Chargers Weekly: Post-Draft Fan Q&A

Matt "Money" Smith and Chris Hayre give their initial thoughts on the Chargers’ 2023 draft class and answer fan questions including Quentin Johnston’s role in the offense (17:15); most underrated selection (31:08); the future of the running back position in L.A. and more (37:15).

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Its late fifteen to ten touched up Sucker. What's up?

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Guys?

Speaker 3 (00:12):
Welcome into a brand new episode of Chargers Weekly, as always,
joined by Matt Money Smith and Money This episode is
all about the people. We got a ton of questions
to recap this, this draft by the La Chargers. I
thought it was a very solid draft. You and I
talked about Quintin Johnston. Didn't get a chance to catch

(00:32):
up on everybody else, So i'll start with you your
overarching thoughts on what the Chargers did after Quintin Johnson
rounds two through seven.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, I thought, you know, it was an interesting draft.
The way it broke.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
There's a bit of a run on receivers in the
third round. I think they probably might have dipped in,
you know, with one of them there, you know, versus
Darius in the in the fourth. Clearly they were interested
in getting more explosive. You know, we talked about the
returner and kind of how they would attack that. So
the fact they get Davis in the fourth, yeah, a
lot of It's what's interesting, you know, is when you

(01:08):
have some of the draft pundits and they're like, oh,
that's a little too rich, and it's it's well, they're
gonna use him as a returner. He's arguably the most
explosive returner you know in college football last year, So
that certainly changes the calculus on is he a receiver?

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Is he a returner?

Speaker 4 (01:22):
Is he a returner that can then you know, be
a featured player and the Jets sweeps and a lot
of that eye candy that we always talk about that
gives so many teams trouble. You know that Andy Reid
and Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan use a lot. So
he's gonna be a nice weapon on that front. Love
the two defensive picks in the second and third, you
know toey Polo two. We talked about him repeatedly. I

(01:42):
think when you go and you watch Henley, there's a
lot of Drew Trankwill there. You know someone that is,
you know, a safety, an athlete that became a linebacker
that really you know, had when you look at his
total number of snaps versus what his production was an
incredibly deductive player. And then you know McFadden who very

(02:05):
much like Jamari Sawyer, you know, can play one through
probably you know, could play both guard, both tackle positions.
Is kind of that swing, then maybe you were looking
for with high miss and and now his clock is
ticking a little bit, so you get someone like McFadden there.
Matt Locke I think fits the the high kind of

(02:25):
that high character profile. You know, someone that was the
captain of a Boise State team that dominated their conference
and certainly had a lot of explosive plays on his
ledger against some high level competition too. You know, Fresno
State had a really good game against Hayner and and
Fresno State. You know, the dug and pick I thought
was curious. I just was like, wow, that's interesting, you know,

(02:45):
to take another quarterback when you feel really good about
that room with Easton and Herbert. But then you heard
what Tom had to say that yeah, they want to
have an extra quarterback in camp, maybe even four. So
so yeah, overall, I thought it was solid. I think
your your drafts are always graded on your first round pick.
You know, first and foremost and most importantly, you have

(03:06):
to hit on your firsts. And I think Tom in
his career has done a really good job at hitting
on the firsts. And I think, you know, there's there's
a couple of misses in there, but that's going to
be the case. You're always going to have misses. You know,
half the guys make it, half of them don't. But
the fact that he's connected on so many I think
has has been a testament to sort of what he sees.
So I think going back to what we talked about

(03:27):
with Quintin and and kind of how he's going to
turn out is probably gonna be how you're going to
grade this draft, no doubt about it.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Everybody's happy. All thirty two teams are happy right now.
They thought they did an excellent job, right They think
that their team has improved markedly, and it's the jury's
going to be out on all these guys. Frankly, Yeah,
I love what they did defensively though. Money you know,
we talked about the need for finding that next young
edge player and they stay home for it. And you know,

(04:01):
totally if you've watched him play man, he's unbelievable. His
motor doesn't stop. And when you look at Joey and
Khalil and their age and the fact that they've missed games,
He's gonna see a lot of playing time his rookie season.
So I was really excited about that pick. Henley was
another guy. He hadn't played linebacker. I think he's been

(04:22):
playing the position since twenty twenty, so he's he started
on offense in high school. I mean, this guy is like,
like you said, he's just a freak athlete. And you
know what I loved about him is just that infectious
enthusiasm to want to he wants to be great. You know,
I saw the FaceTime with him in Derwin and he

(04:43):
just he just seems like a guy that you know,
you know, Darwin's going to take him under his wing.
And I wouldn't be surprised if he's he kind of
gets into into the rotation a little bit. Obviously, Kendricks
and Murray the linebackers as we speak today, But I
wouldn't be surprised at all if we see lot of
Henley the first his first year, and you know, Jack

(05:04):
Campbell was the linebacker that the Lions took. Look at
Dan Brugler's like top list, I think Henley's right next
to him. So it's really in the eye of beholder
in terms of okay, Henley went in the third round,
Jack Kimbell went the first round. But it's all about fit,
It's all about what a team thinks of you. So
you know, there's so much made about Jamir Gibbs and
going at twelve, but we didn't put together. They didn't

(05:27):
want Swift on the team anymore, and they thought that
Gibbs was the missing piece offensively. So you can't knock
teams for picking players where they picked them if they
fit your system certainly.

Speaker 4 (05:39):
Look, I think you know a lot there. You hit
on a lot of great points one And I was
kind of looking off screen because I was digging it
up because I wanted to make sure I had it right.
Because it is weird when you think about the COVID
year and and all the transfer portals. You know, Henley
is a transfer you know two Polo two is a
rare player because he is twenty years old. He did

(06:01):
not He's not a transfer portal guy twenty. He is
a you know, in terms of the NFL, he is
a much like Isaiah Spiller last year. This is a
young a sending player. So to be able to get him,
he's going to turn twenty one right before the season starts,
you know, contrast that with Henley, who's twenty three right now.
Because of the transfer portal, because the COVID year and

(06:23):
all that. So that's something to keep in mind, you know,
when you're talking about, you know, to Pulotu and some
people that you know, I want to point out, well,
a lot of that production was in this one.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
Whatever.

Speaker 4 (06:35):
The guy's got a high motor, he's got long levers,
he can play inside out. You can kick Joey inside
and have him outside on a lot of those pass
rushing downs.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
And I think it's a great point.

