2021 Official Chargers Season Discusssion

[jamrock]

When I first grew a beard, it was at my wives request. After a time she decided she didn't like the full beard so I shaved the checks and just let it trail down to the chin. Then one night she saw a good looking guy on TV that just had a mustache and beard - both kept short, she said I really like that look, so I changed to that. That's how I evolved to the look I have now. My preference is to shave it all off but a wise man seeks to keep his wife pleased.

And that's my advice to all you younger husbands - seek to please the wife so she'll seek to please you.

Roo dropping dimes

[Fleet]

Roo dropping dimes

Wives. Plural. Roos a player.

[Xenos]

Here’s Popper’s 10 takeaway:

https://theathletic.com/2627207/2021/06/01/10-takeaways-from-chargers-second-open-ota

The Chargers held their fourth organized team activity of the spring Tuesday afternoon. It was the second such practice open to the media.

Here are 10 takeaways.
1. Second-year linebacker Kenneth Murrayoffered candid insight into what his role will be in Brandon Staley’s new defensive scheme. He also touched on how this role will differ from the one he played in Gus Bradley’s scheme as a rookie in 2020.

“The big emphasis from him was getting me to play more downhill,” Murray said of Staley. “A lot of things in the scheme last year didn’t allow for me to play as downhill as I wanted to play. In college, that’s pretty much what I did. Every down was played downhill, so when he told me he wanted me to play downhill, it’s kind of like music to my ears. That’s what I’m really excited about: playing downhill, blitzing a lot more and being aggressive.”

This will be a pretty monumental shift for Murray, who underwent shoulder surgery in January that kept him from working out for a little over a month. Bradley was in need of a playmaking middle linebacker, and general manager Tom Telesco moved up in the draft last year to bring in a player who the organization felt could develop into a Bobby Wagner-type difference-maker in the middle of the field. But playing middle linebacker — or mike linebacker — in Bradley’s scheme was very different than what Murray was asked to do in college at Oklahoma. Murray was in coverage a lot more in Bradley’s scheme. He was forced to read and react to play action and cover routes, like overs, in the intermediate and deep part of the field. He struggled early with these duties, partially because the Chargers lost linebacker Drue Tranquill, a highly intelligent communicator, in the second series of the season to a broken ankle.

“I don’t think I ever really felt comfortable in that defense,” Murray said.

Murray learned and developed and was much better in coverage over the final four games. But in this new scheme, Staley will allow Murray to play more to his strengths and use his aggressive, violent mentality and athleticism to his advantage. Murray only blitzed 32 times last year, 25 of which came over the second half of the season. That number should increase under Staley.

Staley has a reputation for molding his defense around his personnel. We are starting to see that come to fruition early on in OTAs.

Murray says he feels “100 percent” after the surgery, though he has not yet been medically cleared. He expects to be fully ready for training camp.


2. The Chargers had outstanding attendance at Tuesday’s OTA. By my count, more than 90 percent of the 83-man roster was at practice — which, to me, is an early indication of the kind of culture Staley is building. The eight players who were not in attendance: QB Chase Daniel, RB Austin Ekeler, RT Bryan Bulaga, OG Oday Aboushi, TE Jared Cook, edge rusher Joey Bosa, DT Linval Joseph and DT Frederick Smith Jr. Daniel and Cook were both at last week’s open OTA. CB Chris Harris Jr., C Corey Linsley, OG Matt Feiler and DL Justin Jones were all at practice Tuesday after missing last week.


3. Offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi spoke to the media Tuesday for the first time since his introductory press conference. As the former Saints quarterbacks coach installs his offense with the Chargers, he offered this assessment of the schematic influences: “Certainly, there are a lot of elements from New Orleans. But, a lot of ideas folded in from (offensive line coach Frank Smith and assistant offensive line coach Shaun Sarrett) and just the rest of the staff, in general. (QBs coach) Shane Day coming over from San Francisco certainly stole some elements from them.” This aligns with what Staley has said about his offense. Justin Herbert said in April that he had been watching both Saints and 49ers film in video call meetings. One important note: Smith spent five seasons as the assistant offensive line coach with the Saints, including three with Lombardi, so he is intimately familiar with the Sean Payton system.


4. Wide receiver Keenan Allen said last week that Lombardi’s scheme will allow him to “play more freely” because it is “not so strict.” Lombardi gave a really interesting response when elaborating on that Tuesday.

