The Official 2026 Chargers Season Discussion - (0-2)

[Bolt4Knob]

FWIW... here is Trey Amos. He's the CB that the Chargers met with one of their top-30 visits.

https://www.nfl.com/prospects/trey-amos/3200414d-4f59-0520-2cbf-fbeeaf953f57

BTW, I like Mason Taylor, Donovan Ezeiruaku, and Trey Amos @#22.
I'd like them a lot more @#30... especially with a starting center thrown in.

Since Loveland and TMac are off the board, in all likelihood at 22
I like the trade down with the Bills, McGovern would be nice
the other trade option would be nice too

[Boltjolt]

Actually, to clarify, my proposed trade with the Bills only includes: #22 for #30 + McGovern.
Any more... and I don't think the Bills would go for it.

In essence, we'd get a starting center for moving back 8 spaces.
Of course, all of this is predicated on whether the Bills think Sedrick Van-Pran has progressed enough to start.
SVP has only started 1 game for them... the last game of the season vs New England.

I don't know whether SVP was drafted to start... or just be a depth piece.

What I do know...
1) The Bills need a top-rated CB to replace the junk CB (now 2 junk CB's) they have penciled in to start
2) #30 is not high enough to get that top-rated CB. CB#6-8 have serious questions (speed/length/injury).
3) There are at least 2 teams (right behind us and in front of Bills) that also need CB help badly.
4) The Bills need cap space relief... and they've already re-structured most of their starters. Very few options (other than cutting starters)
5) We need a starting-caliber center (and many other upgrades/depth)... TE, RB2, Edge, DT, WR3, CB...
6) The Chargers have met with a number of prospects that fit right around #30... Mason Taylor, Donovan Ezeiruaku, Trey Amos.
7) Without a trade-back... the Chargers might be picking one of those prospects anyways @#22.

Agree though we may be able to get their top of the 6th pick which is 20 points. All they can say is no. They have two 6th and three 5ths

[Boltjolt]

Damn Hortiz shut down Popper when he asked about the IOL...lol. Popper needs to learn how to ask those questions better. Hortiz looked a little pissed.

I dont mind him asking. Its not me they get irritated with lol, but i do like the hard questions.
If Hortiz thought we were pretty good he wouldnt have signed Becton and James. We werent pretty good. Pip is a big question mark as well as Zion trying to be a OC.

[Boltnut]

Popper is being incessant about Zion at Center, the plan at OLG and Poona too.

Hortiz also referenced that this is where we are so far.

It may have to do with not talking about draft strategy.

Devlin knows our offense line and is involved in all our thinking.

I haven't listened to Hops With Pop from last night yet, but Daniel sure seems to seek ratings.

I'm not sure what Daniel Popper's deal is...
Last year, he was insistent that we were taking Malik Nabers with the #5 pick.
Then, once we didn't, he continued to ask "missing play-maker" questions all season long during Harbaugh's post-game pressers.
He got under Harbaugh's skin so much that Harbaugh eventually responded with the famous "O-linemen are weapons too" statement.

Like us, he gets uber-focused on a particular player (convincing himself that there is only 1-way) without particularly understanding that Hortiz/Harbaugh like to build a team in a quite different way. Joe/Jim's best-player-available may not be our best-player-available. I don't know if everybody caught his reference to Joe Alt as their #1 rated player last draft...

FWIW... I think Joe likes Bradley Bozeman a lot more than everybody here. Maybe it's just "Liars-Month" kind of stuff. But they did sign Bozeman kind of early in the free agency period last off-season... and this off-season, too.

Unfortunately, this is a fairly weak center class. Maybe they really like Zabel @#22. After that, the next best center is Jared Wilson (3rd round). But I find it hard to believe that Jared Wilson would be BPA @#86. There will be so many good prospects @#86.

[21&500]

Man I freaking love Joe.
Great, great leader.

And I learned that he talks to players as resources, to learn about prospects, gave Ladd as an example.

[CanadianBoltFan]

Popper is being incessant about Zion at Center, the plan at OLG and Poona too.

Hortiz also referenced that this is where we are so far.

It may have to do with not talking about draft strategy.

Devlin knows our offense line and is involved in all our thinking.

I haven't listened to Hops With Pop from last night yet, but Daniel sure seems to seek ratings.

Once again Popper gets critiqued on here for asking the hard questions that we all want answers for while the rest of the local reporters lob softballs and fluff. Probably why the articles and coverage he provides is 10 times better than the rest of them also.

All Popper said was something ike "given what happened last year" Hortiz got defensive and rolled out an irrelevent answer that they had 11 wins. Yes it was a great first year and 11 wins was nice, but they capitalized ona last place schedule, I think it was the 2nd easiest in the NFL last year...and when they played contenders with good defenses their IOL was manhandled and they lost those games.

in my opinion the weakness was glaring which makes the question legtimate. Putting the same players in different positions isnt going to fix it either.

Personally I was less impressed by Hortiz's pissy response then by the question asked. It was an answer from the GM I wanted to hear actually.

[Bolt4Knob]

Once again Popper gets critiqued on here for asking the hard questions that we all want answers for while the rest of the local reporters lob softballs and fluff. Probably why the articles and coverage he provides is 10 times better than the rest of them also.

