Chiefs at Chargers Pre Game Discussion (Wk 1)

[Velo]

The best O-line of Herbert's career is still out there somewhere in the near future, hopefully as soon as 2026, Hortiz and company will get this shit fixed...I have no doubts that they will...

Slater, Becton, and Alt are back in 2026, if they sign big a FA and draft another high, this O-line should be much improved going into the 2026 season...a lot of focus and resources will be aimed at fixing the O-line in 2026...

I think the OL will be better than people expect this season, it's the 2nd year this core group will be playing together, it happens all the time in the NFL, OL who stay together play better and more cohesively as a unit. Becton is the only newcomer, he spent last season blocking for an RB who rushed for 2k+ yds and got a ring.

[Velo]

We didn't have a run game in 2024 which was the problem.

Dobbins had nearly 1000 yds and games 1 LVR and 2 Car were primarily run Ws. We were inconsistent not no run game.
Combined with only one quality receiver, it was a handicap.

This and this. I did a deep dive in a post last week that analyzed each defeat and how the inability to run the ball resulted in the 6 losses. It's why their 3 biggest off-season acquisitions were made to elevate the rushing attack - the FA signings of Harris and Becton and using their 1st pick on Hampton.

[sonorajim]

Chiefs didn't have to take our best players out of the game... the games started that way. No Slater, no Alt in game 1. Herbie hobbling on 1 leg. Game 2 we had no Dobbins and no McConkey. I'm not sure how the Chiefs didn't beat us by 21 points both times.

On paper, our OL looks worse than last year. I'm not happy about the Slater injury. I'm not happy about Trey starting at RT. You have to admit though, Trey is actually better at RT than at RG. Maybe Becton's presence at RG helps both Boze and Pipkins out. We'll see. Maybe without a newbie to the right of Boze, he can help out Zion, and vise-versa. Drafting Alt was super smart. Imagine having Pipkins at LT and Dedulus at RT. That's something TT would have done.

Meanwhile the weapons have improved. Getting KA back is huge... and largely unrecognized here at TPB. For the last 5 years we've heard nothing but "Allen's too old... he's losing a step". LOL! Then 2 years ago he rips off his best season ever. Ladd and Keenan will provide Herbert with two reliable, top-notch route runners to deliver to if the OL protection is spotty. I think they'll find a way to help Pipkins with chips from TE/RB... I think Boze will have a bounceback season... I think Zion continues to improve... I think Becton's injuries are behind him (he played 34 of 37 games the last 2 seasons). I think the combination of Hampton/Harris is much better/durable than Dobbins/Edwards. I think the running game gets going and keeps defenses honest. I think QJ takes another big step this year. And while it was only pre-season, we saw enough flashes from Tre Harris, KLS, and Gadsden to be optimistic about our depth at WR and TE.

I don't know whether these things come to fruition any better than you know "we'll suck because we always do"
But I can't wait for this season to start.

Good post Guv! I could ramble on about how much I agree but I'll spare you that. Gadsden will be surprisingly good.

[charger1_sj]

This and this. I did a deep dive in a post last week that analyzed each defeat and how the inability to run the ball resulted in the 6 losses. It's why their 3 biggest off-season acquisitions were made to elevate the rushing attack - the FA signings of Harris and Becton and using their 1st pick on Hampton.

Correct. Which is why the Chiefs should focus on stopping our run game. When we can't effectively run the football, we lose. That's exactly what happened last year.
The question this year: Has both our run game and pass game improved? If the run game fails, can we win games by passing the football? That's the biggest question
that has to be answered, because last year the answer was no.

On paper the personnel looks better, less the O line. But we'll have to see how that actually translates on the field of play.

[charger1_sj]

I had to check: in '24 we won 9 games when we passed for more yards, 2 when we ran for more.

In the NFL it's normal to pass for more yards than run. If it's a 50/50 offense (ours is), then passing the ball nearly always
has to net more yards than running the football. When it doesn't the run game has to be exceptional or the pass game failed.
And that's exactly what happened in 2024. When we ran well, we won. When we couldn't run the football effectively we lost.

In order to beat the best teams that has to change. We have to able to win football games through the run and the pass.

[powderblueboy]

Tom Brady found himself in the same situation, at the time of his divorce his wife could buy him over many many times over, he's worth a lot more now thanks to Fox and Mark Davis...BUT he'll never recover the worldwide prestige he had while married to Bundchen AND he would still be married to her if he had retired after his NE career ended, she was sacrificing her work businesses to help raise the kids and they had a hand shake deal that it was his turn to sacrifice and he had a change of heart and it cost him his marriage, overnight Tom went from being half of a worldwide A-list couple to now he's partying like a dead beat dad with a bunch of football players half his age in Florida, LOL...

