March 12, 2025 • 29 mins
On this episode of Chargers Weekly, Matt “Money” Smith & Chris Hayre break down all the news from the start of 2025 NFL free agency, reacting to running back Najee Harris and cornerback Donte Jackson agreeing to terms with Bolts, LA Chargers outside linebacker Khalil Mack’s return for 2025, and who they think General Manager Joe Hortiz and the team could pursue next.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Ten touched up.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What's up?
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Guys, Welcome into a free agency edition of Chargers Weekly.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
This is a fluid week.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
As always, joined by the Voice of the Chargers, Matt
Mudey Smith the on location doing some hoops this week.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And money so much to get into.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
I don't want to date this podcast, so I figured
we just just go back to you know, it's just
really hard to do a podcast like this when something
is gonna happen, probably when we log off. But let's
just go back to Sunday starting with Davante Adams and
DK Metcaleff going off the board, Davante obviously going to
the Rams, DK going to Pittsburgh for a second round pick.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
We thought that maybe both of these guys would be
in play for the Chargers.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Just your reaction to those first dominoes falling, which kind
of leads us to free agency.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, look, I think they were in play. I think
they absolutely were in play for the Chargers. I would
imagine they reached out to DeVante, made an offer, and
I think ultimately he just wanted to be a Ram
That's my guess. That's where he wanted to be. It
kind of lines up maybe a little bit better you
look at how gnarly the AFC is with Baltimore and
Buffalo and Kansas City and all these teams, not to
mention just the AFC West that Davante knows so well,
(01:16):
and then you sort of see that path in the NFC,
and I would guess the Rams are probably going to
be second or third favorite to win the NFC and
make a run at a Super Bowl championship. And I
would assume the number, the money, you know, the money
was reasonable, twenty six mil guaranteed for two years, you know,
average a twenty two per That seemed about right and
affordable and probably right in the wheelhouse for Joe Ortiz
and the Chargers for a value signing. And Davante, I'm
(01:38):
guessing probably just wanted to go to the Rams. As
far as DK I'm guessing they made the same offer
a two and they were ready to give him the contract,
and the Steelers pick was just higher. And that's why
obviously the Seahawks are going to take that pick, because
it's a couple of slots ahead of where the Chargers were,
and I just don't think they were comfortable, you know,
sweetening the pot to give more than what the Steelers
(01:59):
were offering a couple picks ahead of them, and then
I just don't think they want to chase it. I
think they're fine looking for value signings. They probably have
their budget for each player and that's what they want
to spend on these players. And the market always goes
crazy and the Ravens have never been one of those
teams that overpays, and I think sho Heurtez has brought
that here as well.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, you just hit it on the head.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
As we get into free agency, obviously we know the
cap space that the Chargers possess right now, but at
the same time, it's very it's very difficult sometimes, I
think to just be patient in free agency because you know,
with the tampering window in the first couple of waves,
you see all these names coming off the board and
you're like, Okay, why aren't the Chargers in on some
(02:41):
of these names.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Well, you just hit it on the head. Do Orti's
comes from the school.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Of Baltimore Ravens, where they value their picks, they value
comp picks. They have a ton of space, but they
also have to pay guys like Khalil Mack, who they paid.
They have to pay with Shawn Slater. Rashaun Slater's not free, right,
so that's going to have to So I look at
some of the moves that they made last year, whether
it be Putaford or JK Dobbins, it's all late in
(03:06):
free agency.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
So I think the.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Maybe it's it's tough to get across because we're living
in the moment of free agency now. But I say,
let's judge what Joe Hurtiz does with this roster at
the end of the draft, because there's gonna be a
lot that happened over the next six weeks twenty.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, I think the one thing you don't want to
have happen is feeling pressure to pick a position, you know,
That's that's the the main concern, right is you want
to try to figure out is there, you know, is
there a wide receiver that you're comfortable with you know
that you can find value like the Ravens just found
in DeAndre Hopkins. Is it Amari Cooper? Is it Stefan
(03:48):
Diggs coming off the injury? Is it bringing Keenan Allen Bay?
Is there something out there? You know, like I posted yesterday,
like maybe Westbrook a Keene or Slayton to try to
get that that X receiver with big speed. So you
don't sit there at twenty two and be like, Okay,
this is where we're going to take a receiver. And
now look, I think that's still very much in play.
And I think there's still value with Abuka, with with
(04:12):
t Mac and with Golden. I think that is value
at twenty two if that's how you want to build
this out. And as we're recording this right now, we
know Evan Ingram made a visit to the Chargers. I'd
love to see that done. And you know, to me,
it's the Ingram. It just fits. And that way, it
takes you out of feeling pressure to draft Colston Lovelin
(04:34):
or to draft you know, Mason Taylor or arroy Jo
you know, or Royal you know, like that's Elijah Gosh,
why can't I think of his name? L Royal Royal? Yep. Yeah,
Like I think if you can do that, then you
feel a lot better about yourself. Like, I still think
there's value out there on the old line. The old
line contracts are stupid. It's why I want the Rashawn
(04:57):
Slater deal to get done sooner than later, because A
it's go to do is just cost him more money.
You know, as soon as the Laramie Tunzel deal gets done,
he's going to be the highest paid left tackle, and
then Rashawn's gonna want to be the highest paid left tackle.
So like, get that thing done sooner than later. So
he's locked up, and then you can go into the
market and see if you know Tevin Jenkins works. Does
(05:18):
that work? After his first sort of healthy season last
year in Chicago, now that they've rebuilt their offensive line,
he's a hell of a player. He just hasn't been
able to stay healthy. So can you get value there?
Kevin Zeitler on a one year deal, who's thirty four
going on thirty five, played great in Detroit last year. Like,
there's still players out there, and I think the idea,
like we said, the idea with free agency is building
(05:40):
depth placeholders. So when you go into the draft, you
don't feel like, all right, twenty two, we got to
take Gray's Abel, We got to take Tyler Booker, or
we got to take a book or we got to
take t Mech or we got to take a mari
and Hampton, or we have to take Kenneth Grant, Like
you want to get those positions filled, so you can
just take the guy you think is the best player
of ailas and.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Just going back to the receivers, you named a bunch
of guys that are that are currently understrict to free agents.
I'd also just say this, I think it would be,
in my opinion, cap malpractice for the Bengals to pay
T Higgins over thirty million dollars a year and to
pay Jamar Chase forty million dollars a year.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So I'm not convinced that both of those.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Guys are going to be Cincinnati Bengals by draft Day.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
You know, I don't know if Brandon Ayuk's going to
be a forty nine er. I don't know if Tyreek
Hill could still be on the move. We've seen some
of these gms work in the shadows. I had no
idea Mry Tunzel was available for the Commanders, So there
could be moves that come out of left field that
we're just not aware of. The Chargers have the cap
space to maybe make a move like that, to maybe
(06:43):
trade for a T. Higgins or another wide receiver. You know,
we've talked about Garrett Wilson and Chris Alave. Who knows
what those guys what their status is and to just
piggyback off your point with not having a pressure to
pick a position. If you look at the numbers of
the Niji Harris deal, it's fantastic. It's essentially a one
year deal for a player that has played every single
(07:05):
game in his career in the NFL for four years,
has over a thousand yards, doesn't fumble the football, so
super durable, somebody that Jim Harball recruited at Michigan, and
it doesn't I think take you out of the running
to get a running back early or to bring JK back.
