Late fifteen to ten Touchdoup, Welcome to Chargers Weekly, and what a special treat the broadcast team is together, even though it is his busy season. Daniel Jeremiah kind enough to join us for a little bit.
Of a preview.
We're gonna be out of the combine, so four days there and certainly way too big of an ask for DJ to swing by all of the responsibilities you'll have on the NFL network and everything surrounding that. DJ, so certainly appreciate you coming in here and giving us a little bit of a preview of what we're going to be looking at when we make our way out to Indianapolis. Going to do a daily show Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, probably multiple shows we'll have for you. So just I guess
first question overall is how's the class. The Chargers don't need a quarterback, so I don't need to focus on that, but otherwise, how is this draft class?
It's interesting, I think I would say maybe a little lopsided. There's some years where it's just kind of spread only across the board. It's a not a great year for quarterbacks. I'll start with the negative, then I'll get to the positive. So it's not a great year for quarterbacks receiver. I've got some more guys to watch there before we get there. But as we you know, stand right now in the process, i'd say it's a little bit down at the wide receiver spot. So those are the ones where it's not
quite what you'd want it to be. Now, the strength of it is, you've got defensive tackles galore. I mean, it's ridiculous. I tweeted this out the other day. I had twenty four guys at that position that I gave potential started grades. So I'm not saying slam dunk starters, but they at least had the potential to be starters. And for perspective, last year I had twelve. So it's stacked at defensive tackle. It's a good group of edge rushers.
It's running back is really really deep. Tight end has a good seven or eight deep at the tight end position. So you get kind of a feel for it there of what the strengths and weaknesses look like.
So you look at you know, let's just focus then in on the on the chargers. You talk about your defensive tackles, right, and you have, like you said, some really good ones. I was going through your top fifty and you see Kenneth Grant and Walton I'm just thinking of the guys that might be available when they pick at twenty two, right, whether it's Walter Nolan. Know there's some issues there off the field, but on the field,
incredible Kenneth Grant, Derek Harmon. Then you kind of I get into your next tier with Alfred Collins and t J. Sanders, and then I look at the free agent pool and I see a guy that just dominated on Sunday at the interior line position in terms of Milton Williams, and you think about ODIGGI zooa, Like, so, how does that work?
As someone who's been in the front office, you see what's available in the draft, you see these incredible players available in free agency, you have all this money, Like, what is that combination for what Joe Hortiz is going through?
Yeah, it's both sides of it, right.
So you've got on the side of the existing team being the Philadelphia Eagles saying, man, we love Milton Williams and that was a heck of a game, but there's a whole bunch more detackles coming up, and we're going to be able to move our money around other places, and so we wish you the best and off you go. And then if you're Joe Hortiz, you look at it and say, okay, well, we want you know, we want an impact defensive tackle. We know we can find one
in the draft here. But is this a situation where we say that would free us up, that would free us up for some of these other positions there in the first round. So literally they are taking and I'll just you know, take a card here. You are just taking a piece of paper and you're gonna write option A, option B player one player two player one player two, and you're gonna put this up on the board and you're gonna say, Okay, guys, which which package do we
like better? Do we like the veteran with the rookie or the rookie with the veteran. And that's that's what you're doing.
So what do you think, you know, let's just kind of go through that then. But just I don't know how comfortably are you know, sharing your position, considering your relationship with a lot of these guys in the front office. But Punaford heck of a year on a bargain tier tart heck of a year on a bargain deal. I feel like Morgan Fox has been just great in that room,
plays with effort, solid veteran presence. Kind of what do you make of what's available to them, you know, considering what they had last year and all this money they have to spend, and how they might go about addressing because to me, that might be position number one that they're kind of in this conundrum with Yeah.
You hear you know, we hear it with Jesse Minner the way he talks about kind of building the run wall and Puna Ford was the wall.
I mean, he was outstanding in the job that he did.
Tier Tart gave him some upfield penetration presence that they were, you know, sorely lacking. So those guys absolutely coming off
big years. I'm curious to see how it all works out because my theory, and this is from seeing this in years past, is that the high end market guys, and I think maybe Milton Williams might fall into that, they're going to get their eighteen to twenty million like that, the high end guys, even when the draft is loaded the position, some team out there is going to pay the top dollar for the top guys who's going to get squeezed is that list right below them of real
solid starting players. But I could see some team saying, you know, we can get one a similar type player in the third round this year. You know, maybe we don't dole out that money, so it could end up working out well for the Chargers and that maybe one or two or both those guys you end up getting back for in a normal year a price you wouldn't be able to get.
Them at in terms of them versus like you said that next tier on Wuzo Rique Adiggy Zuoa, DJ Hill. Does it just when you're in the room and you're building a team, is it, Hey, we got our guys, they played well. It makes more sense the money is similar or maybe even a little less. Is that kind of how it works.