Speaker 4 (06:45):
You know, we saw with with Chris Rump in the
hopes of his development that maybe it's just not quite
there yet. You know, it's still not quite there, so
you gotta just keep filling. You gotta continue to build
those lines. And I think that's something with that second
round pick. Now, had one of those tight ends slipped,
I think they would have taken them. I think had

(07:06):
had Laporta slipped, I think you know, had Mayor slipped,
I think you absolutely would have seen them taken one
of those guys. Because I know he was at you know,
musk Grave. Tom was asked about that afterwards, and he
just said, look, that's just the way the board works.
And I think that's where you you do believe best
player available, you know, and I think the first rounds

(07:27):
a little bit different because again, you really want to
hit on those first round picks. So that's that's where
maybe things get a little bit different. But as you
look at the second defense, you know, pass rusher, as
you get to the third linebacker, special team like Henley
is going to be.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
I don't know how much.

Speaker 4 (07:44):
He's going to play on defense with the signing of Kendricks,
you know, and I just think we're going to see
a lot of that sort of one linebacker dime, you know, Derwin,
And that's if things go great, if J. T. Woods
can get on the field with a lowie and Derwin
can almost be that second linebacker. I'm not sure how
much we're gonna see Henley, but I think he could

(08:05):
be a force on special teams when we saw how
important special teams was last year, and I think that's
a big reason why Davis ends up getting drafted uh
in the fourth The one thing I found kind of
interesting was, you know, all these players from TCU, the
three players from TCU, when when you look at rosters,
the big twelve has really kind of been down in

(08:28):
terms of just sort of where they are in the
context of the SEC and the big ten. And even
when you look at the Chargers roster, right you're talking
about Kenneth.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
Murray, J T.

Speaker 4 (08:40):
Woods and well, I guess Dicker, but he's you know,
it's the kicker from Texas. Oh Amen is from Oklahoma State.
It's not a big twelve. A lot of big twelve
guys out there. So the fact that what did you
make it for three?

Speaker 3 (08:53):
What did you make a three TCU guys going really
on the same unit, you know, it's it's just interesting.

Speaker 4 (08:58):
It's it's interest. And I think that's something that that
you know, we talked about last week, that that I'm
just you know, I'm again I'm fighting my own bias,
like I'm not a big twelve guy like it that
that conference scares me.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
It just does. They're so you know, I work.

Speaker 4 (09:15):
With with with Petros on the radio and he calls
college football games and he told me a funny story
he was doing. I might have even told on the
podcast before because it cracks me up. But he was
doing a Texas well I shouldn't even say the teams, right,
So he's doing a big twelve game and the guy
says to him, the defensive coordinator in the production meeting Petros.

(09:37):
All I gotta do is get two stops, that's it,
and we'll win the game.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
And I can't get them. Like that's.

Speaker 4 (09:45):
That's how bad defense is in the Big Twelve. And
when you look at you know, when you look at
corners safeties, there's none. There are none. There were three
corners drafted this year out of the Big twelve, one
in the second Brents from Kansas State, and then I
think two and the seventh. You know, you had one

(10:06):
safety drafted out of the Big Two safeties drafted out
of the Big twelve, both in the seventh round. The
Big twelve, no like that, there is nothing. So that's
where you know, I just get a little bit scared.
It's like, yeah, TC, you had a great run and
they played really good football, but man hey, no defense
being played in in the Big twelve. So you know,

(10:28):
it's just kind of funny how it works out. And
I think that's what's sort of interesting right about the
two receivers they took, is you've got Quinton Johnston, who
is going to be measured against A Flowers and Jordan Addison,
no doubt about it. They were taking you know, and
Jackson Smith, Najigbu who was taken right before him. Those
four receivers will be graded against one another their entire careers.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
Who got it right? They're not all gonna make it.
They're just they're not that. That's that. I hope they do.

Speaker 4 (10:55):
I hope every single one of them has a successful
career and those young men make a ton of money
and have great careers. I would love to see that happen.
I'd say it ain't gonna happen. So they're going to
be judged. Front offices are going to be judged on
which one they decided to take.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
Same thing.

Speaker 4 (11:10):
The interesting thing is with with Darius Davis too, right
as he kind of got picked in this little this
little window with Charlie Jones out of Purdue and Tyler
Scott out of Cincinnati, and you know it's different because
it's fourth rounders, and like you said, you know, teams
are looking for something different, right, you know, like, oh, yeah, well,
yes we took him, but he's a better returner than
Charlie Jones. Yeah, I know, Charlie Jones has all these

(11:32):
targets and all this incredible production at Purdue, but he's
not half the returner that Darius Davis is, So it's
it's funny when you unpack it that way.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, it's it's all, you know.

Speaker 4 (11:42):
And I thought you brought up a great point with
Jamior Gibbs people attacking the Lions for taking him. I
know for a fact there were two other teams in
the top twenty that would have taken him. I wouldn't
be surprised if the Chargers would have taken him at
twenty one. He was very he was highly regarded in
this draft, so.

Speaker 3 (11:59):
There were reports that that people had a higher grade
on him than Bejeon, and you could you know, that's
those were the reports. I don't know what's true, but
obviously the Lines felt comfortable moving out of six, not
taking Bjeon and getting some.

Speaker 4 (12:13):
That's the interesting part of all that. It's like, man,
you're that's you could have taken it. You're taking a
running back and you could have had bees Like That's
the one where I'm like, I just can't agree with
you there.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
I saw a little bit of Brad Holmes's press conference
and he said Jon is a bell cow.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
We needed something a little bit different.

Speaker 4 (12:34):
So I makes no sense. Yeah, well that makes no
sense to me. Why would we want a Bell Coyle
when we can get someone who's not reliable.

Speaker 3 (12:41):
For the only thing I can think of is okay,
they they got David Montgomery and Gibbs is a perfect
compliment to him.

Speaker 4 (12:50):
I don't know, whatever, give me Bjeon all day. That's
the one part that I just don't understand. Yeah, anyway, again,
look you said it like the Campbell thing, the Campbell thing,
like he's just a total Dan Campbell player, like those
two it's coincidence they got the same last name, because
my goodness, they are exactly the same guy. And that's like,

(13:10):
you know, sometimes that's sort of what you what you
like the whole like the whole will Anderson thing. You know,
it's not just the on field production. You know, Demico
Ryans is trying to change everything in the Texans organization,
change the culture. So like that's I now have my
leader of the offense. I now have my leader of
the defense. Let's create some culture, set a foundation and

(13:33):
build from there. And so you know, we're not here
to judge. Congratulations to Gibbs, stoked for him and all
those guys.

Speaker 3 (13:42):
You know, just to keep going on that just the
fifth thing, you know, Washington last year took Johan Dotson,
and everyone was like, why did they take Johan Dotson.

Speaker 2 (13:51):
Over some of these other wide receivers that were on
the board. Dotson had a pretty good rookie year.

Speaker 3 (13:55):
They took Emmanuel Forbes this year because they needed ball production,
they needed to pick sick, they needed somebody to make
plays on the football when there were a lot of
other corners that I think were highly rated on most
people's boards outside the NFL, certainly with mock drafts. So again,
it's in the eye of the beholder. We're not gonna
be able to judge these draft classes for a number
of years.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
But we do have a lot of questions.