So I think there's a lot of flexibility here at
the running back position. And that's just I think one
(07:27):
small example of what you're talking about is they don't
you don't want to have to force yourself to pick
up a certain position.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
At twenty two, I think the Chargers have enough time
to get to that points.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. Like we said, there's
still a ton of players out there, and think about
what they were able to do with limited funds last year.
I think that's what happened is everybody saw the ninety
million bucks after you cut Bosa, and you expected them
to go out and make a splash, and I think
they tried to. I think they tried to get Metcalf,
they tried to get DeVante Adams. I would assume they
made an offer to Poona and you know, said, this
(07:59):
is kind of where we're at, and the number got
too big at ten mil per and you know, now,
I think fans are just sort of saying, okay, so
what are you gonna do with all this money? Like
you've got all this money, you have an opportunity to
spend it. Why are we not spending it? And for me,
what I would assume the approach is, like we talked
(08:19):
about Aaron Banks. I thought Aaron Banks was going to
be like a seven to eight million dollar a year player.
The guy got seventy seven million bucks from the Packers.
Like Dan Moore is a two year, twenty five million
dollars per year left tackle for the Titans. That dude
gave up twelve sacks last year, had a pressure rate
(08:41):
that like, like that's what we're talking about. Like there's
no way that Joe Ortiez was going to do that.
So I think when you're saying, well, how are you
going to spend the money now, well, you got Dante Jackson.
I think, you know, hopefully it'll be in Evan Ingram,
it's gonna be Najie Harris, it's gonna be three for ones.
That's what we're gonna be talking about. They have you
know what, do we have twenty six free agents on
(09:01):
this team? Twenty three free agents on the team. Whatever
that number is, Like, it's going to probably come through
volume and trying to find you know, if Chad Alexander's
comfortable with Makai Beckton, is that where you go with
the guard? Is it Tevin Jenkins? Is it Kevin Zeitdler?
Is there a center? Is it you know? Is it
Hunt from Green Bay? Is it James from the Raiders? Like?
Are there other center options that you're going to try
(09:23):
to chase down. I think that's the sort of stuff
that you're going to see, Like that's what they saw
from Jackson. I'm guessing is Hey, here's a guy we
can get on value. He's an LSU kid that played
in the SEC. He's a guy that had five interceptions
last year, had some tackling issues. We feel like we
can coach him out of that. With Coach Clink and
Jesse Minner, So let's bring him in. He's a four
to three guy from a you know, from a high
(09:47):
level program when it comes to defensive backs. We loved
him in the draft. Let's bring him in with our
coaches and see if we can get some value here.
And I think that's what you're going to start seeing
more of, is multiples as we're in this second way
a free agency instead of just one big name.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
You know, hats off to Christian Fulton for getting paid
by the Chiefs and Putafour getting paid by the Rams.
They earned those contracts because of how they played with
the Chargers. But obviously ge Ortiz has a limit. He's
got a number on certain guys and how he wants
to do business. And I look at the you know,
we were to combine a couple of weeks ago money.
Every single person we talked to talked about the depth
(10:25):
of defensive tackle and how it could probably affect the
defensive tackle free agency market. And you know, that's probably
something in the back of their minds that hey, we
can get a defensive tackle who's a starting caliber guy
in the second or third round this year if we
wanted to. And I just go back to our conversation
with mina interior offensive line.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
How many times did she say that to us?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Maybe?
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Maybe ten in that conversation. The Chargers are well aware,
well aware of what happened in that wild card game
against the Houston Texans and the deficiencies that they had
in the interior offensive line. Just because they haven't made
a move yet doesn't mean that they're not going to
make a move. Because Bradley Boseman comes back doesn't mean
they're not going to look for another center. Bradley Boseman
(11:05):
is an amazing locker room guy. He's been a league
for a long time. He's a hardball type player. Justin
Herbert loves him, the offensive line loves him. So to
have him as a depth piece in the interior offensive
line I think is a good thing. But by no
means do I think that the interior offensive line that
ended the season is going to start this upcoming season.
(11:25):
There's still a lot of free agency offseason to go.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Yeah. Look, and I apologize for those watching on the video.
I'm in a hotel, I'm doing the Big Ten Tournament.
I got limited technical capacity, So my apologies if it
looks weird on the video because I'm scrolling through. I
got to do this on my phone. My computer's not working,
so I'm just kind of scrolling through, I said, Han,
I met Myers, Josh Myers from the Packers. Is that
center position? But I think you just kind of talk
about there's still so many players available. You think about
(11:49):
all the players they were able to sign deep into
that second wave of free agency, you know, So let's
just kind of dig into what they've done so far.
Right number one, A few weeks back, they reset prior
to the I'm behind their resigned Elijah Bolten absolute huge priority.
Get your three safeties so Darwin can play close to
the line of scrimmage. Success, huge success all Pro season
(12:09):
for Derwin because he's playing big nickel dimebacker instead of
having a play up high because you trust a LOWI
and Elijah. All right, what do we say about edge
thirty six million for Joey? Probably too big of a
number unless he takes a pay cut. And I'd be
curious to hear what the pay cut offer might have been,
because he just signed for one year in twelve point
six with Buffalo, and again, good for him, you know,
(12:30):
excited for him. I hope he has a great year.
So then we said, what you've got to bring Khalil
Mack back? And what do we hear? There's a market
for Khalil Mack out there, you know there, and it
could be a twenty million dollarish market And we were like, wow, okay,
so what does that mean? Great? Eighteen million bucks? He's back.
Now you feel a lot better about the edge room.
(12:51):
You could maybe go out there and bargain shop a
little bit. Zadarius Smith, DeMarcus Lawrence, Dante Fowler like, there's
von Miller, like, there's edges out there that you can
now find to help support that room and then go
get yourself an edge in the draft as well. So
priority too taken care of. You know. Now, the priority
(13:11):
above all of that is Slater and that's the one
we're waiting for. And once that gets squared away and
they figure out what that number is and what it's
going to look like here in the first year, well
then you have an opportunity, like you said, Chris, to
maybe go out and see what's the market, what's going
to cost us if we want to make a run
at T Higgins. You know, I think the situation there
(13:32):
is I feel like they're already committed to it if
it's on the franchise and they're just like, whatever, we'll
bring it back on the franchise tag. The guy's not
going to sit out games. He's going to make twenty
six million dollars for one year, and then he's going
to dip back into the free agent pool next year
at twenty six or twenty seven years old, whatever he'll be,
and he's still going to get as one hundred and
fifty million bucks. So we'll just roll the dice and
(13:52):
see if we can make a run at the super
Bowl kind of thing. So I look at that as
and then I think you also have cost prohibitive move
right like for the people that are because I just
don't want them to kind of have this recurring sense
of disappointment. Like you've got to remember, man, when these
guys sign these big deals, if you trade that player,
all of that that money that was sprout out, spread
(14:15):
out over the years of the cap then comes and
hits you in one year. Your signing bonus that's been
so Tyreek Hill gets traded, it's not gonna happen. The
Miami Dolphins are going to take like a thirty forty
to fifty million dollar hit or something along those lines.