I'm one hundred percent a fan of certainty. You know exactly how they fit. You know how they fit in the scheme, you know how they fit in the locker room. You know what they do well and what they struggle with. You understand how to help and cover up those things. Unless it's I mean to me, if it's even or even close to even you're keeping the guys you got I mean, it's got to be a significant improvement if you're going to swap out.
That's stick on defense then an edge. And it's interesting to see kind of you know, yours compared to some of the other big boards that I've been cross referencing, and certainly the one name and I guess it just depends on whether or not you view him as an edge, right, and that's Johah Campbell, and so kind of walk us through if let's just say, Mike Green, if James Pierce slides, if they because that's the kind of to me, that's the most interesting position group. Is Khalil Mack coming back.
I feel like he's not unretiring or he's not staving off retirement if he's not coming back, Yeah, what he do with Joey's thirty six million bucks is truly ready to be a full time star. And then I look at this group and it feels like this is a really deep group as well.
Yeah, it's a fun group. And Campbell is an interesting one because he plays both. He plays off the ball, he plays on the ball, And you're going to see the same thing at the top of this draft with Walker, with Jalen Walker, who is someone who does both plays on and off the ball.
Man.
When I watch Campbell rush, I'm sitting there and going, whoa, I could dream on that a little bit, like let him just stay out there and let him rush full time and see what he can do.
I thought he was just a really really.
Dynamic player who's long, explosive, and who can do so many different things. And you know, one of the cool things is is you watch the tape and you kind of fall in love with the player, and then you call the school and I'm talking to the guys at Alabama and They're like, I'm like, man, this guy popped like crazy. You know, I just you know what, you know,
what was the difference and how did it go? He said, this guy came in here and we had Will Campbell and then we had Gosh with the with the Vikings last year their first round pick.
Why am I blanking on his name? Money? Their edge r Miles Turner.
Oh, Miles Turner.
Yeah. So they have both those.
Guys, and You're sitting here going, well, we got two first round picks, two high first round picks. So they were like, well, we got to get this guy in the field. He's too athletic, so they move him to off the ball. He was an edge rusher in high school, they never really been an off the ball linebacker, and turned himself into a first round player as an off the ball linebacker. But I still think when I look at him, I'm like, dude, this guy could still you
might put him outside. You might have something really special with him.
So let's uh, you know what, then let's just execute this sort of that. Let's do this exercise right edge interior lineman, uh wide receive. It was Dallas Turner, by the way, Dallas Turner, that's what it center for the Indiana Pacers. There you go, there you go. So and you know what, First, let's get into the tight end group. You said seven or eight, But what's the gap? Because you have Colston Lovelan as your number seven guy, I can't remember what you had Tyler Warren.
As he's up there above him. So I have there five and seven. So I have Tyler Warren at five, I have Colston Loveland at seven. Then I have Mason Taylor at thirty five, who I love, Elijah Royos at forty nine. So those are the guys in my top fifty. But I mean that's a that's a great group and of like in terms of the value there, right man, you get if you get Mason Taylor in the second round, I mean that's I mean, he's going to catch eighty balls a year and it's going to be you know,
just reliable. He does not drop the ball. You know where he's gonna be. He's got a big catch radius. He's a really quarterback friendly target. To me, I think he's a he's going to be an outstanding value. So that's that's kind of that. Do you think he'll be there at fifty five?
I don't.
I'm I'm a little doubtful on that coming off of a strong senior ball. I'll tell you what I will. I will give you a firm yes or no after the combine. Right, so let's run, he runs, Well, he ain't gonna be there.
So let's say what like what what to you is more value getting Colston Lovelan, your number seven player at twenty two if he's sitting there, if you think he's and I don't know if you think he's gonna be sitting there, or getting let's say Taylor's gone a royo at fifty five, Like, what what sort of lines.
I would I would I would look at love one as the as the play there. Even though you have some depth and even though man we can, we don't have to take a tight end.
I think we get someone like a Royo.
You know, Fanning from Bowling Green's gonna be around in that next you know, second third round you got Ferguson from Oregon, who's an intriguing player. There's there's other guys for sure, but I don't know that you're gonna get the impact you're gonna get with Krin.
So what like, what is he? What is he compared to for people? Because it's not like there was great quarterbacking there. The numbers aren't eye popping. So like if you draft Colston Loveland, can you make that Hey, this is sort of who we compares closest to in the NFL.