Speaker 4 (14:16):
If fans will they they'll they'll judge it right away, Chris,
they're already judging it.

Speaker 3 (14:20):
Oh yeah, they are judging it. And we'll get to
a couple of questions. You know, this is like kind
of a two for one. This is from Chris, who
does the team view as starter at deep slash free
safety and bolts nine four with two roster spots left,
what post draft editions do you expect or hope to
see and money I'll kind of like tee this up

(14:40):
for you. Obviously they want J T. Woods to take
that step. Right now, it's Irwin James and a lowhi Gilman.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
But if J T.

Speaker 3 (14:48):
Woods can be the player that I think they envisioned
him being when they drafted him in the third round,
you'd want him to be the deep free safety, right.
John Johnson is another guy that we hear about, and
I know that there's maybe a couple of spots left
that the charges can pursue.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
Maybe he's an option.

Speaker 4 (15:05):
As well, certainly, you know, and that's where I think coach,
you know, coaches versus front office comes into play. You know,
it's how much money do we have? I kind of
gave you all these guys you wanted last year, and
it's going to be very hard to do that this
year because of sort of you know, the big swings
that you took last year. So it'll all come down

(15:27):
to what does John Johnson want?

Speaker 1 (15:28):
Yeah, J T.

Speaker 4 (15:29):
Woods is who they'd like to see there obviously without
nas and that not working out a second round pick.
You hate to see that, and you know you wish
him well as he's already you know, out of the
NFL and decided that he didn't want to do this anymore.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
So they hope it's JT. Woods.

Speaker 4 (15:43):
It's a very tough position. We talked about this, you
hope having a year to figure it out. You brought
up the great point of it took Mikey Davis a
year to settle in and all of a sudden was
exceptional last year his second year in Brandon Staley's when
you know, there were a lot of shots and I
shouldn't say shots being fired, but a lot of concerns
about Mikey, like, yeah, there's a real he's just really
struggling to figure this out. He played one way. This

(16:06):
is a different way to play. So you hope that's
the case with JT. That's what they like. They would
like to have a LOWI and JT you know, on
the field. So like we talked about at the start
of the pod derwin can be that queen on the
chess board if they don't. And look, I think for
John Johnson, for all those players that are still out there,

(16:26):
it's just gonna come down to money, you know how.
Obviously Morgan Fox is back because it took a pretty
low money deal. You know, it took a very affordable
deal for the Chargers that he was content with So
I think that's probably going to come into play again
with all of these veterans that are out there that
are going to probably start getting signed here in the
next week or two.

Speaker 3 (16:46):
I got an Instagram question earlier this month about just
kind of talking about the future of the team in
different holes and not only looking at twenty twenty three
but beyond from Stevens. So that's kind of going to
be the theme of a lot of these questions. Steven
shoot that question. This one comes from Connor. How many
snaps does a starting tight end play compared to a
third string wide receiver?

Speaker 2 (17:07):
And do either of.

Speaker 3 (17:08):
You think Quinton beats out Keenan or Mike for the
starting job. First of all, no, that's not gonna happen.
Keenan and might going to be the starters. And you know,
quintin this is this is very interesting because the tight
the whole thing with the tight end role and should
they have taken a tight end over Quentin Johnson if
you're looking in the short term, Gerald Everart's going to

(17:30):
be that tight end, right And you know, I think
it's more about Quinton and Joshua Palmer. We're getting a
lot of Joshua Palmer questions did we forget about Joshua?
He had seventy eight catches, he had some big games
in the absence of Keenan and Mike last year, or
Keenan specifically, yea our game.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
I look at the stats last year money and I
think this. I think that Quinton is going to play
a big role this year. I think Joshua Palmer is
as well. And I think the role that Austin Eckler
played last year is going to be a little bit different.
He's not going to catch one hundred and six balls
this year. He's not going to catch a bunch of checkdowns.
I think Kellen Moore is going to change this offense

(18:07):
to where they're going.

Speaker 2 (18:08):
More vertical with these guys.

Speaker 3 (18:09):
I don't know if it's going to be Quinton Johnson
with more production than Palmer or vice versa, or if
ever it's going to see more shine, more one on
ones if Mike or Keena goes down with an injury,
if one of those guys steps in. But I think
the one thing that we're kind of overlooking is how
many balls Austin caught and how many of them were checkdowns.
I think his yards perception was like six point seven, right,

(18:32):
So I think Kellen Moore wants to change that kind
of a long answer, and I'll let you kind of
pick it up. In terms of third string wide receiver,
I think wide receiver three is really what he means.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
Versus a starting tight end.

Speaker 4 (18:44):
Yeah, start there. Just for people that want to nitpick,
we know what he means. He means, you know, a
wide receiver three and you know pretty much it's eleven
personnel most of the time in the NFL. Now you've
got three wide receivers out there, so don't think of
it as a third wide receiver. But in three receiver sets,
is he going to be the guy ahead of Josh
Palmer or Jalen Geiden. He's going to have to fight

(19:05):
for that spot. You have to look at it beyond
one year.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
You know.

Speaker 4 (19:10):
You look at the restructuring they did on the contracts
and the contract that Mike signed last off season, and
there's the potential that he's going to replace one of
them as an affordable replacement. So that's that's part of it,
the tight end part of the question. So that's interesting, Right,
is he more value? Whild Are you going to get
more value out of Quinton Johnston over the let's just

(19:35):
even say six years, because if he's really good and
you can't figure out an extension, you can franchise him
for a single year after the fifty year option and
you're totally fine. So are you going to get more
out of Quinton for six years than you would Dalton
Kincaid or Michael Mayer if that would have been your selection.
I think that's a legitimate question, you know, And I

(19:55):
think it's a question of where's offense going in the NFL?
What is justin herber most comfortable with? What is the need?
You know, what are your needs as a football team?
And I think something to remember, and it's something that
we talked about repeatedly, is that explosive element. And so
many people are pointing out after the draft, you know,

(20:17):
of Johnston and Wyatt. You know, when you start to
really dig into it, why maybe it makes more sense
is the yak the explosiveness on those short you know,
in cutting routes, you know, just sort of the quick
pitch and catch and he's able to go and you
see a lot of those in his highlight reels. Again,

(20:38):
I think it's important to keep it in context and say, Okay,
what was the competition he was doing it against. But
you look in the playoffs he had that huge catch
and run against Michigan where he was just on a
shallow cross or caught it and bang, there's that speed
and he's gone and it's a touchdown. And so the
Chargers are one of the worst YAK teams in the

(20:59):
LEA last year. So there's some of that. That's kind
of where I came in on Zay Flowers and thought
he was the perfect guy. It's like, hey, this dude
is like Jalen Waddle, explosive. You're going to get those
short routes, catch and go, and that's what this team needs.
And I think they saw that in Quinton. And the
reason you know that maybe he won out over Za
is because he then presents that big target downfield. We

