Late fifteen to ten touched up.
All right, Welcome to Chargers Weekly. Here at the boat with jaliel Adaie post draft, the post press conference, getting ready for the first bit of offseason activities, rookie camp, all that stuff has come up in the next couple of weeks. We got our list of eighteen undrafted free
agents that have been brought in. But Jalil, since it was pretty much Chris and me doing the post round draft wrap up, figure, it's important to get you and on this thing and kind of talk about your thoughts on the hall that Joe Ortiz and Chad Alexander and all those guys came up with and what they're walking into the season with in terms of rookies. Just maybe your overall perspective on all the guys that they.
Got, all right, when you just just look at the guys that they picked, right, they failed avoid in every position that we even talked about, you know, previously weeks on the pod right right, starting off with Marion Hampton. You just see who he is. We talked about him several times, big physical running backs, quick fast, he checks all the boxes, right, He's a guy that you know, Jim Harball and those guys want to build this offensive around they want a big, physical running back, and they
got him in with the first round pick. We talked about it before. We talked about the d tackle Mari right. So he's big, stout, keeps his shoulder square to the line of scrimmage right. He plays very square. He has he.
For people that are listening to they may not know what that means when you.
So when you play square right as a defensive lineman, you never want your shoulders turned to the sideline right, because then you just get washed by and you create lanes for running backs to run. He's a guy that plays with physical solocent and gravity. His hands are on he's square to the line of scrimmage, so he can shock and shed at any direction that he wants to, and he does that really good. I watched a lot of his film when they drafted him. I was like, okay,
let me look at him. And he's double teamed a lot, and he's holding his anchor that coach call it the anchor point, right, So he's eating up to and then he's able to get skinny when he needs to to defeat the block and make a lot of plays in the backfield. Yeah, and I think just just looking at their top three, we talked about they like hit it out the park and you look at receiver, right, you look at Trey and what they did with Trey Harris,
big physical guy, and he's in the SEC. So he's seeing the best of the best defensive backs weekend and week out. So when you're watching that film to be able to evaluate him, it's not a hit or miss. It's like, listen, he's going against top competition weekend, week out, very very fast. Gets for being as tall he is and lank as he is, he gets in and out
of his breaks really really well. And then you move over to Kyle Right, we talked about him and I was like, hey, uh, SEC defensive player of the year in the conference and in the nation. To fall that far, I just I don't know how he felt that far, but I'm happy that he did. Right. We talked about him being in the package, the NASCAR package, and you have just your your guys that are just going on third downs. We're not worried about to run, We're just
coming after the quarterback. And I think they did a really really good job just addressing those positions that we talked about a lot of times throughout prior to the draft and going to get those guys. And then you look at the tight end position, right, we talked about that a lot and we were, hey, it was gonna
be first round, its gonna be second round. But they did their work, they did a due diligence and they found a guy who they feel like, you know, we said it was a deep tight end draft, right, and they and it was, and they were able to get their first four picks that they wanted, well they think that that they needed. And then he was still he was there, he was available floor to guy. I know
the high school. He went to a very prestigious high school, big body type guy, big rated catching radius for for for Herbert. So I think they knocked it out the park man, I really do. I can go on and on if you want me to money.
I wanted to put it out there for yalation.
Yeah, I'll start, you know what, then.
Then I'll kind of sort of dig in. Now we'll go player by player, because certainly the one thing that that you notice, especially you know, the position that you played at safety, specifically boxed safety kind of like when you look at Amar and Hampton. The first thing that jumps out is when he gets an south man, it's all gas. It's it is a freight truck. I mean,
it's it's a tractor trailer coming at you. Challenges of being, you know, a defensive back when you see that come through the line with the explosion he has the burst that he has and why that is challenging for you.
Yeah, and it's crazy. He's a he's a North Carolina guy. And the first thing I did I text Trey Boston, who is a very north He is a strong North North Carolina guy, played in North Carolina. He's still heavily involved with that program. And I said, give me your two cents. He said, jeltl He's one of those running backs that we would watch on film and we did
not want to tackle on Sunday. That was his exact words, right, And it's just that physical presence when you come down into the box as a box safety, which what I did majority of my career. You it's almost like a derreck Henry. You want to get them before the will start turning, right, If you can meet him at the line of scrimmage, if you can meet him before you know he gets his pad square and he's coming downhill.
