you're putting a big body on him, you're just
basically maudeling him for one to two seconds, let him
get into his release, and then rush. So that's a

(43:26):
way that I can see the Chargers, you know, using
their defensive tactics to slow him down.

Speaker 4 (43:30):
Yeah, I think and what you saw, you know they
put on film with Michael Mayer like it's they're running
a lot of those two tight end sets and we
forget that Mayor was you know, grated out is maybe
the best tight end in the draft, you know, three
years ago. So they've got two top tight ends. They've
got look explosives and Thornton and Trey Tucker who had
those big one, the two big catches. The one thing

(43:52):
that I think you can maybe point to is, you
know they were down Christian Gonzales. I don't think the
New England front is what the Chargers front is, and
so I think it's gonna be a little bit tougher.
And the one thing you can do with you know,
he'll stand in there, man, he'll take the shots and
you can you know, he threw one pick and you
can kind of get to him and you can put
some hits on them and you can maybe adjust things

(44:14):
a little bit. So kind of coming out of the
Chiefs game and people sort of getting a little worried
about the pressure numbers and the lack of sacks and
the hurries and the hits that weren't there, this is
a game I'd be looking at because that offensive line
did look pretty leaky. It did not look like it
was holding up. Gino was just you know, stan and tall,
and he was willing to take those shots and he
had guys open, you know, comfortably where he could throw

(44:36):
with some anticipation and maybe take a little bit off
with some more timing that that I don't think you're
going to be able to do with Tarheeb and Dante
Jackson out there. And I think that's probably what we're
looking for, is like, let's see if we can get
these numbers to maybe look a little more like we
thought they were going to.

Speaker 3 (44:52):
Yeah, you guys, we flip it and Max Crosby can
destroy a game.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
Will Disley, Scott bat Lock.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
I think maybe helping Trey Pippiens a little bit on
that side, Well, what do we do to slow that Crosby?

Speaker 5 (45:06):
He's the guy that you you know, it's you come
in and it's a Wednesday, and you put him on
the board and you take your little red beam and
you say, listen, this is what they call a game record, right,
and we can't allow him to wreck the game.

Speaker 1 (45:18):
Right.

Speaker 6 (45:18):
So if they, if.

Speaker 5 (45:19):
They have any success against us, it can be because
Max Crosby's going crazy. So when you say that, you
put in chips, you slide that, you slide your protection.
You're doubling him. You always you're running at him. Why
do you run at him to slow down his pass rush?

Speaker 1 (45:32):
Right?

Speaker 5 (45:32):
Because if you run him we just talked about it
with the gap integrity. If you're just dropping back, dropping back,
dropping back and his ears are pin back, he just rush.

Speaker 6 (45:39):
He's rushing right now.

Speaker 5 (45:40):
If you're running at him now, you're making him check
his feet, you're making him slow down.

Speaker 6 (45:44):
He knows he can't just take up off the field,
up up up the field.

Speaker 5 (45:47):
Excuse me, because if he takes up up the field,
that creates a running lane. So that's the ways you
slow down the pass rusher. People are like, oh, he's
a beast against the run, well, yeah, but you have
to run at him to slow down his feet.

Speaker 6 (45:57):
If not, he's going to be going balls to the
wall all day.

Speaker 4 (46:00):
Yeah, And I think sort of one thing you remember
too is look, Pete is Pete, and no matter what
the league is done, he's gonna run a single high
And so I think you're gonna have opportunities out there,
you know. And Justin Herbert is someone who you know,
can see it, can pull that trigger quickly, and so
I think there's gonna be opportunities out there for him.

(46:21):
I think you saw it with the blitz last week
against Bags, you know, when they're they're trying to bring
some some more pressure up front, he was able to
kind of dissect that pretty easily. So the one thing
to remember though is look, the Chiefs are a really
good defense. They're coordinated very well. They have great players
at all levels, you know, led by Chris Jones. Carl
Loftis is you know, one of the more underrated edges.

(46:42):
But I think when you look along that front and
you're talking about you know, Chris Jones, Carl Loftis and
Mike Dana and now here, and we saw it with
Tyre Wilson he had a sack. Malcol Koont's a little underrated.
So I think you start kind of looking at this
raider front. And I do think, especially because Max Crosby's
in the conversation and you just might be the best
pass rusher, the best edge in the league, it's probably

(47:02):
gonna a little bit more of a challenge. And I
think it's why it was, you know, you put it perfectly,
Chris and asking about that right side because Joe Alt
pitched a shutout, and I think when you were talking
about pressures, it's kind of coming from that right set.

Speaker 1 (47:13):
A little bit.