(21:22):
know Herbert is really good with big receivers, and so
I think that's kind of where that comes into play,
you know. And then the other part of that too,
was it Scott that asked the question about the title.
I think that's who you said, was that his name
was Connor. Sorry, And then the other thing Connor is
is financial is over over the six years. You know, like, look,

(21:46):
Dalton Schultz was great with the Cowboys last year, right,
he just signed a one year deal, very affordable one year.
What was it twelve million bucks? I think eleven ten
million bucks something like that with the Texans. So let's
just say you're gonna move on from Gerald Everett next
year or you're gonna and now here's Dalton Kincaid taking
his place as you're tied end number one. Okay, well,

(22:07):
let's just say the way the contracts are structured, and
I hope it's not the case, but you move on
from Keenan or Mike, what's it going to cost you
to replace them? If you didn't draft Quinton Johnston, you know,
you drafted Dalton Kinkaid. Well, now you can't afford these
two guys anymore because you kick the can down the
road to get Herbert's extension done. What is it going
to cost you? And is that player even going to

(22:29):
be available to you? So that's all of that stuff
comes into play. You know a lot of it is
financial positional demand you know in the league, and how
that all sort of fits into your puzzle of what
you have on the roster currently. You know, I don't think,
you know, I would be very surprised if if Johnston

(22:52):
had as good of it. I don't think he's gonna
have as big of a season as a Flowers. I
think say it's gonna have a huge season for the
Ravens just because of how he fits and what they
have on the roster. You know, Rashan Babman. They're still
waiting for him to raise his hand. Odell, we don't know,
you know, what kind of year is he going to have.
So I think when you look at their room versus
the Chargers room, I've got Mike Williams, We've got Keenan Allen.

(23:13):
You mentioned Josh Palmer when pressed into action at hundred
yards season. We know the chemistry that he has. Or
Jalen Geiden, I think this is more of a long
term play. Like we know he's rough around the edges.
We know we got to fix some things, but we believe.

Speaker 3 (23:27):
It's an excellent point man, excellent point on the on
the wide receiver, because listen, it's the elephant in the room.
Is the cap number of Keenan Allen and Mike Williams.
Next year, Keenan Allen turned thirty one on Draft day.
So of course you want Quentin Johnson to come in
here and make a huge impact. Those guys are gonna
be the starters. But this is when we talk about

(23:48):
the draft and looking towards the future. Twenty twenty four
is gonna look different in that wide receiver room. Josh
wa Palmer is gonna be a part of it, Quentin
Johnson's gonna be a part of it. I would think
Mike or Keenan is gonna be a part of it.
But it's gonna be very hard to pay both of
those guys when you look at their cap number.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
In twenty twenty.

Speaker 4 (24:05):
I mean, look at what DJ's comp was for Quentin Johnston.
It's Mike Williams. Yeah, I've talked about with Josh. Yeah,
we talked about Josh Palmer that he's trying to emulate
Keenan Allen.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
I mean, just put two and two together exactly, you know.

Speaker 4 (24:17):
That's that's what they're hopeful of, is that Josh Palmer
can be Keenan Allen and that Quentin Johnson can be
Mike Williams. And now you save yourself forty million dollars
in wide receiver salaries next year.

Speaker 3 (24:30):
All right, But let me lay this one up fews
from old podcast producer Cole Weinstein. Seems to me that
a lot of these players will be backup rotational roles
as rookies. Which players have the best chance to make
a big impact either after earning that starting role or
in a rotational role. So any of those seven guys,
I think I take Max dug In out of the equation.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
But yeah, what do you think we better? Well?

Speaker 4 (24:56):
One, we know how important DeAndre Carter. It was last year,
right we talked about it with with Tom and with
with coach repeatedly every time the guy touched the ball
on a punt return, he got your first down. So
Darius Davis is going to be your starting punt returner,
you know. And he's a guy that took how many
in his college career? I think five five returns to
the house? I think over and kick and punt returns

(25:19):
to the house. So he's gonna have a chance to
have a serious impact. Like if if I were to guess,
he'd be my number one, because right now he's gonna
be your kick and your punt returner. So and if
if the defense with Khalil Mack and Joey Bosen, Derwin
James and J. C. Jackson, and you know, all these
guys is as good as we think it can be.
You're gonna be forcing some punts and as good as

(25:41):
Ryan Ficken was in his first year, and as good
as DeAndre Carter was, you know, well, then Davis's gonna
have an opportunity to impact a game, you know, maybe
just even if it's just on a single punt return.
As tight as these as small as these margins are,
and as tight as these contests are, He's gonna have
a chance to make a real impact. The other my number,
I guess if we're talking about non special teams, my

(26:04):
number one would be Twey Polo two because they need
him to be you know that that is a that
is a role that is available, that is ready, you know,
because Kyle van Noy is no longer on the roster
as it stands right now. I hope he comes back.
I'm sure they're trying to figure out a way to
get him back, you know, unless, of course, they can
get a low money deal for Leonard Floyd or you know,
Yannick and Gakway or one of those other edge rushers

(26:25):
that's out there. But as it stands right now, where
the roster is right now, I think Towey Polo two
would would be the guy. I would even circle ahead
of Quentin Johnston. I think just because of the lack
of depth of the injury concerns at that position and
what they're hoping to get out of them.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
Stay on the Darius Davis. This is from John Hills.
Do you foresee Davis having an impact with the offensive
season or will his contribution be limited to special teams?
Is there a Davis comp Kellen Moore has worked with
in Dallas. I mean it's a load to wide receiver
room now money, right, Like you know when we go
in to training camp and are like, Okay, well you
know there's a big battle there.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
No, it's a there's a log jam there.

Speaker 1 (27:04):
Right.

Speaker 3 (27:04):
If Jalen guyten comes back, he's young enough to to
I think be ready to go after that ACL injury
in September.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
I mean, you have that speed.

Speaker 3 (27:14):
I think to your point about the gadget plays, maybe
you move Davis into some of those gadget play situations.
But he's he's not a big guy, so I think
it's gonna take it may take an injury too for
him to see the offensive side of the ball on
a consistent basis.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
Yeah, I'm gonna go back.

Speaker 4 (27:30):
I'm just gonna go back a few years because obviously
since they had Schultz, they kind of became tight end heavy.
So if I go back to nineteen, it's Gallup, Cooper
and Cob nobody really there. If I go to twenty,
it's let's see Cooper, Gallop ceed Lamb.

Speaker 1 (27:49):
So no, not not really.

Speaker 4 (27:51):
But you know, that's the great thing about I thought
Callum Moore made a great point, you know, in his presser,
you know, on his media availability the other day, he's like,
you know, for people blask and you know, will Kellen
Moore needs tight ends.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
He's like, well, no, I don't. It's just what we had.