Same thing with Brand and I Yuke like, those contracts
are just very very hard to trade. So for me,
(14:36):
I think it's that that's kind of where I think
the priority is. And I'm hoping that, you know, by
the time this post or whatever, we're going to hear
about an Evan Ingram signing, because to me, that makes sense.
It just makes sense. Get some explosiveness out there, get
an athlete at one of these positions that can you know,
it's just got some juice to them. And Evan Ingram
has got juice at the tight end position. And now
(14:57):
that he's available, you know, I wish I would have
heard about that sign yesterday because he was in the
building and everyone let a guy leave a building. But
I'm sure he's probably still somewhat of a priority for them,
and that's one that I think just fits really well.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Yeah, I'm with you, I you know it.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I actually looked at the Auk deal and that's that's
one that I think is very palatable because you can
get out of it after a couple of years and
he signed before this boom in in wide receiver free
agency numbers, where you know, he's still making a big number.
But what you're gonna have to pay a T. Higgins
or you know, some of these guys coming up in
the next couple of years, thirty five to forty million dollars.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
You know, there's just there's moves out there.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
I guess is the point is, you know, we look
at tight end, Is Mark Andrews or Dallas Goddard going
to become available here? There's gonna be more cuts to
get capped compliant here in the next couple of days.
So this is not just the end all be all
of the free agents that were picked up by teams
who have ridiculous money. You mentioned like the Packers spending
(15:56):
ridiculous money on a guard. How about the Patriots just
just splur right now. And I don't know if those guys,
you know, if you're not desperate enough to to you know,
sign some of these dudes, like you're overpaying a lot
of these guys.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
And that's just not what Joe Ortiz does. That's not
what the Ravens did.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
If you go over the next or the last twenty
five years of the history of Baltimore Ravens with sustained
success through the draft, being selective in free agency. That's
what Joe Ortiz has come from. And that's what you're
getting with the Chargers. You're not trying to just win
a Super Bowl this year. You need to have a
sustained winner for.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Justin Herbert for the next decade.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Yeah, no doubt. And I think you want to you
want to give Herbert weapons. You know he's he's able
to make do with whatever you give him. And he
was able to turn lad mcconkieen into a Pro Bowl
level player in his rookie season, and I would assume
he'd be able to do the same thing. If you
draft you know, a Mecha Buka, if you draft uh
Luther Burden, if you draft you know whomever t Mac,
(16:56):
if you draft Matthew Golden, whomever that may be. He'll
do it, and he'll do it with Colston Lovelin Hill.
But at the same time, let me try to get
this thing balanced out. Like, look, getting she's great, you know,
getting Na she's great. It's it's a physical back who's
been available, who can play, who's played in a wide
zone scheme for a while now, and it's just not
quite efficient, but was exceptional coming out of Alabama. Right,
(17:18):
how do you, like, I said, how do you find
that fourteen hundred yard, twenty six touchdown guy that ended
up being a first round pick after that season?
Speaker 2 (17:26):
You know?
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Is it as simple as running the style of offense
that Greg Roman runs. That it's gap and duo and
power and that's what he's better at. Just see it,
don't don't have to think too hard about picking the
right lane and seeing everything in front of you. Here
it is, go get it. Let's get four yards. We're happy.
And by the fourth quarter those four yards turned to
eight and by the end of the game, the eight's
turn into twenties. And that's good enough for us. And
(17:48):
then you can go into the draft and you can
get one of these explosive backs. Right, you can get
yourself a Dylan Samson, a base Shall Tuten and RJ. Harvey,
a Treveon Henderson and like to compliment him and have
that young back. Because it's a one year deal, it's
a one year, five and a half four million in incentives,
they can get it up to nine and a half deal. Now, look,
(18:09):
I'm sure when they sign them there like this would
be great if we can make this work long term.
He's still young. He's got a lot of carries. Of course,
a ton of carries at Alabama that last year, and
he's had a ton of carries that those are a
thousand yards did not come easy. That it's a career
average of three point nine yards per carries. So you know,
that's that's a lot of hits and that's a lot
of tackles. But he's a big guy and he has
(18:30):
not missed the games. You hope he's still healthy and
you can start building around that. As far as the
a you thing goes like, it's you're right, it's not
a big signing bonus. It's twenty three, so they're not
going to take too big of a hit. It's seventy
six million guaranteed, forty five guaranteed at signing.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
You know, spoken injuries concerning obviously it is.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
And then there's just two really, as I'm looking at
this thing, there's two really weird years. So it's got
the potential out in twenty seven with nine point two
a dead cap, he's only counting to get eleven point
one against the cap this year and sixteen next year.
But then you have these two, so you're gonna have
to redo this deal right away because his twenty seven
and twenty eight, Yeah, it's a forty two and forty
(19:18):
four million dollars and it's all it's base salary, it's signing.
So the signing is four to six. So if you
take that out, it's thirty eight million and forty million.
Everything else is option workout, roster bonuses. So that's that's
a really odd contract that you'd be taking on. But
who knows, you know, who knows what their what their
(19:39):
plan is going to be. But that's I'm kind of
veering off off track here. I think. I think the
point of this pod is to say, yeah, we'd like
to be talking about Will Fries and Drew Dolman and
DJ Reid and DeVante Adams, and it's just, you know,
wasn't in the cards. Either choice made by that individ
(20:00):
of where they wanted to go and sign instead, or
the market got crazy specifically for offensive line, and a
guy like Ryan Kelly, who is thinking about retirement, is
now making thirteen million bucks a year. You know, like
that's just what the market turned into. And I just
don't think Joe Ortiz is the kind of guy that's
going to throw crazy money at something that's such an
(20:21):
uncertainty you have.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Just roughly I don't even know the number right now
because it is so fluid, but you know roughly eighteen
to twenty unrestricted free agents from last year, and the
reason those guys aren't being signed right now is they're
gauging they're worth on the open market, and I'm sure
there's a number that the Charger would like to have
them back at. We saw nickname and go to the Texans,
which is a big blow from a special team's perspective.
You know, Joshua Palmer obviously going to the Bills. Happy
(20:46):
for him getting closer to Canada and wish him the best.