That's idea when you have a back like a Martin Hampton who can get in and out of holes quickly. He reads, he reads the line, he reads the linebackers, he's shooting downhill. It's tough for a five ten two hundred type two hundred pound type safety six foot one ninety five safety to really want to go in there and stick your nose in there from four quarters and when and when that physical battle, it's just it's challenging, and it truly is so like he is what the
Chargers build. They're franchise on what Harbor bills. His franchise on is being tough, physical and tough as nails, and that's what he brings to the table.
Yeah, I mean, that's just so much there. I think the oh drafted running back in the first round value and look, values are starting to get so I wouldn't say out of whack, but you know they got nase for an incentive laden deal that could push it to like nine million. But you see the Trey McBride contract, and I just kind of think about that conversation around Quinton a couple of years ago, and it's like ah, you know, tight end. There's just not enough value there.
And it's like, well, Trey McBride just got nineteen million bucks a year, George Kittle just got twenty million dollars a year. Like the the economics of football to me are so far beyond just not taking the right guy like it just does, especially at twenty two, like, there's no there to me, there's you're already getting a financial If Omari and Hampton is what we think he can become, you know you're going to get the bump right away.
If we believe that he can be a top ten back in this league, a top eight, a top five back in this league, then yeah, I mean it's it's worth it. If you take him in the top ten, you're going to get financial value out of that. And I think the other thing too that we brought up Julil and just kind of from your experience being in the locker room when you hear a coach and a coaching staff and just kind of the overall foundation of a team is physical brutality. That's what we want to
do week in and week out. This to me, when he walks through that door and you're a teammate and you see what he looks like. It's not it's not five ten one ninety five, it's six foot twenty five. Like I would assume that goes a long way, like, oh, yeah, this is what coach said, we're gonna be mm hm clearly with our first round pick. This is what we're gonna be.
Yeah, It's like, okay, well it's not. He's just not blowing hot air. He's he means what he's saying. And I think the guys know that already with Coach Harball and what he says he means. He goes about it every each and every day, I mean coaching here last year with the coaching internship. I seen him behind closed doors. I've seen him in meetings and what he's preaching to the choir in the public. He's preaching to the choir behind closed doors. And like you said, when you see
a guy come in. I keep talking about it, the physical as the physical aspect of Martin Hampton. How big he is, how physical he is, I'm telling you now.
And I was a hitting safety. I prided my game on being physical, right, being able to come into the box play after play after play, and the only thing that's more demoralizing than having to chase around Lamar Jackson is having to tackle of running back for four quarters, who you know, wants all the smoke, who he wants contact, He's seeking out contact, and you got to make a business decision. It's like, hey, do I want to do I want my uh lay him to stay in tact
I want to make this tackle right. And it's a true thing. Like it's guys, look at these players like the superheroes, but they're all human at the end of the day. And when you walk into the stadium with a team that coach is building right now that's very physical. You can have all the fancy buzz and whistles, you can have the speed outside, you can have the jet sweeps.
But when you got a team that's coming in with the offensive line like the Chargers do right, and of running back not just one, but two that are very physical runners like when Mario, when Marion comes out of the game, here comes Na. It's like you're not getting a break, right. So when you have that that wears and tears, not only like the four quarters, but over the season on teams.
Yeah, and you know that that actually is if you were going through strengths and weaknesses. Like that's one of the concerns with with a Marian is he sought out contact. He wants hits, and it's like love it, appreciate it. It's maybe just let's go fifty Percent's dial it back a little bit because obviously, but the crazy thing is, guy, not only do not miss a game? Really snap right, dude was just he just would bounce right back up and I think I'm right back at it.
And I think that's why Najir hair is being here is so big for him because he's coming in with a veteran. He's coming in with a guy who's built similar to him, similar running style right in a way coming out of Alabama, and then you see his career he's been healthy. Yeah, right, So he's a guy that he can he's a vet that he can lean on and say, so, what is it? What are you doing to take care of your body? Who works on you?