Speaker 4 (28:05):
It's like, you know, I'm comfortable working with what we have.
When they had, you know, that the two tight ends.
They worked with the two tight ends when they had
you know, Gallup, Cooper and CD. It was a ton
of eleven personnel, you know, and he worked with those
split backs a lot too, you know, with with twenty
one personnel when he had both Pollard and Zeke in
the backfield. So that's the great thing about Kellen Moore's

(28:27):
you oc is adaptability exactly, Like that's what you always
want from your Yeah, the last thing you want is
a coach that thinks his scheme is so special that
the player that displays traits that would excel in a
different situation are forced into that scheme. Players not place.

(28:47):
That is what this league is and and has been forever.
So you think you've got it all figured out and
that your scheme is what wins, No, it doesn't. It's players.
Find a way to put your players in positions to perform,
and Kellen has shown an incredible ability to do that.
So the great thing about Davis, just to answer the questions,

(29:08):
I took a long, circuitous path, which I typically do. Sorry,
He's going to be active, Yeah, right, exactly. He's going
to be active every every game day. He's going to
be active. So because he's your returner, which makes it
which is great because now if you feel like, you

(29:30):
know what I think, maybe maybe because we can get
the defense flat footed here, Let's throw Darius out there
and let's let's run it. Let's run a reverse, Let's
run a jet suite, Let's run you know, half back option.
Let's there's so many things you can do. The second
he steps on the field. His speed is it's it's
different level, it's cartoon speed. There's a couple of highlights.

(29:52):
You can go to YouTube. You know, people listening, if
you haven't dug into it, look up Darius Davis highlights
and you will see what we're talking about. When he
turns I think it's the Kansas game. He turns the
corner and it's just like the defensive backs are stuck
in mud and he's on fast forward. So when you
have that and you're and there's no question Kellen's gonna

(30:14):
do that. He's going to put that on film just
so teams have to prepare for it. So every so
when you put him on the field for two or
five snaps, whatever it may be, it's not going to
be a lot. Not not when you have this kind
of not when you have Johnston Palmer, Keenan and Mike
like Darius Davis is not going to be out there
a lot. It's going to be those moments, and it's

(30:36):
going to be one of those things you got to
think about. It's the It'snicole Harmon factor. Every time you
stepped on the field, you're like all right, what are
they doing with him? So even though he wasn't very productive.

Speaker 3 (30:47):
Exactly, if he's on the field, you have to account
for him at least, you know Gerald ever too, Donald Parum,
I mean, these are all these pass catchers that the
Chargers have right now. This is from our buddy Dan Hayfellas.
Of all the drafted players or udfa's by the Chargers,
which do you feel is most underrated by fans and
or pundits?

Speaker 2 (31:07):
You know, mony, I was gonna say Jordan McFadden here.

Speaker 3 (31:11):
Because of his positional versatility and just going back because
it's so recent in our minds what Jamari Sawyer.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
Had to do in Rashaun Slater's absence.

Speaker 3 (31:21):
Now, not go on Wood, you don't you don't want
any injuries to this offensive line, but the fact that
you are continuing to build the O line with a
guy who has a number of starts under his belt
at tackle and is probably projected to be a guard
at the at the NFL level. But I think a
guy like that who has experience in college a number
of starts, you add him to an offensive line room

(31:45):
with Corey Linsley and Rashaun Slater and guys who have
done it, Zion Johnson who who did it last year,
and Can and Jamar Sawyer, so two young guys.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
So I would I.

Speaker 3 (31:55):
Would say McFadden, we talk about all the skill position guys,
but you know, I think it's gonna be important and
you've preached this to continue to build the offensive line
as you as we get closer to this, justin Herbert extension.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
It's great.

Speaker 4 (32:08):
Probably would have been my first choice. I think you
hit it on the head, just because we saw Trey
go down, fought through some injuries. We know he can
play right tackle, left tackle. We know he's built a
little bit more like a guard. We've seen that athleticism
and those second level blocks from him. So I think
that's I think that's probably the right answer, just because

(32:29):
guys get hurt and to have someone that can play
each tack, you know, right left tackle, right left guard,
if everything works out, huge, huge to have that available
to you. And we saw it last year with Jamari
Sawyer and the fact that he's going to kick inside
to guard, and you.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
Know what, don't be surprised. There's a little bit competition there.

Speaker 4 (32:47):
You know, maybe maybe there is competition between McFadden and
it's all year for that right guard spot. He's a
big dude, and he's an athletic guy. And you saw
some of those second level blocks that he was that
he was doing when he was at Clemson, because you
know with DJ who under lay back there, you know,
in a running quarterback, you saw him at the whole
blocks for a little while get downfield when DJ talked
it clean out some second level guys.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
Who was able to do that?

Speaker 3 (33:10):
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Speaker 4 (34:07):
Nowgo Scott Matt Locke. Just to continue the conversation, the
defensive tackle sixth round. Watching him is a lot of
fun because his one he's violent. He's a big dude.
He's got heavy hands, He stacks and sheds, and he's
making plays in the run game, just kind of keeping
his eye on those gaps and figuring out which way
he's gonna jump. His motor's ridiculous. He's chasing quarterbacks down,

(34:29):
you know, when they're reversing field, even though he's three
hundred and ten pounds and you've got Joey Boson Khalil
Mack on the outside, so you know you're gonna have
opportunities on the inside. We saw that with Morgan Fox
career high sacks. We saw that when Tito started to flash,
you know, so we know Fojoko had a great back
end of the year. So I think that's something that

(34:49):
that Tom Tellesco and coach Staley, you know, certainly thought
about that. You know, we do pretty good with these
defensive tackles, you know, whether it was Foster Merril that
we put in there, like all of these guys were
able to eat. Well, let's get the captain of the
Mountain West champs and the guy that was the straw
that stirred the drink on defense for the Broncos and
put him out here with all this talent around him

(35:11):
and see what we got.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
So he's a lot of fun to watch.

Speaker 4 (35:14):
And you know, was able to produce sacks, pressures, tip balls,
block kicks, a couple of touchdowns. You know, is a
tackle eligible so or I think he was playing tight
end in a couple of those games. So yeah, it's
a lot of fun to watch him. So that's one
that I think, maybe especially because of the injuries, right
Austin Johnson Tito a bone, He's someone who very well
could have a couple opportunities out there.

Speaker 3 (35:33):
That's a great one. Great question, Dan, dude, I thought
we were buzzing through these questions.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
We have so many.

Speaker 3 (35:39):
I appreciate you guys.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
All right, I'll keep it shorter. I'll keep it shorter.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
No, No, no, all right, this is this is like
an off the beaten path when I like this one,
this from Jake Cochran. In Austin rules football, we have
a father son role which gives clubs priority selection of
a player whose father played one hundred plus games for
the team. Could the NFL draft use a rule like
this to continue seeing family time? Eyes as Porter junior
with the Steelers.

