Chargers Weekly: Oronde Gadsden II Talks NFL Debut

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Lay fifteen to ten touched up.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
What's up?

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Guys, Welcome into a brand new episode of Chargers Weekly.
We are presented by Splittero as always, joined by the
voice of the Chargers, Matt Muddy Smith jaliel a die
in the building ahead of Week four, Bolts set to
take on the Giants. Gentlemen, we have a Roddy Gass
and joined us in a few minutes.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
He was a great interview.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Let's just rewind though, Jalil, when you saw the way
in the fashion that the Chargers got the three and zero? Man,
what were your thoughts?

Speaker 4 (00:37):
Just gutsy? It was gussy.

Speaker 5 (00:39):
When I watched that game, that's all I seen. And
I was talking to a buddy of mine and I said,
this team is something different. Right when I was here,
the Chargers were known as losing those kind of games, right,
those close games, Those games were three points or less.
And that game showed like the heart, the character of
the team, their belief right. And it wasn't pretty. The
whole game wasn't pretty. There's things that they can obviously

(00:59):
work on and get better at, but it was just
a gutsy win. And in this league it's hard to
win it's hard to win, it's hard to come by,
and the fact that they did in that fashion. Obviously
Dick and the kicker going out there, I had no
doubt what time it was going to be once he
ran out there.

Speaker 4 (01:13):
It was a beautiful win, beautiful victory in so far.

Speaker 6 (01:16):
Yeah, it's reminiscent of what we saw last year when
these two teams tangled, right, Chargers jump up in Denver
twenty three nothing and then bo Nick's you know, it
was kind of his coming out party in that game
in that second half when he started using his legs,
and in this game, very similar, you know, and same thing.
You know, you think about the thursdayn at Flex, you know,
when when the Broncos jumped on him. I think it
was three touchdowns in their first three possessions and then

(01:36):
they get the free kick and everything kind of came
together in that second half.

Speaker 7 (01:40):
This was actually.

Speaker 6 (01:41):
Herbert's first fourth quarter comeback since that game in Week sixteen.
So I think it's you know, the idea that that
teams are just going to blow other teams out, or
you know, this is the first time they trailed in
a game. They never trailed against the Chiefs, never trailed
against the Raiders, that they're not going to face adversity,
that they're not going to lose a game, And like,
you know, I think you put all of it into

(02:02):
context and into perspective, and you recognize, okay, Chips were
down man. You know, they scored fourteen and two minutes
a game time after the defense had completely dominated them
for the entire first half. How do you rebound? How
do you respond? And I think, like you said, Julil,
it's just another test that you feel like they aced
you know that things aren't going their way. Herbert was
pressured more than any other regular season game of his

(02:23):
career fifty four percent. He got hit fourteen times. They
were playing kind of dirty and chippy, and they just
kind of overcame it all and got to win. And
I think that's, you know, that's a real character builder,
and it kind of tells you a lot about this team.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
A three minute and forty four second stretch from the
end of the first half to the beginning of the
second half, I don't think justin Herbert.

Speaker 6 (02:42):
Touched the ball, maybe maybe just for the three and
out the quick at the end out second half the
first half, but you take that out.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
I mean, the Broncos did nothing. I mean, bo Nicks
had one hundred and twenty yards. Outside of that Courtland
Sutton fifty two yard touchdown. Dobbins was like minus seven
rushing yards up until those two plays that he made
at the beginning of the of.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
The second half.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
So also, I think that that's the best defense they're
going to play all year. Like I'm looking at the
schedule too, Like Minnesota, you're gonna see Week seven.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
They're tough, Kansas City is tough.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
Dever, though, Man, they're nasty, and you know, even a
guy like Joe Alt who's been amazing, like Benito got
him on one, you know.

Speaker 6 (03:19):
But yeah, he kind of jumped that though I think
otherwise I thought Joe had Joe was amazing.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
I'm just saying, it's like, it's like they're they're a
really really good defense.

Speaker 5 (03:29):
Yeah, and that was alarm that stood out to me,
like from the beginning, and we knew that going in,
Like we knew that going into the season, Like the
Denver Broncos defense, they're tough and it is what it is.
But Benita, like he got paid for a reason, right,
Joe all got paid for a reason. They're going to
be rivals in this division for a long time, and
it was a good head to head battle, right, It
was a good mono mono heavyweight battle. And like you said,

(03:50):
Herbert got pressured a lot that their defensive front. You
got to give it to him, right, And there's things
that you know the Chargers can clean up on the
offensive side of the ball. But when you say that
they're playing this is one of the best defenses that
they're going to and then they still come out with
a W right, despite Herbert being underpressure, despite Herbert getting
knocked down over and over and over, and then they
coming out with the wind.

Speaker 4 (04:07):
I was impressed.

Speaker 6 (04:08):
Yeah, I think you know, christ To what you're speaking
of is, look, he was under arrest the whole time, right,
and you're trying to figure out and going back and
watching it, and it's you know, the majority of us
on the right side, and you're talking about Trey and
hats off the tray. I mean, look, the guy doesn't
go from zero pressures in week two to eleven pressures
allowed in week three without there being something wrong, and
knowing that he was fighting through an ankle, fighting through
a knee and kept getting back in there. You know,

(04:30):
you credit him, and certainly it's not going to be
easy when you're going up against that front. You know,
Ellis is good, Franklin Myers is good, Allen's incredible, Like
that's a really good front. And then Jamari having to
step in, you know, for Beckden when he was concussed,
like it was a struggle. And I think the one
thing about that in game is Okay, this is reality.

(04:52):
Reality is these guys are in my lap. How do
we adjust? What do we do? And that's where, you know,
I'm just so impressed with Greg Roman and what he's
and how he's trying to get this thing right. Like
to see Joe Alt it's six snaps on the right
tackle and you watch how that looked and the amount
of guys that are pulling and just trying to figure
this out. And then you know, in the fourth quarter
when you had to you know, coach always talks about

(05:14):
when your best is needed, you know, can you bring
your best? And I look at Greg Roman and I think, okay,
he kind of he allowed these guys to bring all
that pressure. And then it wasn't until that last drive
that it's like, hey, here it comes right hook to
the face. There's Amari and Hampton the flat for twenty
yards because that's how you combat that. But he waited,
he held until the moment he had to have it.
So I give him a lot of credit for calling

(05:36):
a game and trying to figure it out. And how
can we overcome you know, this pressure, this adversity while
still getting some explosives out there and using our weapons.

Speaker 5 (05:46):
Yeah, just quickly, Money, you touched on it right, saying
that they were hint slapped the whole game and all
the way down to the play when Justin Herbert made
probably one of the top plays.

Speaker 4 (05:54):
Of this year.

Speaker 5 (05:55):
Yeah, with Benitos smacking him in the face, throwing a
sidearm right to Keenan Allen who was getting draped on
and catching him with one hand, right all the way
until that play.

Speaker 4 (06:04):
Right, that's what it looked like all game. Right.

Speaker 5 (06:06):
So you talked about cold saying you need to be
at your best and your best is needed, and that's
a prime example right there.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
Yeah, no question, before we get to the game tying
and game winning tribe, just I can't, uh, I guess
overstate the Najie Harrison injury. It's gonna be tossing about
this team because Naji was just getting going that you
saw him at the end of that Vegas game. I
think his first carry just he had like six seven
yard run. He looked really, really good. Same token Amaron

(06:31):
Hampton woke up and we're gonna see this guy. I
think that that game was a confidence builder from Marion,
especially the way they closed the game, which we'll get into,
but I just wonder if kind of the shuffle we'll
get into New York and everything with with Haskins probably
getting more carries and Kimani Videll stepping up.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
But uh, but losing Naj is gonna be tough.

Speaker 5 (06:52):
Yeah, And we we talked about it. If you go
back during preseason, right and we're talking about Naji when
he had the eye injury, and we said, well, you know,
he's gonna be ready for Week one, but it's tough
because when you're not in training camp, you're not preparing
your body physically to take those reps, right, And we said,
what's the biggest thing that could happen out of its
soft tissue injuries or non contact injuries. And it's just

(07:13):
unfortunate for him because, like you said, he didn't have
training camp to in preseason games to you know, put
his body through that and have the muscle endurance to
withstand up an NFL game, right. He just didn't have
it right, So it's unfortunate for him. But on the
same token, talking about Mario Hampton, look, it was almost
like he was like, you know what, my one two
bell cows out of the game. It's all on me, right,
And that's what you want to see out of your

(07:34):
first round draft pick.

Speaker 4 (07:35):
He stepped up.

Speaker 5 (07:36):
We know that he's gonna run the ball hard yards
after contact, that's what he does. But in the passing
passing excuse me, pass protection game, catching the ball out
of the backfield, getting his shoulders downhill, north and south running,
I was impressed.