For josh Allen, and we talked about Bosa, you know,
from a running back perspective, love, I'd love to see
JK back that. You know, they do need a home
run threat to compliment Najie Harris. I think is career
long rush is like thirty six yards, So you know,
whether you get that in the draft or not, that's
something to look at.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
But I'm with you money, they absolutely need to get.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Justin Herbert more weapons, and I think veteran weapons, and
that will probably come here in the next week, I
would imagine.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
I don't know who it's going to be. I don't
know if it's gonna be via trade. I don't know
if it's gonna.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Be the guys that are currently out there, but just
they need to build out that room with some veterans
that Justin can trust to compliment lad.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
You know we've talked about that extra receiver.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
I don't know if there's one out there in free
agency that would be a surefire starter right now, but
getting somebody at you know, whether even like Mike Williams
Laton free agency, if he's still around and Justin is
familiar with him and he can take a small deal
than great.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
But I guess you're right.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
The point the point of this is that I certainly
don't want to judge an offseason until after the draft. Right,
they got three more picks from the competitory picks, so
they have ten picks in this We've seen AJ Brown,
Hollywood Brown get traded for our draft day and A J.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Brown just won a Super Bowl. So there's a lot of.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Points within the offseason where deals can get done and
it doesn't happen the first few days. So let's evaluate
the interior offensive line at the end of the draft.
Let's evaluate the wide receiver position at the end of
the draft. And if by then it's it's bear and
there aren't moves made, then I think we can have
a conversation of like, hey man, I don't know, I
don't know what's gonna happen this year.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Yeah, and again I'm not saying I don't understand the
frustration of the fans. I get it. When you've got
all that money and you see that your team is
fifth in cap space available, you're expecting a big name,
you know, at that first wave. You want to be
in the Milton Williams conversation. You want to be in
the you know, Devonte Adams conversation. I get it. And
now we just see that Nickneman signs with the Texan
(22:54):
So their best special teams player is leaving. To me,
that means Troy Die has got to come back. You
got it, you know, because you want to get that
linebacker level special team's a solid third linebacker and Nick,
good for him, stoked that he got that kind of
money as someone who played very limited and that's probably
a big thing for Nick too, is I'm sure they
(23:15):
wanted to bring him back, and that's a very reasonable number.
But the Texans probably said, hey, you got an opportunity
to play linebacker here, and I think the Chargers would say, hey,
we got Junior and day On and you know it's
going to be a predominantly special teams role, in a
backup role. So I think that's something to remember. You're
like how they let Nickneman go. Well, imagine if the
money's the same and you got one team saying we've
(23:36):
got Dan Henley and Junior Colston, those are our linebackers
and the other team is saying you're going to be
on the field for thirty plus snaps per game. Yeah,
of course he's going to go. So all of that
stuff comes into play. But I'm hopeful, especially just because
Troy's a local guy, got to come back home. Played
great last year. Same thing with Tier Tart. Like that's
(23:57):
a perfect example. Right, everybody's upset about Puna and I
get that, but to me, Tierra was as important. You
know how I feel about Tart. They're the number one
so to me, because that's juice, it's it's POONA was
solid and he was great this year. But man, Tart
when he was on the Field gave this team juice,
(24:19):
and that's what I'm looking for. That's what I want
to find for this team. And that's why when I
think about the draft, I think about those playmakers, you know,
and I think about backs like Tuton, but even with
the injuries and with the fumble concerns, just four to
two speed man, you know, Samson four to four speed,
(24:41):
like Trayveon Henderson four to three speed. Like that's sort
of what I'm thinking about. Is someone that that defenses
are like, oh crap, if this guy gets behind McConkey,
if McConkie gets us on a whip route, he's gone.
So don't like and it freaks you out, And like
that's the sort of stuff that that I'd love to see.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Yeah, Also with the draft, like where would the Charges
have been without Joe Alt this year?
Speaker 4 (25:05):
Where would they have been without Lad McConkey.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Where would they have.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Been without Tarhee's still winning them the game in Atlanta?
Like there's going to be difference makers that this team
drafts here in a little bit. So this this roster
is far from complete. Getting Khalil back is huge, and
I don't think Khalil would have signed back here if
he thought that he didn't have a chance to win
a Super Bowl, maybe in his last year of his
(25:28):
NFL career.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
I don't know how long he's going to play, but
a one year deal.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
You know that he has a great deal of confidence
in Jim Harball and Joe Ortiz. And you know, we
just wait, man, we wait. Yeah, we may be doing
an emergency pod tomorrow or early next week.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
You never know, yeah, exactly. And I think, like I said,
there are still players available in free agency. I pull
up the best available so here, I'm just going to
scroll through it. That I could still see them chasing.
I already mentioned Amari Cooper, I think is more likely
than Stefan Diggs, but I could see them kicking the
tires on Stefan Diggs. I mentioned the guards, Tevin Jenkins,
(26:06):
Kevin Zeigler, Makai Beckton. They're still out there, Edge von Miller,
Zadarius Smith, o Jalari, like you, Kalaeis Campbell if he's
interested in taking that poon Afford spot. Still, even though
he's like thirty freaking nine years old, he's still playing
an incredibly high level. Brandon Sheriff at guard. You know,
I don't I would love to see JK back. I
(26:29):
just don't. I don't think I see it. I think
when you've got a guy that signed a deal that's
got four million bucks and incentives, he's expecting to get
those carries to reach those incentives. And so you're not
bringing JK is a one. You know, you're bringing JK
into beat the one. And Gus Edwards was kind of like,
you know, Nase is not Gus Edwards to JK. Dobbins,
(26:49):
like that's not how you work this deal out with
the agent for a guy that's that young. He's going
to want to make all four million bucks of those
incentives and he's going to want to you know, So
I don't see that in the cards. I'm just kind
of going through ingram. We talked about make it Happen.
I think that's such a perfect fit. Not crazy about
(27:10):
Deontay Johnson. It just got two sideways on him at
will Hernandez. There you go another guard that I could
totally see them getting app for. You already talked about
Mike Williams, and I apologize for all the word salad here,
but as I'm just kind of scrolling through this because
it's on the computer, behind me. Brandon Cooks knows that
it's possibility. Got some speed there, still has a little
(27:30):
bit left. You can probably make that work for me.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
I can see that Cooper Cup money anything.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Absolutely I forgot about that it's done. I would love it.
I would absolutely love it. Guy that's always in the
right place at the right time, runs Chris routes. We
know how accurate Herbert is. Probably wants to stay in
Los Angeles. If you can take that money that you
were going to give to Davante and put it into
a situation where it's it's earned based on gameplay, you know,
(27:56):
based on availability, and you can make that work. With
love of I think Cooper Cup would be a great fit.
Now again, I've talked about speed and trying to find
that take that that's not Cooper Cup, but just a
guy that's available, a guy that runs great routes, a
guy that catches everything, a guy that's great in the
red zone. All that stuff helps this team. So yeah,
(28:17):
Cooper Cup to me makes perfect sense. You know, put
him out there with Lad and Q and like I said,
you can still draft that wide receiver and I would
not have a problem with that at all. As I
keep going through this. Yeah, there's plenty, dude, there's there
are still a lot of players all those one hundred
that are left on this PFF line where I can
(28:38):
I can totally see Tim Patricks got some juice at
the wide receiver position that you could probably get at
a pretty low number. So yeah, I think there's still
still plenty of players available that I could see them
signing and be saying, yeah, love it.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
You know.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
I think Kevin Zeitdler's plug and play guard. Same with
McKay Beckon saying with Tevin Jenkins, I think they become
immediate starters. So like to me, that's that's that's all
still out there for the interior offensive line.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
All right, you gotta go. You got some games you call.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
We uh, We appreciate you guys listening and watching, hanging
there with free agency.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
This is just the beginning, all right. For money on
pers This has been charges weekly
Ten touched up.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What's up?