“There are certain routes that have options on them,” Lombardi said. “For example, if the middle of the field is closed, run this route, and if the middle of the field is open, run this route, or break off the guy’s leverage over the top of you if you’re in the slot. Guys who have his kind of feel do the right thing and usually do what the quarterback thinks they’re going to do.

“Those guys just have a way of talking to the quarterback with their body language, so you start giving them freedom to make decisions at the top of their routes, leading to a lot of production. Guys that I’ve been associated with that have that kind of feel, quarterbacks like throwing to them. You end up giving them certain rules for a route, then they might go a little bit off-script, and you want to correct them, but the quarterback’s like, ‘No, don’t say anything. I like what he did there.’ Then, all of a sudden, we’ve added a branch to that option on the route tree. We always say that there are rules guys and guidelines guys. Here are the rules to the routes. Some of you have to follow them exactly, but for some of you, they’re guidelines. As long as the quarterback understands what you’re doing, we kind of let that go a little bit. He’s definitely a guidelines guy. I think that’ll be good for him.”


5. The Chargers have been using the game-based learning platform Kahoot! to breed competition in their meetings. They quiz players mostly on scheme-related information in a trivia format, though they did Chargers history as a test run early on this spring. Nasir Adderley was the first to bring up the app to the media. As it turns out, there was a good reason for that. “So guys know,” defensive coordinator Renaldo Hill said, “Nas has pretty much won all of them.”


6. The Chargers have three kickers, two punters and two long snappers on their roster. Special-teams coordinator Derius Swinton said there is a “real competition” at all three spots. Incumbent kicker Michael Badgley will be battling Tristan Vizcaino and Pitt undrafted free agent Alex Kessman. Incumbent punter Ty Long will be battling Lachlan Edwards, who was signed to the Chargers practice squad last season. Incumbent long snapper Cole Mazza will be battling Georgia Southern UDFA Ryan Langan. I get the sense that kicker and long snapper are more open than punter. Swinton said he personally scouted both Kessman and Vizcaino, who made three field goals in Week 17 last season for the 49ers in his lone regular-season NFL game. Badgley, who has struggled on field goals of 45 yards or longer, will very much have to earn his spot.


7. Michael Thomas has put up record-setting numbers for the Saints as the X receiver in Payton’s offense. Mike Williams will be playing the same position for the Chargers, and Lombardi was very bullish on Williams for 2021. Williams is entering the final year of his contract. “As much as this offense will resemble New Orleans, he plays the ‘X’ and the ball has always kind of found the ‘X’ receiver in this offense,” Lombardi said of Williams. “I think that there will be some natural production that comes his way because of the nature of the offense.”

Lombardi added: “I see a big role for him. If I were a betting man, I’d bet on nice numbers coming from him on the stat sheet, that’s for sure.”


8. The starting defense Tuesday: Justin Jones, Breiden Fehoko and Jerry Tillery on the defensive line; Murray and Tranquill at inside linebacker; Harris and Michael Davis at corner; and Adderley and Derwin James at safety. Harris defended the slot when the Chargers brought on an additional defensive back, which Staley said would happen earlier this offseason. Brandon Facyson and Ryan Smith worked in at outside corner.


9. All of the rookies except for Rashawn Slater worked on the second-team field. That includes second-round pick Asante Samuel Jr. This was to maximize the number of reps for all the players. Hill estimated that all the players got between 50-60 snaps thanks to the two-field system. If the Chargers were only using one field, Hill estimated that number of snaps would shrink to 15-20.


10. Feiler attended his first OTA and lined up at left guard with the first-team offensive line. Linsley was at center, Slater was at left tackle, Trey Pipkins was at right tackle and Scott Quessenberry was at right guard. Bulaga will be the starting right tackle when he returns. Aboushi will likely be the starting right guard when he returns. Rookie Brenden Jaimes was working at left guard on the second field.

[like54ninjas]

This was a big takeaway from the pressers.....

7. Michael Thomas has put up record-setting numbers for the Saints as the X receiver in Payton’s offense. Mike Williams will be playing the same position for the Chargers, and Lombardi was very bullish on Williams for 2021. Williams is entering the final year of his contract. “As much as this offense will resemble New Orleans, he plays the ‘X’ and the ball has always kind of found the ‘X’ receiver in this offense,” Lombardi said of Williams. “I think that there will be some natural production that comes his way because of the nature of the offense.”