Speaker 6 (07:48):
Yeah, he was running, you know, t Naji, he was
really running the ball well man, it looks so good
and just that veteran savvy and the whole Hey, what's
it blocked up for? And what am I going to
get you? It's usually what's it blocked for? I'll get
you plus one? And not to mention the pass protection.
It's a bummer. And the one thing I really like
about this team and the way they operate is they

(08:08):
always give the in house guys an opportunity. It's like,
you know what, instead of rushing out and signing Zach
Moss or Khalil Herbert or one of these guys that's
out there, let's let's see if we can solve our
problem in house and get you know, Kamani by Dell,
who we believe in invested a draft pick in last year.
If that's going to work, and we know last year
for Kamani, you know, his first touch was a touchdown,

(08:31):
great pass catching back. The one issue was past protection
and you know something that he said he focused on
all offseason. I thought it looked pretty darn good in
the preseason. So I'm anxious to see him get his opportunity.
But to both, you know, you guys both talked about it.
I don't have to expound on it, but you know,
Amari and you could see it, you felt it. It's like,
all right, this is on me. Haskins has got one

(08:51):
carrying each of these previous two games, so I'm gonna
probably be carrying the load.

Speaker 7 (08:55):
And you could just see it.

Speaker 6 (08:56):
And I think it's like the thing about running the
ball is, you know, it's a collective. It's not just
a Mari and it's how's it blocked up? Are the
blocks executed? Are the holes there? Are you going to
the right?

Speaker 7 (09:07):
You know? And I think you saw.

Speaker 6 (09:08):
The whole team, the team as a whole, and again
to Greg Roman's credit, moving Joe Alt to the right
side and using the Beckton Alt combo and just kind
of cleaning house and opening up some of those holes,
you could sort of get that feel and get that
running game to breathe. So I'm anxious to see it
this week because look, that's it's a Giants defensive line
and I we'll get into it a little bit later,

(09:28):
but they they're just coming up field. Man, they are
coming at you. Even Dexter Lawrence is one of the
most just unique true unicorn in the NFL. Like those
Brian Burns is kind of he's a little bit lighter.
He's coming at you, have duels coming at you. So
I think there are those opportunities for more of that
where you can just kind of run right into what
they're doing and make them.

Speaker 7 (09:47):
Hey.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
I remember a month ago we were doing this podcast
and we were just talking about the picking or the
wide receivers. We're like, you know it, lads the number
one and like who's the number two? And you say,
there's no question, is Keenan Allen? And then we're seeing
Quinton Quintin's doing.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Keenan.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
It took him a while to get rolling in this game,
but when it was money time. I go back to
the game time drive. I wrote this third and nine
four eleven ago. Keenan, I think, with like a nine
yard reception and Hufano with the fifteen yard penalty that
accelerated that game time drive.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
And then Keenan just did his thing.

Speaker 5 (10:22):
I mean, I came in with Keenan and I've seen
him do it.

Speaker 4 (10:26):
For so long that I'm not surprised, right, And I.

Speaker 5 (10:29):
Keep saying it, and I don't want to be the
dead horse, But when he was out there in freegency,
I was like, listen, it's a no brainer. Right, We've
seen what he did in Chicago last year. He was
obviously with a different situation. Things were out of his hands.
But you just see what it is like Herbert has
weapons now, right. You can go to lad, you can
go to Keenan, you can go to QJ. Like these
guys are all playing at a high level right now.

(10:49):
And one thing about Keenan and Herbert they have chemistry
and you can see when Herbert's in trouble, he's looking
for one guy, he's looking for thirteen.

Speaker 4 (10:57):
Right.

Speaker 5 (10:57):
He was with Herbert when he was a rookie, Right,
He Keenan basically grew his trust through Herbert as a rookie.
In years to come from there, I'm just excited at
keen is back. You know, he's been a part of
this this franchise when you know, things weren't so good
when we struggled in the past, and now that he's
been he's been able to be under the Jim Harbaugh
error and kind of reap the benefits and see what

(11:17):
it looks like now. And you know, with the winning season,
I'm happy for him and I know that he'll continue
to do what he's doing.

Speaker 6 (11:23):
Yeah, it's been kind of interesting to see how they've
deployed them, right, because you know, Keenan is the one
that's off. When it's two receivers, it's Q and Ladd.
They're out there, you know, And I think when we
came into the season, we're like, oh, it's Q going
to be the three? Is he going to get jumped
by track? He's the one, like you was the one
when you watch that game against Denver, you know Patrick
Sartannis is shadowing.

Speaker 7 (11:44):
I think it. I think I counted up.

Speaker 6 (11:45):
It was five targets, four recevers, five targets, four receptions
and a penalty on certain when Q and Certan were
going ahead head that's the reigning defensive player of the year.
You know, guy's got three touchdowns. That's tied for second
best through three weeks. And you were saying Daniel Jones
was going after in the before, Yeah, exactly, was going
after certain Yeah. I it was nine targets, eight receptions,
So you know for Q, that's opening things. He was doubled,

(12:08):
that's opening things up for Lad. And like when you
just go through the when you go through the numbers,
I'm looking at HM now, Keenan twenty nine targets, LAD
twenty three, Quinton twenty three receptions, Keenan nineteen, LAD sixteen,
Q fourteen, like yards two thirty nine for Q one
N four keen and Lad. The point is, like it's
a true wide receiver room. Like you can make the

(12:29):
case that this is the best wide receiver group in
football that whatever Herbert needs, you know when it's in,
like you know, you look at those two plays. The
shot played down the right sideline that got flagged for PI,
the Q still made the catch, and then the crosser,
the deep crosser over the middle that he snatched out

(12:52):
of the air, like it's just a different player. It's
it's a different and sometimes it happens in your rookie
year and sometimes it happens in year three. And I
think for all the negativity that that Q got his
first two years, and I understand, Look, there were some
things out there that people could point to. The silence
is deafening the silence instead of celebrating the guy, it's

(13:13):
what he's doing it. Yeah, it's like, where are you man?
This This guy is making game winning plays, like game
winning plays throughout these each of these first three games.
And you know, I think, you know, he probably likes
it better that way. Just keep me, keep my name
out of your mouth, you know, because it's been all bad,
but it's it's been impressive to see someone able to
flip the script like that.

Speaker 5 (13:34):
My college coach would always say, don't poop in my hand.
I'd be like, coach, what does poop my hand mean?
He means, don't let me give you credit. And then
on the next play, you do something stupid, right, But
q needs an apology from charging nation, from the name,
from just everybody, dude, because when you play in the NFL,
a lot of it is mental.

Speaker 4 (13:51):
Right.

Speaker 5 (13:51):
It's a lot of physical, but a lot of it
is mental. And I and I can speak from experience.
If you have a bad game, if you have a
bad year, right, and he has the first two years
of his career very tough, right. And it takes a
certain guy, It takes it. He comes from a military background, right,
But it.

Speaker 4 (14:03):
Takes a certain kid.

Speaker 5 (14:04):
It takes a certain individual, you know, to push out
the noise. We're in a big market, we're in LA.
It takes a certain individual to push that noise out.

Speaker 7 (14:11):
Right.

Speaker 4 (14:11):
Stay true to your craft, stay true to who you are.
You know. He doesn't say much. He goes about his
business the right way.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
Right.

Speaker 5 (14:16):
He's been taking a lot of slander and all he's
done this year is come out and play some of
the best ball out of any wide receiver in the league.

Speaker 7 (14:22):
Right.

Speaker 5 (14:22):
So listen, I got to tip my hat to QJ
and I hope he continued to do what he's doing.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yeah, he just gets started.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
I mean, he's in year three of this and you
mentioned the wide receivers. The guy we're about to speak to,
Rondy Gatson. That's another weapon now that I think we're
going to start to see a little bit more throughout
the twenty twenty five season. Marian Hanton coming out of
the backfield. So Justin I think has a has a
staple of weapons that he just didn't have last year.
And you know you flip it to defense man. I

(14:50):
asked you before we got on just I want you
that Derwin James performance.

Speaker 1 (14:55):
We've seen a lot of them.

Speaker 7 (14:56):
Something man was it was pretty.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
Incredible and I was like, I do I hope they
don't waste this.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
Performance because this is one of the great safety performances
you're ever gonna see.

Speaker 5 (15:04):
Yeah, he's going down is when he hangs them up. Dude,
I'm gonna say, the best charge of defensive player besides Junior,
sayout right and they'll be neck connect.

Speaker 4 (15:13):
Dude.

Speaker 7 (15:13):
He is.

Speaker 5 (15:14):
He's different and I knew he was different. He came
in as a rookie with me and I've seen it
not right. Not only is he a physical specimen and
I always compare him to the late Sean Taylor, right,
He's the closest thing to Sean Taylor. We didn't get
to see Shon Taylor obviously play his career out like
we have seen with Derwin, but same size, same build.