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Guys, Welcome into a free agency edition of Chargers Weekly.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
This is a fluid week.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
As always, joined by the Voice of the Chargers, Matt
Mudey Smith the on location doing some hoops this week.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And money so much to get into.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
I don't want to date this podcast, so I figured
we just just go back to you know, it's just
really hard to do a podcast like this when something
is gonna happen, probably when we log off. But let's
just go back to Sunday starting with Davante Adams and
DK Metcaleff going off the board, Davante obviously going to
the Rams, DK going to Pittsburgh for a second round pick.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
We thought that maybe both of these guys would be
in play for the Chargers.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Just your reaction to those first dominoes falling, which kind
of leads us to free agency.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, look, I think they were in play. I think
they absolutely were in play for the Chargers. I would
imagine they reached out to DeVante, made an offer, and
I think ultimately he just wanted to be a Ram
That's my guess. That's where he wanted to be. It
kind of lines up maybe a little bit better you
look at how gnarly the AFC is with Baltimore and
Buffalo and Kansas City and all these teams, not to
mention just the AFC West that Davante knows so well,
(01:16):
and then you sort of see that path in the NFC,
and I would guess the Rams are probably going to
be second or third favorite to win the NFC and
make a run at a Super Bowl championship. And I
would assume the number, the money, you know, the money
was reasonable, twenty six mil guaranteed for two years, you know,
average a twenty two per That seemed about right and
affordable and probably right in the wheelhouse for Joe Ortiz
and the Chargers for a value signing. And Davante, I'm
(01:38):
guessing probably just wanted to go to the Rams. As
far as DK I'm guessing they made the same offer
a two and they were ready to give him the contract,
and the Steelers pick was just higher. And that's why
obviously the Seahawks are going to take that pick, because
it's a couple of slots ahead of where the Chargers were,
and I just don't think they were comfortable, you know,
sweetening the pot to give more than what the Steelers
(01:59):
were offering a couple picks ahead of them, and then
I just don't think they want to chase it. I
think they're fine looking for value signings. They probably have
their budget for each player and that's what they want
to spend on these players. And the market always goes
crazy and the Ravens have never been one of those
teams that overpays, and I think sho Heurtez has brought
that here as well.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, you just hit it on the head.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
As we get into free agency, obviously we know the
cap space that the Chargers possess right now, but at
the same time, it's very it's very difficult sometimes, I
think to just be patient in free agency because you know,
with the tampering window in the first couple of waves,
you see all these names coming off the board and
you're like, Okay, why aren't the Chargers in on some
(02:41):
of these names.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
Well, you just hit it on the head. Do Orti's
comes from the school.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Of Baltimore Ravens, where they value their picks, they value
comp picks. They have a ton of space, but they
also have to pay guys like Khalil Mack, who they paid.
They have to pay with Shawn Slater. Rashaun Slater's not free, right,
so that's going to have to So I look at
some of the moves that they made last year, whether
it be Putaford or JK Dobbins, it's all late in
(03:06):
free agency.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
So I think the.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Maybe it's it's tough to get across because we're living
in the moment of free agency now. But I say,
let's judge what Joe Hurtiz does with this roster at
the end of the draft, because there's gonna be a
lot that happened over the next six weeks twenty.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Yeah, I think the one thing you don't want to
have happen is feeling pressure to pick a position, you know,
That's that's the the main concern, right is you want
to try to figure out is there, you know, is
there a wide receiver that you're comfortable with you know
that you can find value like the Ravens just found
in DeAndre Hopkins. Is it Amari Cooper? Is it Stefan
(03:48):
Diggs coming off the injury? Is it bringing Keenan Allen Bay?
Is there something out there? You know, like I posted yesterday,
like maybe Westbrook a Keene or Slayton to try to
get that that X receiver with big speed. So you
don't sit there at twenty two and be like, Okay,
this is where we're going to take a receiver. And
now look, I think that's still very much in play.
And I think there's still value with Abuka, with with
(04:12):
t Mac and with Golden. I think that is value
at twenty two if that's how you want to build
this out. And as we're recording this right now, we
know Evan Ingram made a visit to the Chargers. I'd
love to see that done. And you know, to me,
it's the Ingram. It just fits. And that way, it
takes you out of feeling pressure to draft Colston Lovelin
(04:34):
or to draft you know, Mason Taylor or arroy Jo
you know, or Royal you know, like that's Elijah Gosh,
why can't I think of his name? L Royal Royal? Yep. Yeah,
Like I think if you can do that, then you
feel a lot better about yourself. Like, I still think
there's value out there on the old line. The old
line contracts are stupid. It's why I want the Rashawn
(04:57):
Slater deal to get done sooner than later, because A
it's go to do is just cost him more money.
You know, as soon as the Laramie Tunzel deal gets done,
he's going to be the highest paid left tackle, and
then Rashawn's gonna want to be the highest paid left tackle.
So like, get that thing done sooner than later. So
he's locked up, and then you can go into the
market and see if you know Tevin Jenkins works. Does
(05:18):
that work? After his first sort of healthy season last
year in Chicago, now that they've rebuilt their offensive line,
he's a hell of a player. He just hasn't been
able to stay healthy. So can you get value there?
Kevin Zeitler on a one year deal, who's thirty four
going on thirty five, played great in Detroit last year. Like,
there's still players out there, and I think the idea,
like we said, the idea with free agency is building
(05:40):
depth placeholders. So when you go into the draft, you
don't feel like, all right, twenty two, we got to
take Gray's Abel, We got to take Tyler Booker, or
we got to take a book or we got to
take t Mech or we got to take a mari
and Hampton, or we have to take Kenneth Grant, Like
you want to get those positions filled, so you can
just take the guy you think is the best player
of ailas and.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Just going back to the receivers, you named a bunch
of guys that are that are currently understrict to free agents.
I'd also just say this, I think it would be,
in my opinion, cap malpractice for the Bengals to pay
T Higgins over thirty million dollars a year and to
pay Jamar Chase forty million dollars a year.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So I'm not convinced that both of those.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Guys are going to be Cincinnati Bengals by draft Day.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
You know, I don't know if Brandon Ayuk's going to
be a forty nine er. I don't know if Tyreek
Hill could still be on the move. We've seen some
of these gms work in the shadows. I had no
idea Mry Tunzel was available for the Commanders, So there
could be moves that come out of left field that
we're just not aware of. The Chargers have the cap
space to maybe make a move like that, to maybe
(06:43):
trade for a T. Higgins or another wide receiver. You know,
we've talked about Garrett Wilson and Chris Alave. Who knows
what those guys what their status is and to just
piggyback off your point with not having a pressure to
pick a position. If you look at the numbers of
the Niji Harris deal, it's fantastic. It's essentially a one
year deal for a player that has played every single
(07:05):
game in his career in the NFL for four years,
has over a thousand yards, doesn't fumble the football, so
super durable, somebody that Jim Harball recruited at Michigan, and
it doesn't I think take you out of the running
to get a running back early or to bring JK back.
