Tweet
Originally posted by Topcat
View Post
-
Not me but Charger reporter Gavino Borguez.My 2021 Adopt-A-Bolt List
MikeDub
K9
Nasir
Tillery
Parham
Reed -
Ah yes, now noticed that. So, do u agree with Gavy that Stick gets the ax?Originally posted by like54ninjas View PostComment
-
About the only thing I'd project differently is Hunter Kampmoyer over Gabe Nabors.Originally posted by like54ninjas View Post
I've read that Gabe Nabors is a liability on special teams, which helps explains why he was cut several times, placed on the PS when he cleared waivers, and then activated to the 53 man roster when the game plan called for a heavy dose of FB.
If Kampmoyer *isn't* a liability on special teams, I think the job is *his*.Comment
-
OL says 10, but I'm counting 9.Originally posted by like54ninjas View Post
So Borquez has a 52 man roster.
Comment
-
These are the changes I’d make so far.Originally posted by Topcat View Post
Hard decision between a 5th ILB vs a 10th DB is tough and will be a big TC battle. It will come down to who earns that ST role.
Changes made is blue.
Quarterbacks (3): Justin Herbert, Chase Daniel
Misses the cut: Easton Stick
Running backs (4): Austin Ekeler, Justin Jackson, Joshua Kelley, Larry Rountree III
Misses the cut: Darius Bradwell
Fullbacks (1): Gabe Nabers
Misses the cut: Hunter Kampmoyer
Wide receivers (6): Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Jalen Guyton, Tyron Johnson, Josh Palmer, Joe Reed
Misses the cut: K.J. Hill, Jason Moore, Austin Proehl, Josh Hurst
Tight ends (3): Jared Cook, Donald Parham, Tre’ McKitty
Misses the cut: Stephen Anderson
Offensive linemen (9): Rashawn Slater, Matt Feiler, Corey Linsley, Oday Aboushi, Bryan Bulaga, Trey Pipkins, Brenden Jaimes, Storm Norton, Scott Quessenberry
Misses the cut: Tyree St. Louis, Nate Gilliam, Ryan Hunter, Kyle Spalding
Defensive linemen (5): Linval Joseph, Justin Jones, Jerry Tillery, Christian Covington, Breiden Fehoko, Cortez Broughton
Misses the cut: Joe Gaziano, T.J. Smith
Edge defender (5): Joey Bosa, Uchenna Nwosu, Kyler Fackrell, Chris Rumph II
Misses the cut: Jesse Lemonier, Emeke Egbule
Linebackers (5): Kenneth Murray, Drue Tranquill, Kyzir White, Nick Niemann, Amen Ogbongbemiga
Misses the cut: Cole Christiansen
Defensive backs (9): Michael Davis, Asante Samuel, Jr., Chris Harris, Jr., Ryan Smith, Brandon Facyson, Derwin James, Nasir Adderley, Alohi Gilman, Mark Webb
Misses the cut: Tevaughn Campbell, John Brannon, Donte Vaughn
Specialists (3): Alex Kessman, Ty Long, Cole Mazza
Misses the cut: Michael Badgley, Tristan VizcainoMy 2021 Adopt-A-Bolt List
MikeDub
K9
Nasir
Tillery
Parham
ReedComment
-
The way you made the changes threw me off a bit.Originally posted by like54ninjas View Post
For a minute there I thought the numbers weren't adding up.
I see now that the non-bold names are the players you are cutting, and the blue names are the ones you are adding.
Now the numbers make sense. Good roster!
Comment
-
From PFF commentary.
Interesting. With a 3-4 D, I didn’t know why we didn’t have 5 techs and had 4i techs instead. Now I see, we’re not going to allow runs up the middle, we’re going to force it all outside in this newfangled “tite” front.LOS ANGELES CHARGERS
2020 Defensive Pass Efficiency Rank: 18
2020 Defensive Rush Efficiency Rank: 13
2020 Base Coverage: Cover 3
2020 Third-Down Mentality: Sit back and play Cover 1 or Cover 3
Head coach Brandon Staley comes to the Chargers after a whirlwind one season as the Los Angeles Rams' defensive coordinator. He brought a college-style mindset to the NFL with characteristics mixed in from his time spent with then-Chicago Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, who is now the Denver Broncos' head coach.
Like Fangio, Staley will show a two-high shell as often as possible before spinning down, mostly to Cover 3. But also like many college defensive coordinators, Staley uses the “tite” front, three defensive linemen packed between the offensive tackles in order to force the ball carrier to the outside, more than any other coach — another college idea making its way to the NFL.