Speaker 4 (15:31):
Right.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
He has also this thing we've seen to it.

Speaker 5 (15:32):
Most definitely right. He has a passion for the game.
He loves his teammates. When he walks in this room,
he like, you could turn these lights off, and when
Derman walks in this room, he's gonna light it up. Right,
That's just how effectious his personality is, his smile, right,
and he's being his teammate, being a friend of him.

Speaker 4 (15:46):
Like, I know how.

Speaker 5 (15:47):
Hard he works, I know the kind of work that
he puts in behind the cameras, and I'm just excited
and I'm happy for him to see that he's just
continuing to play at this kind of level. And I
don't even know if the sky's a limit for him.
We might have to send him the Nassau because he's
taken off.

Speaker 7 (16:01):
Man.

Speaker 4 (16:01):
I love it.

Speaker 7 (16:01):
Yeah, I think it's great. Man.

Speaker 6 (16:04):
Anybody you know, I've been around since seventeen, so I've
seen all of Derwin, you know, and the and like
the thing about Darwin is he's such a good teammate
and a good football player and like just a good
guy that he never questioned what was asked of him
in those three years with coach Staley, and it was
just it just wasn't right, and you could see that

(16:27):
he wasn't right and that he wasn't the Darwin that
we were used to. I think that Jacksonville game ate Adam.
I think so many times when you had these leads
that you would blow and you're looking at the defensive
metrics and it's like, how is this defense ranked twenty
eighth and twenty ninth and they can't stop the run.
And then all of a sudden, Jesse Minner gets here

(16:47):
and coach Harbaugh gets here, and man, Harbaugh and Derwin
are just they're the same person. Man, they are They
are so similar, and you can just see that spark
kind of come back man, and that win sort of
just I don't know, the Derwin James that that is
inside of him came out and you know from last year,

(17:08):
like the fact that that guy spent three years not
being on an All Pro team is crazy, like and
now that it's back and he was last year and
this year, I think he is firmly in the conversation
as a defensive player of the year. Safeties can win
Defensive Players of the Year because you can pile up tackles. Guy,
have four tackles for loss in the game.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
Fans want a safety. He's everything that's Yeah, he's a slot.

Speaker 7 (17:28):
He's a safety.

Speaker 5 (17:29):
Like slowed his feet down right, too much thinking and
he was he had the green down in his helmet
at the time too. So he's calling the plays right.
So he's calling the play, he's getting the play in.
Then he's making the checks. And then now he's at nickel,
Now he's at dime, Now he's at you know, they
had him doing a lot and and the thing about it,
he can handle it.

Speaker 4 (17:44):
Yeah he can't.

Speaker 7 (17:45):
He's never gonna complain.

Speaker 5 (17:46):
And he won't say a word about it, right, And
it's just it's special to see because I just I
keep saying it because I've been in that locker room
with him, I've been in the huddle with him in
the fourth quarter with two minutes left and we got
to get a stop.

Speaker 4 (17:58):
And he's the one that's going to be like, let's go, guys,
we got to get this stop. Let's go. Stay on
their neck. Let's keep doing what we're doing.

Speaker 5 (18:03):
Communicate, he's over communicating, right, He's passionate about the game.
He loved the game and you can see it spew
out of him every Sunday.

Speaker 3 (18:09):
Yeah, he's elevating to play the guys around him too. Like, listen,
you got to give Tarheb and the coach used to
have all the credit in the world for his development.
But you know, there's something to be said about having
number three back there to help you along the way
from from a work ethic perspective and also put you
in the right positions. So you know, we gush about
Darwin deservedly, So I want to give some credit and

(18:31):
let you guys just take it any direction you want to.
But you know, we look at the defensive line and
then you know, we look at Denzel going down and
I just I think of, you know, these two Oregon
ducks not named justin Herbert Jamari Caldwell, and the way
that the rookie's playing and just the way that Troy
Die has played in Denzel's absence. Again, it looks the same.

(18:52):
And that's these guys have preached. It says, it doesn't
matter who's in there. Like, we don't expect to drop off.
You haven't seen any drop off at the lineback position
on Troy.

Speaker 5 (19:00):
And I coached here on the internship with Troy, and
the coaches raved about him because he's another guy who's
just loves the game of ball, right, and he's a
special He's always been known to be a special teams ace.
And the thing about a special teams ace is a
lot of times those guys are good enough to start,
they just may not get the opportunity.

Speaker 7 (19:19):
Right.

Speaker 5 (19:20):
So when a guy like Denzel goes down and you
see a guy like Troy step ben, You're like, well,
we see him on all all the phases on special team,
flying around making plays. He's a football player. But there's
only eleven positions on the defensive side.

Speaker 4 (19:31):
Right, and whatever.

Speaker 5 (19:32):
Maybe a guy may be getting paid more, a guy
may be drafted before. Everybody's situation is different. But I've
always said when I seen him play, I say that
guy can hoop, and he's getting his opportunity to hoop,
and he's bawling.

Speaker 6 (19:43):
Yeah, Troy, he had that one big play chasing down
bone Nicks got him out on the sideline. I'm trying
to pull it out I think, you know, I love
the way you put it, Chris, because you really can
pick anyone, you know, you could. You can pick Jamari,
who we now know is he's a dude.

Speaker 7 (19:59):
He's a guy.

Speaker 6 (20:00):
And you know, Troy stepping in for for Denzel has
been great. And I'm trying to find and I don't
know why it's not pulling up for me right now
here we go like the one that jumped out at
me on the going back to watch the film and
I'm to see if I can pull it up because
I know Julia is going to get a kick out
of this, and we'll put it up here on the

(20:20):
screen too for the people that are watching on YouTube.
But you know, if you kind of just go to
the history of Baltimore and Joe who's spent over two
decades there, and you think about their defensive ends, you
know they've never like we're gonna see Brian Burns this weekend, right,
Like Brian BUR's a smaller guy, crazy Ben like Ben
that doesn't make sense and can attack the passer, but

(20:42):
that's that's not really like a Baltimore kind of player, right,
Like what they have are these big, heavy handed ends. Man,
They've always had that, and so they're not going to
pile up crazy sack numbers, but they just they set
the edge and and like the one thing they tend
to do is they will they'll throw guys around. And

(21:03):
so like the guy that really jumped out to me
was a boygbe And so you have Khalil go down
and Caleb Murphy.

Speaker 7 (21:11):
Is more in that. Brian Burns kind of mold right.
He's a pass rusher.

Speaker 6 (21:14):
He's a smaller guy, and you kind of saw him
getting tossed around a little bit in that and still
made a couple of great plays. He had a cross,
he came from the backside, had to make a big tackle.
I think it was on a Bonix rush. But man,
I'm watching a boy b and I'll let you guys
take it and I'll try to dig up the play.
But like that's you know, that's that's gonna be a
big one because you know, we don't know when Khalil's
coming back. I don't know if they're gonna be able

(21:36):
to go out. You can typically get a past. Pass
rushers typically move at the trade deadline. There's gonna be
somebody available, but I think to have him at one
of those edge spots and even if it's just it
was twelve snaps, that's all it was again, but it
was twelve quality snaps. Like to me, it just speaks
to what Georitie's and Jesse Minner told us at the
start of the year, and that's, yeah, we're gonna throw
a volume at it. Poona's gone, Morgan Fox has gone,

(21:57):
We're gonna bring in a bunch of guys, and they're
rotating these guys and they're all getting you know, Jamari's
getting twenty five snaps or twenty nine snaps, and a
boy Be's getting twelve, and it's really impressive to watch
all of them step up and make plays.

Speaker 5 (22:10):
Just thinking and talking from a player's stamp, a former
players standpoint. When a guy like Khalil goes down, right,
no one wants to see that, but as a backup,
you're like, well, here's my opportunity, right, right, here's my opportunity.
Coach probably comes in the meeting and says, look, Khalil's down,
So you guys are all gonna get certain amount of
reps and you got to make the best of your opportunities, right,

(22:30):
And that's what you're seeing with the defensive line, and
those guys rotating. These guys are getting in the game,
and I know if I'm getting in the game for plays,
I'm like, listen, he's gonna be the best twelve plays
that I've ever played in my life. Right, Because in
the NFL, it's so what have you done for me lately?

Speaker 4 (22:42):
Business?

Speaker 5 (22:42):
And if you put up what you put on tape
is who you are, right, So if you get out
there for those twelve plays, coach is gonna say, well,
we're ready, don't You're really not our guy, and we
pitch you out there for twelve plays and you grade
it out at a seventy percent.

Speaker 7 (22:54):
Right.

Speaker 5 (22:55):
So I go to say that to say that these
guys are all competing against each other, but while they're
competing against each other, is doing well for the team?