Yeah, I'm gonna just do what you're not ever supposed to do in this business and compare guys to Hall of famers. But he is, like a Kelsey is the type of player that you're dealing with. I mean that's I just put tight ends and I say there's two trees. Right, You've got the Gronk tree, in the Kelsey tree. So when you look at Tyler Warren, he comes from the Gronk tree. You know, big physical seam runner can help
the run game. You know, he's gonna be just impossible to get on the ground after they catch because of his brute strength. And then you've got more of the choice route option route field players with the quickness and the suddenness. That's the Kelsey tree and that's where where levelin falls. And I just I mean, if you want to talk about matching up with him and you have Mconkie in the in the slot, good luck man like that that they are going to torture the middle of the field.
All right, So let's go to because there's a few positions and heat tight end certainly feels like one two I'd be. I'm hopeful that they'll bring back JK. Dobbins thought that was just an incredible season from him, but obviously with injury concern he ends up missing four games. You gotta sort of support that. It feels like it's a great running back draft. So when you look at running back, you know, let's say Ashton Genty's falls to
twenty two. If what do you do there. Now you've got Loveland, You've got jet Like, do you think that's a possibility that genty could fall the way to twenty two or now?
I think it's possible just because of the position he plays. I don't technically own track spikes, but if I did, I would probably put him on to run the card up to the commissioner. I love Ashton gent Man. I think he's one of the five best players in the draft. I think he's outstanding, so I would have no problem with that. But again, that's the decision and the discussion that takes place in the in the meeting room, which is, you know, similar to the one we just had, which is, okay,
we have him grated up. Here be a great value for us if we got him, but we could also fill one of these shallower pools of players with our first round pick.
No on we have backscalore in this draft. We turn around get one second or third.
So give us a couple of names to keep it for these guys, to keep it out for our listeners to and viewers here on YouTube, to keep an eye on in the in the at the combine, because like you said, it's you got the two out of out of Ohio State that we just saw perform at an incredibly high level in Judkins and Henderson. If they're available, what is that a two? Are they a third?
You know?
And then you got I mean, I can throw Skataboo as the one that everybody's excited about. I don't know what his pro prospects are, but kind of walk us through that position.
Yeah, No, I'm a Scataboo is a fun one. I think he's gonna you know, he's third. Fourth round is where he's gonna go. He's there's a chance. I was, you know, doing some homework and talking where these guys are training and talking to a bunch of folks, and it sounds like he's got a chance to run the four fives. He runs in the four fives, he'll probably
run his way into the third round. He's a good player to me when you look at the list, Treyvon Henderson's got a chance to go in the first round out of Ohio State because of the.
Jamiir Gibbs factor.
You know, people saw us a running back with big time, big time juice, explosiveness and the impact he made with Detroit, and I think there's you know, gonna be some of those comparisons with Travon Henderson.
I don't think he's as.
Loose of a runner, like quite as fluid as Jamier Gibbs, but he's got tremendous value in the past game. He's a home run hitter and really, you know, in that pass game, probably one of the best pass protecting running backs that I that I've evaluated in the last handful of years. So he's gonna go twenty to thirty five forty in that range would be my guess. If you don't take him in the first if you're the charges, you're not going to see him in the second round.
I don't think Judkins is going to be in that you know, probably mid to late two to, you know, middle three is.
The range for him.
Omarion Hampton has got a chance to go in the first round from North Carolina. He in talking to the folks where he's training money. He's two hundred and twenty three pounds, he's got six percent body fat and like all of the power explosiveness stuff he does is like in the one hundred percentile of the guys they've trained there. So he's a freak. So he's going to another one. I think with him and Henderson, both those guys are
going to go twenties thirty. So but for the charges, if you want to go down the line and find some value, I like the idea of trying to, you know, bring back JK. Dobbins and then maybe pair him with a real dynamic, explosive player, a home run hitter. And you look at you know, Dylan Samson from Tennessee, he can hit some home runs. Jayden Blue down the line from Texas, who can really catch the heck out of it out of the backfield. He's a little a little tight,
but he's got huge, huge speed. Those are a couple of interesting ones, and we'll see what Caleb Johnson runs runs from Iowa. He's a big fast runner. Kind of think of you know, if you think of the Chiefs and what they had when it was going well with them in the backfield, when you're like you look back there and you go, okay, oh that's what that seventh round pick. Oh my gosh, I can't believe that we found this gem. But you know, it's there's limits there.
It's just straight line speed. It's a little bit tight, but man, you hit a crease and you're gone.
All right, let's go corner. Because certainly the front office, led by Joe Ortiz and Chad Alexander, found two gems in Hart and Target guys that you put out there, and certainly, you know, maybe not elite level corners, but great production. Especially tar He's still ball production. You would assume going into next season they're they're in the conversation as starters one outside. Maybe Tarheb's is your slot corner there or your nickel corner, however you wanted to name him?
What about this?
I mean, you have a guy at corner in Barron that every other big board, I don't see him anywhere near where you have. You got him at seven. I got other boards that have him in the forties. So kind of walk us through that player, and I would imagine that's going to change right after the combine and as we get closer to the draft.
