Los Angeles Chargers Training Camp AS FULL TIME CONTENT CREATOR….

Los Angeles Chargers Training Camp AS FULL TIME CONTENT CREATOR….

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Football is back. We are going to Chargers training camp and this will be our sixth straight season attending the camp. I’m so excited to get into the vlog. We’re going to be talking Chargers football, like the Mike Williams retirement, what the wide receiver position looks like now, how the defense looked out there in its first couple days of practice, how our rookies looked out there in their first couple days of practice, and how I feel about the team overall going into the 2025 season. In this, I’m going to talk a little bit about the Chargers practice facility, how to even get to the practice if you want to go and attend one yourself in July or August or next year. Are Chargers fans showing up to training camp in the first place? I got the answers to those questions for sure. And then also at the end of the vlog, I’m going to spit some game on being an NFL content creator. So, if you’re a content creator, stick around to the end for that game. First, starting where we were about to leave for training camp and then news breaks. And before we leave the house, the vlog is already starting because news just broke while I’m getting ready for camp content that Mike Williams is suddenly retiring. Late last night, the Chargers were informed that receiver Mike Williams was contemplating retirement. It is now confirmed. He has told the Chargers, his representation has informed the Chargers that he will be retiring. I’m here with my wife. She’s going to be with us on the vlog, too. What’s your thoughts? So sad. She’s sad about it. I’m sad about it. Oh, we already got Keenan Chance going before the guy can even get his retirement speech in. It was a great career for Michael Williams. I’m sure he suffered some kind of injury again probably in the offseason. While coming back from last year’s injuries, he knows in his head that if he goes into this training camp injured, he’s not going to make the team. There’s too many receivers. He’s a competitive spot. Jim Harbaugh is not keeping no one around on one-year deals just to be nice. It’s not going to happen. I think Mike Williams’ career is probably actually over. I don’t see another team giving him a chance. So, huge shout out to Mike Williams. What a career as a Charger. It sucks he had to leave when he had to leave because of the contract situation. It kind of ended everything for him. It set everything in motion. Wish he would have just stayed with the Chargers from day one. But he will always be an alltime Chargers gate. Great. And I’m about to go make a Mike Williams Tik Tok right now. I know all the talk focuses straight towards Keenan Allen who is still a free agent. I’ve been saying it on multiple podcasts all over the internet that I think Kenan Allen will sign with the Chargers even when we had Mike Williams. And I still think Keenan Allen will sign with the Los Angeles Chargers before the season starts. And I am very excited about the Charger wide receiving court with or without Kenan Allen. I’m going to talk more about that in today’s video. I got to say thank you, Mike. Mike gave a young content creator like me an interview really early on in my career. Randy Moss without the wheels. Keenan can play outside wide receiver. Keenan can play the slot. And I think that that’s overblown in the first place. It’s just whose skill sets fit these roles for each individual team. For the 2013 Chargers, what was Keenan Allen’s role? For the 2015 Chargers, was Keenan Allen’s role. For the 2017 Chargers, it changed. For the 2020 Chargers, it changed. For the 2025 Chargers, yes, we would need Keenan Allen to play a little bit more outside corner, outside wide receiver. You see, he got me all wishy-washed here. But guess what? With Mike Williams going down, we need Lad McConi to play more outside wide receiver. It’s not just going to be Keenan Allen. That whole we don’t need a slot receiver thing is blown way out of the water. We need one-on-one nightmares, one-on-one creators, guys that force teams to play zone coverage versus our run first offense, cuz we really want to pound the rock down team’s throats. And Keenan Allen to me is a lot better at creating one-on-one nightmares than Quinton Johnson is. Keenan Allen is more of a one-on-one mismatch right now today before we see Trey Harris out there on the field. So, I will never boo Keenan Ellen signing anywhere but the Raiders. Honestly, if he signs with the 49ers, which they really need a wide receiver, I’ll be so happy for Keenan. I just want to see him play some more. Okay, let’s go to actual Chargers training camp. Here’s some LA traffic in case you’ve never experienced it before. And here is some LA gas prices in case you’ve never experienced that before either. Congrats. Now, let’s talk some ball. Got to Chargers camp. And when you get there at first, I got to warn all Chargers fans that are going, you have to park at a parking garage offsite. The