Speaker 7 (23:02):
Yeah, there you go.

Speaker 6 (23:04):
It's a second and six in the hold on, let
me get it right, So second and six we'll throw
it up on the screen here, second and six, second quarter.
Just this is what I'm talking about with the physicality
of a boy b and just kind of how you
can impact the game without it being a sack or
a tackle for loss.

Speaker 7 (23:22):
Just watch him blow up.

Speaker 6 (23:23):
That run play and just pop JK with all two
hundred and eighty pounds or whatever he's got, Like that's
just a tone setter, and that's only he's only getting
twelve snaps. But like to me, those are the little
plays that and you could see it after the player
won't be on the film, but like guys got up
and they were.

Speaker 7 (23:38):
Like whoa, you know, they felt it.

Speaker 6 (23:40):
And that's the kind of when that's all you're getting,
like and you're being able to impact the game like that,
that goes a long way.

Speaker 3 (23:46):
Just the ability to have guys to stay fresh, to
get you know, making your twelve best reps right Cole
the way tr Tart, we didn't mention him, Helay, he's
playing at a Pro Bowl level.

Speaker 7 (23:58):
Man, Yeah, he really is.

Speaker 4 (23:59):
I captures are at a Pro Bowl level.

Speaker 7 (24:01):
Two.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
He's a very complete player.

Speaker 7 (24:04):
On or off the field.

Speaker 6 (24:05):
I don't know if there's electruly, I don't know how
many more interior linemen have a better get off than
Tier right now, Like it's his get off is crazy
how quick it is. I mean it's like I'm not
gonna say it's Warren Sap level. Like that's that's like
the elite of the elite. But I mean, Tier's get
off for being a dude that's that big as crazy,

(24:26):
Like coach O would be all excited, he'd take off
his shirt. He did pretty excited about Tier Tarks get off.

Speaker 3 (24:32):
He'll he'll be in the conversation when we talk about
the Giants. Just to put a button on this before
we get to the interview with the rod Day guys,
we said it like, what a unique opportunity to go
to three and zero in the division, and just think
of how big that game against the Broncos was.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
Had they lost that game, you're two and one.

Speaker 3 (24:49):
The Broncos are two and one with that that win
against you at your place, at your place. Now they're
one and two. The Raiders got killed by the Commanders.
They're one and two. The Giants lost of the Chiefs.
Chiefs play the Ravens this week. And you look at
the chief schedule. Just look at the chief schedule. Yeah,
it's not pretty gauntlet. So to be three and zero

(25:10):
to have a softer part of your schedule. And again
we're gonna get into the Giants. Just I don't know
if Julio is a player, Like what do you think
those guys are thinking? Right now to be able to
sweep the division. And here we are, it's you know,
end of September.

Speaker 5 (25:23):
I mean they're feeling good, just point blank and pert
they're feeling good. But the leaders on this team, the
type of players on this team, and the coaching staff
that they have, I know that they've put that behind them, right,
and they've harped on it.

Speaker 4 (25:33):
We call it a twenty four hour rule and joy
for twenty four hours.

Speaker 5 (25:36):
Then after that it's time to get back to work, right,
and then you look at opponent coming into the Giants, Right,
we're gonna touch on it, but you can't just roll
the ball out there and think you're gonna win. Right
at the end of the day, this is the NFL,
no matter what their record is. Yeah, they're starting a
new quarterback, a rookie quarterback, and we'll touch base on that.
But the same fire that you guys have played with
from the first three weeks of the season got you

(25:57):
to three and zero, you need to apply the same
pressure this week coming up.

Speaker 6 (26:01):
Yeah, I would just look, you know, kind of harken
back to what we talked about when we got the schedule, right,
and we're like, man, NFL's really doing this. We're going
to Brazil and you're playing the Chiefs, and then you're
playing the you know, then you're playing the Raiders at
the Raiders, and then you get the yeah, we're going
to camp for the hot and then you get the Broncos,
like three divisions and you know what they did. They

(26:23):
looked at it and they're like, what a great opportunity,
What an opportunity to put it on the division and
get a huge lead to start the season. That all
those other teams got to dig out and try to
figure out how to catch us. And that's clearly how
they approached it. It's how they executed it. And now
League did them a favor. You know, League did the
Chargers of favor by giving them three division games to
start the season because they're three and zero and and

(26:45):
there's a giant gap between them and the rest of
the you know, rest of the AFC West yep.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
And here we go another cross country trip.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
For the for the Chargers against the Giants. Before we
get into a preview, let's check in with a Randy Gatson.
Chargers Weekly is presented by Splittero, helping homeowners access their
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(27:12):
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Speaker 7 (27:26):
Right his promise.

Speaker 3 (27:27):
Seranda Gassi joins us here on Chargers Weekly at Ronda.
I just want to start with something that Jim Harball
said in as presser yesterday. He told you that you
were going to make your NFL debut, and he said
you just had that look in your eye. Do you
remember the conversation with coach and just what that meant
to you to know that you were going to make
your debut.

Speaker 8 (27:46):
Yeah, the first two weeks, obviously, I wasn't up. I
was inactive for the first two and you know, they
didn't really tell me if I was or wasn't gonna
be active for that week. So when he when he
told me, it was kind of a surprise to me.
So yeah, I just had a different look when he
told me that, And you know I was prepared.

Speaker 5 (28:02):
For it runner, you came into the league and you
have the luxury of being able to compete against a
guy like Durwin.

Speaker 4 (28:08):
I remember when I came into the league, things were
a little bit faster for me.

Speaker 7 (28:10):
Right.

Speaker 5 (28:10):
The playbook's a little bit more in depth, and it
takes a lot more studying as a rookie. What has
been your biggest challenge so far being a rookie coming
into the league versus college.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
Doing things like that?

Speaker 8 (28:21):
The speed, you know, being in the huddle going over
the plays because you know in college you do a
lot of signals and you know you don't really change
up the snap count too much or you don't have
any kills too many plays. So that and the level
of talent around you know every team. You know, any
team can win any given Sunday. It's not like college,
where you know you could be playing like an SCS opponent,

(28:42):
where you know you you might not have to go,
you know, all one hundred and ten percent, but you
still might pull out the win, versus you know, out
here you got to go one hundred every day, even
in practice, because you got to be able to make
the team in the first place.

Speaker 6 (28:55):
There was a cool moment we were, you know, calling
the game from the booth, and a lot of times
will see players you know that went to school together
and they're chatting. You know, saw nase and and Patrick
kind of rapping with each other, and all of a sudden,
we were looking at you and Patrick Stan talking and
I was trying to put it together and then I realized, oh, yeah,
these guys kind of grew up together. So how long
How young were you when you got to know him?

(29:15):
Did you guys just hang out on the field as
both your father's played for the Dolphins, so kind of
walked us through that relationship.

Speaker 8 (29:21):
Yeah, our dads played together on the Dolphins, and you know,
our parents have grown to really know each other. And
I've I've hung out with him a lot, and our
moms sent us a picture you know, he it was
a picture of him four years old carrying me when
I was four months old. So like, you know, I've
known him my whole life, been going against him in
the little league, obviously played with him in high school.

(29:42):
So he's always he's always been, you know, the best
when they came to football. So he's just you know,
keeps carrying that and really proud of him. I've always
been looking up to him ever since I was little.

Speaker 7 (29:51):
Were you better at in the little league than he
would like basketball? Like anything?

Speaker 8 (29:55):
If you saw his little league highlights, he'd be like, man,
oh really well, litt league team.

Speaker 2 (29:59):
He played for the Ppo Bangals.

Speaker 4 (30:00):
I played for the Davy bron.

Speaker 2 (30:03):
You got to look up as littleague high as he
was the man for you.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
Know, right a Scooback.

Speaker 3 (30:07):
I watched the game winning drive again last night and
just the fact that did justin trust you. The first
two receptions of that drive were made by you. Take
us through that moment. What was it like being a
part of that game winning drive in your first ever
game and just to have the trust of the quarterback
so early in your career.

Speaker 8 (30:26):
Yeah, you know, we didn't really get a lot of
reps obviously those first three weeks, you know, the first
two preparing for the Chiefs and one preparing for the Raiders.
I wasn't active, so I didn't really get a lot
of reps with him or any at all during any
team period seven on seven, just maybe routes on air.
So just them putting me in in practice that week
and putting me in difficult situations and then whenever we
get to the you know, the situational periods, you know,

(30:48):
on Fridays and Saturdays, them putting me in there so
you know, he can see that I'm in there, see
that I know what I'm doing, and see that he could,
you know, trust me. And then obviously when you're going
throughout the game, you know, if he's throwing you the
ball and you're catching it, you know that obviously gonna
build trust.