Staley also often played his nickelback outside of the slot receiver in quarters coverage despite most NFL teams using that player inside so he can be a part of the run fit. This lightens the box, and the safety to that side then has to get into the run fit, but the Rams' defense ranked second-best against the run last year.
Everybody has their own ideas about how to align the DL it seems.
And I like it because it’s new and different and other OLs won’t have much time playing against it. A definite advantage IMO.Now, if you excuse me, I have some Charger memories to suppress.
The Wasted Decade is done.
Build Back Better.Comment
-
This list looks entirely plausible. This may be JJ's last chance. If he gets hurt again and misses multiple games, I would say it's time to move on...Originally posted by like54ninjas View PostComment
-
Our newest TE.
How Matt Seybert stayed ready for his second chance at Michigan State football’s pro day
By Colton Pouncy Mar 24, 2021
4 
EAST LANSING, Mich. — He found himself counting down the days. It was around this time, a little more than a year ago now. What seemed like a distant dream was fast-approaching. The biggest job interview of his life, and everything he worked for, was so close. Until it wasn’t.
Michigan State’s pro day was scheduled for March 18, 2020, and Matt Seybert, a late-bloomer tight end prospect and eternal optimist, was on the outside looking in. This was all-too-familiar territory for Seybert — a lightly recruited prospect who parlayed one of his lone scholarship offers out of high school into a starting gig at Buffalo and, eventually, a walk-on opportunity at Michigan State.
In East Lansing, Seybert bounced between offense and defense for years, unable to crack the starting lineup. Then came 2019. Seybert outperformed those above him on the depth chart and seized control of tight end as a senior. He finished third on the team in receptions (26), receiving yards (284) and touchdowns (four). It was an important first step, but it would take more than a year of solid production alone to extend his playing career. He wasn’t a well-known prospect. Showcase events such as the Senior Bowl and the NFL Scouting Combine passed on him. Scouts needed the full picture, which made the exposure he was set to receive at his pro day all the more essential.
But it never came. COVID-19 made sure of that.
“We were all on campus, ready to go,” Seybert said. “I think it was like a day or maybe two days before pro day when we got the official word that it was canceled. … I just remember feeling like that was my one chance. I feel like that was my one shot to show scouts and coaches abilities that they may not know I have.”
NFL hopefuls like Seybert were hurt the most when pro days across the country were canceled a year ago. Players train for months in anticipation of one day, hoping to turn a few heads when it arrives. It gives teams a chance to review their medical history, speak one-on-one, learn more about the players’ story and make a proper evaluation. Last year, it was taken away through no fault of Seybert’s, or anyone’s, for that matter.
Acceptance came in waves. Seybert initially hoped Michigan State would be able to reschedule its pro day rather than canceling it. But the decision was finalized. With scouts unable to attend, he and his Michigan State teammates made plans to film their own pro day workout at the school’s indoor practice facility, but things on campus quickly shut down around them.
Within a week, students returned home for the semester. Seybert hung around and saw restaurants in the area close their doors and grocery stores run out of basic supplies. He followed along watching the news like everyone else, and the gravity of COVID-19 and its ramifications began to set in.
When the pro day was put on pause, so, too, were Seybert’s football aspirations.
“I didn’t realize how important it was until I had some talks with my agent,” Seybert said. “He really made it clear to me that, without a pro day, it’s going to be really hard to get an opportunity. … I don’t have that three, four years of starting experience that the next level wants to see, so pro day is huge for a guy like me who wants to separate himself.”
Toward the end of March, Seybert drove back to his hometown of Traverse City, Mich. He was there to see family and unwind for a bit, staying a few weeks before growing anxious. Gyms around him were closed. The 2020 NFL Draft and subsequent opportunities weren’t meant to be. After all the years hoping things would materialize, all the hours he logged in preparation for his pro day, he couldn’t let it end. Not like this.
So, he took matters into his own hands.
“Everywhere was closed for training except for Arizona,” Seybert said. “They had some weight rooms open so I found a facility there. I just said, ‘Screw it, I’m gonna move out there for a year and train until my next opportunity.’ I found a place, and I’ve been going at it ever since.”
Seybert said goodbye to his family in Michigan, packed his belongings and moved to Scottsdale, Ariz. He didn’t know when his next chance would come, but for the next year, he made Arizona his home until it arrived.
Ernie Atkins is the head strength and conditioning coach at D1 Scottsdale — a training facility chain with locations all over the country. It combines sports science with customizable targeted workouts to maximize each session. Each day, Atkins works with college athletes, MLB players, NFL veterans and others who come to him, hoping to get a little bit better.