So I think there's a lot of flexibility here at
the running back position. And that's just I think one
(07:27):
small example of what you're talking about is they don't
you don't want to have to force yourself to pick
up a certain position.
Speaker 4 (07:32):
At twenty two, I think the Chargers have enough time
to get to that points.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. Like we said, there's
still a ton of players out there, and think about
what they were able to do with limited funds last year.
I think that's what happened is everybody saw the ninety
million bucks after you cut Bosa, and you expected them
to go out and make a splash, and I think
they tried to. I think they tried to get Metcalf,
they tried to get DeVante Adams. I would assume they
made an offer to Poona and you know, said, this
(07:59):
is kind of where we're at, and the number got
too big at ten mil per and you know, now,
I think fans are just sort of saying, okay, so
what are you gonna do with all this money? Like
you've got all this money, you have an opportunity to
spend it. Why are we not spending it? And for me,
what I would assume the approach is, like we talked
(08:19):
about Aaron Banks. I thought Aaron Banks was going to
be like a seven to eight million dollar a year player.
The guy got seventy seven million bucks from the Packers.
Like Dan Moore is a two year, twenty five million
dollars per year left tackle for the Titans. That dude
gave up twelve sacks last year, had a pressure rate
(08:41):
that like, like that's what we're talking about. Like there's
no way that Joe Ortiez was going to do that.
So I think when you're saying, well, how are you
going to spend the money now, well, you got Dante Jackson.
I think, you know, hopefully it'll be in Evan Ingram,
it's gonna be Najie Harris, it's gonna be three for ones.
That's what we're gonna be talking about. They have you
know what, do we have twenty six free agents on
(09:01):
this team? Twenty three free agents on the team. Whatever
that number is, Like, it's going to probably come through
volume and trying to find you know, if Chad Alexander's
comfortable with Makai Beckton, is that where you go with
the guard? Is it Tevin Jenkins? Is it Kevin Zeitdler?
Is there a center? Is it you know? Is it
Hunt from Green Bay? Is it James from the Raiders? Like?
Are there other center options that you're going to try
(09:23):
to chase down. I think that's the sort of stuff
that you're going to see, Like that's what they saw
from Jackson. I'm guessing is Hey, here's a guy we
can get on value. He's an LSU kid that played
in the SEC. He's a guy that had five interceptions
last year, had some tackling issues. We feel like we
can coach him out of that. With Coach Clink and
Jesse Minner, So let's bring him in. He's a four
to three guy from a you know, from a high
(09:47):
level program when it comes to defensive backs. We loved
him in the draft. Let's bring him in with our
coaches and see if we can get some value here.
And I think that's what you're going to start seeing
more of, is multiples as we're in this second way
a free agency instead of just one big name.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
You know, hats off to Christian Fulton for getting paid
by the Chiefs and Putafour getting paid by the Rams.
They earned those contracts because of how they played with
the Chargers. But obviously ge Ortiz has a limit. He's
got a number on certain guys and how he wants
to do business. And I look at the you know,
we were to combine a couple of weeks ago money.
Every single person we talked to talked about the depth
(10:25):
of defensive tackle and how it could probably affect the
defensive tackle free agency market. And you know, that's probably
something in the back of their minds that hey, we
can get a defensive tackle who's a starting caliber guy
in the second or third round this year if we
wanted to. And I just go back to our conversation
with mina interior offensive line.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
How many times did she say that to us?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Maybe?
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Maybe ten in that conversation. The Chargers are well aware,
well aware of what happened in that wild card game
against the Houston Texans and the deficiencies that they had
in the interior offensive line. Just because they haven't made
a move yet doesn't mean that they're not going to
make a move. Because Bradley Boseman comes back doesn't mean
they're not going to look for another center. Bradley Boseman
(11:05):
is an amazing locker room guy. He's been a league
for a long time. He's a hardball type player. Justin
Herbert loves him, the offensive line loves him. So to
have him as a depth piece in the interior offensive
line I think is a good thing. But by no
means do I think that the interior offensive line that
ended the season is going to start this upcoming season.
(11:25):
There's still a lot of free agency offseason to go.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Yeah. Look, and I apologize for those watching on the video.
I'm in a hotel, I'm doing the Big Ten Tournament.
I got limited technical capacity, So my apologies if it
looks weird on the video because I'm scrolling through. I
got to do this on my phone. My computer's not working,
so I'm just kind of scrolling through, I said, Han,
I met Myers, Josh Myers from the Packers. Is that
center position? But I think you just kind of talk
about there's still so many players available. You think about
(11:49):
all the players they were able to sign deep into
that second wave of free agency, you know, So let's
just kind of dig into what they've done so far.
Right number one, A few weeks back, they reset prior
to the I'm behind their resigned Elijah Bolten absolute huge priority.
Get your three safeties so Darwin can play close to
the line of scrimmage. Success, huge success all Pro season
(12:09):
for Derwin because he's playing big nickel dimebacker instead of
having a play up high because you trust a LOWI
and Elijah. All right, what do we say about edge
thirty six million for Joey? Probably too big of a
number unless he takes a pay cut. And I'd be
curious to hear what the pay cut offer might have been,
because he just signed for one year in twelve point
six with Buffalo, and again, good for him, you know,
(12:30):
excited for him. I hope he has a great year.
So then we said, what you've got to bring Khalil
Mack back? And what do we hear? There's a market
for Khalil Mack out there, you know there, and it
could be a twenty million dollarish market And we were like, wow, okay,
so what does that mean? Great? Eighteen million bucks? He's back.
Now you feel a lot better about the edge room.
(12:51):
You could maybe go out there and bargain shop a
little bit. Zadarius Smith, DeMarcus Lawrence, Dante Fowler like, there's
von Miller, like, there's edges out there that you can
now find to help support that room and then go
get yourself an edge in the draft as well. So
priority too taken care of. You know. Now, the priority
(13:11):
above all of that is Slater and that's the one
we're waiting for. And once that gets squared away and
they figure out what that number is and what it's
going to look like here in the first year, well
then you have an opportunity, like you said, Chris, to
maybe go out and see what's the market, what's going
to cost us if we want to make a run
at T Higgins. You know, I think the situation there
(13:32):
is I feel like they're already committed to it if
it's on the franchise and they're just like, whatever, we'll
bring it back on the franchise tag. The guy's not
going to sit out games. He's going to make twenty
six million dollars for one year, and then he's going
to dip back into the free agent pool next year
at twenty six or twenty seven years old, whatever he'll be,
and he's still going to get as one hundred and
fifty million bucks. So we'll just roll the dice and
(13:52):
see if we can make a run at the super
Bowl kind of thing. So I look at that as
and then I think you also have cost prohibitive move
right like for the people that are because I just
don't want them to kind of have this recurring sense
of disappointment. Like you've got to remember, man, when these
guys sign these big deals, if you trade that player,
all of that that money that was sprout out, spread
(14:15):
out over the years of the cap then comes and
hits you in one year. Your signing bonus that's been
so Tyreek Hill gets traded, it's not gonna happen. The
Miami Dolphins are going to take like a thirty forty
to fifty million dollar hit or something along those lines.