website where you get your training camp tickets have the address to this parking lot. I don’t want to give out the wrong address cuz it is a little bit different each day. I think different sides of the building depending on the day. So once you get to this parking garage, once you find where you’re supposed to go and you get parked, you actually have to get out of the parking garage and get on the Chargers bus, which is completely free. You pay $10 for parking and you get on the bus and they take you to the Bolt. And the Bolt is absolutely beautiful. If you’ve never been before, this is my second season going. This facility, compared to practicing at Costa Mesa High School, like the Chargers used to in previous years, is night and day. Once I got in, I used my spy cam, which I have to walk around so I could show you guys some of the views of what it’s like to be at Chargers training camp for the second day and the third day. You can see Chargers fan filled this place up. This was a mad house to find seats at. A lot of people text me afterwards and they say, “Hey, I saw you at the practice, Mike. I saw you at the game, Mike. I saw you at the watch party, Mike, but I didn’t say anything cuz I was too shy.” Please, guys, it makes me feel good to realize that all this work and all these videos that I’m posting are going out to people. Let’s talk about practice. Starting with the differences that you notice between a Staley practice and a Harbaugh practice. And I noticed this last year, but it’s even becoming more apparent this year. Every single player from the start of practice to the end of practice is absolutely locked in. At a Brennan daily practice, they’re interacting with the fans. They’re dancing. There’s music blaring throughout the entire practice. The coaches are constantly talking to players on the side. at a hard ball practice. What’s going on on the football field? Every single person on the field, coaches included, water girls included, are locked into their role. Also trying to get more reps at practice, put more on tape. And that’s the type of stuff. Or before Keenan Allen is trying to take less reps. And it’s not a shock to Kenan Allen. He’s already a legend in the game. Different vibe. This is why when Harbaugh came in, he immediately shipped a bunch of guys out. Immediately cleared a bunch of caps. Very locked in. More of a college style practice. more of a NFL style practice that I’m used to seeing from other teams that have been successful. I went to three training camp practices the year the Rams won the Super Bowl. And every single one of those practices, I left thinking the Rams might be a Super Bowl contender and the Chargers have a similar feel this year to them. And Harbaugh said it himself in a miked up segment. He said, “I will win a Super Bowl for the Chargers or I will die trying.” And that is the attitude this team has. That is the attitude I have in life. And that attitude is the attitude of winners. And I love to hear stuff like that from our coach. The actual practice itself. Talk about Justin Herbert first here. He was almost perfect as he always does. Hopefully my editor’s playing some clips of Justin Herbert passes here. The dude was super accurate throwing the ball all over the football field. He unccorked multiple deep bombs touchdowns to everybody. He was sprinkling it around the field, too. Lad scored a touchdown. Brandon Rice scored a touchdown. Quinton Johnson scored a touchdown. Was on the money except for a few. And this is where Herbert is growing as a leader. This is where Herbert is growing as a football player, as a person at practice that can help his teammates even get better in previous years with Brandon Staley. You know what I mean? Justin Herbert would go through his reads and he would take sacks at practice like he would just eat the ball, just hold the ball there, not throw it, you know, and and it’s a sack in pads and you’re doing full speed, you would have gotten sacked, so might as well simulate that. Or should you still get your wide receiver a rep? Should you get the DB a rep? There was multiple times throughout these practices where Justin Herbert goes through all his reads. It’s on video. You can see it. He would have gotten sacked. The play would have been dead. He would have ran. Would have thrown it away. Something like that. He just throws it up outside so the DB and the wide receiver sees the DB can intercept it. Sees the wide receiver can go up and catch it over the DB. It’s a good rep. And yes, Herbert threw two pick sixes because of that. I think that that is a little thing that I noticed about Herbert’s practice these last two days is that he was not shy to look bad in front of the whole crowd knowing cuz he’s a football player what he’s doing. That his coaches, I’m sure, had told him, “Get your fifth read. No one’s open. Throw it up to somebody.” And put it on tape. We’re all on the same team. This is practice. Let’s talk about the Chargers wide receiver battle and who kind of stood out to me. I will just say right away that Lad McConi also has taken a