July 25, 2025 • 46 mins
On this episode of Chargers Weekly, Bolts radio play-by-play announcer Matt “Money” Smith and host Chris Hayre recap the latest news involving L.A. and the entire NFL. The hosts discuss this week’s training camp practices in San Diego, Philip Rivers announcing his retirement as a Charger, the future for the wide receiver group this season, including Ladd McConkey and Tre' Harris, and expectations for the Bolts’ 2025 Hall of Fame game vs the Detroit Lions.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Late fifteen to ten touchdown.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What's up? Guys?
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Welcome into a brand new episode of Chargers Weekly, as always,
joined by the voice of the Chargers, Matt Muddy Smith.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Today we're taping this on a Thursday.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
I think everybody's in camp now, at least for a
practice money, but it feels like an eternity for the Chargers.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
One full week of training camp in the books.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
Yeah, I mean, you know, we're we're less than a
week out from taking off for campon you know, it'll
be on a bird on Wednesday, you know, six days
from now and playing a game about I.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Don't know what.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Eight hours from a week and eight hours away, we'll
have the Hall of Fame game. And with the way
a lot of these young players have managed to raise
their hand here in this early portion of camp, it's
I wouldn't normally get too excited about a Hall of
Fame game, but I think you got a backup quarterback
competition that I find incredibly interesting, especially knowing how Greg
Roman would probably like to use Trey Lance. That's going
(01:07):
to be fun with he and Heinike, and I think
DJ's throwing the ball the best out of the three
of them, So that's going to be great. And obviously
Chris with these rookie wide receivers who have really put
on a show. I mean KLS was doing some serious
damage yesterday and Trey Harris has been awfully exciting too.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah, that trio too.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
I'll put a Rodde Gatzen in there too. Just the
future of that Chargers wide receiver group and pass catchers,
we'll get into that.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
But you know, Mondy the lead this week and.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Appropriately it was the day before the Chargers went down
to San Diego was Philip Rivers officially retiring as a Charger.
And if you watched that five minute video you probably
got a tear in your eye watching Philip reminisce about
his entire.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Career with the Chargers. I know you had an opportunity
to call just some.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Really awesome games for three years up in La. Reaction
to seeing Phillip's video and just him officially retiring from
the NFL as.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
A charger, yeah, little bummed.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
I was hopeful that we'd get a grandpa out there
slinging the rock, you know, somewhere. That would have been
awfully exciting. Now that he's a grandfather and a father
to a toddler to an infant, I should say that
would have been exciting. Is that your Is that the
new one? No, that's my grandson. He's six months older
than my son. Like that would have been awesome.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
He was talking to Gruden about how his grandson and
his youngest son are going to throw the ball to
each other in high school, but they're like fifteen, sixteen
years old.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
It's crazy. Love Philip everybody does, anyone that's been around him,
you know. I guess Bronco fans and Raider fans may
feel differently, but for the most part, you know, people
that love football love Philip Rivers And just having been
so fortunate to have a handful of conversations with him
when we were flying back and we would chat in
(02:54):
the galley after games, just to know his passion for
high school football. That's all we would talk about, to
be honest, and you know, and to know that that's
what he's in now, I think is exciting for me.
I know some people may look at it like, is
he really going to know that's his true passion is
high school football?
Speaker 1 (03:13):
That's all he would want to talk about.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
So I'm happy for him that he's not someone that's
got to figure out what am I going to do
with the rest of my life. I'm in my late
thirties and I'm no longer, you know, in the career
that I, you know, signed up for when I got
out of college.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
So he's going to be fine.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
He's going to end up being one of the greatest
high school football coaches in the history of the state
of Alabama, and I'm happy for him. I'll just quickly
throw this out because I dug it up. He Look,
he's a Hall of Famer man. I don't care what
anybody says.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
He's here's no doubt he's a Hall of Famer.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Yeah, I think you so. Here's Philip Rivers. He is
sixth in yards, eighth and completions, sixth and touchdowns, thirteenth
in yards per game. So you know it's not just
an aggregate of all the games he play because he
played so long. Eighteenth and rating a true iron man
who played nearly three hundred consecutive games, including a playoff
(04:08):
game on a torn acl from five days prior seven
days prior. You know Manning Eli Manning is eleventh in yards,
eleventh in completions, eleventh in touchdowns. Twenty second and yards
per game sixty sixth in quarterback rating. You know, and
they're from the same draft class. Rivers out passes, you know,
(04:29):
surpasses him in every and look, Eli had the benefit
of a dominant defense to help him win those two
super Bowls and he didn't have to go. You know,
it's nothing against him. He played great in those playoff runs.
But I think you've kind of got to be able
to balance those two things out. It's a team game.
He's ahead of Matt Ryan in every category. He's ahead
(04:50):
of Kurt Warner in every single category. Like so to me,
if you're talking about the greatest quarterback of his era,
and obviously he played in the top Brady Peyton, Manniarra.
So now you're trying to figure out what's that next tier,
and that makes it hard for guys like Philip Rivers.
My whole thing is just I would want to tell
his story if I'm in Canton. I want to tell
(05:12):
the story of a guy that wanted to go to Alabama,
but they tried to make him a tight end. So
he went to NC State and broke all the records
there and then came into the NFL and was one
of the fiercest competitors, one of the most beloved teammates,
had this weird throwing style, Like I played an AFC
Championship game on a fully torn acl the iron Man.
(05:33):
That's a Hall of Fame career. That's a Hall of
Fame story.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
That's that's you know.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
It's like, I do the I know I'm rambling here.
I'll just I do the pod with Lorenzo, And I'm like,
why would you not want Lorenzo Neil in the Hall
of Fame to talk about how important fullbacks were in
this era of football? And here's a guy that managed
to play seventeen years as a human bulldozer and that's all.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
He was asked to do.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Hey, you're going to run out there and you are
going to collide with men that are as large, if
not larger than you.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Like, those are the stories you want to tell.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Yeah, I agree with you with with Lorenzo Neil. First
of all, he should be in the Hall of Fame.
And it kind of reminds me of the conversation I've
always had growing up in Washington with Brian Mitchell. Like
Brian Mitchell was Devin Hester Before Devin Hester.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
He got to set the standard.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
He has more total yards toto is when you combine
special team yards than Jerry Rice. So like Brian Mitchell
should be in the Hall of Fame, Lorenzo and Neil
should be in the Hall of Fame. And I just
think it's I don't know when it's gonna be. I
don't know if it's gonna be first ballot. I don't
know if it's gonna be second or third. But but
Philip will be wearing a gold jacket. I don't think
there's any question about that. It's fitting with with Antonio
(06:37):
Gates going in next week and you know LT being
in Philip, the passion that he has for football. I
don't know if you if it rivals anybody. I mean,
Peyton Manning. We know how much these guys love the game,
but just the raw emotion from that video and just
how he wears his.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Heart on his sleeve going out there.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
The three years that you got to call games, we've
talked about the twenty eighteen Kansas City game as maybe
being the most epic.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Are there any other calls that stick out to you?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Money from the time that you were calling charge of
games in twenty seventeen, on from Philip Rivers.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Yeah, I mean, look, that's my favorite call I've ever
had is the two point conversion to Mike, just because
of the emotion, the rivalry, the prime time nature of
the game, the comeback. Obviously there was that throat to
Travis Benjamin on in that game as well. That was
a great one. The Baltimore wild Card game was great.
(07:34):
Phil was fired up, man, he was not happy.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
First.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Yeah, the first down was incredible to call that, but
he was pretty upset with how the talking heads were
talking about the team. And I think you saw it,
and that was pretty fun to know kind of where
his headspace was and where the team's headspace was going
into that game, and to see him put it on
(07:59):
the Ravens was was a great one. That the toss,
you know, I felt like I was sort of cheating,
like somebody had been pumping the slot full of dollars
and I happened to come in after they spent you know,
four hours there and got the jackpot. I was able
to call the you know, the the record breaking catch
by Antonio Gates, you know, thrown by Philip who pretty
(08:20):
much got him nearly all of his touchdown tosses that
was pretty special.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
There was man, Pittsburgh Sunday Night.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Pittsburgh Sunday Night in Pittsburgh was was incredible, very fortunate.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Man.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Just how about the Cardinals game when he went what
was it twenty twenty five, twenty six?
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Is that what? It was?
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Straight completion?
Speaker 4 (08:43):
It was he had won incompletion and I think twenty
three straight. So that was special to be to be
around to to say, hey, this guy's got a lot
of signature moments that you could put on you know
that that would tell the story. But again, it's like
played in an air with Brady Manning, Roethlisberger, these guys
with Aaron Rodgers, all guys that won Super Bowls and
(09:07):
or made Super Bowls. In the case of Matt Ryan,
it's like, I just hope that that's not held against him,
that you can do the Dan Marino thing and and
tell the story by you know, the in totality career numbers,
the competitiveness, the you know, just the regular season accomplishments
(09:30):
fourteen and two and you know, like those sort of
stories I think should should be viable beyond just did
he win a Super Bowl? Ring did he go to
the Super Like there's There's so much more to it
than that.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
You alluded to it with with the ACL but just
the the iron Man component of it all, just just
playing it.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Every game played every game, you know, he was.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
He was the Cal Ripken of the Chargers and you
could always count on every single year he gave you
a chance to win in the fourth quarter if you
were close. So it was just it was just good
to see him, good to see him talk. It kind
of just you know, brought brought us back to five
years ago when he had that final game in Kansas
City and that just that raw motion before he went
(10:10):
to Indy. But I'm sure he'll be there next week
for for Antonio Gates, and you know, I think he'll
be right behind him money.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
I hope.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
So you know, we certainly know he will be in
the Chargers Hall of Fame. You know, this year we'll
get Rodney Harrison, and I would be floored. I wouldn't
even be floored. I mean, it's it's gonna happen. He'll
he'll be in the Chargers Hall of Fame next year.