Speaker 4 (36:05):
Well in our age, at our age, Chris, it's gonna
start coming into play, right, We're gonna start seeing a
lot of these uh.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
We're starting.

Speaker 3 (36:13):
Rivers.

Speaker 4 (36:13):
Is gonna be exactly well, you know, like Ladanian's nephew
got drafted the corner out of TCU in the seventh round,
So we're we're starting to get there where at our age,
we're starting to see a lot of these uh, young men,
these legacies pop back into the league. So it's interesting.
I kind of like it, but I think, you know,
the NFL would put the onus on the teams. Hey,

(36:36):
you want them, You're gonna probably have to draft them
around early and celebrate the heck out of them, you know.
Very cool moment in Dallas, arguably the best moment of
the draft to see Deuce Vaughan get drafted, you know,
and his dad call him say, how about you drive
me to work tomorrow? Very very cool moment.

Speaker 3 (36:51):
Yeah, everybody, everybody was a little emotional in that war
room during that moment. Still, okay, hey, let's see no
running back drafted or signed through free agency? Is the
plan to run it back with the same three running backs?
Eckler still waiting for someone to step up. LT and
Turner had sprolled for a few seasons as a group,
they lacked dominance last year and couldn't close games out. Okay,

(37:13):
there was another one about Spiller. What do we know
about Spiller? I think we could just kind of combine
those questions because it looks like they're going to roll
with these guys and Austin. I think Tom said that
nobody called about Austin over the weekend. So you got
josh Ma Kelly, you got Isaiah Spiller, and you got
Austin Eckler. And we don't know much about Spiller, but

(37:34):
we know that he was really good in the SEC
and he didn't get a lot of run next year
or last year. So hopefully this year Kellen Moore can
work with these three guys. It seems like they're comfortable.

Speaker 1 (37:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (37:44):
And as I'm going into the thing again, Isaiah Spiller
will turn twenty two on August ninth, so very young,
very young last year. Like we've talked about it before,
would have liked to have seen him get all the
carries in that Bronco game in week eighteen, just to
get an idea. But you could see it in his face,

(38:06):
you could see it in the in his body. He's
a big guy six one two fifteen, but not a
man's body, right, And we saw that transformation of Joshua
Kelly from year to year. And I guess I don't
know if you've seen him yet, Chris, I have not.
I haven't been out to the facility. But that's what
I'm hoping to see, that physical transformation of dominant in

(38:28):
college to you know, an NFL body. And now you
know now that you're on an NFL program, NFL nutrition program,
NFL workout program, granted Texas A and him probably has
the most money of any program in the entire you know,
Division one college football world, and it's all available to him.
But you're talking about a guy that was, you know,

(38:48):
a kid, he was eighteen nineteen and then just turned
twenty years old, So I think that's something I'm looking
forward to because he was a really good back in
college and I think maybe they just felt like he
was not quite ready for the Riggers of the NFL
last season, and you know, Austin was having a good
year and Joshua Kelly was having a good year, so
they had what they felt like was a good running

(39:09):
back room. But my guess is that's their hope, you know,
and look, hope is great to have. It's got to
turn into production. But they're hoping that JT. Woods, their
third round pick, and Isaiah Spiller, their fourth round pick,
are ready to take that jump year in year.

Speaker 3 (39:23):
Two, Isaiah was the youngest player drafted last yeareah right? Yes,
twenty two years old. Do you agree with draft anos
like Emery Hunt who say Quentin Johnson will fit well
as a slot guy with Canan and Mike money.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
Is from William.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
So Quentin in the slot, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (39:43):
Quentin in the slot? I think he I mean, he's
played both.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
Yeah, I mean I think that's the thing.

Speaker 4 (39:48):
Right is a lot of people thought, because of his
size at five nine, that in Less Flowers is going
to be the next Steve Smith at that size to
have the sort of physicality to be able to play
you know, the the X or the Z. Then he's
just gonna be exclusively in the slot. And that's where
Keenan does most of his damage. So I think that's

(40:09):
one of the reasons why Johnston maybe was the guy.
Is versatility. The fact that you can put him outside,
you can run him in the slot. You know those again,
those those over routes on the inside, those three by ones,
you know where he can just get that quick hitter
and the yak production was was such a TCU that

(40:30):
that gets people excited. So yeah, I think you're gonna
see him. You're gonna see him in the slot. You're
gonna see him outside because that you know, both of those,
both of those spots, you know, sort of fit with
his skill set. So to answer the question, he's not
an exclusive slot which some guys sort.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
Of are, is not? He can We saw that, We've
seen him.

Speaker 4 (40:53):
Guy's got a forty inch vertical and he's six foot three,
you know, so yeah, throw him outside and give him
some fifty to fifty balls and let him go and
get them.

Speaker 3 (41:02):
Boris the bolt Do you feel comfortable with the death.
We currently have the offensive line. We kind of just
talked about that. I think it's getting better and better.
Our guy, j Paul, what are your thoughts on carrying
three quarterbacks? Is it possible Easton or Max could be
going by the final roster? Thanks for the always enjoyable content.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (41:19):
Would you would you be comfortable with a seventh round
pick as the backup quarterback or Easton or would you
want all three in that room?

Speaker 4 (41:28):
That's a great question. I think you know, they've shown
they like carrying three. You know, the question is if you, well.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
You know what, Joe, Joe maybe showed that he like
carrying three. Maybe maybe Kellen things different. I don't know,
but I do think having that extra position on a
game day or obviously two are going to be active,
but having that extra position on the fifty three I
think could be beneficial.

Speaker 1 (41:55):
Yeah, I'm with you.

Speaker 4 (41:57):
It'll come down to whether or not they think Max
gets plucked off the actice squad if he's a developmental
guy and they want to save a million bucks, you know,
a million and a half dollars next year with with
Easton no longer being the backup, If Max can ingratiate
himself with with with Justin, and that's your quarterback room,
then that may be what they're looking at. You know,

(42:19):
you're always you're living on the margins. You know, it
may sound like a small number when you're talking about
two hundred million plus as your salary cap, but it
all helps. And if you can get rid of a
vet for a rookie contract for four years, that's what
you're always trying to do. Now that Easton has graduated
from his rookie deal to his veteran deal and took

(42:39):
about a million and a half dollar jump in order
to be the backup.

Speaker 3 (42:44):
Oltville, what do we do with safety if we're not
able to get John Johnson? Who starts? Does Q start
over Palmer? And how's Money's throwing arm doing? Is he
going to quote Herbert and say his shoulder is about
seventy five percent? Healed? Fine?