Same thing with Brand and I Yuke like, those contracts
are just very very hard to trade. So for me,
(14:36):
I think it's that that's kind of where I think
the priority is. And I'm hoping that, you know, by
the time this post or whatever, we're going to hear
about an Evan Ingram signing, because to me, that makes sense.
It just makes sense. Get some explosiveness out there, get
an athlete at one of these positions that can you know,
it's just got some juice to them. And Evan Ingram
has got juice at the tight end position. And now
(14:57):
that he's available, you know, I wish I would have
heard about that sign yesterday because he was in the
building and everyone let a guy leave a building. But
I'm sure he's probably still somewhat of a priority for them,
and that's one that I think just fits really well.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Yeah, I'm with you, I you know it.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I actually looked at the Auk deal and that's that's
one that I think is very palatable because you can
get out of it after a couple of years and
he signed before this boom in in wide receiver free
agency numbers, where you know, he's still making a big number.
But what you're gonna have to pay a T. Higgins
or you know, some of these guys coming up in
the next couple of years, thirty five to forty million dollars.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
You know, there's just there's moves out there.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
I guess is the point is, you know, we look
at tight end, Is Mark Andrews or Dallas Goddard going
to become available here? There's gonna be more cuts to
get capped compliant here in the next couple of days.
So this is not just the end all be all
of the free agents that were picked up by teams
who have ridiculous money. You mentioned like the Packers spending
(15:56):
ridiculous money on a guard. How about the Patriots just
just splur right now. And I don't know if those guys,
you know, if you're not desperate enough to to you know,
sign some of these dudes, like you're overpaying a lot
of these guys.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
And that's just not what Joe Ortiz does. That's not
what the Ravens did.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
If you go over the next or the last twenty
five years of the history of Baltimore Ravens with sustained
success through the draft, being selective in free agency. That's
what Joe Ortiz has come from. And that's what you're
getting with the Chargers. You're not trying to just win
a Super Bowl this year. You need to have a
sustained winner for.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Justin Herbert for the next decade.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Yeah, no doubt. And I think you want to you
want to give Herbert weapons. You know he's he's able
to make do with whatever you give him. And he
was able to turn lad mcconkieen into a Pro Bowl
level player in his rookie season, and I would assume
he'd be able to do the same thing. If you
draft you know, a Mecha Buka, if you draft uh
Luther Burden, if you draft you know whomever t Mac,
(16:56):
if you draft Matthew Golden, whomever that may be. He'll
do it, and he'll do it with Colston Lovelin Hill.
But at the same time, let me try to get
this thing balanced out. Like, look, getting she's great, you know,
getting Na she's great. It's it's a physical back who's
been available, who can play, who's played in a wide
zone scheme for a while now, and it's just not
quite efficient, but was exceptional coming out of Alabama. Right,
(17:18):
how do you, like, I said, how do you find
that fourteen hundred yard, twenty six touchdown guy that ended
up being a first round pick after that season?
Speaker 2 (17:26):
You know?
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Is it as simple as running the style of offense
that Greg Roman runs. That it's gap and duo and
power and that's what he's better at. Just see it,
don't don't have to think too hard about picking the
right lane and seeing everything in front of you. Here
it is, go get it. Let's get four yards. We're happy.
And by the fourth quarter those four yards turned to
eight and by the end of the game, the eight's
turn into twenties. And that's good enough for us. And
(17:48):
then you can go into the draft and you can
get one of these explosive backs. Right, you can get
yourself a Dylan Samson, a base Shall Tuten and RJ. Harvey,
a Treveon Henderson and like to compliment him and have
that young back. Because it's a one year deal, it's
a one year, five and a half four million in incentives,
they can get it up to nine and a half deal. Now, look,
(18:09):
I'm sure when they sign them there like this would
be great if we can make this work long term.
He's still young. He's got a lot of carries. Of course,
a ton of carries at Alabama that last year, and
he's had a ton of carries that those are a
thousand yards did not come easy. That it's a career
average of three point nine yards per carries. So you know,
that's that's a lot of hits and that's a lot
of tackles. But he's a big guy and he has
(18:30):
not missed the games. You hope he's still healthy and
you can start building around that. As far as the
a you thing goes like, it's you're right, it's not
a big signing bonus. It's twenty three, so they're not
going to take too big of a hit. It's seventy
six million guaranteed, forty five guaranteed at signing.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
You know, spoken injuries concerning obviously it is.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
And then there's just two really, as I'm looking at
this thing, there's two really weird years. So it's got
the potential out in twenty seven with nine point two
a dead cap, he's only counting to get eleven point
one against the cap this year and sixteen next year.
But then you have these two, so you're gonna have
to redo this deal right away because his twenty seven
and twenty eight, Yeah, it's a forty two and forty
(19:18):
four million dollars and it's all it's base salary, it's signing.
So the signing is four to six. So if you
take that out, it's thirty eight million and forty million.
Everything else is option workout, roster bonuses. So that's that's
a really odd contract that you'd be taking on. But
who knows, you know, who knows what their what their
(19:39):
plan is going to be. But that's I'm kind of
veering off off track here. I think. I think the
point of this pod is to say, yeah, we'd like
to be talking about Will Fries and Drew Dolman and
DJ Reid and DeVante Adams, and it's just, you know,
wasn't in the cards. Either choice made by that individ
(20:00):
of where they wanted to go and sign instead, or
the market got crazy specifically for offensive line, and a
guy like Ryan Kelly, who is thinking about retirement, is
now making thirteen million bucks a year. You know, like
that's just what the market turned into. And I just
don't think Joe Ortiz is the kind of guy that's
going to throw crazy money at something that's such an
(20:21):
uncertainty you have.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Just roughly I don't even know the number right now
because it is so fluid, but you know roughly eighteen
to twenty unrestricted free agents from last year, and the
reason those guys aren't being signed right now is they're
gauging they're worth on the open market, and I'm sure
there's a number that the Charger would like to have
them back at. We saw nickname and go to the Texans,
which is a big blow from a special team's perspective.
You know, Joshua Palmer obviously going to the Bills. Happy
(20:46):
for him getting closer to Canada and wish him the best.
For josh Allen, and we talked about Bosa, you know,
from a running back perspective, love, I'd love to see
JK back that. You know, they do need a home
run threat to compliment Najie Harris. I think is career
long rush is like thirty six yards, So you know,
whether you get that in the draft or not, that's
something to look at.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
But I'm with you money, they absolutely need to get.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
Justin Herbert more weapons, and I think veteran weapons, and
that will probably come here in the next week, I
would imagine.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
I don't know who it's going to be. I don't
know if it's gonna be via trade. I don't know
if it's gonna.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
Be the guys that are currently out there, but just
they need to build out that room with some veterans
that Justin can trust to compliment lad.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
You know we've talked about that extra receiver.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
I don't know if there's one out there in free
agency that would be a surefire starter right now, but
getting somebody at you know, whether even like Mike Williams
Laton free agency, if he's still around and Justin is
familiar with him and he can take a small deal
than great.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
But I guess you're right.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
The point the point of this is that I certainly
don't want to judge an offseason until after the draft. Right,
they got three more picks from the competitory picks, so
they have ten picks in this We've seen AJ Brown,
Hollywood Brown get traded for our draft day and A J.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Brown just won a Super Bowl. So there's a lot of.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Points within the offseason where deals can get done and
it doesn't happen the first few days. So let's evaluate
the interior offensive line at the end of the draft.