So we'll do Rodney Harrison this year, Philip next year,
and then hopefully Canton four years after five years or
six whatever it takes after that. But I'll you know,
who knows, Maybe I'll go kick some people in their
(10:41):
tail when I'm out there on Thursday, slap them around
a little bit, make sure I.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Set the tone. That's a conversation in a half decade.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
We need to know who the who the who the
person in the room is that that's gonna present Philip
in the Hall of Fame. I'm sure whoever it is,
they'll do a great job. It's just been a fun
off season to see that. The uniform announcement with the
Superchargers and the Charger.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Power Brodney Harrison.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
You mentioned going into the Chargers Hall of Fame gates
next week, Philip retiring as a charger, so a cool
little stretch for Chargers fans of all ages in San Diego.
Two days down there. I know you were there on Wednesday.
What was the vibe and what was practice like money?
Speaker 1 (11:24):
It was awesome.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
Vibe was awesome. Fans are great. Got a chance to
grin and grip with a lot of them. Spent a
lot of time just kind of walking through the concourse
area and was chatting with a handful of them. Well,
I was sitting. I just and I loved the layout.
You know, I love look being on the field is great.
It's cool to kind of get that close to the
(11:46):
players to hear them chatting with each other.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
But you know, I'm a play by play guy.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
I'm used to a certain vantage point of how I
like to see and process and absorb the action. So
they had a little press box there that I was
able to kind of I have a seat at the
fifty yard line and just had a beautiful view of
everything yesterday to take in training camp, to take in
the practice. So it was kind of like the best
of everything for me. And I had a handful of
folks that I remember.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Pet.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
Pet was the first one that I ran into. Actually, no,
there was a shoot here we go. I got to
make sure I pull it up so I can get
everybody's name in here, because I certainly appreciative of the
people that I had extended conversations with. Lron was the
first guy I ran into. I think he runs Bolt
Club San Diego, so I was chatting with him for
a while. Said he was going to be up there
on Saturday at the Bolt. So I believe we're doing
(12:35):
a chalk talk for that too.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Chrazy.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, guys.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Yeah, it's almost like a live Chargers weekly for a
few minutes before before practice. So if you guys are
at Back Together Saturday at the bolt On Saturday, come
sit in the stands and get they're a little ramble
for fifteen to twenty minutes.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
So Lauran Pep who was just very effusive with praise
about how much he loves Chargers and looks forward to
it every single week.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I appreciate that Pep.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
He had his friend James with him, and then Bobbin
was the other guy that I remember meeting who had
his brand spanking new Sunshine gold Derwin James Jersey. So
you know, we talked about the navies and do people
like the goals? There were you know, there was Bobbin
with his brand new number three, so yeah, some people
do like the goals.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
It was great.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
I know we're going to get into practice, but just
in terms of the atmosphere, a lot of kids, a
lot of people cashing in with that. With the merch
tent they had set up, I saw a lot of people,
you know, pulling brand new navies. You know, saw someone
with a really good looking I don't know how much
it cost him, man, but it was the fully stitched,
(13:44):
heavy you know, the embroidered numbers Lad mcconkee number fifteen
in Navy, and it.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Was a heck of an investment.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
That's a good Yes, you're right, hey.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
One year apparently is enough for that dude that he
saw enough from Lad that that's the number he wants
to wear for the next fifteen years. So may that
be the case. But a lot of it just just
so much positivity out there. Really appreciate all those people
and those fans and just how kind they were to me,
and how how kind they were about how much they
(14:14):
liked the podcast. So just know, yeah, we look, I
get it. I know there's there's an issue, but you know,
San Diego versus LA. It's been that way since I've
lived here for thirty four years now. I love San Diego.
It's one of my favorite cities. I love everything about it.
I drove down early, Chris, I got up at four thirty.
I had Santa No fray and surf for three hours
(14:35):
till nine. From six to nine, I stopped at my
buddy to see my friend Heat, the Charger season ticket
holder who runs JS Surf Industries. They make incredible surfboards.
That's an ocean side. So had a breakfast sandwich an
ocean side at cup It was fantastic. Went down to
USD incredible campus.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Loved it.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Left My buddy Robbie lives in Sant clem Many, hit
up tak Aria Luna, had a giant burrito and ate
way too much of it.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
I was like, God, I love it down here.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Just funny, it.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Doesn't It doesn't shock me in the least that you
took advantage of every single second in San Diego, from
surfing to eating to charge with practice.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Brother, I love it, man, I just I love it.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
Just know if you hate me and you hate La,
that's totally fine. But just know I freaking love it
down there, man, that I it's It's one of my
favorite places on earth, that whole area.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Two days down there, Tuesday was open to military and
that was a padded practice, if I'm not mistaken. Wednesday
was not a padded practice. But so fireworks and you
know we mentioned KLS the first day of camp. You
know you saw Herbert kind of target him multiple times.
I think he got a touchdown to seven on sevens
(15:48):
puts on another show, and I was in Washington when
Brandon Lloyd was in Washington, and when when Greg Roman
made that comparison, I just I found it fascinating because
Brandon Lloyd made these crazy he catches and he had just.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
He was able to adjust to the ball.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
And the two big plays that Kale has had yesterday,
I was just like, Okay, there's that comparison that great
Roman was referring to, and it just seems like of
all the rookies, really, KALs has popped maybe the most.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
I'll tell you it's when he said it. I was
like Brandon Lloyd. I was like, man, Brandon Lloyd was physical.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
He was just like a contested catch and that's just
not what KALs put on tape, you know, at Penn
State in Auburn. So but it just goes to show
you it trusts the football guy, because then you go
out there yesterday and you're like, oh, there it is.
You know, Trey under threw one. He's you know, hip
to hit with Dean Leonard. He's able to track it
while he's running full speed down the field, A just leap,
(16:48):
get in front of Dean and you know, secure that
ball for a forty yard gain and then the other
one when he was again hip to hip with Cam
Hard and we know how physical Cam Hart is and
how good he is and demand and those sort of
contested catch situations and tracks the ball, sees the ball,
has to turn, catch the ball, survive the ground. And
(17:11):
it was I was like, okay, I mean I don't
like Twitter. I rarely go on Twitter, and I felt
the need to post something on Twitter. I was like, God,
this dude is freaking putting on a show right now.
It's like, all it's basically what you would have expected
to see from Mike Williams, Like if Mike, if Mike
Dub was out there, those are the plays that I
would have been like, oh, yeah, that's that's what Mike
(17:32):
Dub does. You know, he goes up and adjusts and
is able to track the ball. So it was impressive,
especially for someone that was out of OTAs, that was
out of Mini camp, was just working off for the side,
and I think we were all like, this guy's falling behind.
Like I'm thinking about you know, former mid to late
(17:52):
round receiver picks. You know, just last year Cornelius Johnson
who ends up getting cut, Brandon Rice who doesn't really
make much of an imp act. Shoot, what was our
guy from Ohio State that set the bucket?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
J Hill?
Speaker 4 (18:06):
Yeah, kJ Hill, Joe Reid, Like we've had so many
of these Day three guys that.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Don't really you know. Terrell Williams.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
I think he was undrafted if I remember, right, So
to see that dude like, okay, here we go, you know,
here we go. Here's a here's a date, here's a
fifth rounder that that's certainly kind of raising his hand.
And it's not like the nothing against the Bandy man.
(18:35):
It's not like the Michael Bandy sort of thing, like
oh yeah, here's little little little slot receiver. It's kind
of getting these quick, quick hitters and able to get
some running after the catch. No, these are professional wide
ex wide receiver looking plays, and we know that that's
what this team is searching for right now.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
On Tuesday, he made this toe taping kitch on the
sideline too, and it made me go watch als college
highlights last night, Bunny, And I think people forget that
he was with Penn State before he was with Auburn.
And just a couple of stats to rejog everybody's memory
from the draft. He's the only player in Penn State
(19:15):
history with multiple eighty yard receptions. Think of all the
players that have gone through that university, the only player
in history with eighty with multiple eighty yard receptions. He
had twenty catches of twenty plus yards. He watched the
Rose Bowl against Utah and that the slant go that
he had against Utah for eighty seven yards. Last year
three catches of sixty plus yards at Auburn sixty seven
(19:38):
sixty seven sixty also had a fifty yard catch and
that's what was missing last year in this offense, that
deep threat, that four to three seven speed. Again, this
is training camp practice.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
So to your point.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
About the Hall of Fame game, Normally it's like, okay,
just get in, get out, make.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Sure these guys are healthy.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
But to see Kla, Trey Harris, Ronde Gats and kind
of the future of this Chargers offense debut a week
from today, it's going to be fascinating and I just
I am intrigued to see if Caless can put that
together in a game setting, because you'll practice is different.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
I think you hit it on the head right, You're
able to open this thing up and imagine what Lad
mccacky's going to be able to do. And the guy
was doubled and tripled the entire second half of the season,
and he still put up twelve hundred yards, you know,
and still put up two hundred yards in a playoff
game even though he was literally the only offensive threat
in the game. They couldn't run the ball, no other
(20:36):
receiver had to catch, and Lad's putting up two hundred yards. Now,
imagine if you have a guy, like you said, with
four to three speed on the outside, and it's sort
of like with Q what we were talking about from
those practices at the bolt, It's like, Okay, he's tracking
it now, Like he really struggled to track the ball
his rookie year, didn't really get much better last year,
(20:58):
and now, okay, this is something he added in the
offseason that he clearly concentrated on because now he's tracking
the ball. He's bringing you know, he had those two
over the shoulder catches for touchdowns on go balls, like
we saw it, like, okay, cool, that's great. With KLS,
It's like, okay, that's just natural. This this is just
something that this guy does that he he sees it,
(21:22):
he adjusts to it, he's comfortable he's gotten. He's not
breaking his stride when he's turning to look to try
to figure out where they's sead. He is running full
speed while he's beginning his adjustment to go back to
catch that ball over Dean Landard. Like, that's just that's
natural wide receiver stuff. And I don't mean to take
anything away from Ronde Gadsden, who had a great practice
(21:43):
three days ago or or whatever was Saturday, was it Monday,
Monday Monday or from and really he's had a great camp,
or from Trey Harris who had a couple of really
nice grabs yesterday and has had a great camp.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
I think for me, it's just it's probably the.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
Guy that I knew the least about that I didn't
really invest enough time in. And I think that's why
it was a real from a just guy gonna get
out there, Like what's going on?