Speaker 5 (31:01):
Yeah, growing up, I had a pleasure of watching your
pops play and he was he was a dog on
the field, and it's awesome to see that you'd be
able to do the same thing as your pops. Like
what kind of advice does he give you, Because it's
it's one thing to be a college player and then
become an NFL player, but it's about being a pro right,
and that takes a lot of different things, whether it's
you know, taking care of your body, studying extra Like

(31:23):
what has your dad told you, if.

Speaker 4 (31:24):
Anything, about being a pro and how to go about it.

Speaker 8 (31:27):
He's told me everything that he's learned. And then obviously,
you know him being in the league, he also has
given me a lot of chances to talk to other people,
like you know, he his first couple of years were
with the Cowboys, So you know, I've talked to Deon
Sanders before, you know, talk to Michael Irvin, you know,
talk to those guys about you know, what what they see,
you know, what they would do. And he's telling me

(31:47):
what they used to do, because when he was a rookie,
he was looking, you know, up to them and seeing
what they would do on a week. And now I'm
I'm in the league. I'm seeing what Keenan and Derwin
are doing and Justin's doing throughout the week to you know,
prepare for the game. So he's told me everything he
knows along with you know, handing me off to get
some knowledge from other guys that he's played with that
are have been really good at football as well.

Speaker 6 (32:08):
Anyone that's that's ever been around Michael Irvin knows what
those hands are like. I mean, he'll try to break
your arm when you talk to him, especially someone as
small as me. But one thing that that certainly jumped
out with your hands, and that especially Chris you were
talking about at that game winning drive. I think it
was a second pass where you get to kind of
adjust and section have you always had like really assume
being a wide receiver, hands are important. Just kind of

(32:29):
walk us through sort of what you've done to make
sure that you're sure handed and everything that comes your
way you catch.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
You just want to look the ball in.

Speaker 8 (32:36):
You know, the number one rule of you know, being
a pass catcher is, you know, catching the ball. You
got to catch the ball first. You got to get
a lot of catches on the jugs. You gotta get
catch us with the quarterback uncomfortable catches. You know, just
going through practice, you know a ball might be behind
and you know you just gotta grab it. You just
got to look it in. And Giro always says in
the meetings there's no such thing as yards have to drop.
So there's nothing you could do after.

Speaker 5 (32:56):
You help the ball, Mondy, you didn't I shook his hand.
You didn't see it saying swallow my.

Speaker 7 (33:01):
You know, it's like was over there, man, Sledgers.

Speaker 9 (33:04):
Probably why I played defense man, you know, Righty, just
just going back to the way that game ended, right,
everybody's gonna remember the first ever game in the NFL,
but to beat the Broncos to start three and oh
three and oero in the division.

Speaker 3 (33:18):
When you said that at your locker. Imagine you had
a lot of texts and messages on your phone. What
was that night like for you to to reflect on
ate what you did, but what the team has accomplished today.

Speaker 8 (33:30):
My mom and my aunt were here, so you know,
after the game, we went and went out to eat
and we just enjoyed the time. You know, I called
my dad after the game too, and you know he
was saying how proud of me he was, so uh
we I just took it in like a like a
regular game, just trying to you know, act normal because
you know, you want this thing to happen more and
more again. So obviously I texted all all the people

(33:50):
back that you know was congratulating me, and you know,
trying to move on, you know, trying to be a
professional and you know, get onto the next.

Speaker 5 (33:57):
Being a formal wide receiver, obviously that's your forte. You
can get open your your You're a big physical guy,
and running routes and catching the ball is what you
do really really well. If there's one part of your game,
obviously transferring from wide receiver to tight end, knowing that
you have to stand there and block guys like Joey
Bosa or Khalil Mack right when you're practicing against Klil,
if you're playing against Joey, your defensive ends at those types,

(34:20):
Like what do you think you need to improve on
as a player more so past past blocking.

Speaker 8 (34:25):
Past block, and just you know, looking at the film
of guys and looking at moves they like to do.
And then obviously, like you know I've said, get get
tips from other guys, you know, talking to Joe, talking
to Pip, talking to Slater, you know the guys that
are you know on the edge blocking those guys most
of the game, you know, seeing what what they're doing,
and you know, if I could you know, predict if
he's lining up in a certain way, you know what
moves he likes to do out of this out of

(34:47):
this position. And you know, we we're coming up on
a on a great you know team that has a
lot of good edge rushers and one that I've gone
against a lot in uh middle school and high school
and Brian Burns, Uh, yeah, I had me at a
scout team tight end for when I was like in
eighth grade to go against him, and yeah, it didn't

(35:08):
end well. So again we get another crack at it.
This week, so it's gonna be good to go against
him and see him again.

Speaker 6 (35:14):
Yeah, you know, he was Julia was talking about, you know,
just sort of route running and kind of what if you.

Speaker 7 (35:19):
Don't mind sharing, how much of that is, is.

Speaker 6 (35:22):
You, you know, sort of doing having the opportunity to
to kind of do what you think is right with
with Justin and how much of it was called in
the huddle because it certainly seemed like, you know, there
were a couple of plays where where maybe you were
kind of you know, flexing a little bit and kind
of getting open for Justin.

Speaker 7 (35:36):
Is that kind of how it played out in that game?

Speaker 8 (35:38):
A little bit of both. You know, it kind of
just plays out like that. But the offense is made
to you know, give guys options and you know, see
the coverages. If if you see that a spot is open,
you know you could take it. If a guy's dropping
too far back and you got across the field across
his face, you can come back down negative to come
get the ball if they're and cover zero, you know,
speeding up your route. Things like that is really you

(35:59):
know what then offense, and you want to do your
own own thing within it, you.

Speaker 3 (36:04):
Know, Tony Jefferson sat in that chair last week, and
you guys have polar opposite stages in your career right now,
but at the same time, like like Tony didn't start
the season either, and you know, we've seen guys come
in and out of the lineup, and either on offense
or defense, it's still kind of looks the same. I
don't know if you could just speak to the competition
among you guys, you know, whether it's the tight ends

(36:26):
room or just offense. You know, you have a really
experienced tight ends room. Like how have those guys helped
bring the best out of you?

Speaker 8 (36:33):
Yeah, Will and Tyler have definitely, you know, helped me
in getting the knowledge and knowing, you know, what to
do against a certain look and how I should line
up to make you know, all all my splits look
the same, to make you know, a safety or a
d N think I'm you know, about a blockdown on them,
but really I'm going to run arounte and that that
might slow them down just a little bit to give
Pitt or Joe, you know, more time to you know,

(36:55):
get in their pass set or you know, how wide
I need to get and how how good I need
to make a fake look, you know if we have
you know, a block and go or something like that.

Speaker 2 (37:04):
So, uh, you know, they've been great helping me along
the way.

Speaker 8 (37:08):
And then uh, you know, I just I just build
on that with the things that I've already been doing.

Speaker 5 (37:13):
So yeah, non football question. You guys are flying out
to New York this weekend. What is I was talking
to Money about it, and we were talking about food.
I'm a foodie, right and Money was saying that he
likes Italian food.

Speaker 4 (37:26):
If you guys get out there and you.

Speaker 5 (37:27):
Get to go out there with the group as a whole,
and what's what's one meal you're looking forward to in
New York.

Speaker 8 (37:32):
I never had a chop cheese before from the deli,
so I might have to find a good one out
there in New York.

Speaker 5 (37:39):
You got to explain to the people with the chop cheese.
Is it's viral on Instagram? You got to explain to.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
Them I never even I don't really know.

Speaker 8 (37:45):
I don't really a chopped up hamburger, That's all I know.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
But people people go crazy about it.

Speaker 8 (37:50):
And obviously being in Syracuse, you know, being you know,
two and a half hours away from New York City, Uh,
people people always talk about how great it is that.
I mean, they obviously have him up there, but they,
you know, the people that are from New York City
always say, oh, it doesn't compare to the ones you
know back home.

Speaker 4 (38:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
Uh so if I had the chance, I'd go there.

Speaker 4 (38:09):
I love it, love it.

Speaker 7 (38:10):
Uh you know, we'll keep on that theme. Then.

Speaker 6 (38:12):
So you mentioned Syracuse one. It's too bad nobody on
the teams from Clemson because you could have really enjoyed
that after the beating they put on them this past week.

Speaker 7 (38:19):
But I think you were an econ major. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (38:21):
So, like when I heard about you laying in bed
and then just kind of coming to the facility, that
had like a very economist ring to it, like time
is a commodity, opportunity to cost. Why am I laying
here when I can be in the facility? Do you
if that was your major? Like, is that something that
you applied to every Economists just think differently? Is that
would you say that's fair kind of how your your

(38:42):
mind operates?

