-
-
I guess the Bolts are opting to go with the sure thing with Long, instead of Edwards. Memories of cutting Lambo for Koo...Originally posted by Bolt-O View PostComment
-
Fleet yoga time! Albert Breer breaks down our camp and Coach Staley:
BRANDON STALEY'S STAMP ON THE CHARGERS
COSTA MESA, Calif. — Yoga isn’t what you’d first expect to see when you get to an NFL training camp, but there I was on that Friday morning in Orange County seeing it with my own eyes: dozens of overgrown athletes practicing the ancient art on a set of football practice fields.
The purpose of it, for first-year Chargers coach Brandon Staley, is pretty straightforward. It’s what’s called, in sports-performance parlance, an activation period, designed to get the players’ bodies warm and ready to practice. Lots of teams have activation periods.
But seeing it on the field, in this setting, was different. And so when I got together with Staley after practice, it was the first thing I thought to ask about as we dove into what’s a different practice schedule in general—the Chargers were only out there for about 90 minutes total. What I found out is that the idea of it runs much deeper than just what I witnessed Joey Bosa, Derwin James, Justin Herbert and their teammates doing.
“When I got my shot, I really wanted to be a team of teams,” Staley said. “It was really lengthened across all phases—football, sports performance, personnel. Those are the teams that stand the test of time. I want our offense to know how we play on defense. I want our defense to know how we play on offense. And then I want them to know how we bring it all together in the kicking game, and I think there’s a lot of benefit to that.
“Corey Linsley can help Linval Joseph. I think Derwin James can help Justin Herbert. And I think you bring people closer and they get invested because they know what’s going on. And it’s the same thing in sports performance and all the other things we do. This is the reason why we’re going to meet the way we do the night before at the hotel, this is the way we’re going to travel on the plane. I wanted the way we play, and then the way we train and prepare and perform, I wanted all that coming from a central place.”
Then, Staley interlocked fingers, explaining that rather than being a top-down operation, he wanted the different facets of the organization to fit together like puzzle pieces. And from there, Staley pointed to the place he’s so often associated with, as people try to illustrate just how quick his climb has happened: Div. III John Carroll University.
So, yup, where a lot of people have knocked Staley, Staley believes he draws his edge, as he heads into his first year as an NFL head coach.
Truth be told, even before getting there, Staley’s path was unorthodox. Tom Arth got the head coaching job at John Carroll in early 2013 and landed his first choice for defensive coordinator: Case Western assistant Jerry Schuplinski. But two months later, Patriots OC Josh McDaniels came calling for Schuplinski, and lured him to Foxboro to be a quality control coach. Arth was in a tough spot, and his high school teammate Jonathan Gannon, then a Titans assistant, recommended Staley: “Bring him in, you’ll see.”
Arth now says it took him 30 seconds in Staley’s interview to see it. And what followed that spring was a set of deep talks on program-building philosophy.
“It was really immediate for us,” Arth said. “We’d just finished spring ball, and first thing we did, we watched all the games, the practices, to get to know the players we were coaching. We had strong beliefs on how we wanted to play, what that looked like. We both wanted to coach like we were in the NFL, so we were gonna coach them just like we’d coach them if they were the Cleveland Browns, and run the organization like it was an NFL organization.”
And the result was reflected in how Arth, now the coach at the Univ. of Akron, addressed his team before it started fall camp a couple of weeks ago—he told them that, on average, they had a little less than 30 hours between each practice, and it was up to everyone to make the most of those 30 hours.
The overarching idea, of course, is that, like Staley said, every minute is thought out and explained clearly. Which leads to having a holistic program.
“You want to go through the plan with the team, where they feel like, O.K., everything they’re talking about, the situations they put us in, they’re doing it because it’s gonna help us perform better,” Arth said. “Everyone’s on a 24-hour clock, that’s where we’re equal, so how can we stretch that time? How can we operate off a longer day, and allow players to be as fresh as they can be, so they’ll able to learn in meetings, retain it and apply it at practice, where their bodies feel great, too? You build it all from the ground up. And everything matters.”
That much was reflected in the tightly-wound practice schedule Staley showed me. The yoga? Staley wrote it into that schedule, because while most teams offer an activation period, oftentimes it’s an option. He thought it was important enough to require it. So that went from 8:45 to 9, with 10 minutes of stretching to follow, before individuals started at 9:10. The 11 periods of the session wrapped at 10:30, with the defense’s going in to lift, and the offense’s taking part in a mandatory post-practice stretch.
To be clear, while the overarching every-minute-counts approach did come from Arth and John Carroll, Staley’s taking things from working with John Fox, Matt Nagy, Vic Fangio and Sean McVay in the NFL, too. He also credits Rams VP of sports performance Reggie Scott as an influence (especially with the importance of the activation period), and poached his own director of sports performance, Anthony Lomando, from Fangio and the Broncos, which is a sign of what he thought of their program.
And there’s no question that it’s touched every piece of the schedules Staley has made out. From McVay, Staley took the idea of loading up the players with work in walkthroughs, so they could get the time on task they needed mentally without putting miles on their bodies. From his NFL experience in general, he decided to build his camp itinerary to emulate game weeks, to condition his players for the season.