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Why is he working off? Doesn't he know how valuable
these reps are? Too? Okay, here we go. This is interesting.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
You know we were we were kind of shocked when
when Mike Williams retired, but I think we said it
last week. Everybody just gets moved up a peg and
it just makes the competition inside the room. You know,
let's not forget about Jalen Rager as well. Yeah he
was out yesterday, Yeah he was out yesterday.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
But quin quintin listen, Quinton has had a.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Fantastic start to camp. He had a drop yesterday. I
feel like we're living and dying with every every rep
from Quinton, and I just let's let's focus on the
fact that he is uh, he's tracking the ball like
you said, he had uh, he had five touchdowns and
five practices and you know, if he could just continue
to us send I just I see on Twitter, and
(22:59):
I know maybe it's the way you don't go on
Twitter as much as you know. Everybody lives and dies
with every play, every rep, and I know that this
is the only thing we got right now with training
camp practices.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
But let's just get to the games.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
And I certainly have seen a market improvement from Quentin
Johnson through the first week of camp.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
I'm going to disagree with you on one thing there,
and that is that everybody lives with every rep, because
if they were, then they would balance out a bad
drop yesterday with five touchdowns in four days, if they
if they were willing to live with every rep, then
they would have seen the five touchdowns and balance it
out with the one drop instead.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
And I think that's.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Look, I don't want to get I've done it already
multiple times on this pod. I don't want to keep
doing it. But it's like the grown from that crowd
when he dropped that ball was it was deafening, like
it was bad and I just like, man, like just
he's had five touchdowns in four days and it's but
(24:04):
it didn't matter. Like from that point on, he had
two other grabs that were fine, and it just nobody
was cheering like it was just a oh that was
a third and ten. He flashes wide open over the middle,
lets the ball get through his hands to his chest
and it bounces off and hits the ground and it's
all that anybody left there with and sort of, you know,
(24:27):
I said, look, if I told you that a guy
is going to put up five touchdowns in over a
four game spirit over a four game span, and then
he's going to have a critical drop on a third down,
would you take it. Yeah, I'll take five touchdowns in
four games if it means they're going to have a drop.
(24:48):
It was a bad drop. There's no, there's no sugar
coating that he's wide open. Herbert hits him right between
the numbers, and unfortunately the ball literally hit his chest
right but you know, right on the number one and
popped up in the air and fell.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Yeah, it's gonna happen.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
I just hope that he's that he's able to overcome it,
because it certainly looked like it affected him, and I'm
hopeful that he's in that place mentally where he can basically, hey,
you guys can pound freaking sand because I'm going to
come back in this next play and make a plaque.
Just I hope he can get to that spot because
we know that it's affected him, and I think it
(25:27):
affected him yesterday.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
I saw that the first week, you know, before Santiago
just you could just tell he was playing with just
so much more confidence. He was jumping around, he was
excited for his teammates, he was making plays. And that's
why when I say live and die with every rep
it's okay, he made a touchdown. People are analyzing the
touchdown like, Okay, how did.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
He know what you man?
Speaker 4 (25:50):
I was just being a smart ass, like come on, guys,
you want to get on the guy for Battle, Like,
you know, I love Sam. I've known Sam Monson forever.
But it's like to post that and to have not
posted anything for someone that watches as much film as
Sam does and is really sees the game well, to
not have already written something about, hey, this is kind
(26:12):
of cool. Quintin's tracking the ball, you know, and that's
been an issue. It's kind of why he wasn't able
to play the X because it's hard to run those
go routes because he wasn't tracking the ball. To say, hey,
he's got three catches now where he's tracking the ball,
catching the ball and stride scoring touchdowns in you know,
Manda Man coverage where he's got contested catch situations, but
there's none of that. Instead he posts yesterday, I know
(26:34):
it's all training camp because I've seen three stone cold
drops from Quinton. It's just it's laying. It's it's like
you're better than that day.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
I know.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
It's it's genuous.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
It's red meat for the people, and I get it,
and that's fine. I don't.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
You know, Yes, the guy's got to be counted on
in critical situations in games, so it doesn't happen in games.
But I feel like we've seen some really good from
him so far this camp, you know, and that's be
that should be celebrated. While you're also critical about that drop.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Exactly both things. Both things can be true.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
It's just it doesn't have to be so so black
and white.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
And the the young.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Guys that are raising their hand right now, it's just
rising tide lifts all boats. I think Quentin will be
the starter week one across from lat McConkey, and I
think Trey Harris and I think KLS and I think
Jalen Rager are all going to get opportunities to play
a lot of meaningful football at the beginning of the year.
(27:33):
Anything else with the wide receiver.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
Group, I mean, I'll just show you this, Chris, like,
just just for people know I'm not being I mean
I wrote it as well.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
I don't know if you can see that. Is that
backwards or is it right? No? Yeah? Q drop? Wide open? Ug?
What's right below it? Rice? Drop? Ug? What's right there?
Hampton drop?
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Like there's nobody's talking about a marin Hampton was wide open,
had ten yards of green in front of them, flat
out drop. The pack couldn't handle the past from Herbert
dropped it. No, he talked about it, you know, and
and it's just that's kind of like my issue. It's like, yeah,
there were other drops in that. Look, lad is so
good and that's so incredible that it's hard to measure
(28:12):
up to that, to that standard. And so I think
that's part of it because man Latt just puts on
a show every practice, and and then I think you
combine that with KLS playing the X and making those
like I think, here we go, there's look at that
little one on the bottom there.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Yeah, eighty four k catch point exclamate not one.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Not two exclamation points.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
So like I think you kind of mix all that
together in a salad bowl, and it's like I get it.
I totally get it. So that's like on the wide receivers,
it wasn't really I did watch uh, let's see, here
we go, there's a there's a little one there with
uh with Gadsden eighty four beaten by forty nine speed
rush on the edge. So there were no pads though,
(28:56):
so it was just speed can you get your body
turned and try to get your hands on them.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
So yeah, look there's good, there's bad in every practice.
Twice practice practicing to get better.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
It's the first week of practice before the first week
of practice for everybody else too. Yeah, you know what
I mean, it's we've already already light years ahead of
the rest of the NFL at this point. So, okay,
Trey Harris Quinn, I wanted to touch on the running backs.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
You mentioned a Marion Hampton.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
You know, we're not sure when Nashi Harris is gonna
come back, but Naim Heinz was signed and I tweeted
this the other day. It's kind of coincidental that Naim
Heines's best year was actually with Philip Rivers in Indianapolis
in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
And this is the guy who hasn't played football in
a couple of years.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
But you know, hope, you hope that by not playing
you don't have as much wear a tear on your
body and he can come in fresh and it'll be
interesting to see what he can do in practice and
maybe starting with his Hall of Fame game money.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
Yeah, he's you know, just giving you a little preview
the notes for the Hall of Fame game. I mean,
here's the stuff I got on on naim Is forty
or more receptions and three hundred more yards in each
of his first four seasons. Like, he can catch the
ball out of the backfield and make stuff happen. You
get him a nice smoke route, find him in the flat,
and he can make guys miss. He was so good
(30:16):
that first year that he got himself an eight. Think
about this as a running back in twenty twenty one.
This is not twenty twenty four when Derek Henry and
Saquon Barkley are getting these big deals. This dude got
a three year, nineteen million dollar extension in twenty twenty one. Like,
that's how big of a part of that Colts offense
he was and in twenty twenty, so this is the
(30:39):
year he had going into that extension. Guy seventy three
point three rush grade from Pro Football Focus, ninety one
point seven receiving grade. So you're talking about a guy
that was playing at a very high level before that
freak ACL injury. So he's interesting because he's so different, Right,
(31:01):
Like Rocket Sanders is out two twenty you know six
one two twenty or six one two thirty actually is
rhem Sanders Nase he's out, he's two forty. And then
they bring in this little sort of you know, scat
back that it was just an interesting addition. And I
almost wonder if the if if you know, we had
Ryan Ficken at the podium the other day and we
(31:23):
were asking him about Darius Davis, and he was, you
know about competition there about you know, we've seen you
put lad and now we see kls back there, like
just kind of walk us through competition because it doesn't
really feel like one, you know, And and he was
he said, no, we need.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
To have competition there.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
He's like, but Darius is special, and I think the
addition of niem Heims can maybe get him a little competition. Maybe,
you know, there's nothing wrong with with light and a
fire under someone's took us, you know, and kind of
getting somebody else out there that's got four, you know,
two kick and two punt return touchdowns on his resume
out there to kind of, you know, just make it
(31:59):
a little interesting.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
Especially if you can stash him on the practice squad
during during the season. Let's you know, the hope is
just nas you'll be back sooner than later. You have Hampton,
you talk about Haskins, Uh, maybe that's maybe that's a
guy that you can stash on the practice squad. He
obviously hadn't play football in a couple of years, so
I don't know, you know, he'll have an opportunity. Let's
just say that he'll have that opportunity over the next
(32:23):
four preseason games to show that he's kind of returned
to form in the NFL.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
Well, I think right now, I mean hearing Naji Harris's
agent say he'll be you know, the hope is he's
ready for Week one, Like, that's not encouraging. That's and
we haven't seen Sanders in a week. So right now
it's Hampton, Viidel Haskins. Hi Like, there's your there's your
(32:49):
four backs right now there. I don't see Najie Harris.
I don't see Raheem Sanders out there. So I almost
think it's you know, I almost think it's more than
a camp body. It's like, hey, we got to find
a vet. I've got because think about it. I mean,
now he like like.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
He's a VET.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
He's a guy that's had good seasons in pass pro.
He's he's someone who we know can play.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
He's a VET.
Speaker 4 (33:16):
You know, Hampton's a rookie. Vydell fell off by the
end of the year and was getting almost zero reps.
We know Asan is a core four special teams guy
and a good third down pass protector, but he's not
really like they need.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
A vet back there, man.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
They need a guy that that is a threat and
can pass pro and can can help solidify that room
without Nase Like that's it's a big injury to Naji man.
The especially the what the injury was and how it happened. Man,
it's it's pretty no bueno man, no bueno.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Week one.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
That's the concerning part is I think we both have
shared what we think of Marian Hampton as cap of
in his rookie year and what an opportunity for him
to kind of just take this.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Thing and run with it right from the beginning.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
But to play against Kansas City Chiefs and not really
know what the backfield is is truly going to look like,
you know, after you snapped that first, uh, the first
offensive snap in Brazil, That is a little concerning. So
the Naji thing is something will have to monitor over
the next couple of weeks, and you just hope he
can get on the practice field as soon as possible.