Speaker 8 (38:43):
They they could, I mean, I don't know, I don't
know if that's if that's how they differently think. Uh,
you know, obviously I was, I was in it. I
was doing the major that in financing college and that
that was obviously tough because you know, I wasn't really
good at math, so I had to.

Speaker 2 (38:59):
Really you know, get into it.

Speaker 7 (39:00):
Took it off, man.

Speaker 8 (39:01):
Yeah, I just had to doing internships and all all
those types of things. But I think they do think,
you know, differently, the people that I have worked with
in the past.

Speaker 6 (39:09):
Oh, they're weirdos, man, trust me, they are complete weirdos
in a good way. They operate differently.

Speaker 3 (39:16):
Yeah, I got to ask you about your coaches Syracuse
A coach Harball, I mean, coach Brown seems like to
be such a such a character in his own right.
They're taking care of business right now. What was it
like having him as your head coach? And like, the
biggest differences are similarities to coach Harball.

Speaker 8 (39:33):
I think the differences is like the level that we're
at and the you know, obviously in college, you know
there's there's no days off. You always gotta we go
full pads Monday through Thursday, you know, and then we
have he's.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
Been one run wind sprints after games.

Speaker 8 (39:48):
That I don't know what that was, and we almost
had a game like that. We possibly could have had
a game like that that we could have won. Uh
But yeah, I mean he is super hard on you.
But you know, coming from you know, the coaching staff
that he's came from at Georgia and Temple and Baylor
and the head coaches he's been with, he really knows

(40:08):
how to run a program himself. And he's doing an
amazing job right now. And you know, I talk to
those guys every day. You know, I play a lot.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
Of video games, so we play the game with them,
you know, all the time.

Speaker 8 (40:18):
So talking to them, they like in the experience and
they you know, they like to complain, you know that
they have you know, bloody Orange Tuesdays every Tuesday. You
know it's like ten to fifteen minute inside run periods
and all that. But you know it will really pay
off when you get here. You know, it'll all really
pay off when when you get to the next level.

Speaker 5 (40:36):
Yeah, speaking about wind sprints after the games and things
that payoff, you guys do something similar here in the
fourth quarter program, right whether it's in training camp, after
a long tow hour practice or just end season for
the people at home after practice, you know, they may
do a lungees, they may do curls, they may do
something to strengthen a little piece of you know, a
part of their body. And we've watched it over and
over again. And I'm been part of the charges for

(40:58):
the longest and you guys are finishing games right, and
that's what the fourth Quarter program's about. Can you touch
on that how Coach Herbert is doing such a great
job getting you guys not only physically ready, but you
guys are doing it as a team, and then it's
showing up on Sunday.

Speaker 8 (41:09):
Yeah, coach Coach Herber is an amazing coach and he
has an amazing staff with him, you know, and he
approaches things, you know, differently than I've seen before. I
don't know if you've you know, been in his program before,
but you know, it's it's it's not as conventional as
you as you think. And you know, he has a
different way, different way of thinking, different way he wants
to run things. But if you really look down into

(41:32):
the science and you know, and the reason why he
has the job and the things that he knows that
we don't, I mean, it's it's crazy how it ends
up working out and how much you know, like those
lunges and those planks and all that really you know,
come to fruition and help us, you know, late in games.

Speaker 7 (41:48):
No question.

Speaker 6 (41:48):
I mean you can just see it the way it
played out in those last two drives to touchdown on
the game winning field goal, last one for me, Ronde,
just when you went back, I'm sure you went back
and looked at at the film and all your your targets,
and so the one that that stood out because you
had a couple. Man, I mentioned when you had to
bend back and grab it on that game winning drive.
You had one on the right sideline where it almost
looked like you had to toe tap a little bit.

(42:09):
Just kind of what what you took away and what
you saw, and was there one you were like, how
about that?

Speaker 4 (42:13):
Man?

Speaker 8 (42:13):
Look that Yeah, it was really the first one because
I was thinking, you know, my first target was gonna
be a touchdown, you know, if we didn't get the
ball hit. I was I was pretty open on the guy,
and you know I could have grabbed it to.

Speaker 7 (42:26):
The pylon right. It was just thrown a little bit
behind you and slipped the ground right.

Speaker 8 (42:30):
I would have thought, you know, that would have been
my first catch, and you know that would have been
cool for the first catch.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
To be a touchdown.

Speaker 4 (42:34):
Touchdown, Celly, you got to touchdown, Celly for.

Speaker 2 (42:37):
I didn't even have one.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
Set program for Sunday.

Speaker 7 (42:41):
Yeah yeah, okay, good and tell the matter all right.

Speaker 3 (42:43):
We talked about your bunch in the off season and
Sunday was a great example. Why so we look forward
to seeing you on Sunday and beyond. Man, thanks for
being with us. Thank you head to San Francisco and
experienced the Super Bowl with on Location, the official hospitality
provider of the NFL and out partner of the Los
Angeles Chargers. Secure Packaging is that bundle verified tickets with

(43:05):
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On location delivers unforgettable experiences so you can create memories
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com slash s b LX are called eight seven seven

(43:26):
three seven three five zero six two to secure your
ticket package today. Well, guys, we said in the interview,
we talked a bunch about a rod day during OTAs
and training camp, and he got his opportunity. Julil he
capitalized and it's just a start.

Speaker 4 (43:43):
Yeah, it's it's a start.

Speaker 5 (43:44):
And we talked about him earlier this year, Chris, you know,
working with you, and just talked about the physical upside
that he has. He's a big target, right, former wide receiver,
so the route running is there, he knows how to
get open. The hands are there. I mean I shook
his hand and his hand was like three of mine, right,
so the catch radius is there. Obviously having his father
being a former NFL player, which I grew up watching,

(44:04):
and I know he's given them tidbits and golden nuggets,
you know what it is to be a pro as
a rookie and intelligent, bright young man, has a veteran
group to learn from in that room money as you
touched on, and the future is bright for him for sure.

Speaker 7 (44:19):
Yeah, I mean I had none of that. I thought
it was great.

Speaker 6 (44:21):
You know, he played exceptional, you know from his first
catch he talked about at that first target at the
goal line, you know, Unfortunately it was one of the
fifty four percent pressures and fourteen quarterback hits that Justin
had in the game. As he was trying to let
that thing go, but he had his man beat, and
pretty much Arondy had his man beat every single route
he ran. So I don't think we're ever going to
see a game the rest of the year where he

(44:41):
is not active. I would assume moving forward, that's how
this thing's going to look. And you know, as I
remember Justin's rookie year, you know, in twenty twenty, and
how important Hunter Henry was to him, and we have
not seen a tight end of that caliber. You know,
it was good with Jared Cook, it was good with
Gerald Everett, it was you know, it was good with

(45:03):
Will Dissley last year. I think this has the potential
to be great. Just the athleticism, the sure hands, the
routes that he can run. I think we might be
white and look. Tight ends are different man. Tight ends
are not wide receivers. Rarely do you get that seventh
round wide receiver that you know turns into but Laporta

(45:24):
second round, Kittle, fourth round, Kelsey, third round. Like, tight
ends are just different, some of them because it tends
to take You know, when you talk to coaches, they
tell you they're like, dude, it's it's arguably, outside of quarterback,
the hardest position you're in the old line room, you're
in the receiver room, and then you got to do
tight ends.

Speaker 7 (45:42):
Like it's not easy. It takes a second sometimes.

Speaker 6 (45:44):
So what we've seen man Ronde is smooth, he's athletic,
he's got hands. I think this could be a heck
of a relationship moving forward.

Speaker 1 (45:53):
Yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 3 (45:53):
We're going to see him Sunday at Medlife Stadium. And
let's get into the Giants. It's a pressure cooker right
now in New York for with the Chets and the
Giants combine oh and six. But uh, new life for
the g men because Jackson Dart is gonna get his
first ever start. And I know that when you have
a rookie quarterback, there's gonna be some juice in the building.

(46:14):
People are very excited to see. And they were booing
Russell Wilson on Sunday night when he would come in
for those one or two plays. They cheer Jackson Darts. So, uh,
the charge you're gonna have to withstand a little bit
of momentum by the Giants. But if you're in a
DB's room and you get word that a quarterback who's
never played in the NFL is getting his first start, like,

(46:35):
take me take me through a DB's mindset.

Speaker 4 (46:38):
Sh leal, salivating, salivating.

Speaker 5 (46:40):
You you know, when you're in and out and you're
starving for like two hours, and you've been in that
line that's like a mile long, and you finally get
to the front to get your hands on the double.

Speaker 4 (46:48):
Do That's that's what That's what they're feeling like.

Speaker 7 (46:53):
Listen, second burger that's here in the last ten minutes.

Speaker 5 (47:02):
Good luck, Right, I mean, you're going against a Chargers
defense who is a veteran who have veterans all over
the place playing at a high level. Listen, any rookie quarterback,
I don't care what he said. I've seen an interview
with him saying, you know he doesn't feel pressure, but
you're gonna feel pressure on Sunday. Right, you're making your
first NFL start against one of the best defenses.