All Popper said was something ike "given what happened last year" Hortiz got defensive and rolled out an irrelevent answer that they had 11 wins. Yes it was a great first year and 11 wins was nice, but they capitalized ona last place schedule, I think it was the 2nd easiest in the NFL last year...and when they played contenders with good defenses their IOL was manhandled and they lost those games.

in my opinion the weakness was glaring which makes the question legtimate. Putting the same players in different positions isnt going to fix it either.

Popper is good

it was a fair question. Yes, the team was 11-6 but had trouble against better teams and in a playoff game that many had them favored, they got whippe

[dmac_bolt]

Popper is being incessant about Zion at Center, the plan at OLG and Poona too.

Hortiz also referenced that this is where we are so far.

It may have to do with not talking about draft strategy.

Devlin knows our offense line and is involved in all our thinking.

I haven't listened to Hops With Pop from last night yet, but Daniel sure seems to seek ratings.

Pop has a job, Joe has a job. there interests don't align. I don't see anything unusual or unexpected.

Poona was their best IDL last year, the question is quite logical. Joe's answer was fine. We have heard that he offered Poona ~$7M less over 3 years (I don't know it is confirmed). Thats fine, that was his valuation. If true, it wasn't close to the Rams $29M (28?) so Joe's "players decide on a different team" papers over the details. I don't care how Joe describes or doesn't describe it.

2024 IOL was a core weakness, everyone knows it. Joe knows it - he signed a new starting RG and an OC to compete for that job. Joe deflected criticism of the 2024 team as we should expect but the question was fair and over the target. I didn't see Joe as upset, it was just a standard pivot technique to not admit last year's IOL underperformed. FO and Coaches are almost uniform in not bashing players still on the roster, and last year's IOL are still on the roster. Its rare when a coach or GM admits a player they brought in and coached sucked, that is news. Joe doesn't give news. Nothing he said in the press report offered any news. Its all pablum and vague and intentional to not give news.

Bottom line: Pop's job is to get Joe to make news. He could not get Joe to make news, because Joe is good at his job too. If Pop is the only one asking these types of questions, to me that just means the other press suck at their jobs because this is sports journalism 101 and I'm sure none of his questions surprised Joe.

[21&500]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Chargers/co...are&utm_term=4

Dual
Threat

[CanadianBoltFan]

Popper is good

it was a fair question. Yes, the team was 11-6 but had trouble against better teams and in a playoff game that many had them favored, they got whippe

Exactly. After the previous year 11 wins was a great start but being objective I try to see it how it was. There are still a few holes on this roster that were clearly exposed by good teams and need to be upgraded.

And yes it was a fair question given the performance of that group.

[CanadianBoltFan]

Pop has a job, Joe has a job. there interests don't align. I don't see anything unusual or unexpected.

Poona was their best IDL last year, the question is quite logical. Joe's answer was fine. We have heard that he offered Poona ~$7M less over 3 years (I don't know it is confirmed). Thats fine, that was his valuation. If true, it wasn't close to the Rams $29M (28?) so Joe's "players decide on a different team" papers over the details. I don't care how Joe describes or doesn't describe it.

2024 IOL was a core weakness, everyone knows it. Joe knows it - he signed a new starting RG and an OC to compete for that job. Joe deflected criticism of the 2024 team as we should expect but the question was fair and over the target. I didn't see Joe as upset, it was just a standard pivot technique to not admit last year's IOL underperformed. FO and Coaches are almost uniform in not bashing players still on the roster, and last year's IOL are still on the roster. Its rare when a coach or GM admits a player they brought in and coached sucked, that is news. Joe doesn't give news. Nothing he said in the press report offered any news. Its all pablum and vague and intentional to not give news.

Bottom line: Pop's job is to get Joe to make news. He could not get Joe to make news, because Joe is good at his job too. If Pop is the only one asking these types of questions, to me that just means the other press suck at their jobs because this is sports journalism 101 and I'm sure none of his questions surprised Joe.

Very well said. Nothing to see here. Other than the commentary every time Popper tries to do his job and get the answers fans actually want.

[wu-dai clan]

I'm not sure what Daniel Popper's deal is...
Last year, he was insistent that we were taking Malik Nabers with the #5 pick.
Then, once we didn't, he continued to ask "missing play-maker" questions all season long during Harbaugh's post-game pressers.
He got under Harbaugh's skin so much that Harbaugh eventually responded with the famous "O-linemen are weapons too" statement.

Like us, he gets uber-focused on a particular player (convincing himself that there is only 1-way) without particularly understanding that Hortiz/Harbaugh like to build a team in a quite different way. Joe/Jim's best-player-available may not be our best-player-available. I don't know if everybody caught his reference to Joe Alt as their #1 rated player last draft...

FWIW... I think Joe likes Bradley Bozeman a lot more than everybody here. Maybe it's just "Liars-Month" kind of stuff. But they did sign Bozeman kind of early in the free agency period last off-season... and this off-season, too.

Unfortunately, this is a fairly weak center class. Maybe they really like Zabel @#22. After that, the next best center is Jared Wilson (3rd round). But I find it hard to believe that Jared Wilson would be BPA @#86. There will be so many good prospects @#86.

Yep. Daniel had another soliloquy about Poona last night, too. lol