(34:28):
He's a veteran, He's never missed a game in the NFL.
Uh And and I'm sure the the offseason work and
just kind of getting integrated into this offense that was
beneficial for him this offseason. But yeah, missing missing valuable
time and practice because let's be honest, he was never
going to play in the preseason games anyway. So the practices,
(34:48):
practices are the crucial, the crucial part of this especially
you know starting Saturday with this this uh back together weekend.
You know, the pads are on now, man, and and
each each practice with the pads on, it is another
step closer to the regular season. So yeah, I just
think that's it. That's a TBD at this point. I
(35:09):
am very intrigued as we kind of push it forward
to Saturday. Money is just now that the pads are on,
we can really see what the offensive line looks like.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
We can see what the running backs look like.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
That pass rush with Khalil Mack sounds like Khalil Mack
right to practice.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
On Tuesday on that.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
It's like when you said, you know, if we can
see the offensive line with the pads on, we got
to get Rashwan Slater out there, man, because that's it
was Ryan Nelson that was bumped up a slot because
Pitt was playing with the first line, with the first
team offensive line. So instead of having him as your
second team going against Khalil Mack, you've got a guy
that was just signed from the UFL out there getting
(35:50):
abused by the guy one on one with no help.
So I'm hopeful it's you know, he came to camp,
he practiced the first day. There was some gottlebout out
there that that it was close. I'd love to see
that thing get done.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
What did you say before the podcast? Every time we tape,
something happens.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
Hopefully that's the case that here we are tape and
Thursday morning and by Thursday afternoon usually it's the same day,
Trey Harris, same day.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
I should check.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
I should check Twitter while we're actually on the pod
as we speak.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
Yes, one to three pm is practice today, I believe.
I think, Yeah, it's a one to three day. It's
because yesterday was twelve to one day, so or twelve
to two days. So yeah, it's one to three today,
I believe. So let's uh, let's get Slater out there
as soon as we get done tape in this thing. Yeah,
one to three, thanks Sine, and he'll be out there today.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
I actually another another note here on X I just
opened it up and this is from Angel.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
What's up, Brothers.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
Any chance we can get Nick Hardwick on this week's
episode of Charges Weekly. I'd love to get Nick on.
Maybe we can get Nick on next week or the
week after, especially just the fact that he played with Antonio.
He can kind of give us that perspective as well
as the maybe a development on the offensive line that
would be cool.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Yeah, love Nick. I'm fortunate.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
You know, Nick and I did games my first year
in twenty eighteen, he was or twenty seventeen. I mean,
he was the color analyst and it was a blast.
And he sees football better than almost anybody you'll ever
come across. The way he sees the pieces move in
the moment. It's great, coach, incredible, you know, Chargers Hall
of Fame caliber offensive lineman. And obviously with the center
(37:30):
situation surrounding Zion versus Bradley Boseman, would be great to
get on. So hopefully we can do that. Maybe we're
able to do it, you know out in Canton. See
if maybe that's something we can put together. With the
game being late in the day, we can maybe do
a little Chargers weekly. If he's got a little half
hour window where we could snatch him up and have
(37:51):
a bit of a chat before that game, that could
be a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Yeah, that'd be great.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
That'd be great.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Defensively, let's touch on a couple of things defensively before
we get out of here. Yeah, the secondary in the
quarter competition, anything of no doubt there. When you were
there in San Diego, I saw Bridges kind of had
a bounce back.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Practice on Tuesday.
Speaker 4 (38:10):
Yeah, yeah, he had a nice pick. Saint just just
was out yesterday, I believe as well. I think he
missed both practices. Saw Dante Jackson jump a rounte. Let
me see what Monday was ten to twelve was either Monday, Yeah,
it was there Monday. Saw Dante Jackson jump a route,
should have had an interception, just couldn't secure it. I
think it's to me, I think it's gonna be I
(38:34):
think it's gonna be Jackson. I don't know, I don't
know what it is. It's what we said, you know,
I was gonna say, I think it's Jackson. Hart and still,
but you know, Derlin's just so good. Yesterday he was
playing that big nickel and burst through the line of
scrimmage and swatted away a Trey Lance just snapped throw
and Durwain was so fast he got in there and
slapped that thing away. I just think they're the best
(38:56):
when he's playing big nickel. So that's where it'll be interesting,
is what is that competition between Jackson Hart and Still
if they're if derewins the nickel, So it's it's like
competition is definitely stiffed. I think Mickens has been making plays, man,
he's been He's been making plays out there. I think
when you talk about seventh round picks, we know last year,
(39:17):
you know they were fine, you know, releasing one and
every team does you know, seventh round picks are kind
of like undrafted free agents as to whether or not
they're going to make the team. So I think Mickens
looks the part, looks like he's going to be a
great special teamer. It's got a nose for the ball,
and like you said, Bridges was just you just didn't
really notice him much until yesterday or maybe it's two
(39:37):
days ago, when he had that big PBu and the
big interception.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
So it's heavy competition.
Speaker 4 (39:43):
Spot, trying to think of what else if I remember
seeing anybody else out there that flash not really on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
It's going to be fun for fans to see that
competition also, just the defensive line in how that rotation
shakes out, because there's a lot of dudes there, a
lot of a lot of new guys there on the interior.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Yeah, a lot of them.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
And right now they're kind of running all three together.
You know, it's tartand Jones. I mean it's Tart hand.
We've seen Abonian Jones together and you know, and then
Caldwell and a boy Gbee are kind of in that
third tier with Tara Edwards what's his name?
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Yeah, Tara Edwards as well. So it's deep. It's deep.
Speaker 4 (40:29):
And I saw Caldwell had a nice was it two
days ago? Burst through the line nice just kind of
get off, got into the backfield immediately for a TfL.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
So it's a deep group.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
But I'm pretty sure if I remember right, I'm trying to,
I feel like it was Tier ninety one, right, Yeah,
so it's Tier deshan hand so and then I think
I feel like Jones and and Tito we're right behind them.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
I got my toe cap in the chair. I don't
want to break that.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
Yeah, it looks like Justine heard in a chair, got
it caught. So my feet is small. It's the thing
about my purport, the proportions of my body. I have
the smallest head and fur the size of my body.
I have somewhat large feet. So with these elevens every
now and then I'll forget because I'm a smaller person
(41:29):
that the feet are kind of big and they just
get anyway.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
There's too much information I have.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
I have one more thing for you. You you alluded
to it at the top. The quarterbacks behind Justin Herbert
starting Saturday for for the fans that are out there,
and then going into that that Hall of Fame game.
Terrery Lance has has looked pretty good at times, and
you know, we know, we know what the Chargers have.
And Taylor Heinike and then DJ just a young arm
(41:57):
that I think will probably get a decent or metal
run than Kim I hope.
Speaker 4 (42:02):
So, like I said, I think we look at each
of the three and what do you have With Heineken
steady hand that started a full season, has shown he
can win games in the NFL. It's kind of what
you want right behind someone like justin Herbert, just someone
that can see it, that knows it. That's a person
he can lean on. What do you see help me out?
(42:23):
That's what made Easton so special, as he saw the
game really well, and Herbert trusted him implicitly whenever he
would come to the sideline. So that's the one that
probably makes the most sense. But then you have the
athleticism of Trey Lance, the ability to run a lot
of those RPOs and that you know, that mesh and
what he can do with his legs. And then in
the case of DJ, you're talking about just raw talent,
(42:45):
raw measurables, raw athleticism. The number one rated quarterback from
his high school class five star, you know, first two games,
freaking baller, you know, comes in for an injured Trevor
Lawrence down eighteen against Boston College, leads him to a
when next week at Notre Dame, you know, and what
does he do overtime? They lose, but forty seven forty
(43:07):
guy throws for like three point fifty and two touchdowns
like it's in there, and he throws the prettiest ball
of any of them, and it's not close by the
way like DJ can sling it.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
So that's gonna be fun.
Speaker 4 (43:20):
To watch, you know, especially if you got Kls out
there and Shrey out there and all that speed and
Aronde Gadsden and all that athleticism like that could be
really fun if that's how it looks out there when
when DJ's taking some snaps.
Speaker 3 (43:35):
One week, the Chargers will play football in Can't Ohio
against the Detroit Lions anything.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Else before we get out of here.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Money look forward to seeing the fans on Saturday for
a back together weekend at the Bolt.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (43:50):
No, we just love to see you. Get out there
early if you can. It's five to seven practice. I
think we're probably talking about doing you know, the the
Chalk Talk, the Chargers Weekly, whatever you want to call it,
around four thirty, So be great to see all out there.
Oh and I also got a I got a note
someone was talking about Chargers Weekly.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
About something that we brought up. Was it this guy Brooks?
Speaker 2 (44:14):
No?
Speaker 1 (44:14):
Where are you? Who was it? Anthony? I want to
make sure I get it right. Whoever this was?
Speaker 4 (44:22):
Someone had mentioned that we brought up the Oh here
it is, Michael, appreciate us mentioning the youth zone went
to training camp. Son waited all practice and Justin Herbert
came over and signed his football. Nine years old, he's
still star struck. So yeah, So if you have kids,
(44:44):
get him out to training camp, throw them in the
kid corral and the players are coming over there. Harball
goes over there before he walks onto the field every practice.
It's really cool for the kids to kind of get
that experience.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
The players are so good about it too.
Speaker 3 (44:58):
I mean I saw us last week signing to the
Bitter End like the Bitter End, and that's the case
with a lot of the guys there. So Tardy keeps
a great experience. You get to see the bolt first
and foremost. It's just the Yeah, it's the kind of
the gold standard of NFL practice facilities and watch practice
and uh, it's it's kind of a cool, all inclusive
(45:19):
experience for fans. And we love seeing you guys out
there each and every day that it's open.
Speaker 4 (45:25):
Right, sure do. We'll be there Sat. I'll probably be
there tomorrow too.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (45:29):
I think the way the radio schedule lays out, I
can get out there for the five to seven shows
or five to seven practice as well. So if you're
out there holler say hi, we'll chat. It's always fun
to interact with the people.