Speaker 4 (47:14):
Good thing about that is, you know, that's where Justin's
eyes are, so he can see as long as Alt's
over there. And I think like we saw, you know,
two years whatever it was four years ago with Rashawn
and Chase Young, you know, when he went head to
head with with with Chase Young, and then Max Crosby
was pretty quick when they were like going to the
other side. And I think that's what you're going to see,

(47:34):
is I would suspect that that's going to be the
same thing that we that we see and that's a
lot easier for Justin to contend with. Then it coming
from his blind side and him not feeling it.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
Yeah, you got the guys to help him out.

Speaker 3 (47:47):
Yeah, with guys like Matt Locke and Disley. As we
wrap it, listen, one of the fun storylines is always
going to be Jim Harball and Pete Carroll. I think
there are six and six all time against each other,
both in the college and the pros if I'm not mistaken.

Speaker 4 (48:00):
H Going back from thinking Stanford, I think Jim was
three and one at Stanford against Pete, and I believe
he was four and five against him in the NFL
because he lost the NFC Championship game that year that
Crabtree Sherman play. So eight and eight and six favorite
Jim or seven and six Oka.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
Seven to six, Okay, I saw it. I saw six
and six.

Speaker 4 (48:21):
So it's because the NFC Championship game probably gainst the playoff.

Speaker 3 (48:24):
So anyway, it's it's neck and neck. Yeah, And these
guys have have been dogged competitors for decades and to
do it on this stage in the AFC West Monday
Night Football, Uh, I know it's gotta be cool for you,
Moddy because you've called some of those games before and
you've been around that rivalry.

Speaker 4 (48:41):
Called the What's Your Deal Game? Yeah, called what's called
the What's Your Deal Game? The fifty five and there's
fifty five to twenty one, twenty three something like that. Yeah, basically,
I think it ended Pete's career. I think that was
the game where he was like, I'm out of here.
You know it's uh it was Toby Gerhart just oh yes,
I mean he put it on him man, to the
point where I remember talking to to I think we

(49:02):
talked to I think we talked to Toby afterward and
he had said, yeah, they were he gues. I'm not
gonna name names, but there was someone that said, come on, man,
aren't we done with this guy? And we still had
about a quarter to go, and they were like, we're
still doing this.

Speaker 5 (49:13):
And it's the battle of the personalities. Like Jim Harball
great personality, Pete Carroll, great personality. Both of the both
of these coaches respectful respectfully are talked about as player
coach is right. They're very energetic, you know, they bring
they bring good vibes. So man, it's gonna be a
fun one Monday night.

Speaker 3 (49:28):
But but knowing both of these guys, what do you
think that locker room is going to be like on
both sides, and this game it's gonna I mean, it's
gonna be chippy.

Speaker 6 (49:35):
It's it's the Raiders. I don't care if I was
the head coach, You'll go out there and it's the Raiders.
Let's get to it.

Speaker 4 (49:42):
Yeah, it's gonna be uh, it's it's definitely it's gonna
be fun. I think I think the Raiders are a
lot better than maybe a lot of people think and
should make for a great game, you know, just quickly
to wrap it for me, Chris, I think what I'm
really looking forward to is I want to see I
want to see a mari And hit his head on
the goal post.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
Man.

Speaker 4 (49:56):
I want to. I think he's I think he's got that.
I think we saw it and you look at the
seven of the Raiders and it's it's not quite at
the level of where the Chiefs are, especially at their
linebacking level, and I think we saw enough where it's like,
oh man, that was close. That was this close, And
I feel like you've got a shot to get one
of those to pop this week for for a Marian.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:15):
And the fact that the that Greg Robin and company
and they almost used the pass to set up the
run in some ways on Friday, So you know a
Marion came.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
Very close a couple of times.

Speaker 3 (50:27):
Maybe this is the this is the game where he
breaks off a fifty sixty yard rugs a little.

Speaker 6 (50:30):
Yeah, I would love to see it.

Speaker 5 (50:32):
We talked about it earlier in the podcast, and just
two yards in the cod of dust and the way
he runs behind his paths and way his legs are
always churning and he's not going down on first contact.

Speaker 6 (50:39):
So this and he's gonna be fine.

Speaker 5 (50:41):
Obviously, Showing Artist talked about his pass protection and how
difficult that can be for a rookie running back. So
to see him be very good in his past protection.
They and those home run hitters will come. But I
will say this Raiders week. Those fans don't like the Chargers,
and Chargers don't like the fans. I used to throw
batteries at us. They used to talk about it our mom,
our dad, our aunt. Like we pull into that stadium

(51:03):
halfway through the game, you start to smell something.

Speaker 6 (51:05):
You're like, what's that. It's a great atmosphere. Yeah, I
don't know.

Speaker 1 (51:12):
It was me?

Speaker 3 (51:15):
All right, guys are thanks to Joe Ortiz for money
and Jalil.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
I'm Chris.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
This has been charges weekly Monday Night Football gets the
Raiders