It's a different time now and while it may chap the hide on some men around here, women are becoming more and more powerful and financially successful in this world and world famous women like Taylor Swift and Gisele Bundchin, to them, even these superstar athletes that play the biggest sport in this country, they don't need these guys for shit, they might've gotten involved with them out of love or some such thing but neither one of these men did fuck all to further their respective careers, you could make the argument that Brady actually hurt Bundchen, many would make the argument that these women are involving themselves well below their station marrying football players...worldwide football is not seen the way it is here, most everywhere outside the US, it's still considered a barbaric stupid sport played by idiot Americans...

...both Bundchen and Swift could've easily found for themselves men worth a hell of lot more money than Brady and Kelce...Longterm, I do wonder if Kelce will be able to put his ego aside better than Brady did?

Don't know why some here feel this is off topic or immoderately indulgent.

Anything that body slams Brady and his reputation should be read with meticulous care here.
Good to hear that Brady is having a fun respite with the boys before moving onto family number three.
He still is consequential to the Chargers, having Bowl Cuts ears.

Yeah, Brady had a chance to retire after the Super Bowl victory at Tampa Bay, vindicating everything,
and selfishly chose to continue.

He can't hold frog boys jock strap as a family man, which is good for the AFC west.

[sonorajim]

Correct. Which is why the Chiefs should focus on stopping our run game. When we can't effectively run the football, we lose. That's exactly what happened last year.
The question this year: Has both our run game and pass game improved? If the run game fails, can we win games by passing the football? That's the biggest question
that has to be answered, because last year the answer was no.

On paper the personnel looks better, less the O line. But we'll have to see how that actually translates on the field of play.

OL + the upgrades at TE should be OK, particularly at run blocks and we will run @ 50%. That's the season there. An effective Chargers run game sets up the pass O and vice versa. I believe Hampton and Harris will move the ball. Damn few teams, if any can cover Ladd, Keenan and Conklin OR Gadsden when all three are on the field. Let's play. Go Bolts!

[Formula 21]

Zion and Bozeman will be in the 2nd year working together so their coordination should be much better than last year. I suspect the OL will do just fine in this game.

[Javia]

Don't know why some here feel this is off topic or immoderately indulgent.

Anything that body slams Brady and his reputation should be read with meticulous care here.
Good to hear that Brady is having a fun respite with the boys before moving onto family number three.
He still is consequential to the Chargers, having Bowl Cuts ears.

Yeah, Brady had a chance to retire after the Super Bowl victory at Tampa Bay, vindicating everything,
and selfishly chose to continue.

He can't hold frog boys jock strap as a family man, which is good for the AFC west.

Can we leave the Gisele/Brady shit in the toilet where it belongs?

[powderblueboy]

Can we leave the Gisele/Brady shit in the toilet where it belongs?

Why get worked up about it?
It comes up every blue moon and Brady is on the Raiders now.

[sonorajim]

In the NFL it's normal to pass for more yards than run. If it's a 50/50 offense (ours is), then passing the ball nearly always
has to net more yards than running the football. When it doesn't the run game has to be exceptional or the pass game failed.
And that's exactly what happened in 2024. When we ran well, we won. When we couldn't run the football effectively we lost.

In order to beat the best teams that has to change. We have to able to win football games through the run and the pass.

I hear what you're saying. Rather than simply disagree, I'll say it's not that simple. It's Always T E A M in Harball, O, D and STs.
Sometimes O will hit on something they can't stop. Sure, we'll keep at it.
By the way. define "run the football effectively". We won 9 games in '24 that were predominately pass.
We beat Atl mainly with D Ints but we threw more on O.
All that aside, I totally believe in R / P balance on offense as a goal but sometimes you just have to take whatever works.

[charger1_sj]

I hear what you're saying. Rather than simply disagree, I'll say it's not that simple. It's Always T E A M in Harball, O, D and STs.
Sometimes O will hit on something they can't stop. Sure, we'll keep at it.
By the way. define "run the football effectively". We won 9 games in '24 that were predominately pass.
We beat Atl mainly with D Ints but we threw more on O.
All that aside, I totally believe in R / P balance on offense as a goal but sometimes you just have to take whatever works.

We did not win 9 games that were predominately pass. We won 9 games when the passing yards exceeded the run yards. That's
pretty much normal in the NFL. The passing yards are almost always greater than the running yards,

We won exactly 1 game when the passing game dominated over the run game, 246 pass versus 96 run. The only game we won
when we didn't rush for more than 100 yards.