Speaker 3 (45:39):
Yep, I'm cruising down there today for Thursday's practice, and
then we'll see you guys on Saturday. So appreciate you watching,
listening as always, rate review Charges weekly on the Charges
podcast Network wherever you get your podcasts, and we will
see you guys on Saturday.
Late fifteen to ten touchdown.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What's up? Guys?
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Welcome into a brand new episode of Chargers Weekly, as always,
joined by the voice of the Chargers, Matt Muddy Smith.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Today we're taping this on a Thursday.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
I think everybody's in camp now, at least for a
practice money, but it feels like an eternity for the Chargers.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
One full week of training camp in the books.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
Yeah, I mean, you know, we're we're less than a
week out from taking off for campon you know, it'll
be on a bird on Wednesday, you know, six days
from now and playing a game about I.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Don't know what.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Eight hours from a week and eight hours away, we'll
have the Hall of Fame game. And with the way
a lot of these young players have managed to raise
their hand here in this early portion of camp, it's
I wouldn't normally get too excited about a Hall of
Fame game, but I think you got a backup quarterback
competition that I find incredibly interesting, especially knowing how Greg
Roman would probably like to use Trey Lance. That's going
(01:07):
to be fun with he and Heinike, and I think
DJ's throwing the ball the best out of the three
of them, So that's going to be great. And obviously
Chris with these rookie wide receivers who have really put
on a show. I mean KLS was doing some serious
damage yesterday and Trey Harris has been awfully exciting too.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah, that trio too.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
I'll put a Rodde Gatzen in there too. Just the
future of that Chargers wide receiver group and pass catchers,
we'll get into that.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
But you know, Mondy the lead this week and.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Appropriately it was the day before the Chargers went down
to San Diego was Philip Rivers officially retiring as a Charger.
And if you watched that five minute video you probably
got a tear in your eye watching Philip reminisce about
his entire.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Career with the Chargers. I know you had an opportunity
to call just some.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Really awesome games for three years up in La. Reaction
to seeing Phillip's video and just him officially retiring from
the NFL as.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
A charger, yeah, little bummed.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
I was hopeful that we'd get a grandpa out there
slinging the rock, you know, somewhere. That would have been
awfully exciting. Now that he's a grandfather and a father
to a toddler to an infant, I should say that
would have been exciting. Is that your Is that the
new one? No, that's my grandson. He's six months older
than my son. Like that would have been awesome.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
He was talking to Gruden about how his grandson and
his youngest son are going to throw the ball to
each other in high school, but they're like fifteen, sixteen
years old.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
It's crazy. Love Philip everybody does, anyone that's been around him,
you know. I guess Bronco fans and Raider fans may
feel differently, but for the most part, you know, people
that love football love Philip Rivers And just having been
so fortunate to have a handful of conversations with him
when we were flying back and we would chat in
(02:54):
the galley after games, just to know his passion for
high school football. That's all we would talk about, to
be honest, and you know, and to know that that's
what he's in now, I think is exciting for me.
I know some people may look at it like, is
he really going to know that's his true passion is
high school football?
Speaker 1 (03:13):
That's all he would want to talk about.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
So I'm happy for him that he's not someone that's
got to figure out what am I going to do
with the rest of my life. I'm in my late
thirties and I'm no longer, you know, in the career
that I, you know, signed up for when I got
out of college.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
So he's going to be fine.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
He's going to end up being one of the greatest
high school football coaches in the history of the state
of Alabama, and I'm happy for him. I'll just quickly
throw this out because I dug it up. He Look,
he's a Hall of Famer man. I don't care what
anybody says.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
He's here's no doubt he's a Hall of Famer.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Yeah, I think you so. Here's Philip Rivers. He is
sixth in yards, eighth and completions, sixth and touchdowns, thirteenth
in yards per game. So you know it's not just
an aggregate of all the games he play because he
played so long. Eighteenth and rating a true iron man
who played nearly three hundred consecutive games, including a playoff
(04:08):
game on a torn acl from five days prior seven
days prior. You know Manning Eli Manning is eleventh in yards,
eleventh in completions, eleventh in touchdowns. Twenty second and yards
per game sixty sixth in quarterback rating. You know, and
they're from the same draft class. Rivers out passes, you know,
(04:29):
surpasses him in every and look, Eli had the benefit
of a dominant defense to help him win those two
super Bowls and he didn't have to go. You know,
it's nothing against him. He played great in those playoff runs.
But I think you've kind of got to be able
to balance those two things out. It's a team game.
He's ahead of Matt Ryan in every category. He's ahead
(04:50):
of Kurt Warner in every single category. Like so to me,
if you're talking about the greatest quarterback of his era,
and obviously he played in the top Brady Peyton, Manniarra.
So now you're trying to figure out what's that next tier,
and that makes it hard for guys like Philip Rivers.
My whole thing is just I would want to tell
his story if I'm in Canton. I want to tell
(05:12):
the story of a guy that wanted to go to Alabama,
but they tried to make him a tight end. So
he went to NC State and broke all the records
there and then came into the NFL and was one
of the fiercest competitors, one of the most beloved teammates,
had this weird throwing style, Like I played an AFC
Championship game on a fully torn acl the iron Man.
(05:33):
That's a Hall of Fame career. That's a Hall of
Fame story.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
That's that's you know.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
It's like, I do the I know I'm rambling here.
I'll just I do the pod with Lorenzo, And I'm like,
why would you not want Lorenzo Neil in the Hall
of Fame to talk about how important fullbacks were in
this era of football? And here's a guy that managed
to play seventeen years as a human bulldozer and that's all.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
He was asked to do.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Hey, you're going to run out there and you are
going to collide with men that are as large, if
not larger than you.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Like, those are the stories you want to tell.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Yeah, I agree with you with with Lorenzo Neil. First
of all, he should be in the Hall of Fame.
And it kind of reminds me of the conversation I've
always had growing up in Washington with Brian Mitchell. Like
Brian Mitchell was Devin Hester Before Devin Hester.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
He got to set the standard.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
He has more total yards toto is when you combine
special team yards than Jerry Rice. So like Brian Mitchell
should be in the Hall of Fame, Lorenzo and Neil
should be in the Hall of Fame. And I just
think it's I don't know when it's gonna be. I
don't know if it's gonna be first ballot. I don't
know if it's gonna be second or third. But but
Philip will be wearing a gold jacket. I don't think
there's any question about that. It's fitting with with Antonio
(06:37):
Gates going in next week and you know LT being
in Philip, the passion that he has for football. I
don't know if you if it rivals anybody. I mean,
Peyton Manning. We know how much these guys love the game,
but just the raw emotion from that video and just
how he wears his.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Heart on his sleeve going out there.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
The three years that you got to call games, we've
talked about the twenty eighteen Kansas City game as maybe
being the most epic.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Are there any other calls that stick out to you?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Money from the time that you were calling charge of
games in twenty seventeen, on from Philip Rivers.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Yeah, I mean, look, that's my favorite call I've ever
had is the two point conversion to Mike, just because
of the emotion, the rivalry, the prime time nature of
the game, the comeback. Obviously there was that throat to
Travis Benjamin on in that game as well. That was
a great one. The Baltimore wild Card game was great.
(07:34):
Phil was fired up, man, he was not happy.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
First.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Yeah, the first down was incredible to call that, but
he was pretty upset with how the talking heads were
talking about the team. And I think you saw it,
and that was pretty fun to know kind of where
his headspace was and where the team's headspace was going
into that game, and to see him put it on
(07:59):
the Ravens was was a great one. That the toss,
you know, I felt like I was sort of cheating,
like somebody had been pumping the slot full of dollars
and I happened to come in after they spent you know,
four hours there and got the jackpot. I was able
to call the you know, the the record breaking catch
by Antonio Gates, you know, thrown by Philip who pretty
(08:20):
much got him nearly all of his touchdown tosses that
was pretty special.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
There was man, Pittsburgh Sunday Night.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Pittsburgh Sunday Night in Pittsburgh was was incredible, very fortunate.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Man.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
Just how about the Cardinals game when he went what
was it twenty twenty five, twenty six?
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Is that what? It was?
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Straight completion?
Speaker 4 (08:43):
It was he had won incompletion and I think twenty
three straight. So that was special to be to be
around to to say, hey, this guy's got a lot
of signature moments that you could put on you know
that that would tell the story. But again, it's like
played in an air with Brady Manning, Roethlisberger, these guys
with Aaron Rodgers, all guys that won Super Bowls and
(09:07):
or made Super Bowls. In the case of Matt Ryan,
it's like, I just hope that that's not held against him,
that you can do the Dan Marino thing and and
tell the story by you know, the in totality career numbers,
the competitiveness, the you know, just the regular season accomplishments
(09:30):
fourteen and two and you know, like those sort of
stories I think should should be viable beyond just did
he win a Super Bowl? Ring did he go to
the Super Like there's There's so much more to it
than that.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
You alluded to it with with the ACL but just
the the iron Man component of it all, just just
playing it.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Every game played every game, you know, he was.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
He was the Cal Ripken of the Chargers and you
could always count on every single year he gave you
a chance to win in the fourth quarter if you
were close. So it was just it was just good
to see him, good to see him talk. It kind
of just you know, brought brought us back to five
years ago when he had that final game in Kansas
City and that just that raw motion before he went
(10:10):
to Indy. But I'm sure he'll be there next week
for for Antonio Gates, and you know, I think he'll
be right behind him money.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
I hope.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
So you know, we certainly know he will be in
the Chargers Hall of Fame. You know, this year we'll
get Rodney Harrison, and I would be floored. I wouldn't
even be floored. I mean, it's it's gonna happen. He'll
he'll be in the Chargers Hall of Fame next year.
So we'll do Rodney Harrison this year, Philip next year,
and then hopefully Canton four years after five years or
six whatever it takes after that. But I'll you know,
who knows, Maybe I'll go kick some people in their
(10:41):
tail when I'm out there on Thursday, slap them around
a little bit, make sure I.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Set the tone. That's a conversation in a half decade.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
We need to know who the who the who the
person in the room is that that's gonna present Philip
in the Hall of Fame. I'm sure whoever it is,
they'll do a great job. It's just been a fun
off season to see that. The uniform announcement with the
Superchargers and the Charger.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Power Brodney Harrison.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
You mentioned going into the Chargers Hall of Fame gates
next week, Philip retiring as a charger, so a cool
little stretch for Chargers fans of all ages in San Diego.