What's your regimen? How do you see this? Like, Okay, if you're running on the sideline and there's two defensive backs coming at you, this isn't college. Maybe gain an extra yard and step out to save your body from that contact. Right now, if you're at the goal line, that's a different situation. You're low on your shoulder, You're gonna do whatever it takes to get that extra end
to get get into the end zone. But he's coming into a situation where a veteran that he can learn from and I think will benefit a lot in the long run.
Yeah, and I think you know, three down back, I'm talking about a guy that had twenty five or more touches in eight of his twelve games, and he's eighty career targets, two drops, and I know the Chargers posted it on their social media feed. Go ahead and watch his past, bro, Like that's so for all the people that are like, well, should take the receiver and take the back. It was a deep running back draft. It's like,
not like this. There's not the guys that can do it all that can catch the ball, that can pass pro they can be a hammer that have explosiveness. I wish thought I had it, but I know we had a ton of explosive runs, which you know, explosives consider ten or more yards, and I think he was second or third in explosive runs. So it's it's everything you know, And I think that's But for me, we've already kind of talked a lot about Marinehampton, so we don't need
to get too deep into it. But to me, it just kind of set the tone of this is what we're all about, this is who we're gonna get. And then you mentioned Trey Harris, like, if he doesn't get hurt, he's probably a first rounder. If not, he's in that that same window of where you know, Higgins got drafted right there at the start of Day two as a guy that was one hundred and fifty yards ahead of
everybody else in the NCAA when he went down. I mean he was so he was on pace for sixteen eighteen hundred yard season, just mind boggling numbers in the SEC playing for All miss And you know, again just speaking to what you did out there, Juliel, build the room, you know, build the wide receiver room. We always talk about it in terms of a basketball team. Right to me, you get you now have your power forward. Trey Hair is a power forward man. He likes to be physical,
he likes to mix it up. When you're bumping and moving downfield, he's the guy that's going up and getting the ball. He enjoys that, and I think people look at the time the four to five and it's like you're perfect, this perfect thing for you to share. Like when you're six three and you're a four or five guy, what's that look like to it?
And it looks like it looks like low four four. All you see is knees and elbows right like literally that's all you see. Like he's eating up your ground. It doesn't matter about his speed, because let's not get it twisted. Like a lot of people like to look at the forty and be like, oh, he didn't run a four three. He didn't run a four four. If you're six three and you're running four five, four to five is moving, yeah, okay, Like at the end of
the day, it's moving. Like I've played ten years in the league and I've played against four to three guys. I've played against four four guys that played against four five guys. At the end of the day, like if they can get in and out of their breaks, it's it all looks the same, right, And that's what he does really, really well. He's a big, physical receiver, but he can run double moves, he can run posts, he can run post digs, he can run. He can give
you a dig I seen on one highlight. They motioned the motion one in he was at two, and then they ran one on an over right. And technically, when you watch film one on the over you're clearing the zone for a dig. It's called a dag right. So one ran the over right. So everybody at every corner and every safety is thinking, this guy is running the dig. He hit him with a dig, dropped his hips, and came back out for like a deep out completion. Like
that's not an easy route. You don't run that with everybody. Everybody's not able to do that, right. So when you look at his frame, you look at his size, and you put a four or five speed behind it. Look, that's that's a that's a good packet that you have. And I know everyone wants to four to three and the four to four, but I've played and I didn't run a four to five, and I've covered wide receivers that were four fours and some guys have football speed. And that's why you got to watch the film.