I've done this a couple of times last few years.
So I did it with Sauce Gardner and it was like, oh my gosh, you're crazy. I did it with Devin Witherspoon and he can't have that guy up there.
He's tiny. What are you gonna do with him.
This tape is so good and I'm just watching these guys going through one after another, and he is unbelievable as a nickel and coverage. He's got incredible ball skills. He does not his tackles. If you watch that Super Bowl and saw Cooper Degene and what his impact was in that game, this is a similar type of player and Baron in what you're getting there. And if I think the league had a do over, maybe Cooper Degene doesn't fall to the fortieth pick. Brian Branch. Look at
the impact that he's had with the Detroit Lions. For some reason, the league has decided, oh, we're not gonna you know, we're not going to take those guys up high. I think it's idiotic. His tape is outstanding and right you know, the question was, Wow, he's playing the nickel because he can't really run, you know, That's that's why
they put him in there at nickel. And I'm like, well, I don't see any issues with him running when I'm watching him on tape and when I talk to the folks that are training him, and the second number starts with a three, I don't know that seems.
Good to me.
Yeah, so behind him, you have him ahead of Will Johnson. Everybody's got Will Johnson is like a top seven.
And Will Will could Will could. You know, Will could easily end up going ahead of him just because he's so big.
My Will project is, once I get through watching all these guys for the combine, I'm gonna circle back to twenty three tape because the twenty four wasn't as good, and I want to go back and see him at his best because there is some precedent there. When you look at Derek Stingley junior, you know his last year at LSU, Right, it's not as good, but the guy knew he's going to be a top ten pick. The team ended up not having a great year, and his play kind of fell off a little bit and he
missed some games. It's the exact same thing with Will Johnson. So that may bite one of those deals when I go back to twenty three tape and maybe he slides that up again.
All right, we know you got to get out of here. Let's wrap this up. Interior offensive lineman guards centers, and certainly you know we know that we've heard tip of the spear, We've heard what coach our boss said, and and kind of what one of my favorite names out of the Senior Bowl, Gray's Abel. You know that we heard you talking about him an awful lot, but kind of walked us through the interior lineman in the draft versus free agency with Freeze and I know that Dolman
I think is the center out of Atlanta. So just kind of how that matches up free agency versus the draft.
Yeah, I mean, I I think it's a better interior group than it is a tackle group in this coming draft. But I Gray Zabel was one of my favorites. You know, he was one that's you know, I feel like I'm going out on a limb when i put him in the second round, like in my top fifty in the forties, and then you go to the Senior Bowl, I'm like, well,
actually that was too low on him. Someone who has five position flexibility, who did what Quinnon Mitchell did at corner in the Senior Bowl, which was go from a you know, a non power school from Toledo and just dominate. And he did the same thing out North Dakota State. So he's someone I think could be in the mix. I think he'd be a plug and play center for the Chargers and set it and forget it, you know, for the next decade.
It would that have to be a first round pick.
You're not going to see him at fifty five, No chance.
It's it's kind of like a Graham Barton deal from last Yes, yep, exactly. Just watch that steady, steady rise and steady climb. Booker from Alabama is the guard that I'm kind of enamored with. He is big, he's powerful, the intelligence in the leadership stuff that you get from the school when you talk to him off the charts, you know, when they tell me he's the Will Anderson of the offense and JC Latham should give him half
of his signing bonus. I'm like, Okay, that stands out a little bit as the kind of guy you'd like.
All right, wrap with this super quick? Are you comfortable doing it? If they're all available? What makes sense to you? At twenty two Coleston Loveland? You know they did Booker, Campbell, you know all those guys are bart barn They're all available. What lines up best for you, gent y?
Yeah, all those guys. I'll tell you what I would.
I would take Ashton genty and I know what's the running back, and I get it. I just think you give you know, you give Justin Herbert a weapon like that all of a sudden. Now, not only is he, you know, popping some big runs, but he's a check down when nothing's there, and he's going to help in a major way. So I just think he would be a dynamic presence in that offense.
All right, Uh, he's busy, he's got to get out of here. Hop on another call. We appreciate you squeezing us in. DJ. We'll see you down there at the combine and maybe catch up with you afterwards and see how everything is managed to shake itself out after the week in Indianapolis.
And by the way, you.
Got a great example there of as I'm jamming three hundred and twenty four new names, I don't even know what your name is.
I'm just you know, I know I work with you, but I have no right what your name is.
Harbor right above my Yeah, there you go.
Appreciate it, DJ, Thanks buddy.
All right, there he goes, he's out. He's onto his next assignment, and we will be back again in two weeks from the combine. Next week, we'll be right back here on Thursday for Chargers Weekly. Everybody, thanks for download and listening and passing it along and everything, and certainly a big thank you to DJ for doing it.