Two days down there. I know you were there on Wednesday.
What was the vibe and what was practice like money?
Speaker 1 (11:24):
It was awesome.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
Vibe was awesome. Fans are great. Got a chance to
grin and grip with a lot of them. Spent a
lot of time just kind of walking through the concourse
area and was chatting with a handful of them. Well,
I was sitting. I just and I loved the layout.
You know, I love look being on the field is great.
It's cool to kind of get that close to the
(11:46):
players to hear them chatting with each other.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
But you know, I'm a play by play guy.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
I'm used to a certain vantage point of how I
like to see and process and absorb the action. So
they had a little press box there that I was
able to kind of I have a seat at the
fifty yard line and just had a beautiful view of
everything yesterday to take in training camp, to take in
the practice. So it was kind of like the best
of everything for me. And I had a handful of
folks that I remember.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Pet.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
Pet was the first one that I ran into. Actually, no,
there was a shoot here we go. I got to
make sure I pull it up so I can get
everybody's name in here, because I certainly appreciative of the
people that I had extended conversations with. Lron was the
first guy I ran into. I think he runs Bolt
Club San Diego, so I was chatting with him for
a while. Said he was going to be up there
on Saturday at the Bolt. So I believe we're doing
(12:35):
a chalk talk for that too.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Chrazy.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, guys.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Yeah, it's almost like a live Chargers weekly for a
few minutes before before practice. So if you guys are
at Back Together Saturday at the bolt On Saturday, come
sit in the stands and get they're a little ramble
for fifteen to twenty minutes.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
So Lauran Pep who was just very effusive with praise
about how much he loves Chargers and looks forward to
it every single week.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I appreciate that Pep.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
He had his friend James with him, and then Bobbin
was the other guy that I remember meeting who had
his brand spanking new Sunshine gold Derwin James Jersey. So
you know, we talked about the navies and do people
like the goals? There were you know, there was Bobbin
with his brand new number three, so yeah, some people
do like the goals.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
It was great.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
I know we're going to get into practice, but just
in terms of the atmosphere, a lot of kids, a
lot of people cashing in with that. With the merch
tent they had set up, I saw a lot of people,
you know, pulling brand new navies. You know, saw someone
with a really good looking I don't know how much
it cost him, man, but it was the fully stitched,
(13:44):
heavy you know, the embroidered numbers Lad mcconkee number fifteen
in Navy, and it.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Was a heck of an investment.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
That's a good Yes, you're right, hey.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
One year apparently is enough for that dude that he
saw enough from Lad that that's the number he wants
to wear for the next fifteen years. So may that
be the case. But a lot of it just just
so much positivity out there. Really appreciate all those people
and those fans and just how kind they were to me,
and how how kind they were about how much they
(14:14):
liked the podcast. So just know, yeah, we look, I
get it. I know there's there's an issue, but you know,
San Diego versus LA. It's been that way since I've
lived here for thirty four years now. I love San Diego.
It's one of my favorite cities. I love everything about it.
I drove down early, Chris, I got up at four thirty.
I had Santa No fray and surf for three hours
(14:35):
till nine. From six to nine, I stopped at my
buddy to see my friend Heat, the Charger season ticket
holder who runs JS Surf Industries. They make incredible surfboards.
That's an ocean side. So had a breakfast sandwich an
ocean side at cup It was fantastic. Went down to
USD incredible campus.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Loved it.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Left My buddy Robbie lives in Sant clem Many, hit
up tak Aria Luna, had a giant burrito and ate
way too much of it.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
I was like, God, I love it down here.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Just funny, it.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Doesn't It doesn't shock me in the least that you
took advantage of every single second in San Diego, from
surfing to eating to charge with practice.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Brother, I love it, man, I just I love it.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
Just know if you hate me and you hate La,
that's totally fine. But just know I freaking love it
down there, man, that I it's It's one of my
favorite places on earth, that whole area.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Two days down there, Tuesday was open to military and
that was a padded practice, if I'm not mistaken. Wednesday
was not a padded practice. But so fireworks and you
know we mentioned KLS the first day of camp. You
know you saw Herbert kind of target him multiple times.
I think he got a touchdown to seven on sevens
(15:48):
puts on another show, and I was in Washington when
Brandon Lloyd was in Washington, and when when Greg Roman
made that comparison, I just I found it fascinating because
Brandon Lloyd made these crazy he catches and he had just.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
He was able to adjust to the ball.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
And the two big plays that Kale has had yesterday,
I was just like, Okay, there's that comparison that great
Roman was referring to, and it just seems like of
all the rookies, really, KALs has popped maybe the most.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
I'll tell you it's when he said it. I was
like Brandon Lloyd. I was like, man, Brandon Lloyd was physical.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
He was just like a contested catch and that's just
not what KALs put on tape, you know, at Penn
State in Auburn. So but it just goes to show
you it trusts the football guy, because then you go
out there yesterday and you're like, oh, there it is.
You know, Trey under threw one. He's you know, hip
to hit with Dean Leonard. He's able to track it
while he's running full speed down the field, A just leap,
(16:48):
get in front of Dean and you know, secure that
ball for a forty yard gain and then the other
one when he was again hip to hip with Cam
Hard and we know how physical Cam Hart is and
how good he is and demand and those sort of
contested catch situations and tracks the ball, sees the ball,
has to turn, catch the ball, survive the ground. And
(17:11):
it was I was like, okay, I mean I don't
like Twitter. I rarely go on Twitter, and I felt
the need to post something on Twitter. I was like, God,
this dude is freaking putting on a show right now.
It's like, all it's basically what you would have expected
to see from Mike Williams, Like if Mike, if Mike
Dub was out there, those are the plays that I
would have been like, oh, yeah, that's that's what Mike
(17:32):
Dub does. You know, he goes up and adjusts and
is able to track the ball. So it was impressive,
especially for someone that was out of OTAs, that was
out of Mini camp, was just working off for the side,
and I think we were all like, this guy's falling behind.
Like I'm thinking about you know, former mid to late
(17:52):
round receiver picks. You know, just last year Cornelius Johnson
who ends up getting cut, Brandon Rice who doesn't really
make much of an imp act. Shoot, what was our
guy from Ohio State that set the bucket?
Speaker 2 (18:05):
J Hill?
Speaker 4 (18:06):
Yeah, kJ Hill, Joe Reid, Like we've had so many
of these Day three guys that.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Don't really you know. Terrell Williams.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
I think he was undrafted if I remember, right, So
to see that dude like, okay, here we go, you know,
here we go. Here's a here's a date, here's a
fifth rounder that that's certainly kind of raising his hand.
And it's not like the nothing against the Bandy man.
(18:35):
It's not like the Michael Bandy sort of thing, like
oh yeah, here's little little little slot receiver. It's kind
of getting these quick, quick hitters and able to get
some running after the catch. No, these are professional wide
ex wide receiver looking plays, and we know that that's
what this team is searching for right now.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
On Tuesday, he made this toe taping kitch on the
sideline too, and it made me go watch als college
highlights last night, Bunny, And I think people forget that
he was with Penn State before he was with Auburn.
And just a couple of stats to rejog everybody's memory
from the draft. He's the only player in Penn State
(19:15):
history with multiple eighty yard receptions. Think of all the
players that have gone through that university, the only player
in history with eighty with multiple eighty yard receptions. He
had twenty catches of twenty plus yards. He watched the
Rose Bowl against Utah and that the slant go that
he had against Utah for eighty seven yards. Last year
three catches of sixty plus yards at Auburn sixty seven
(19:38):
sixty seven sixty also had a fifty yard catch and
that's what was missing last year in this offense, that
deep threat, that four to three seven speed. Again, this
is training camp practice.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
So to your point.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
About the Hall of Fame game, Normally it's like, okay,
just get in, get out, make.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Sure these guys are healthy.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
But to see Kla, Trey Harris, Ronde Gats and kind
of the future of this Chargers offense debut a week
from today, it's going to be fascinating and I just
I am intrigued to see if Caless can put that
together in a game setting, because you'll practice is different.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
I think you hit it on the head right, You're
able to open this thing up and imagine what Lad
mccacky's going to be able to do. And the guy
was doubled and tripled the entire second half of the season,
and he still put up twelve hundred yards, you know,
and still put up two hundred yards in a playoff
game even though he was literally the only offensive threat
in the game. They couldn't run the ball, no other
(20:36):
receiver had to catch, and Lad's putting up two hundred yards. Now,
imagine if you have a guy, like you said, with
four to three speed on the outside, and it's sort
of like with Q what we were talking about from
those practices at the bolt, It's like, Okay, he's tracking
it now, Like he really struggled to track the ball
his rookie year, didn't really get much better last year,
(20:58):
and now, okay, this is something he added in the
offseason that he clearly concentrated on because now he's tracking
the ball. He's bringing you know, he had those two
over the shoulder catches for touchdowns on go balls, like
we saw it, like, okay, cool, that's great. With KLS,
It's like, okay, that's just natural. This this is just
something that this guy does that he he sees it,
(21:22):
he adjusts to it, he's comfortable he's gotten. He's not
breaking his stride when he's turning to look to try
to figure out where they's sead. He is running full
speed while he's beginning his adjustment to go back to
catch that ball over Dean Landard. Like, that's just that's
natural wide receiver stuff. And I don't mean to take
anything away from Ronde Gadsden, who had a great practice
(21:43):
three days ago or or whatever was Saturday, was it Monday,
Monday Monday or from and really he's had a great camp,
or from Trey Harris who had a couple of really
nice grabs yesterday and has had a great camp.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
I think for me, it's just it's probably the.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
Guy that I knew the least about that I didn't
really invest enough time in. And I think that's why
it was a real from a just guy gonna get
out there, Like what's going on?