Yeah, that's something that George said in the press or too, And it's so important because people now have access to so much advanced analytics and data that they're like, well, it was all hitches and it was a limited route tree. It was three routes and it's like and Hortie, you know, Joe put it perfectly. He said, yeah, but watch the watch, just watch the routes that aren't hitches and goes and curls and you see it and it's exactly what you just described. Can he dip and can he get in
and out of his breaks? How smooth is it? Changing speeds? Building speeds back up? And he's he's got all of that one hundred yards or more ten times out of his twenty games. And again to me, lad as a two guard, he can do it all. Man, He's gonna score. He can play D. He can handle the ball if you want him to. Now you've got your power forward Q. I think we're trying it. Can he be that three
and D guy? You know? Is that kind of and then you get KeAndre Lambert Smith in the fifth round and that's kind of your point guard, right, Smaller kind of gets pushed around a little bit, but if he gets free, lookout, man, that's where that that four to three time shows up. You mentioned Gadsden and you know I think in terms of tight end, you look at what they have. You got Tucker Fisk and block his tail off. You got Will Disley, one of the three
best blocking tight ends in the league. You needed the athlete, I mean, because I felt like oftentimes we talked a lot about man, it'd be great to get Stone Smart out there a little bit more and get a little more reps for the athlete at the tight end position. This is a joker, you know, this is this is a guy that was a wide receiver converted tight end fifty eight percent of his snaps and the slot thirty two percent in line, nine percent out wide. Like he's
he's your athlete. Don't talk about his blocking. They say he's capable blocker, that he's fine, You're not turning it down. But that's that's what he is.
And then it's crazy because you have two catching tight ends or you have tighter conkling in the game and you have Okay, we're looking at twelve personnel, right, so who who is the safety going to come down to? Now? Teams have to play you in nickel, which means you have to take a lineback out of the game, but in twelve personnel, you create extra running lanes, so you still have a strong running game. Now, if you come in and you stay with Bass, then we spread you
out and now we're attacking you in the past. If you coming with Nickel trying to defend the past because we have two pass catching tight ends, now you can run the game. So it's it's chess, man, it's not checkers, and the Chargers are really really good at doing that.
Yeah, So those are the offensive players. Branson Taylor, you know, I wish I could share. I don't know if you want to share anything. On the big tackle, A lot of Pittsburgh looks like he's just trades. Giant dude, two year starter, two knee injuries probably one of the reasons why he slipped. But you know, former basketball players six six three, twenty thirty three and.
Charms, that's what do you have for you. So there we go.
Those are your offensive players. Get to the defense, and obviously on a bigger picture, the defense as a whole. With Jesse Minner, well what a treat Julia coach Minner joining us right now. And I'm going to start with this coach because I bite your style. Man, I don't know if I don't know if coaches get to choose their own gear, but he was wearing a quarter zip last year and I had my eyes on it, like I got a figure off how to find that. They
took me a while. I finally tracked it down, got one, And now you're coming with the best looking hoodie that we've seen?
Is that all you? Is that what they get? No?
This is uh, you know, shout out to the equipment room. You know, they give us the good stuff and like to wear what's comfortable and what sort of fits fits my style. So it's a good give us great options, and so shout out to them.
Yeah, it's a good style.
I mean it's the powder of blue, I think. I mean, you're a good looking dude, but the power blue and the yellow, that's a combination.
That I have.
It looks good on anybody, no doubt, no doubt.
We saw just I'll start with some of the free agents that signed, and it was interesting listening to Benjamin Saint Chu's kind of talk about how we got here and obviously starting at Michigan. And but the one thing that really stood out is something you hear a lot, and he's like, I just you know, I know how important. This moment in my career is a pivot point, and coach Minner just seems to always have guys in the right spot and doing what what are their strengths? Kind
of take us through how you do that. There's so many different guys. How can you get all of them to be in the right place and doing the right things that play to their strengths.
I mean, it's a player driven game, and I think I think when you realize that, you understand that. I don't know if as a young coach I fully understood that it's about it's about taking the people that you have available and not complaining about what you don't have, not worrying about what you might have the next year. It's like, what do we have for this this particular moment, what's available to us? What can they do well? What are their strengths? Where do we need to maybe protect
them at times? And to me, that's just how how try to learn the game. And and so it's not it's not magical, it's not always perfect. But I think I think that guys now have a belief in how we play and what we're trying to do that uh, they make me look good more than I make them look good.
So great questions of great answer. So, coach, I got a question for you. I was talking on the podcast before you came on. We were covering Jamari right, and I talked. I was saying, how he plays really really square to the line of scrimmage, and Money was like, well, explain that to you know the is who don't understand
what being playing square means? Right? Can you explain in just a better depth than I did, how much it means to have a guy who can take up to play square to the line of scrimmage low send the gravity and what that can do by creating a new line of scrimmage for your defense.