Lombardi added: “I see a big role for him. If I were a betting man, I’d bet on nice numbers coming from him on the stat sheet, that’s for sure.”

[CivilBolt]

I think the biggest takeaway of today’s OTA was photo 6 of 68. JH about to throw the ball to Tyron Johnson running a route. I see no beef there :cheers:

[wu-dai clan]

Clearly, you need the Lawn Mower 4.0 .

[Heatmiser]

My biggest take away from the pressers is how impressive this coaching staff is. Swinton in particular is fun to watch and listen to. And Nas said the same thing all of us feel....he hangs on every word Staley says and can’t wait for meetings when he talks football and explains. And if you listen to the coordinators they sound like Staley and even use his phrases and same words (“we will allow him to express this on the field” etc). So far so good. Lot of energy, youth, they seem to relate well to the players and vice versa. Lombardi allowing a player like Keenan to work with Herbert and deviate from routes shows he has come a long way since his perceived ‘dictator’ days in Detroit as their OC.

I just wish they would stop giving away their innovative secrets like the two field approach and the Kahoot virtual learning app. Those things are competitive advantages and show that Staley really gets into the details and challenges the status quo. But I suppose many may copy and not do that well.

Somebody give poor Lombardi a towel next time.

TG

[Heatmiser]

I don’t know if Pooper was taking a swipe at Gus or maybe didn’t mean it. But when Murray talked about being comfortable, the question was something like “when during your rookie season did you start to get comfortable, like you knew what was going on?” And Murray said, kind of humbly, that he never really felt comfortable as a rookie. I took it to mean that it was on him and his learning as a rookie. What Pooper wrote sounds like it was the Gus defense that caused it. Maybe that is just me.

One thing is for sure, every player I have listened to loves what they are hearing about the defense. So that is real. And players like Ramsey have said before that Gus’s old Seattle defense was a relic.

TG

[Bolt4Knob]

I don’t know if Pooper was taking a swipe at Gus or maybe didn’t mean it. But when Murray talked about being comfortable, the question was something like “when during your rookie season did you start to get comfortable, like you knew what was going on?” And Murray said, kind of humbly, that he never really felt comfortable as a rookie. I took it to mean that it was on him and his learning as a rookie. What Pooper wrote sounds like it was the Gus defense that caused it. Maybe that is just me.

One thing is for sure, every player I have listened to loves what they are hearing about the defense. So that is real. And players like Ramsey have said before that Gus’s old Seattle defense was a relic.

TG

The other takeaway from that article is they drafted Murray as Lynn loved him and Bradley wanted a "Bobby Wagner" for the defense but it was my thought - were they trying to make Kenneth Murray into Bobby Wagner instead of just letting Kenneth Murray be Kenneth Murray

I know its OTA talk - and its like spring training - hope springs eternal - but I have a feeling this coaching staff will get more out of the players (especially Tillery, Murray, Adderley) than the previous staff.

[jamrock]

My biggest take away from the pressers is how impressive this coaching staff is. Swinton in particular is fun to watch and listen to. And Nas said the same thing all of us feel....he hangs on every word Staley says and can’t wait for meetings when he talks football and explains. And if you listen to the coordinators they sound like Staley and even use his phrases and same words (“we will allow him to express this on the field” etc). So far so good. Lot of energy, youth, they seem to relate well to the players and vice versa. Lombardi allowing a player like Keenan to work with Herbert and deviate from routes shows he has come a long way since his perceived ‘dictator’ days in Detroit as their OC.

I just wish they would stop giving away their innovative secrets like the two field approach and the Kahoot virtual learning app. Those things are competitive advantages and show that Staley really gets into the details and challenges the status quo. But I suppose many may copy and not do that well.

Somebody give poor Lombardi a towel next time.

TG

Swinton is impressive.

[wu-dai clan]

Derius II & George.

Compare & contrast...

[Heatmiser]

From what I heard the players really loved Stewart as the grandfatherly type to give personal advice. He really helped them through George Floyd, for instance. And Lynn looked at him like a father and used him as a sounding board and stabilizing influence. He just wasn’t an effective football coach for our team. I think the players will love Swinton too but more as a relatable contemporary vs a wise old man.And most importantly, hoping he can be an effective coach.

TG