Let's evaluate the wide receiver position at the end of
the draft. And if by then it's it's bear and
there aren't moves made, then I think we can have
a conversation of like, hey man, I don't know, I
don't know what's gonna happen this year.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Yeah, and again I'm not saying I don't understand the
frustration of the fans. I get it. When you've got
all that money and you see that your team is
fifth in cap space available, you're expecting a big name,
you know, at that first wave. You want to be
in the Milton Williams conversation. You want to be in
the you know, Devonte Adams conversation. I get it. And
now we just see that Nickneman signs with the Texan
(22:54):
So their best special teams player is leaving. To me,
that means Troy Die has got to come back. You
got it, you know, because you want to get that
linebacker level special team's a solid third linebacker and Nick,
good for him, stoked that he got that kind of
money as someone who played very limited and that's probably
a big thing for Nick too, is I'm sure they
(23:15):
wanted to bring him back, and that's a very reasonable number.
But the Texans probably said, hey, you got an opportunity
to play linebacker here, and I think the Chargers would say, hey,
we got Junior and day On and you know it's
going to be a predominantly special teams role, in a
backup role. So I think that's something to remember. You're
like how they let Nickneman go. Well, imagine if the
money's the same and you got one team saying we've
(23:36):
got Dan Henley and Junior Colston, those are our linebackers
and the other team is saying you're going to be
on the field for thirty plus snaps per game. Yeah,
of course he's going to go. So all of that
stuff comes into play. But I'm hopeful, especially just because
Troy's a local guy, got to come back home. Played
great last year. Same thing with Tier Tart. Like that's
(23:57):
a perfect example. Right, everybody's upset about Puna and I
get that, but to me, Tierra was as important. You
know how I feel about Tart. They're the number one
so to me, because that's juice, it's it's POONA was
solid and he was great this year. But man, Tart
when he was on the Field gave this team juice,
(24:19):
and that's what I'm looking for. That's what I want
to find for this team. And that's why when I
think about the draft, I think about those playmakers, you know,
and I think about backs like Tuton, but even with
the injuries and with the fumble concerns, just four to
two speed man, you know, Samson four to four speed,
(24:41):
like Trayveon Henderson four to three speed. Like that's sort
of what I'm thinking about. Is someone that that defenses
are like, oh crap, if this guy gets behind McConkey,
if McConkie gets us on a whip route, he's gone.
So don't like and it freaks you out, And like
that's the sort of stuff that that I'd love to see.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Yeah, Also with the draft, like where would the Charges
have been without Joe Alt this year?
Speaker 4 (25:05):
Where would they have been without Lad McConkey.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Where would they have.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Been without Tarhee's still winning them the game in Atlanta?
Like there's going to be difference makers that this team
drafts here in a little bit. So this this roster
is far from complete. Getting Khalil back is huge, and
I don't think Khalil would have signed back here if
he thought that he didn't have a chance to win
a Super Bowl, maybe in his last year of his
(25:28):
NFL career.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
I don't know how long he's going to play, but
a one year deal.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
You know that he has a great deal of confidence
in Jim Harball and Joe Ortiz. And you know, we
just wait, man, we wait. Yeah, we may be doing
an emergency pod tomorrow or early next week.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
You never know, yeah, exactly. And I think, like I said,
there are still players available in free agency. I pull
up the best available so here, I'm just going to
scroll through it. That I could still see them chasing.
I already mentioned Amari Cooper, I think is more likely
than Stefan Diggs, but I could see them kicking the
tires on Stefan Diggs. I mentioned the guards, Tevin Jenkins,
(26:06):
Kevin Zeigler, Makai Beckton. They're still out there, Edge von Miller,
Zadarius Smith, o Jalari, like you, Kalaeis Campbell if he's
interested in taking that poon Afford spot. Still, even though
he's like thirty freaking nine years old, he's still playing
an incredibly high level. Brandon Sheriff at guard. You know,
I don't I would love to see JK back. I
(26:29):
just don't. I don't think I see it. I think
when you've got a guy that signed a deal that's
got four million bucks and incentives, he's expecting to get
those carries to reach those incentives. And so you're not
bringing JK is a one. You know, you're bringing JK
into beat the one. And Gus Edwards was kind of like,
you know, Nase is not Gus Edwards to JK. Dobbins,
(26:49):
like that's not how you work this deal out with
the agent for a guy that's that young. He's going
to want to make all four million bucks of those
incentives and he's going to want to you know, So
I don't see that in the cards. I'm just kind
of going through ingram. We talked about make it Happen.
I think that's such a perfect fit. Not crazy about
(27:10):
Deontay Johnson. It just got two sideways on him at
will Hernandez. There you go another guard that I could
totally see them getting app for. You already talked about
Mike Williams, and I apologize for all the word salad here,
but as I'm just kind of scrolling through this because
it's on the computer, behind me. Brandon Cooks knows that
it's possibility. Got some speed there, still has a little
(27:30):
bit left. You can probably make that work for me.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
I can see that Cooper Cup money anything.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Absolutely I forgot about that it's done. I would love it.
I would absolutely love it. Guy that's always in the
right place at the right time, runs Chris routes. We
know how accurate Herbert is. Probably wants to stay in
Los Angeles. If you can take that money that you
were going to give to Davante and put it into
a situation where it's it's earned based on gameplay, you know,
(27:56):
based on availability, and you can make that work. With
love of I think Cooper Cup would be a great fit.
Now again, I've talked about speed and trying to find
that take that that's not Cooper Cup, but just a
guy that's available, a guy that runs great routes, a
guy that catches everything, a guy that's great in the
red zone. All that stuff helps this team. So yeah,
(28:17):
Cooper Cup to me makes perfect sense. You know, put
him out there with Lad and Q and like I said,
you can still draft that wide receiver and I would
not have a problem with that at all. As I
keep going through this. Yeah, there's plenty, dude, there's there
are still a lot of players all those one hundred
that are left on this PFF line where I can
(28:38):
I can totally see Tim Patricks got some juice at
the wide receiver position that you could probably get at
a pretty low number. So yeah, I think there's still
still plenty of players available that I could see them
signing and be saying, yeah, love it.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
You know.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
I think Kevin Zeitdler's plug and play guard. Same with
McKay Beckon saying with Tevin Jenkins, I think they become
immediate starters. So like to me, that's that's that's all
still out there for the interior offensive line.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
All right, you gotta go. You got some games you call.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
We uh, We appreciate you guys listening and watching, hanging
there with free agency.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
This is just the beginning, all right. For money on
pers This has been charges weekly
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