step this year. You could tell as a leader. He went first in every single drill. He stepped up and led the wide receivers. Wide receivers followed his lead. Was someone who really stood out to me. I followed QJ around the entire practice. I recorded every single drill he did, every single rep that he did, expecting him to drop a pass, expecting him to start messing up, expecting things to look ugly. He’s improved. He’s improved so much actually. His stride is getting better. He’s already a speedster. He’s super fast and he’s 6’5. Now that he’s running smooth routes, the last thing that he needs to get together is the hands. And people are calling me a liar. He dropped one pass on the first day of practice. I was not there to see it. I wasn’t. I saw it on Twitter. I did. It was part of inspiring me to make the video on QJ, which went viral, by the way, and we’re going to talk about more about the content at the end of this video. But I followed him around for the entire three days, and he looks like a star wide receiver out there. The only reason I wouldn’t say that he’s a star wide receiver out there is because I have memories of what’s happened in the games the last couple of years. Like if you erase the memories from and QJ’s a rookie and I’m seeing that guy out there on the field as a rookie, I would be thinking we have an elite wide receiver. I still think he can be a fine wide receiver too in this league. Maybe not even for the Chargers. I still think he can be a fine wide receiver three for the Chargers. I’ve been saying it since his rookie year. I think that he can be a beefed up, stronger, better Debo Samuel. I really do. if the Chargers figure out a great way to use him and his hands can become more steady in-game action. He had zero drops. I will say though, I saw Trey Harris at his first practice since he started the hold out and all the second round picks throughout the league started their hold out. He looked really smooth as well. I think he had three catches on the first day. Another one on the second day during team practice. Very smooth routes. He gets in and out of his breaks without any hitches, without any issues, without any stutter steps or or any second steps that aren’t needed. I wouldn’t want to guard Trey Harris or KLS who is looking like maybe the Chargers new Tyron Johnson looking like the new guy that’s gonna go down the field and just be that deep threat that’s gonna you know take the top off the defense for our rushing attack or lad to work the underneath stuff and for our new tight end which I’m going to talk about here in a second. I was on the Bolt Bros podcast. I was saying that I’m very very nervous for Darius Davis’s roster spot only because of his size. The guy is talented as hell and if he was Tyreek Hill size even just a little bit bigger I think that he could be a Tyreek Hill level player in an offense play in play out game in game out drive in drive out but I will say DD clearly has a role on this team he was working in with the ones at slot receiver at time he’s doing a lot of the motions around the field you could tell that Harbaugh has some things planned for Darius Davis during the regular season which to me would mean that his roster spot is almost locked versus what I was thinking before he’s competing with Jaylen Rager maybe for that roster lost your spot. I think that that spot is locked because when they went to punt return, when they went to special teams, only two returners went out for punt return and usually you would want your backups working in, right? But lad makoni and Darius Davis 12, they were the only two players that were working as punt returnment. So to me, the Chargers have no other plan. They have no other option. They have no other thoughts of anyone else returning except for Darius Davis, right? I mean, if he gets hurt, Lad Mani will be our return man. And that’s already been established. She did some returns last year, but it looks like Darius Davis is going to be the team’s kick returner and going to be the team’s punt returner at minimum. Tyler Conklin, Will Dley, they’re out there running routes. Look very wellrounded as route runners, as receivers, but then also in the blocking game. You could tell that these guys are going to be a little duo together in the blocking and play action game. When we get down into the red zone, they were hanging out with each other all practice, arm-in- arm pretty much. Best buds, members of our rushing attack and play action passing attack. You could tell that already. But the one that stood out was OG86, Aronda Gadson. This guy has all all of the traits to be an elite tight end in this league. He can fly down the field. He’s 6’7. He’s jacked. He’s absolute stud. This is like Jimmy Graham. If Jimmy Graham played with Jim Harbaugh, this kid is going to be a secret weapon for Arbaugh this year. The Chargers secondary is way ahead of schedule and that is exciting to see for two reasons. For one, usually this is the part in training camp with NFL teams that struggle a little bit more early on. You got to get good communication. You