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Why is he working off? Doesn't he know how valuable
these reps are? Too? Okay, here we go. This is interesting.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
You know we were we were kind of shocked when
when Mike Williams retired, but I think we said it
last week. Everybody just gets moved up a peg and
it just makes the competition inside the room. You know,
let's not forget about Jalen Rager as well. Yeah he
was out yesterday, Yeah he was out yesterday.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
But quin quintin listen, Quinton has had a.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Fantastic start to camp. He had a drop yesterday. I
feel like we're living and dying with every every rep
from Quinton, and I just let's let's focus on the
fact that he is uh, he's tracking the ball like
you said, he had uh, he had five touchdowns and
five practices and you know, if he could just continue
to us send I just I see on Twitter, and
(22:59):
I know maybe it's the way you don't go on
Twitter as much as you know. Everybody lives and dies
with every play, every rep, and I know that this
is the only thing we got right now with training
camp practices.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
But let's just get to the games.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
And I certainly have seen a market improvement from Quentin
Johnson through the first week of camp.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
I'm going to disagree with you on one thing there,
and that is that everybody lives with every rep, because
if they were, then they would balance out a bad
drop yesterday with five touchdowns in four days, if they
if they were willing to live with every rep, then
they would have seen the five touchdowns and balance it
out with the one drop instead.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
And I think that's.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Look, I don't want to get I've done it already
multiple times on this pod. I don't want to keep
doing it. But it's like the grown from that crowd
when he dropped that ball was it was deafening, like
it was bad and I just like, man, like just
he's had five touchdowns in four days and it's but
(24:04):
it didn't matter. Like from that point on, he had
two other grabs that were fine, and it just nobody
was cheering like it was just a oh that was
a third and ten. He flashes wide open over the middle,
lets the ball get through his hands to his chest
and it bounces off and hits the ground and it's
all that anybody left there with and sort of, you know,
(24:27):
I said, look, if I told you that a guy
is going to put up five touchdowns in over a
four game spirit over a four game span, and then
he's going to have a critical drop on a third down,
would you take it. Yeah, I'll take five touchdowns in
four games if it means they're going to have a drop.
(24:48):
It was a bad drop. There's no, there's no sugar
coating that he's wide open. Herbert hits him right between
the numbers, and unfortunately the ball literally hit his chest
right but you know, right on the number one and
popped up in the air and fell.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Yeah, it's gonna happen.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
I just hope that he's that he's able to overcome it,
because it certainly looked like it affected him, and I'm
hopeful that he's in that place mentally where he can basically, hey,
you guys can pound freaking sand because I'm going to
come back in this next play and make a plaque.
Just I hope he can get to that spot because
we know that it's affected him, and I think it
(25:27):
affected him yesterday.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
I saw that the first week, you know, before Santiago
just you could just tell he was playing with just
so much more confidence. He was jumping around, he was
excited for his teammates, he was making plays. And that's
why when I say live and die with every rep
it's okay, he made a touchdown. People are analyzing the
touchdown like, Okay, how did.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
He know what you man?
Speaker 4 (25:50):
I was just being a smart ass, like come on, guys,
you want to get on the guy for Battle, Like,
you know, I love Sam. I've known Sam Monson forever.
But it's like to post that and to have not
posted anything for someone that watches as much film as
Sam does and is really sees the game well, to
not have already written something about, hey, this is kind
(26:12):
of cool. Quintin's tracking the ball, you know, and that's
been an issue. It's kind of why he wasn't able
to play the X because it's hard to run those
go routes because he wasn't tracking the ball. To say, hey,
he's got three catches now where he's tracking the ball,
catching the ball and stride scoring touchdowns in you know,
Manda Man coverage where he's got contested catch situations, but
there's none of that. Instead he posts yesterday, I know
(26:34):
it's all training camp because I've seen three stone cold
drops from Quinton. It's just it's laying. It's it's like
you're better than that day.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
I know.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
It's it's genuous.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
It's red meat for the people, and I get it,
and that's fine. I don't.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
You know, Yes, the guy's got to be counted on
in critical situations in games, so it doesn't happen in games.
But I feel like we've seen some really good from
him so far this camp, you know, and that's be
that should be celebrated. While you're also critical about that drop.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Exactly both things. Both things can be true.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
It's just it doesn't have to be so so black
and white.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
And the the young.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Guys that are raising their hand right now, it's just
rising tide lifts all boats. I think Quentin will be
the starter week one across from lat McConkey, and I
think Trey Harris and I think KLS and I think
Jalen Rager are all going to get opportunities to play
a lot of meaningful football at the beginning of the year.
(27:33):
Anything else with the wide receiver.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
Group, I mean, I'll just show you this, Chris, like,
just just for people know I'm not being I mean
I wrote it as well.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
I don't know if you can see that. Is that
backwards or is it right? No? Yeah? Q drop? Wide open? Ug?
What's right below it? Rice? Drop? Ug? What's right there?
Hampton drop?
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Like there's nobody's talking about a marin Hampton was wide open,
had ten yards of green in front of them, flat
out drop. The pack couldn't handle the past from Herbert
dropped it. No, he talked about it, you know, and
and it's just that's kind of like my issue. It's like, yeah,
there were other drops in that. Look, lad is so
good and that's so incredible that it's hard to measure
(28:12):
up to that, to that standard. And so I think
that's part of it because man Latt just puts on
a show every practice, and and then I think you
combine that with KLS playing the X and making those
like I think, here we go, there's look at that
little one on the bottom there.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Yeah, eighty four k catch point exclamate not one.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Not two exclamation points.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
So like I think you kind of mix all that
together in a salad bowl, and it's like I get it.
I totally get it. So that's like on the wide receivers,
it wasn't really I did watch uh, let's see, here
we go, there's a there's a little one there with
uh with Gadsden eighty four beaten by forty nine speed
rush on the edge. So there were no pads though,
(28:56):
so it was just speed can you get your body
turned and try to get your hands on them.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
So yeah, look there's good, there's bad in every practice.
Twice practice practicing to get better.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
It's the first week of practice before the first week
of practice for everybody else too. Yeah, you know what
I mean, it's we've already already light years ahead of
the rest of the NFL at this point. So, okay,
Trey Harris Quinn, I wanted to touch on the running backs.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
You mentioned a Marion Hampton.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
You know, we're not sure when Nashi Harris is gonna
come back, but Naim Heinz was signed and I tweeted
this the other day. It's kind of coincidental that Naim
Heines's best year was actually with Philip Rivers in Indianapolis
in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
And this is the guy who hasn't played football in
a couple of years.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
But you know, hope, you hope that by not playing
you don't have as much wear a tear on your
body and he can come in fresh and it'll be
interesting to see what he can do in practice and
maybe starting with his Hall of Fame game money.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
Yeah, he's you know, just giving you a little preview
the notes for the Hall of Fame game. I mean,
here's the stuff I got on on naim Is forty
or more receptions and three hundred more yards in each
of his first four seasons. Like, he can catch the
ball out of the backfield and make stuff happen. You
get him a nice smoke route, find him in the flat,
and he can make guys miss. He was so good
(30:16):
that first year that he got himself an eight. Think
about this as a running back in twenty twenty one.
This is not twenty twenty four when Derek Henry and
Saquon Barkley are getting these big deals. This dude got
a three year, nineteen million dollar extension in twenty twenty one. Like,
that's how big of a part of that Colts offense
he was and in twenty twenty, so this is the
(30:39):
year he had going into that extension. Guy seventy three
point three rush grade from Pro Football Focus, ninety one
point seven receiving grade. So you're talking about a guy
that was playing at a very high level before that
freak ACL injury. So he's interesting because he's so different, Right,
(31:01):
Like Rocket Sanders is out two twenty you know six
one two twenty or six one two thirty actually is
rhem Sanders Nase he's out, he's two forty. And then
they bring in this little sort of you know, scat
back that it was just an interesting addition. And I
almost wonder if the if if you know, we had
Ryan Ficken at the podium the other day and we
(31:23):
were asking him about Darius Davis, and he was, you
know about competition there about you know, we've seen you
put lad and now we see kls back there, like
just kind of walk us through competition because it doesn't
really feel like one, you know, And and he was
he said, no, we need.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
To have competition there.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
He's like, but Darius is special, and I think the
addition of niem Heims can maybe get him a little competition. Maybe,
you know, there's nothing wrong with with light and a
fire under someone's took us, you know, and kind of
getting somebody else out there that's got four, you know,
two kick and two punt return touchdowns on his resume
out there to kind of, you know, just make it
(31:59):
a little interesting.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
Especially if you can stash him on the practice squad
during during the season. Let's you know, the hope is
just nas you'll be back sooner than later. You have Hampton,
you talk about Haskins, Uh, maybe that's maybe that's a
guy that you can stash on the practice squad. He
obviously hadn't play football in a couple of years, so
I don't know, you know, he'll have an opportunity. Let's
just say that he'll have that opportunity over the next
(32:23):
four preseason games to show that he's kind of returned
to form in the NFL.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
Well, I think right now, I mean hearing Naji Harris's
agent say he'll be you know, the hope is he's
ready for Week one, Like, that's not encouraging. That's and
we haven't seen Sanders in a week. So right now
it's Hampton, Viidel Haskins. Hi Like, there's your there's your
(32:49):
four backs right now there. I don't see Najie Harris.
I don't see Raheem Sanders out there. So I almost
think it's you know, I almost think it's more than
a camp body. It's like, hey, we got to find
a vet. I've got because think about it. I mean,
now he like like.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
He's a VET.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
He's a guy that's had good seasons in pass pro.
He's he's someone who we know can play.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
He's a VET.
Speaker 4 (33:16):
You know, Hampton's a rookie. Vydell fell off by the
end of the year and was getting almost zero reps.
We know Asan is a core four special teams guy
and a good third down pass protector, but he's not
really like they need.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
A vet back there, man.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
They need a guy that that is a threat and
can pass pro and can can help solidify that room
without Nase Like that's it's a big injury to Naji man.
The especially the what the injury was and how it happened. Man,
it's it's pretty no bueno man, no bueno.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Week one.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
That's the concerning part is I think we both have
shared what we think of Marian Hampton as cap of
in his rookie year and what an opportunity for him
to kind of just take this.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Thing and run with it right from the beginning.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
But to play against Kansas City Chiefs and not really
know what the backfield is is truly going to look like,
you know, after you snapped that first, uh, the first
offensive snap in Brazil, That is a little concerning. So
the Naji thing is something will have to monitor over
the next couple of weeks, and you just hope he
can get on the practice field as soon as possible.
(34:28):
He's a veteran, He's never missed a game in the NFL.