Atkins first met Seybert in April of last year, shortly after the tight end set up shop in Arizona. Atkins watched as Seybert picked the brains of the NFL players in the room. Seybert held his own as a competitor. He wasn’t afraid to talk smack to a player like Vontaze Burfict. Seybert tried to outwork everyone around him. It’s one of the first things that stood out to Atkins when he met Seybert.
“I knew he was going to be a workhorse,” Atkins said. “He immediately told me, ‘I’m here every day.’ No matter if it’s a rest day, a recovery day, I want to be in the doors working out. He knew he had to put the work in, and he wanted to make it.”
Matt Seybert, right, has worked with trainer Ernie Atkins, center, to prepare for Michigan State’s pro day Wednesday. (Courtesy Matt Seybert)
Seybert arrived with a plan, and Aktins helped guide him. One of Seybert’s goals for the year was to improve his speed. The process began by watching and evaluating. Atkins often records his clients performing drills and plays back the film so they can see potential errors themselves.
As he broke down Seybert’s tape, Atkins studied his acceleration mechanics and found a few things he could tweak. Seybert wasn’t as efficient as he could’ve been. There were wasted movements. Every millisecond matters when trying to impress NFL scouts, so Seybert needed to maximize his footwork.
When it comes to improving speed mechanics, positioning matters. Where an athlete’s foot strikes are important. How the athlete’s foot looks going through triple extension — extension of the ankle, knee and hip all at once — is important, too. And so is the force production behind each step, which helps propel athletes farther and farther during each stride.
Seybert had a good foundation to work with. But he benefited from this hands-on approach.
“The slo-mo helped a lot with Matt,” Atkins said. “His acceleration mechanics were pretty solid. That’s his takeoff speed from anywhere 10-20 yards, kind of that first build-up. He saw what he was doing wrong and picked it up right away. When it came to top-end speed, once you build up speed and that maximum velocity, that took a little bit more of me breaking out the iPad, breaking out the iPhone, even me jumping on the treadmill and having to get good reps and him watching real slowly.”
Eventually, that time spent hammering home the details paid off. Atkins keeps a log of test numbers for his clients in a Google document and updates it each week as a reference point. Seybert watched his numbers progress over time. Things felt more natural. His top-end speed improved, and he was clocked at 23 mph on the treadmill. At 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds, Seybert was pleased with the results. But there was more to do.
Another emphasis was improving his strength. The 225 bench press is a notable test for scouts. It’s a manageable weight that lets scouts gauge strength endurance and is one of the most widely known drills at scouting events.
Atkins likes to test his athletes’ bench reps at the end of a strength and endurance block, rather than the beginning. He wants to see what they can put up when they’re not as fresh as they normally would be — an added layer of this muscular endurance test.
When Seybert first touched down in Arizona, he put up 13 reps of 225 after a workout. Now?
“At the end of a session, he’s putting up 23 reps fully fatigued,” Atkins said.
This is the sort of progress Seybert envisioned when he set out for Arizona. His numbers were tracked and monitored throughout his time there, and there were improvements across the board. While Aktins sensed early on he would be training someone who wanted to be there, he later learned just how far Seybert was willing to go and how his presence impacted others around him. Pros included.
“Matt’s the hardest worker in the room at all times,” Atkins said. “People feed off his energy, which is always awesome to see. Other NFL players, even ones who’ve been veterans in the league for forever, they see him work and they’re like, “All right, I’ve gotta toss some more weight on my bar, I gotta start working like this kid.’ That’s the coolest thing I’ve seen from Matt. He makes people feed off his energy.”
Seybert is wired to train. Any day he’s not working out is a day he could’ve been. It’s why he quickly pivoted during the early months of the pandemic in search of access to better facilities. Once he found one, that part came easy. The waiting game, however, was tougher.
In October, Seybert competed in The Spring League, a showcase event for NFL hopefuls held in Texas. It was his first opportunity to get live film since his senior year. But by Week 3, the league’s bubble began to collapse as COVID-19 spread, and it was shut down before the end of the season.
Around that same time, Seybert took up acting as a hobby and eventually, a way to earn some money. He started taking classes at Dearing Acting Studio in Phoenix and ended up signing with an agency. He drove back and forth from Phoenix to Los Angeles for gigs — one as an extra in an upcoming Netflix series on Colin Kaepernick and another as a background football player on the CW show “All American” with Josh Butler, a former MSU cornerback and teammate of Seybert’s. But Seybert still made sure to get in some work.
“We were literally doing combine drills on the field,” Seybert said, laughing. “It was awesome.”WE BACK ALL AMERICAN FT @MATTSEYBERT82PIC.TWITTER.COM/VHBWFLTCW5
— JOSHBUTLERTV (@JOSHBUTLERTV) MARCH 1, 2021
Football was still the ultimate goal for Seybert, and time kept passing without many opportunities. It was quickly approaching a year since his pro day was canceled. Some might’ve moved on at that point. But Seybert, resilient in nature, continued to hold on, and about a month ago, his patience was rewarded.