Speaker 1 (47:19):
In the literal literal pressure, literal.

Speaker 5 (47:22):
Right, against one of the best defenses in the league.
I expect the charges to throw the kitchen scenek at him, right,
different looks, right, the safeties and the dbs and the
linebackers being on one accord showing different reads, right, bumping
over after the snap, pumping over him before the snap,
showing pressure, not coming, not showing pressure then coming. You
got to mix it up for a rookie quarterback, and
especially in your first start. He just doesn't have enough experience.

(47:44):
Money like, you don't have enough experience to dissect what
you're seeing post pre snap versus post snap. And I
think that's gonna be the biggest thing for them. And
I like Justin Darks as a quarterback. I think he
has he has that or about him. I think that
he had a really good preseason. The Giant's been calling
for him since Week one of the preseason. I think
he's gonna be a good quarterback in this league. But
this might be the wrong weekend for him to get

(48:05):
his first start.

Speaker 6 (48:05):
Yeah, I think for the Giants, there just really was
no right week to start him. I think this might
be one of the worst ones though, just you know
when you go back to and not look like I said,
I've been doing this since twenty seventeen, and I can
remember some some guys getting their first ever start against
the Chargers defense. I can think of Nate Peterman and
just what a disaster that was. You were also that
he had to get one five.

Speaker 7 (48:27):
I think Christmas came earlier.

Speaker 6 (48:30):
Joey Bosa was tormented that poor kid man. And you know,
I remember Josh Allen got his first ever start against
I don't know if I don't think you were here
when that was twenty twenty I think, but Josh Allen
got his first.

Speaker 1 (48:41):
Start that was twenty eighteen eighteen.

Speaker 6 (48:45):
That was twenty eighteen h so you were there exactly,
so that that was the first start we had. Aidan O'Connell.
I think that was the six sac game. Was was
his first start. But then I also remember, you know,
Duck Hodges. I remember the Duck Dodges game here. So
like it when you don't have film on a guy
and you don't know what a guy's all about, that
can also be a little bit of an issue. Like

(49:06):
as far as you know, having watched Jackson Dart a
lot at ole Miss like, he's he's thick, he's strong,
he runs the ball, he's an athlete. I think Daniel Jeremiah,
you know he does the games with me on the
on the call. I thought it's an app comparison. He's
kind of like a Jalen Hurts. He's got a real
thick lower half and he does not go down easy.

(49:26):
And I think you could see Brian Dave Balls a
very creative offensive play caller, and I think you're going
to see a lot of that with Skataboo and Dart
and try to just be very physical. The one thing
that's hard to coach out of a quarterback, especially when
you've got Malik Neighbors chirping at you, is hey, man,
don't take the cheese.

Speaker 7 (49:45):
Don't take that. Just play.

Speaker 6 (49:46):
These guys are going to force you to dink and
dunk and they're going to try to force you into
a mistake. Do not take that. She because Jamis Winston
took the cheese last year and you saw what that
looked like. And so I think that's that's going to
be something that Jesse Minner is going to have in
his favor.

Speaker 5 (49:59):
I think, yeah, I've seen the clip of a reporter
asking Milik Neighbors, well, what's what do you think about,
you know, having another QB switch? And he said, just
get number one the ball right and you said it
like he's a home run hitter. And that's what they're
gonna try to do with Melik Neighbors are going to
try to go deep and the Chargers do a very
good job of keeping a shell on the defense too
high right, running quarters.

Speaker 4 (50:19):
And we talked about it. I'd never seen a quarterback.

Speaker 5 (50:21):
My coach would always say, quarterbacks in NFL don't want
to they're not patient enough to just think the ball
down the field. The only quarterback that I was patient
enough to do that was Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, right,
and Jackson Darkness and hisie his rookie season, first game
starting against his kind of defense.

Speaker 4 (50:35):
Who they make it.

Speaker 5 (50:37):
Frustrating, right because they don't give you anything deep, right,
and then once you do himmer it down, it's suffocating.
They're making great tackles, right, They're putting the hits on
you early on. So, like you said, man, it's gonna
be tough for I'm interested to see how he does
on Sunday, if he has the patience to just matriculate
the ball down the field rather than taking the shot
the Milik neighbors and his receivers, you.

Speaker 3 (50:56):
Know, just matching the Chargers' physicality, though, that's a tough time.
We were just talking about the Bud and Night game
and just how it seemed like there was a million
guys on the field and the charges and just how
how they beat up they beat up the Raiders. I
don't know Jackson Dart. He seems like a confident young man.
But when you have kind of one guy in Molikue
neighbors and then a rookie running back in Camp Scataboo

(51:20):
in an offensive line, frankly, and that's this is where
I want to kind of insert Tier Tart here, like
that interior of the Giants offensive line a little leaky.

Speaker 7 (51:29):
Yeah, mine hurts so solid. You know.

Speaker 6 (51:31):
Look, Thomas is fantastic at left tackle, so he's just
coming back.

Speaker 7 (51:35):
He's just coming back.

Speaker 6 (51:36):
But I think you saw the impact he had last week,
just the way Skataboo was running. So but no Tyrone Tracy.
So it's going to be a lot of Scataboo. And
I think you know that's sort of a battle of wills,
right you're you're They're probably gonna try to be very physical.
I think that's their best path as opposed to trying
to throw it around the yard against these dbs and
Derwin James kind of out there in a million different places.

(52:00):
You talked about the explosives. I do think that's something
they need to address. I think we've seen a little
bit of you know, okay, how did how did this happen?
How did that fourth and two happen? You know, those
safety have kind of been getting sucked up a little
bit on this play action and those deep shots were open.
You know, you had look flat out. Bon Nicks missed
three three throws, he missed three touchdowns. And by the way,
that's a quick reminder of why quarterback rating is such

(52:21):
a BS stat Like Bonnicks literally missed three wide open
touchdowns and he had a higher QB rating than Herbert
coming out of that game. And however they come up
with that formula. But I think that's something that no
doubt they will address that that coach Fuller and and
cling Scale and Minera will address on that back end.
But I do think we've seen a little bit of that.
That's that's got to get And when you've got a

(52:42):
guy like Neighbors, you know, he's he's as good as
it gets, man. And so I do think that that's
something that that I would that I would circle that,
I that I would want to make sure it was
priority number one.

Speaker 4 (52:53):
Jillian.

Speaker 3 (52:54):
You know, Neighbors didn't do anything against Chiefs like and
then the week before he looked like.

Speaker 6 (53:00):
He didn't get targeted. I watched every snap. He didn't
get targeted until the second half. Like, that's just so crazy.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
What are they doing?

Speaker 3 (53:05):
I like, listen, If I listen, everyone praises Brian day
ball is this great play. I know Kafka is the
play caller there, but like, how do you not get
your best player involved in a football game?

Speaker 5 (53:17):
It beats me. I wish I had an answer for you.
It's like, if I'm playing Madden, I'm throwing the ball
deep and elite neighbors, right, and that's really their only
big time weapon on offense. So it's like, how are
you not creating packages? How are you not creating looks
one two, stacks, bunches that get guys off him to
create the separation before the balls even snapped. Right, he

(53:37):
should be getting at least ten targets a game at least, right,
And then you talked about Skataboo, and I want to
touch on that, because, like you said, they're not going
to put the game into Jackson's Dart's hand and say
you know what here, We're going to throw the ball
forty times go win it. Right, Obviously, Skattaboo is a
fan favorite there as well. Right, very tough, physical runner.
I liked him out of college. We liked him out
of college. They're gonna pound the rock and they're gonna

(53:59):
try to pound the rock. And the biggest thing you
said is with those miss passes by Bo Nicks, it
was the safety's coming up right and the DB's getting
eyes that we call it eyes in the backfield, not
having your eyes on your luggage, as my coach will say,
keep your eyes on your luggage, keep your eyes out
of the backfield, and be confident that the front seven
is going to stop the run and then your secondary
of support. So that's the biggest thing I think they,

(54:19):
like you mentioned, they need to work on. But to
answer your question, I have no idea why he had.
He didn't get any targets.

Speaker 7 (54:25):
And I think they're, you know, like we talked about.

Speaker 6 (54:26):
I think that's how they're going to My guess is
that's how Da bol is going to set it up.
You're gonna see a lot of Bellinger and man hurts,
the tight ends. They're good blocking tight ends, and I
think you're going to try to pound it with scataboo
and see if you can win that physical battle upfront,
which is not easy against this team. And then that's
kind of your your play action. Suck them in and
see if you can get that that shot to neighbors

(54:47):
and let him win downfield. So I look, there's zero
and three. I think Russell Wilson certainly showed that it's
just not there anymore. I think you showed it last
year that it was really kind of not there anymore
or in Denver. So it's you know, it's it's the
devil you know versus the devil.