Yeah, to me, it's it's upfront. Is about, you know, creating a new line of scrimmage, creating knock back on
the offensive line. And so what what Jamari is able to do is at times play with penetration through gaps and shooting gaps, at times play square, take on double teams, and when when we talk about playing square and big, it's like if you were if you were watching the game from the end zone, behind our behind our defense, in my opinion, to be good, you would you would want to be able to read everybody's jersey number as the plays going on, and guys that get turned, guys
whose shoulder turn you have more of an opportunity to get washed, get pushed down by offensive line, which creates movement for them. They're now creating movement, they're creating a new line of scrimmage. And so the ability to play square knock the offensive line back clears things up for the second level, clears things up for the third level. And everything about being good on defense starts with the ability having guys up front to be.
Able to do that.
And so we're super excited about him and the guys we added in free agency, some of our returning players that we feel we can be improved on the D line as well.
If we just stick with Jamari. It's you know, it's funny. Is someone you know, we cover the draft and it's all the build up and you've got months, so you've got a million different This guy's top one fifty and this is the depth and how they rank, and it just seemed like when Jamari got picked based on where he was slotted on all of those lists, everybody just start they lit up, They glow. Hey, you watch Derek Carr and this guy pops off the tape. It's when
you described him, it sounded like Poona Ford. It almost sounded like you were describing exactly what Poona did. So how do you identify those guys? And why judging by the contract you got poon On last year and where you drafted Jamari, why maybe are they not seen valued is high?
Yeah, I'm not sure about the last part.
I think you know, teams certainly certainly have their own style of evaluations, their own style of defense that they're trying to play for us. It's like you've got to be big enough to hold up, so there's a size requirement needed. And then to me, it's like, do you have good enough feat to be able to be athletic to push the pocket, to win one on ones on
guards or centers in the passing game. And when you watch his film, you know he's it's really cool because he's played really in two different systems.
In college.
He played at Houston in a very penetrating get up the field, calls havoc. He was very successful doing that. And then he goes to Oregon, a defensive system that you know I have seen a bunch over the years on tape, their guys play square at times, their two gapping. They also do some movements. And so what he's been asked to do the last two years and been able to put on tape really jump off the tape at us.
As you mentioned, I mean, yeah, we we're watching a lot of a lot of times it happens you're watching a guy, another guy starts showing up.
On the tape.
Then you then you do your evaluation on him, and it just you know, sort of just makes everything make make great sense of the type of player he is. To me, it's great value for us at the spot we got him at, you know. And and I think he's got a chance to come in and be immediate contributor.
I do.
I do see some similar qualities to Poona and his skill set and and major shout out to Puna Ford. I mean the way the way that he played this past year. He took a chance on us as coaches, as an organization. Uh, super happy for him and his family for for what he was able to get.
And so it's like, yeah, you.
Do got to find a find a guy that can maybe replace those things. And feel great about Jamari and excited to get him here over this next couple of weeks.
Just speaking to Poona and getting the deal, and like you said, great, I mean, played his tail off and was just an incredible reason for the team success. How does that help you in free agency when something like that happens and a guy ends up getting a deal like that, coming here on a prove it deal.
Yeah, you know, I think we had a couple guys like that.
Yeah. Really, you know, I think Kristin Folten the same thing.
Man.
Just just the respect and love I have for both those guys when they come in. You know, you when you go through a season together, you become really really close. I mean you're you're in the trenches, you're counting on each other, you're working together, you're working really hard. And so both those guys, you know, we kind of pointed
out of like, hey, let's get him here. Yeah, they were certainly on maybe prove it type of contracts that whatever that is, and both certainly have now you know, help help their own futures, their own families futures with the deals that they got.
So so it does it makes you.