Speaker 4 (43:03):
Yeah, it was, It was fine the next day. It
was that morning, it was sore when I woke up.
It's fine now though, thankfully bounce back.

Speaker 3 (43:11):
We answered, So I just wanted to get that last
one in.

Speaker 4 (43:13):
Oh yeah, yeah, I think Gilman's Ultimately it's gonna be
Gilman and Durwin or you're starting safeties. You know, you'll
have Kendricks and Kenneth as your starting linebackers and you'll
run nickel and they'll you know, I got to figure
out who that third corner is. I think ultimately they probably,
if all things being equal, it'd be J C. Mikey
and then in you know, your your slot corner, your

(43:34):
I should say, your nickel corner is is a sante
is what I'm guessing.

Speaker 3 (43:39):
You think Bryce Callahan will come back?

Speaker 1 (43:42):
I mean, why not? Right?

Speaker 4 (43:43):
I think the injury stuff was a little disconcerting, the
fact that you got banged up there throughout the course
of the year. But he's still out there, you know, Uh.
I mean there's a lot of dudes out there. Marcus
Peters is out there, Rocky Scene is out there. Like,
there's still corners out there. So so whether or not
they're comfortable with that, but yeah, I think you go

(44:04):
into let me just kind of get a look here
at the I think ultimately that's what they would want, right,
JT and Mikey on the outside a sante at nickel
and you know your depth is just ser Dean Leonard
from your draft picks last year you know, Jasir can play.
Maybe they're hoping that Jasir takes another step and he
can play that nickel position with Asante on the outside

(44:27):
with Mikey and then JC comes back. So that's what
I'm guessing they're trying to do. But up top, yeah,
I mean Aloi is the is. I think slotted is
the high safety with Derwin is the box eaten.

Speaker 3 (44:39):
Why not bring Callahan back? We just talked about that.
Let's see Brandon. A lot of Chargers draft media talked
about getting players in the draft with high floors and
low ceilings. Do you think the draft was balanced in that.

Speaker 4 (44:51):
Aspect high floors, low, Well, I would disagree with that.
I think Quinton is a is a home run swing.
I think that's definitely. I think your high floor would
have been Zay or Jordan Addison. You know, I think
those are more of your high floors, not quite as
high as the ceiling Johnston. You're you're projecting, Hey, this

(45:14):
guy's pretty raw, but he can be something really special
and we'll take the risk.

Speaker 3 (45:19):
I think Henley's like a high ceiling guy too. He's
played the position for two years.

Speaker 4 (45:22):
Man, Yeah, one hundred percent. Same with Darius Davis. Right,
that's you're you're you're you're spending a fourth round pick
on a returner. I mean, that's that's a home run swing.
It's like, yeah, we're you know, fourths or those are starters.
Those are guys you're hoping can end up as starters.

Speaker 1 (45:40):
So I think to to take a.

Speaker 4 (45:43):
Kick returner punt returner in the fourth is is a
pretty big swing, so you know. But then at the
same time, Yeah, Matt Locke, McFadden, those are high floor guys.
You know that they probably are what they are and
you like the way they fit with what you do.
So yeah, I'm not so sure if it was if
I would call that high floor just because twey Polow

(46:05):
two's so young. So and I think, you know, like
you said, Henley's just transferred from Nevada and you know,
really kind of took off with Washington State, like you said,
just kind of getting settled in. So yeah, I would
think it's more I would think there were more bigger
swings than safe picks.

Speaker 3 (46:24):
This is from John Bingham. How much influence do coordinators
have with determining a selection? I think the front office
has the final say, but I guarantee you. Kellen Moore
was asked his opinion of Quentin Johnson.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
I know that.

Speaker 4 (46:40):
I mean, I'll tell you this, like if I were
to answer, if I were to give you an honest answer,
I would say very little. Just because you know, you've
got a scouting department. These guys are watching these players
for three hundred and sixty five days a year, you
know the cord coaching. They're coaching the guys they got

(47:02):
there watching film with their opponents for tendencies, like that's
their job. Their job is to coach the players that
they're given. Now it's possible before the draft that they
flip Kellen Moore, Hey, can you just kind of give
us your Here's the problem with asking guys to weigh
It's a very delicate balance. Right, you don't want them

(47:23):
to feel like they're not part of the process. But
if you involve them too much and say, hey, which
guy do you like and they give you someone that
you don't take, well, then they feel.

Speaker 1 (47:29):
Like, well, what the hell do you ask me for?
So it's it's mostly scouts.

Speaker 4 (47:35):
It's scouts, and it's you know, and it's Kevin, and
it's Jojo, and it's Tom and those are the guys
that are making that make up ninety percent, John Spanos,
they make up ninety percent of these decisions. The other
ten percent is Brandon Staley and his staff metaverse hero.

Speaker 3 (47:54):
This is I love this question because everyone's just looking
ahead of twenty twenty four. Now, have you guys watched
tape on brock Bauer? Is he the number one priority
DAXT year for the Chargers? So we're we're talking, We're talking.

Speaker 1 (48:06):
I hope not.

Speaker 4 (48:07):
My god, They'll have to have one of the five,
probably five worst records in the league if they're gonna
get their hands on them. I mean, brock Bowers on
the top ten. So let's hope.

Speaker 1 (48:17):
No.

Speaker 4 (48:17):
I would hope they have absolutely zero chance of getting
their hands on him. Yeah, And that's the funny thing,
like about Darnette, Like, you know, speaking of Boers, you
know about Washington and everyone like.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
Why is he sip? What is going on? Why are
the Chargers not taking Washington? Well, clearly there was medical.

Speaker 4 (48:34):
There's there was a medical So that's that's why you know,
those things happen. But yeah, brock Bauer is is gonna
be like a Kyle Pitts selection. He's gonna end up
getting taken in in the top probably seven eight picks.

Speaker 3 (48:47):
Final one and we kind of covered this, but Jared robertson,
do you feel like Josh Palmer is being undervalued by
the fans in media? I keep hearing Alan Williams Johnson
and it's bugging me. Palmer had a couple of huge
games when he was our wide receiver one last year,
go back specifically to that Atlanta game where he basically
helped he won the game for the huge throughout the

(49:08):
throughout the thing. I think it's just you're getting You're
stacking Justin Herbert with weapons and he's going to find
the open guy, right Like, That's pretty much why they
got Quentin Johnson. Keep getting weapons for Justin Herbert.

Speaker 4 (49:20):
Yeah, I think I don't. I think it's a fair question,
you know. I think it's just wide receivers. We've talked
about it that they are all cut from a different cloth.
So what is Josh Palmer compared to what is Quentin Johnston?
They're different, you know. Josh does not have the same
sort of speed or acceleration or athleticism that Quentin does.