In Phoenix, Seybert frequently ran routes and caught passes from former MSU quarterback Brian Lewerke, an Arizona native who signed with the New England Patriots as an undrafted free agent last year before getting cut. As both players looked to keep their NFL hopes alive, Lewerke informed Seybert of some information he had heard back in East Lansing.
With another pro day quickly approaching, this time, with COVID-19 protocols in place, former players were connected with new MSU director of player personnel Scott Aligo — a former NFL scout with 10 years of experience in the league. Aligo had been to MSU pro days in the past with the NFL organizations he worked for and has connections with every team in the league. Hired by Spartans coach Mel Tucker last year, Aligo now serves as MSU’s pro liaison, tasked with making the most of pro day to ensure MSU athletes are getting proper attention. Based on last year’s events, he wanted to make sure that extended to former players, and they were told they would have the opportunity to return to campus for a second chance at pro day.
“As we know, a lot of the borderline draft picks and guys that are gonna be priority free agents, they make their money and get their opportunity through Pro Day,” MSU director of player engagement Darien Harris said this month. “Being able to have it this year, because we’ve got our protocols in place, is gonna be huge for our guys that are coming out this year and the guys from last year.”
“We all got in contact with Scott,” Seybert said. “We were all super excited about it. I actually met Coach Tucker before the last pro day when the weight room was still open. Since then, I’ve talked to Scott and I talk to (defensive line) Coach Ron Burton still. I love what they’re doing and the fact that they’re letting us come back during a hard time like this is really awesome to see, and it shows that they care.”
While he didn’t know it a year ago, this was the best-case scenario for Seybert. He’s one of seven seniors from the 2019 team expected to participate in Wednesday’s pro day. Lewerke, Butler, defensive back David Dowell, offensive lineman Tyler Higby, defensive back Josh Butler, linebacker Tyriq Thompson and long-snapper LS Ryan Armour are set to take part, making it a homecoming of sorts for Seybert and his former teammates.
Thanks to his time in Arizona, Seybert expects to top the numbers he recorded in training sessions leading up to last year’s pro day. Seybert is hitting 23 reps of 225 pounds after workouts. That number should be even higher at pro day. With Seybert fresh and rested, Atkins is challenging him to hit 27. For reference, the most reps by a tight end at last year’s combine was 25.
Seybert says he’s faster than he was a year ago. Around this time in 2020, Seybert’s best 40-time was 4.74. It would’ve placed him among the top 10 tight ends at the combine. But this time around, he expects to run a 40-time somewhere in the 4.6 range. That’s the silver lining.
“Every single drill I do, every performance test, will be higher than it would’ve been last year,” Seybert said, without hesitation. “One-hundred percent.”
As Michigan State’s pro day approaches Wednesday, Seybert believes he has done everything he could to position himself for an NFL look. He has traveled the country looking to improve his skill set and gain exposure. All for one afternoon in East Lansing.
That’s what this is all about. Ultimately, there’s no guaranteeing Seybert’s work will lead to a roster spot or even a spot on a practice squad. He knows this, and he’s OK with it. It’s a product of the time he dedicated to giving himself a chance.
During a year that put everything on pause, Seybert kept going. He’s at peace with whatever happens next.
“It was a really hard time for a lot of people,” he said. “People had much more serious problems to deal with. The whole world, really. But for me, everyone’s battles are different. I definitely had to fight some battles through this last year mentally. That mindset has helped keep me on track. The main thing is to stay focused. If you go at something long enough, I believe something good will come of it.”
Now, if you excuse me, I have some Charger memories to suppress.
The Wasted Decade is done.
Build Back Better.Comment
-
He is one of my favorite runners but you are right he has to stay healthy.Originally posted by Topcat View PostComment
-
Last year of his 4 year deal.Originally posted by Topcat View Post
Hoping for a big season so he gets paid by another team.
Draft another RB in 2022 late round.
Rinse and repeat every year or 2.
Bradwell is looking big, cut, powerful, and still has those good feet from college. It looks like he has committed to the type of physical fitness it takes in the NFL. He’s definitely going to push for a roster spot.My 2021 Adopt-A-Bolt List
MikeDub
K9
Nasir
Tillery
Parham
ReedComment
-
I think that's exactly why they select Rountree-- in preparation for the (likely) possibility that this is Jackson's final season with the team. .Originally posted by like54ninjas View PostComment
Comment