Know, like like Ben talking earlier, you know, it makes him see a couple of those type of guys, and it's like, Okay, now I'm kind of I kind of want to put myself in that position. And so, uh it's something that we did talk about with some of the guys of the ability to come here and and hopefully be put in position to take advantage of your
skill set. And yeah, so it was a good selling point having a few guys like that, and then and then you know, and then ultimately you know, Elijah and was kind of in the same boat, and that was when we were we were able to re sign. So you always you always want to try to try to resign all those guys. The way it works, you can't resign everybody. That's just the nature of salary cap and
and uh, the way the league works. But uh, man, just happy for those guys, Happy for those guys and how they played them and their families now, happy that we got some of them back, uh, and then happy that we're able to kind of add some new ones and see if we can see if we can do that for a couple more guys this year.
I'm sure you can't coach, you can uh. So I'm late. I was undrafted, right, and obviously safety, and you guys played a lot of safeties with the safety rotation with Dringwin, Elijah A. Lowhi allouned during to play close to the line of scrimmage. And for those who may not be from Marrie with r J Mickens right a six round
draft pick out of Clemson. And if you're RJ and you're watching this this podcast and you want an opportunity to make this squad you'r a late round draft pick, you see that they do use safeties a lot in this In his defense, obviously, special teams is majority of what he's going to get the opportunity to show what he can do. But what are you looking for in a young safety? Like how versatile does he? Does he
have to be? What do you see and what makes you light up about a young safety like this guy? I trust him. I want to see him out there make plays.
Yeah, and and and kind of the way the way that I look at safeties is there's there's a couple of different types. There's the types that are more maybe back guys first, where when you're playing split safeties and and guys in the post they have the ability to be an eraser, they have ball skills, they have anticipation, they're really good tacklers in the open field. That's what I see with RJ. He also does have the versatility, so he's kind of got a little bit of combination
of both types of guys. But you know, you look at our roster and it's and really all three of those guys have some versatility, but a couple of them are maybe built better to stay back to not be as close at times. They can still get the guys down if they break through. They got great route anticipation, they got great ball skills, they got great communication skills, and then you got a guy like DJ, where the closer you can get that guy to the ball, the
better he is. And it doesn't matter if you just knew where the ball was going, you'd want to put him at the point of attack. And so that's what we try to do with him. Teams know that, so at times they do things away from him or whatever. But he is really impactful when he's up close, when he's attacking, when he's playing fast and physical and free.
He's great in the run game. So when you need when you're playing with some of these lighter boxes that by playing split safety you need a nickel or a guy from the perimeter that can come in late and be a really physical presence in the run game. And so you know, we have a lot of versatility now in that room.
RJ.
You mentioned it special teams, but also just hey, come in, learn those backspots first. I think when you learn that first, and then and then maybe have the ability to move forward as he develops.
One thing during the draft that you'll hear and I just feel, you know, I'm sure fans love it, but there's so much coming at them, is there? Oh, this is a great corner for them because they play zone x percent of the time. They play a lot of quarters and and so I look at at bridges and just kind of looks like a Pressman corner. And then they say, oh, the Chargers play more zone than almost. So kind of walk us through if you don't mind.
We love kind of doing this with people that listen and watch they as people are talking about these how they describe you versus how you see yourself and what you're looking for in a corner in a zone corn, a boundary corner, a pressman corner, and why you're drafting these guys are signing these guys.
You know, it goes back a little bit to the first question of like you take what you have and you utilize what their skill sets are. So you know, if I'd been in rooms where you got a bunch of really good man guys, guess what our man percentages would probably be a lot higher. So I think you're I think at corner you're always trying to draft guys that can play man first, that have that ability to match up on all the elite receivers that we have
to defend, but also have some sense. And I don't think you can be a scheme where you play exclusive against the quarterbacks that we play against. It doesn't matter what the coverage is. You can't play the same coverage over and over again without them eventually figuring out the holes, the weak spots, whatever. So you know, whether you're spinning zones or whether you're spinning man. To me, it's like, it's what you have, it's what your players are good at, it's what they're best at.
It's what you know.
Maybe in a situation where you can sprinkle something in that you haven't done as much because it may.
Catch them by surprise.