(49:44):
Josh is a much better route runner than Johnston. Josh
has much better hands than Johnston, but he doesn't have
that extra gear after the catch. He doesn't have that
top end speed to take the top off a defense.
So it's nothing against Josh. It's just they need those things,
you know, they need the threat that this guy's going

(50:05):
to catch the ball and take it to the house.
You know, if your defense, if your defense is misaligned
and he gets a quick slant, he's got the potential
to go to the house. If you single cover him
on the outside because you're shading safety help toward Mike,
then he's got the potential to beat the corner, win

(50:27):
a jump ball, and take it to the house. So
that's nothing against Josh. It's just a different He's a
different type of receiver. So I don't think it's a
slide on Palmer at all.

Speaker 3 (50:38):
All right, Money, I think we got through most of
the questions. You know, I feel like the last few
months we've been living in this what if Austin Eckler
is not a Charger. It's very possible, who knows, maybe
he does get traded, but I'm going to assume he
is a Charger right going into the twenty twenty three number,
and I think we should just try to move forward
as if Austin is going to be on this team,

(51:00):
and we haven't really talked about his fit in Kellen
Moore's system, and we have broken down all these wide
receivers and the tight ends on this team. I'm wondering
how Kellen is going to use Austin and how different
it's going to be from how Joe Lombardi used Austin,
and I kind of alluded to it with the amount
of catches he had. I don't think he's gonna have

(51:21):
one hundred and six catches this year. But I'm wondering
what positions Kellen Moore is going to put Austin in
when he has all these other weapons on the outside.
I think it's gonna be fascinating.

Speaker 4 (51:31):
Well, one thing we know about Austin is he's incredibly strong,
you know he is, and has the ability to run
between the tackles. He shed's first contact. He's got great vision.
So again, I think whatever system Kellen wants to run,
however he wants to use Eckler, we know how much

(51:51):
he likes to run the ball, how balanced he wants
to be, and I would suspect that you're going to
see him use Austin like he used Zeke and like
he used Tony Pollard. I think Austin's plenty strong enough,
very good at absorbing contact, shaking it off, and getting
yards after contact. You know, he's a smaller back, so
you want to protect him. You know, you don't want

(52:12):
him to take too many hits and wear down. I
think if you were to ask Kellen like best case,
it's yeah, I've got a rotation just like he had
in Dallas, where he can split it fifty to fifty.
Be it Josh, be it Isaiah Spiller, you know. And
I think you'll see like you saw in Dallas, two
guys too, you know, some twenty two, some twenty one,
where you've got two backs out there, and Austin, you know,

(52:35):
starts in the backfield, motions out into the slot, maybe
goes why to the numbers, you know, forces a linebacker
out in coverage where he's really got an advantage. So
I think you're going to see a lot of that.
But I have full faith that Austin can do anything
that Kellen Moore would ask of any of the backs
he had in Dallas. There's I just cannot, for the

(52:57):
life of me envision him being traded now, it would
have had to have happened before the draft, you know,
getting twenty twenty four draft capital for a guy that
had the most touchdowns in the NFL the last two
seasons by fourteen or twelve or whatever it was.

Speaker 1 (53:12):
That's not happening.

Speaker 4 (53:13):
He's going to be a charger, and you hope they
can figure something out so he's not this gruntled and
sits out all of training camp and isn't able to
go and learn, you know, and get you know, adapted
to this new offense because it's a new coordinator, new verbiage,
new style of this wide zone, you know, a new
style of running. Like they need him there so they

(53:35):
got Hopefully they can both sides can figure something out
to make this workable this season and maybe even another
season or two beyond.

Speaker 3 (53:44):
Yeah, it's the business of football, and I get it,
but I think for Austin it's rightly it's in Austin's
best interest to get in and learn this system and
have the best year he could possibly have so he
can go into free agency next year, right and get
what he feels he deserves. Right, He'll have another crack
at it after this year, and with all these weapons

(54:06):
that we talked about throughout the last sixty minutes. I mean,
he's going to have some opportunities to do similar things
and he may not have to have the stats that
he had last year to be as effective. It's all
about winning, too, right, Like they need to have a
winning program here, and if they win a playoff game
or two and Austin has a good year, I tell

(54:27):
you what, that probably means more to teams than just stats.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
You know, stats are hope.

Speaker 4 (54:32):
So you know, it's unfortunately Austin I think, recognizes the
state of the NFL and he recognizes you know, I
need I need to get my money. You know, I've
got to be able to get my money because the
reality of me getting it after next year probably I've
got to sign that deal before I turn thirty. You know,
it's bad enough past the age of twenty eight when

(54:55):
you're a running back. But you know when you're talking
about when you're talking about Austin as a run back,
he is. I just want to make sure I got
it right.

Speaker 3 (55:02):
He is.

Speaker 4 (55:04):
So he'll be twenty eight. He's actually, Oh it's funny.
He's on the same date as my wife. He'll be
twenty eight in a week, So he wants to get
that deal before he gets on the other side of
twenty eight twenty nine.

Speaker 3 (55:16):
You know.

Speaker 4 (55:17):
That's why, like I said, I hope there's a way
that they can figure this out, give him a year
or something like that.

Speaker 1 (55:22):
But who knows.

Speaker 3 (55:25):
Yeah, you know, his first two years in the League two.
I mean just you look at the production, it's it's
increasingly going right. But in terms of carries, it's not
like he's he's never close to like two fifty three hundred.
I mean his you know, he does so much in
the past game too, but just looking at.

Speaker 4 (55:44):
It, he'll think that carries its touches. Yeah, it's the touches,
you know, but the receptions. You're talking about what two
hundred and four kres, So it's three hundred and eleven touches.

Speaker 1 (55:54):
It's a lot. Yeah, that's that's a lot.

Speaker 4 (55:57):
So I can understand guy wants his money three hundred
eleven touches at twenty seven.

Speaker 1 (56:01):
Man, help me out here.

Speaker 3 (56:02):
Yeah all right, dude. Well that was a fun little
little recap of the draft. As always, guys, you guys
make the show go. Appreciate the support and all the questions.
We love doing that. I like doing doing that like
once a month. Man, just sure, of course, great gains.
And now I guess we'll continue to dive into the draft.

(56:23):
But we got the schedule release coming up. We could
dive into the games. The matchup's funny.

Speaker 1 (56:27):
I know it's from tomorrow, is schedule release.

Speaker 2 (56:31):
Yeah, week from tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (56:32):
We'll probably do this, Probably have to do this, maybe
a day later next week. Make sure we get that
sweet Charger video. Whatever they're going to do this year.

Speaker 3 (56:41):
We'll react to that. It will circle. Yeah, let's see
that Friday. I think Friday would be good for that.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
Or we'll double up whatever, We'll figure it out.

Speaker 3 (56:49):
We'll figure it out. We've got a lot to talk about.
So all right, guys, appreciate you listening for Moddy. I'm Chris.
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