Uh And and I'm sure the the offseason work and
just kind of getting integrated into this offense that was
beneficial for him this offseason. But yeah, missing missing valuable
time and practice because let's be honest, he was never
going to play in the preseason games anyway. So the practices,
(34:48):
practices are the crucial, the crucial part of this especially
you know starting Saturday with this this uh back together weekend.
You know, the pads are on now, man, and and
each each practice with the pads on, it is another
step closer to the regular season. So yeah, I just
think that's it. That's a TBD at this point. I
(35:09):
am very intrigued as we kind of push it forward
to Saturday. Money is just now that the pads are on,
we can really see what the offensive line looks like.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
We can see what the running backs look like.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
That pass rush with Khalil Mack sounds like Khalil Mack
right to practice.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
On Tuesday on that.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
It's like when you said, you know, if we can
see the offensive line with the pads on, we got
to get Rashwan Slater out there, man, because that's it
was Ryan Nelson that was bumped up a slot because
Pitt was playing with the first line, with the first
team offensive line. So instead of having him as your
second team going against Khalil Mack, you've got a guy
that was just signed from the UFL out there getting
(35:50):
abused by the guy one on one with no help.
So I'm hopeful it's you know, he came to camp,
he practiced the first day. There was some gottlebout out
there that that it was close. I'd love to see
that thing get done.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
What did you say before the podcast? Every time we tape,
something happens.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
Hopefully that's the case that here we are tape and
Thursday morning and by Thursday afternoon usually it's the same day,
Trey Harris, same day.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
I should check.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
I should check Twitter while we're actually on the pod
as we speak.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
Yes, one to three pm is practice today, I believe.
I think, Yeah, it's a one to three day. It's
because yesterday was twelve to one day, so or twelve
to two days. So yeah, it's one to three today,
I believe. So let's uh, let's get Slater out there
as soon as we get done tape in this thing. Yeah,
one to three, thanks Sine, and he'll be out there today.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
I actually another another note here on X I just
opened it up and this is from Angel.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
What's up, Brothers.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
Any chance we can get Nick Hardwick on this week's
episode of Charges Weekly. I'd love to get Nick on.
Maybe we can get Nick on next week or the
week after, especially just the fact that he played with Antonio.
He can kind of give us that perspective as well
as the maybe a development on the offensive line that
would be cool.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Yeah, love Nick. I'm fortunate.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
You know, Nick and I did games my first year
in twenty eighteen, he was or twenty seventeen. I mean,
he was the color analyst and it was a blast.
And he sees football better than almost anybody you'll ever
come across. The way he sees the pieces move in
the moment. It's great, coach, incredible, you know, Chargers Hall
of Fame caliber offensive lineman. And obviously with the center
(37:30):
situation surrounding Zion versus Bradley Boseman, would be great to
get on. So hopefully we can do that. Maybe we're
able to do it, you know out in Canton. See
if maybe that's something we can put together. With the
game being late in the day, we can maybe do
a little Chargers weekly. If he's got a little half
hour window where we could snatch him up and have
(37:51):
a bit of a chat before that game, that could
be a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Yeah, that'd be great.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
That'd be great.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Defensively, let's touch on a couple of things defensively before
we get out of here. Yeah, the secondary in the
quarter competition, anything of no doubt there. When you were
there in San Diego, I saw Bridges kind of had
a bounce back.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Practice on Tuesday.
Speaker 4 (38:10):
Yeah, yeah, he had a nice pick. Saint just just
was out yesterday, I believe as well. I think he
missed both practices. Saw Dante Jackson jump a rounte. Let
me see what Monday was ten to twelve was either Monday, Yeah,
it was there Monday. Saw Dante Jackson jump a route,
should have had an interception, just couldn't secure it. I
think it's to me, I think it's gonna be I
(38:34):
think it's gonna be Jackson. I don't know, I don't
know what it is. It's what we said, you know,
I was gonna say, I think it's Jackson. Hart and still,
but you know, Derlin's just so good. Yesterday he was
playing that big nickel and burst through the line of
scrimmage and swatted away a Trey Lance just snapped throw
and Durwain was so fast he got in there and
slapped that thing away. I just think they're the best
(38:56):
when he's playing big nickel. So that's where it'll be interesting,
is what is that competition between Jackson Hart and Still
if they're if derewins the nickel, So it's it's like
competition is definitely stiffed. I think Mickens has been making plays, man,
he's been He's been making plays out there. I think
when you talk about seventh round picks, we know last year,
(39:17):
you know they were fine, you know, releasing one and
every team does you know, seventh round picks are kind
of like undrafted free agents as to whether or not
they're going to make the team. So I think Mickens
looks the part, looks like he's going to be a
great special teamer. It's got a nose for the ball,
and like you said, Bridges was just you just didn't
really notice him much until yesterday or maybe it's two
(39:37):
days ago, when he had that big PBu and the
big interception.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
So it's heavy competition.
Speaker 4 (39:43):
Spot, trying to think of what else if I remember
seeing anybody else out there that flash not really on Saturday.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
It's going to be fun for fans to see that
competition also, just the defensive line in how that rotation
shakes out, because there's a lot of dudes there, a
lot of a lot of new guys there on the interior.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Yeah, a lot of them.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
And right now they're kind of running all three together.
You know, it's tartand Jones. I mean it's Tart hand.
We've seen Abonian Jones together and you know, and then
Caldwell and a boy Gbee are kind of in that
third tier with Tara Edwards what's his name?
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Yeah, Tara Edwards as well. So it's deep. It's deep.
Speaker 4 (40:29):
And I saw Caldwell had a nice was it two
days ago? Burst through the line nice just kind of
get off, got into the backfield immediately for a TfL.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
So it's a deep group.
Speaker 4 (40:41):
But I'm pretty sure if I remember right, I'm trying to,
I feel like it was Tier ninety one, right, Yeah,
so it's Tier deshan hand so and then I think
I feel like Jones and and Tito we're right behind them.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
I got my toe cap in the chair. I don't
want to break that.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
Yeah, it looks like Justine heard in a chair, got
it caught. So my feet is small. It's the thing
about my purport, the proportions of my body. I have
the smallest head and fur the size of my body.
I have somewhat large feet. So with these elevens every
now and then I'll forget because I'm a smaller person
(41:29):
that the feet are kind of big and they just
get anyway.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
There's too much information I have.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
I have one more thing for you. You you alluded
to it at the top. The quarterbacks behind Justin Herbert
starting Saturday for for the fans that are out there,
and then going into that that Hall of Fame game.
Terrery Lance has has looked pretty good at times, and
you know, we know, we know what the Chargers have.
And Taylor Heinike and then DJ just a young arm
(41:57):
that I think will probably get a decent or metal
run than Kim I hope.
Speaker 4 (42:02):
So, like I said, I think we look at each
of the three and what do you have With Heineken
steady hand that started a full season, has shown he
can win games in the NFL. It's kind of what
you want right behind someone like justin Herbert, just someone
that can see it, that knows it. That's a person
he can lean on. What do you see help me out?
(42:23):
That's what made Easton so special, as he saw the
game really well, and Herbert trusted him implicitly whenever he
would come to the sideline. So that's the one that
probably makes the most sense. But then you have the
athleticism of Trey Lance, the ability to run a lot
of those RPOs and that you know, that mesh and
what he can do with his legs. And then in
the case of DJ, you're talking about just raw talent,
(42:45):
raw measurables, raw athleticism. The number one rated quarterback from
his high school class five star, you know, first two games,
freaking baller, you know, comes in for an injured Trevor
Lawrence down eighteen against Boston College, leads him to a
when next week at Notre Dame, you know, and what
does he do overtime? They lose, but forty seven forty
(43:07):
guy throws for like three point fifty and two touchdowns
like it's in there, and he throws the prettiest ball
of any of them, and it's not close by the
way like DJ can sling it.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
So that's gonna be fun.
Speaker 4 (43:20):
To watch, you know, especially if you got Kls out
there and Shrey out there and all that speed and
Aronde Gadsden and all that athleticism like that could be
really fun if that's how it looks out there when
when DJ's taking some snaps.
Speaker 3 (43:35):
One week, the Chargers will play football in Can't Ohio
against the Detroit Lions anything.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
Else before we get out of here.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
Money look forward to seeing the fans on Saturday for
a back together weekend at the Bolt.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (43:50):
No, we just love to see you. Get out there
early if you can. It's five to seven practice. I
think we're probably talking about doing you know, the the
Chalk Talk, the Chargers Weekly, whatever you want to call it,
around four thirty, So be great to see all out there.
Oh and I also got a I got a note
someone was talking about Chargers Weekly.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
About something that we brought up. Was it this guy Brooks?
Speaker 2 (44:14):
No?
Speaker 1 (44:14):
Where are you? Who was it? Anthony? I want to
make sure I get it right. Whoever this was?
Speaker 4 (44:22):
Someone had mentioned that we brought up the Oh here
it is, Michael, appreciate us mentioning the youth zone went
to training camp. Son waited all practice and Justin Herbert
came over and signed his football. Nine years old, he's
still star struck. So yeah, So if you have kids,
(44:44):
get him out to training camp, throw them in the
kid corral and the players are coming over there. Harball
goes over there before he walks onto the field every practice.
It's really cool for the kids to kind of get
that experience.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
The players are so good about it too.
Speaker 3 (44:58):
I mean I saw us last week signing to the
Bitter End like the Bitter End, and that's the case
with a lot of the guys there. So Tardy keeps
a great experience. You get to see the bolt first
and foremost. It's just the Yeah, it's the kind of
the gold standard of NFL practice facilities and watch practice
and uh, it's it's kind of a cool, all inclusive
(45:19):
experience for fans. And we love seeing you guys out
there each and every day that it's open.
Speaker 4 (45:25):
Right, sure do. We'll be there Sat. I'll probably be
there tomorrow too.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (45:29):
I think the way the radio schedule lays out, I
can get out there for the five to seven shows
or five to seven practice as well. So if you're
out there holler say hi, we'll chat. It's always fun
to interact with the people.
Speaker 3 (45:39):
Yep, I'm cruising down there today for Thursday's practice, and
then we'll see you guys on Saturday. So appreciate you watching,
listening as always, rate review Charges weekly on the Charges
podcast Network wherever you get your podcasts, and we will
see you guys on Saturday.
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