So I would like to play more man, but I also I'm also gonna always do what our guys do well and try to put them in position to be successful. So when when we're looking at corners in the draft, I do think it starts with the ability to play man, but also having some sense. He is a very versatile piece in the secondary. He has started games at both corner and safety. He's a really good open field tackler, and and so that ability once again all these guys
to move around to play different positions. When you're at this level and you know from being it's there's there's a numbers game, and you may have ten dbs on your roster for an entire season, and you're gonna have
guys that go down. And I've always told Clink and I our secondary coach works so well together because if our if our starting whatever safety or corner goes down, I want the next best defensive back into the game, and it and it's whatever whoever that is, whatever position they're on, pakersand the next best guy into the game. So guys that have the versatility, you know, Ben's the same way Ben's played in the slot before, he's played outside.
D Jack has played all over the secondary and his time. Uh tar Heeb did that as a rookie, and so really just the versatile pieces. Uh but make no mistake about it. I do think at corner it starts with being able to cover people. And uh so there's a little bit of like, well they're a zone team, and I hope you know that stays out there as the narrative.
We'll keep pushing it.
Most definitely, I got one more for Kyle Canard right. SEC Player of the Year, National Player of the Year falls around four And to me, I was telling the money, I think he's one of the steals of the draft, just what he brings in aspect of past rushing. When you look at a guy like him, and obviously I don't from what I've watched, he's not every right now, He's not a first and second down guy. I see him as like a NASCAR package guy, right, pin your
ears back, get after the quarterback third down. Do you see that's Do you see the similarities in what I'm saying about him when you watch his tape when you evaluated him and what you're getting out of him as a pass.
Rusher, Yeah, I mean you know, there's no there's nothing that replaces production. And when you look at his production in the SEC, SEC, you know, when you got to me, it's like there's there's the big ten in the SEC. However you want to rank him, I'm not. I'm staying out of that argument. But the SEC always leads the
NF the draft and picks. Of course, you know they had a tackle go with the fourth pick in the draft that this guy lined up against in rush against and had some really good opportunities, some really good one on ones. And so the production speaks for itself.
You don't.
You don't become SEC Defensive Player of the Year or win the Nigirsky Award if you're not a really dominant player in that conference.
And uh so I do.
I do think his path early is as a rusher, but I also think his game really translates to to how we play on every down. He's walking into a room with two really strong veterans to learn from, a young guy that's a sending that's also a guy to learn from, and I think there's a lot of similarities, maybe not in their play style, but truly super productive college player and the sack numbers and things like that. Same thing with Kyle, and so I think you know,
Kyle was at another school, an older player. Sometimes those factors, for whatever reason, may hurt a guy sliding in the draft, But we couldn't be more excited to get him whatever whatever spot we were in. That's a guy that I know myself and Dylan Roney, who works with our edges, we had targeted as a guy we really liked and so super excited to get him and excited to see the impact that I think he'll make for us.
You kind of two other draft picks sort of, I mean, just based on playing time in Colston and a boy Be so kind of walk us through their development. I mean, Colston's different because of the injury, but a boyd Be. It felt like coach Elston had said, hey, this is probably a developmental pross he total set right after the draft, just kind of where he is and what the view is for each of those guys going into this year.
Yeah, justin start with Justin. I mean, this guy, you know, I know, I know, he's a competitor, and anytime you're a competitor and you don't play as much as your competitive self wants you to play, there can be frustrating times. I give him a lot of credit for keeping his head down, working, developing, getting better.
As the season went on.
And after the season, you know, some of some of the conversations were just around the ability to make a big jump from year one to year two, and so many guys do that. I think it's it's it's more rare to have the rookies come in and have success, maybe like the corners were able to do, and it's more it's more normal to get your feet wet a little bit as a rookie and now you know what it's like, and now you develop, and now your second
year you really step in there. So you know, not to put super high expectations on Justin uh, but we have a we do have high expectations for him.
I could not be.
More proud and excited of the work that he's put in. He's put on twenty plus pounds since the end of the season. He's trained with coach Herb quite a bit, which I'm really excited about because I know the impact that he can have on guys in their in their development. And so he's in a great place right now. He's he's got another really good room. But now I think he's he's in a better position physically to do some
of the things that we need him to do. And he's in a great place going into year or two to to be able to help.