Speaker 7 (55:05):
You don't know.

Speaker 6 (55:06):
And I don't think we know anything about Jackson Darter
what he's going to do. But that works both ways.

Speaker 4 (55:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (55:11):
Well, when when jobs are on the line in the
front office and as a head coach and you draft
a quarterback in the first round, you're oh with three
Russell Wilson zeety.

Speaker 7 (55:18):
I mean the defense is the bigger concern.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
Yeah, And that's where we're going to get to right now.

Speaker 7 (55:21):
That's the bigger.

Speaker 3 (55:22):
And you know, we should start with the Chargers and
their injury report. We're taking this on a Thursday, before
the Thursday injury report comes out. Bradley Boseman did not
practice with a back. Uh but Kai Beck that I
believe is still in a concussion protocol. So Trey Pipkins
was on a limited basis. So it's a it's a
beat up offensive line right now. We talked about Najie Harris,
that unfortunate injury with that defensive line led by Brian Burns,

(55:49):
and you got Dibbodeaux and you got Abdul Carter and
of course Dexter Lawrence.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
You know, as a defensive tackle, man, what do you
do to I don't I mean get rid of the
Justin was just was hitting?

Speaker 7 (56:02):
How many times you just hit for fourteen?

Speaker 1 (56:03):
Fourteen times? You got to make sure that Justin Herbert
can get the ball off?

Speaker 4 (56:08):
Yeah, screens quick game.

Speaker 5 (56:10):
And then you talked about it man, I think I
mentioned it maybe two podcasts ago, right, And when you're
playing against a team who has guys with their ears
pinned back ready to rush, the way you slow them
down is you got to run at them.

Speaker 2 (56:20):
Right.

Speaker 4 (56:20):
So when you got guys like.

Speaker 5 (56:23):
Spider Man, they call them a spider Man, Scu Burns,
Brian Burns, right, and you got guys like that who
want to rush up the field and get to the quarterback.
The way you stop that is you run at them
because when you're rushing up the field, you're creating lanes.

Speaker 4 (56:34):
Right.

Speaker 5 (56:34):
They don't sit down and set edge. They're up the field,
they're flying up their field. They're trying to make plays
on the quarterback, and they're relying on their linebackers to
fill those gaps.

Speaker 2 (56:41):
Right.

Speaker 5 (56:42):
So I think running the ball at them obviously quit
game right screens and then when.

Speaker 4 (56:47):
The shots are there, you take your shots.

Speaker 5 (56:48):
But there's no way you can let Justin Herbert continue
to take the beating that he took last week.

Speaker 6 (56:52):
Yeah, I think the difference in this one. So I'm
just kind of looking at their depth chart to make
sure you get all the names right. But I think
the the Denver Broncos defense is just stacked right. The
linebackers aren't great in coverage, but Singleton has the game
of the year every time he plays the Chargers, so
that kind of for whatever reason, that's how that works out.
But when you think about their secondary and what they

(57:13):
have and how hard it is to attack that secondary,
that's the thing is, you know nothing against flot and
a debo. You know they do have Shabon Holland back there,
but he's not quite the same player he was in Denver.
So I think you can get after that, like you
can get after the secondary. Whereas against Denver, you know
you've got a tough front, you got a tough secondary
that are gonna make it hard. So I think that's
the one thing is if you can at least hold

(57:34):
up enough, and like we talked about with Joe Alt,
like I know that Benito got him the one time
on the jay. You know that got him on the jump,
and then he got him on the one where you know,
there looked like there was a path for Herbert to
maybe kind of cruise up to the left to maybe
avoid that that Alt was kind of routing him wide.
But you know, Alsa Alt's gonna erase one.

Speaker 7 (57:52):
Side of that. He just is like, that's that's I
have full faith there.

Speaker 6 (57:56):
It's the interior where they can maybe get some games
because they're playing and have duel in the interior with Lawrence,
like and they're running some games in there where it
can get a little tricky if you got you know,
Becton and concussion protocol still of Trey's getting in and out.
If it's not going to be Bradley Boseman, like you can.
Maybe the one thing I'll say, though, like going back
and watching too is again the silence is deafening, is

(58:18):
that Zion started really he has had a great start
to the season, like he is playing really really good football.
That left side has been so good at protecting Herbert,
So I think once you have that, to be able
to just kind of use your eyes that are in
front of you to see the right side, it makes
it a little bit easier. So when you're facing the

(58:39):
adversity that this front poses, I do think if you
can just erase half of it and be able to
contend with what's in front of you, it makes it
a little bit easier with that secondary maybe not being
up to the level of you know, McDuffie and what
they have in Cleveland and I'm sorry in Kansas City
to pair with that front of Carl Lofty's and Chris
Jones in Denver with Maw and Brandon Jones and Sertane

(59:03):
with that front, So I do think there's a little
bit more opportunity there for them to get this pass game.
I mean, look, Justin got out of the Denver game
with three hundred yards, so he still got out of
there with three hundred yards.

Speaker 3 (59:13):
You can run on this team too, like they've you know,
the Commanders had success run the football Week one with
with Bill Jaquori, Krossky Merrit jayde Daniels had like seventy
six yards rushing in that first game and even Pacheco
averaged over four yards on Sunday Night. So the combination
of a Marion Hampton and maybe we see Justin with
his legs a little bit like we did in Week one,

(59:34):
I think running the football and I think a Marion Hampton.

Speaker 1 (59:37):
It was kind of that wake up game.

Speaker 6 (59:38):
I think Javante had like seven or eight yards per
carry in that the Dallas game ballast in.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
The week two.

Speaker 3 (59:43):
Yeah, so I don't know, we've seen listen, and I
don't think it's going to stop. I think you're going
to see Justin Herbert continue to push the ball down
the football field. But I think, you know, if you
want to win this game, balanced attack with Amaron maybe
priority A.

Speaker 4 (59:57):
Yeah, and you see how and you just got to
see how the game goes, right. The mark of a
good coach.

Speaker 5 (01:00:00):
You can go into the game with the game plan
and they're eating up your game plan. You got to
make adjustments, right, When you see Justin throw the ball
forty times a game, you're like, that's not hardball.

Speaker 4 (01:00:09):
That's not hardball's offense, right. He wants a ground and pound.
Ground and pound beats you up.

Speaker 5 (01:00:13):
But if the run game's not working, they're gonna revert
to Justin throwing the ball forty times.

Speaker 4 (01:00:17):
A game and vice versa.

Speaker 5 (01:00:18):
If the pass Russ is getting there right and if
Justin struggling for whatever reason, right, then you go to
the run game. And I think that's what the Charger
coaching staff does really, really well. They're going with a
really good game plan, but they also have a plan
beef plan a not work.

Speaker 6 (01:00:32):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to By the time this game ends,
US is wrapped up the Ryder Cup, and you know,
the last few singles matches don't matter, and everybody's watching
the Chargers knock off the Giants for a four and
zero start. To me, that's that's a good day for America.
Chargers four and zero in the US gets the Ryder Cup.

Speaker 4 (01:00:50):
Back with your Italian food.

Speaker 7 (01:00:52):
Italian, I have a couple of spots. I got a
couple of spots.

Speaker 6 (01:00:55):
Compagnola is the place that I love going when i'm
out there, but I'm trying something new. My daughter wants
to take me it while we're there, so we'll see.
Let's see how it turns out. Yeah, it's gonna be fun.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
It's gonna be fun. And then, you know, like I said,
the Ravens play the Chiefs right.

Speaker 3 (01:01:08):
After, right after the we'll be watching it on the
way home. We'll be watching that on the plane. And
you know, one of those teams will be one and three.
It's kind of hard to believe about that, you know.
You just look at the landscape of the of the
a f C right now. It's like you got the
bills in the a f C East, the NFC or
the a f C North rather, I mean, I guess
it's the Ravens. I mean, I don't know the Steelers

(01:01:28):
lookers right, yeah, I mean, you know, the Bangals don't
have a quarterbacks.

Speaker 7 (01:01:31):
Keep losing, keep losing.

Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
The Colts. We're gonna see the Colts in a few
weeks here.

Speaker 7 (01:01:36):
They're playing the Rams this week.

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
They're playing the Rams.

Speaker 3 (01:01:38):
Here so far, so it should be fun, guys, always
a pleasure. Anything else before we get out of.

Speaker 7 (01:01:42):
Here, all good?

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
Yeah, bolt up, baby, bolt up?

Speaker 4 (01:01:45):
All right?

Speaker 3 (01:01:46):
Are thanks to Randan guessing for joining us for money
and Jaleel. I'm Chris.

Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
This has been Chargers, but

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