“You just gotta realize these guys only have so many bullets in the chamber,” Staley said. “They’ll go—they can and they will. But for how long, and how dense is that work? That’s something that I’ve learned a lot, and I’ve tried to bring here. So that when we’re out here, like today, it’s like, Hey guys, we can go today, you can give it everything, you don’t need to pace yourself, we can go.
“I don’t want a two-hour practice and then guys are pacing themselves for a half-hour, then they practice.”
The result, both Staley and Arth emphasized to me, is players’ seeing a program that’s invested in getting each guy in the best position to be his best—and moreover, the leaders of that program explaining why it’s the way it is. And after talking with Justin Herbert, who’s been working in-house with the new staff since February, it was pretty clear to me the message is getting through.
“The mindset behind it is the Chargers have been plagued by injuries the last couple years late in the season,” Herbert said. “It’s a long, long season of football, you have to be ready for 17, 18 games, hopefully more in the playoffs. And I think what they’re trying to do now is really build your body up. They’re doing three days on, one day off, recovery day, and then building it, slow it down, giving us a lot of time to stretch, warm up, do things so when we go to practice, we’re able to go.
“I think it’s all for the players, and I know the older players are appreciative of it, talking with Chris Harris and Bryan Bulaga, that’s kind of what they’ve advocated for.”
And sure enough, the Chargers’ injury issues of the last few years—that really stretch through multiple head coaches—were raised by Staley all the way back in his interview in January.
It was a point of emphasis because of who he was interviewing with, of course. But really, the overall idea would’ve followed him wherever he went.
“It’s the mindset—there’s no such thing as bad luck,” Staley said. “There’s no such thing as being cursed. I’m a former cancer patient. There’s no such thing. It’s your mindset, and your approach. And our approach here is to be our best for our players, period. That’s the approach. And we are not going to think like that, we’re not going to act like that, there is no such thing as that. And that’s what I told everybody that works here. …
“From a mindset standpoint, from a competitor’s standpoint, I wanted to change the competitive mindset of this team, and really specifically pour into the Chargers, and stop worrying about everything on the outside—this team, that team, in the division, across town, what happened in the past. Let’s just pour into this team, the people in our building, and let’s see where it goes.”
That, at very least, has very clearly happened. And the yoga sessions—another thing Staley was first a part of back at little ol’ John Carroll—are proof positive of that.
Comment
-
Looks like Kessman and WR Michael Bandy are the other 2 released to get us to the required 85.Originally posted by Bolt-O View PostComment
-
from the LA Times:Originally posted by Bearded14YourPleasure View Post
The Chargers made their first training camp cuts Monday, releasing punter Lachlan Edwards, kicker Alex Kessman and wide receiver Michael Bandy.
Edwards was signed to compete with Ty Long, who has been the Chargers' punter the past two years.
With Kessman gone, Tristan Vizcaino and Michael Badgley are the two remaining kickers in camp.
The Chargers roster is now at 85 players, which will be the league limit as of 1 p.m. Tuesday. Teams must be down to 80 players by 1 p.m. Aug. 24 and 53 players by 1 p.m. Aug. 31.Comment
-
It seems odd to have these mini-cutdowns (90 to 85, then 85 to 80) followed by one massive cutdown (80 to 53). Why bother releasing just five players? There used to be a sizable cutdown in the middle.Originally posted by Bolt-O View Post
Without the fourth preseason game, there is quite a gap between the cutdown to 53 on August 31 and the Chargers' first game on Sept. 12. Lots to time to adjust the roster.Comment
-
If you include the 16 man practice squad the final count is 69 (nice) so that’s only 11 for the final cut down that aren’t going on the roster. Obviously it’s not quite that clean when you’re poaching from other teams cuts as well but it’s not quite a 27 man cutdown either.Originally posted by cmplxgal View PostComment
-
No surprise on the players they cut but I bet there will be some surprises before all the cuts are said and done.THE YEAR OF THE FLIP!Comment
-
I didn't realize the practice squad is 16! That's a lot of players. (remember when it was called the taxi squad)Originally posted by Bearded14YourPleasure View Post
THE YEAR OF THE FLIP!Comment
-
Changed it last year and extended it for this year as well. I don’t think it’s officially permanent yet but it allows for a lot more development of players so they will probably will vote it in for keeps after the season. Same with the shortened IR for players, 3 week minimum but can come back after that no limit on returning players, that they did last year as well. Positive moves for development and player safety all around!Originally posted by chargeroo View Post
I didn't realize the practice squad is 16! That's a lot of players. (remember when it was called the taxi squad)Comment
-
I think we can protect 4, so the final cut is 23, then fill out the practice squad.Originally posted by Bearded14YourPleasure View PostComment
-
Correct you have to cut them but a lot of those guys are cut with a promise of practice squad when they clear waivers. Just saying that final cut isn’t quite as harsh as it used to be as a majority of the guys cut will still end up with a team either on a roster if claimed or a practice squad.Originally posted by sonorajim View PostComment
- If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. This is an entirely free site so all we ask is that you create a membership in order to view messages and post. Register here to proceed. And welcome to The Powder Blues community of Charger Fans. We look forward to building this community together. Go Chargers.
Tweet
Comment