Us, right.
And then obviously with Junior.
Just yeah, Junior, you know, I think similarly. And then that's the when you when you pick a guy third round, you have a couple older linebackers on the team, you know, I think at this time last year, I mean didn't really know the development that dayon the track, that dayon might go on. Obviously super excited about him and what
he was able to do. And and so Junior, uh kind of kind of suffered a few I don't want to call him flukes, because nothing's really a fluke, but he had an appendectomy right before camp started, missed most of training camp in and out with a few things.
He's another one that he's spent a lot.
Of time uh here, spent a lot of time with Coach Herb getting getting back to kind of the training that I know he's used to and getting his body right. And another guy that and you said it, I I told the defensive staff, I mean, I really feel like in the front seven, it's really for four draft choices, four young guys where we needed to add younger pieces.
When you just look at the future of the roster and how it's built, so super excited about both those guys, and both will have major opportunities to help us.
All right, get you on this just a quick one. I know, defensive side of the ball, but you try to figure out who all these undrafted free agents are and going through and watching, I don't think I've ever been so excited on a highlight pack at just Stebo Clots and those full back blocks. I mean, I don't know if you had a chance to is there is
there any reason to get that excited about it. I mean, I know it's not the most physical conference in the Big twelve, but man, that dude just wrecked people as a full back. It was a lot of fun to watch.
I mean, those guys are hard to find, and I mean there's you know, you look at you look at a couple of the top fullbacks in the NFL, and it's it's people taking people from other positions trying to train them to do that, which which obviously we've done with Scott and he did a great job as a two way player last year, you know, kind of filling that role. But anytime you get you get some guys
like that. You know, just excited to see it in training camp, you know, once the pads are on and and uh see the see the physicality of players like that.
When you when you when.
You build an offense like we do, it only makes the defense better because you can't be a physical defense without practicing against a physical offense. And so I think we have a great benefit practicing against what our guys do, both in the run game, in the past game justin Herbert all the weapons now that that Joe I think did a phenomenal job in the draft, just helping the roster in general. You know, it's not an offense first defense thing. It's it's how can we add great players
to make the team better. Uh, team success overrides everything. So very excited about all the guys we were able to add and and look forward to getting them here next weekend with Rickie Minni Caamp.
Yeah, we're excited as well. Coach asked you for a lot of time, you gave it to us. Certainly appreciate it.
Thanks, Yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you guys, Thank you all.
Right, Julia, Well, good way to kind of get the off season program started with one of our favorite coaches. Coach men are just so insightful, really, you learn something every time you sit down with him. Chargers incredibly lucky to have him here because we keep We said it last year and we're gonna say it again this year. I just I feel like, ain't gonna be long, man, Ain't gonna be long before that guy gets the head job.
I agree with you. We were talking about it, like what he did with the defense last year, the pieces he had to plug in when injuries happened, and he touched on a little bit and just you know, using players at their strength their weaknesses, and that's not an easy thing to do, right A lot of coaches aren't able to do that. And that's why he's one of the best in the game right now.
And I think if I could just focus on one thing he talked about for me, it's a boy be and because there was production there at Alabama, and you get excited about him coming in from that kind of program with that sort of production, and you heard coach Elston say, yeah, he's more of a developmental player, and that's exactly what it was. So to hear that he's
ready to take that next step. You saw it in the SEC and man, that would be a huge get for them, along with Caldwell, along with Hand and all those guy Jones, the guys that they signed, because we know how important that middle of the line is to the All right, well, that's recap again on the draft. There's eighteen udfas when all these rookies get out here, we're going to keep breaking it down, keep moving forward. Hopefully, Julia,
we see you real soon. So going to be maybe a little while as he embarks upon another phase of his professional career, but we'll always be here, ready and willing to have you back to break it all down.
Appreciate your money being a pleasure.
All right, everyone, enjoy it. We'll be back again next week and we'll be talking about more and more of these young players as they start to arrive in the off season program gets underway. Meanwhile, thanks for watching, Rate Review, share whatever you feel comfortable doing. It always helps us spread the word in Bolt Up