got to get good chemistry. You got to get good connections. You got to get good handoffs as defensive backs and pass coverage and and linebackers. And it’s not easy to perfect. But the Chargers are bringing back almost the exact same secondary from last season. And you can see that on the field, man. They were dominant out there. Like I said, Don Henley, middle linebacker, got two interceptions. RJ Mickens had an interception. Dean Leonard had a pick six. We got our hands on the ball multiple other times for chances at interceptions. And like I said, a lot of people are going to say, “Well, doesn’t that mean that the offense is struggling?” No, the offense was still really good. These were moments where the coverage was so good that Herbert just had to throw it up. Herbert probably would have ran on these plays. Herbert probably would have thrown it away on these plays. And something else I want to shout out, Junior Coulson, someone that doesn’t get any talk as a Chargers linebacker or the future of the linebacker position, he is healthy. He was flying around out there when he got on the second unit. Blew up multiple screens. Was all over it in the run game that they could do without pads. I’m excited for 25. We already have six in Denzel Perman. We already have zero and Don Henley. Both established almost all prolevel linebackers in the NFL. Denzel Perman was an allp pro for one season, I believe. But then you got 25 developing behind them. Troy Dy is a veteran in this league that’s produced some good pass coverage snaps when we’ve needed him to. I’m excited for the linebackers. I’m excited for the secondary. And I’m excited for this pass rush, which was one of the best pass rushes in the league last year. And yeah, we lost Joey Bosa, we lose Puna Ford, with this defensive coordinator, with this mindset, with this coaching staff. That’s what took Puna Ford to that next level to what you know him as today. They’re going to take the next D tackles on this roster to that level. We have a good competition inside between a bunch of different names at DTackle. I’m excited to see who wins that battle. Tuli Tuli Palotu is going to be an allaround animal for the entire four downs the entire game. He’s been in the league a few years already. He came to the league really young. He’s entering his prime now. There is no reason to believe that Tulie is not an upgrade from Joey Bosa by a lot by just getting him in more getting him more reps. The energy and the vibe around this squad is immaculate. It is Super Bowl or die trying. And that is going to be our catchphrase this year. I might put it on a t-shirt. It’s going to be an amazing season for the Chargers. And if the Chargers do good this season, it’s going to be an amazing season for me as an NFL content creator. And I promised you guys I would spit some game and I would share some knowledge on being a content creator here. Let’s clip in here. I took a little video at the beach with my mindset. I caught it in action. I was editing videos. I was planning out videos at the beach there in Elsa Gundo. So, I just took out the camera and I recorded my thoughts. We’re at the beach. Anyways, we just wanted to talk about some of the behind thes scenes stuff more in these YouTube videos and these kind of vlogs that we do. When’s the first day of camp already? How many,000 views you think? 250,000 on one video of me just catching a football. Play the video here. Chargers holding fan tryyous. The other one that was I mean it’s at 250,000 views now 24 hours. It’s like 10:30 in the morning, 11:00 after the camp. You guys are watching this maybe on a Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday or anytime. And then the other video we posted, which is a minute long one that I prepared before we got to camp that I already had ready to go, that one’s over 100,000, over 120,000 already. So by the time you guys see it, it’s probably going to be at 200 plus thousand on that one. 500,000 on the video of me just catching the football. I kind of like called those going viral. Not really the football one. That one kind of happened in the moment, but the video where I pre-edited about the monsters and how the Chargers are such a tall team. I prepare the videos before I get to camp. It’s already edited. It’s ready to go. The buzz of Chargers training camp plus all of the algorithm and hooking techniques that I use. Those two things combine to make things go viral. I just want to talk more about like the psychology that goes behind the content because today we’re going to training camp at 5:00 PM again and I’m going in there with three, four ideas, right? And then things will happen at the camp. News will break. Something will point me towards one of these ideas in the right direction and then that’s going to go viral. Right now, what I’m thinking is there’s videos of Quinton Johnson going around the internet. There’s one video of Quint Johnston going around the internet dropping one pass. And every time this guy drops a pass now, everyone gets on his ass. the whole world gets on his ass. So, my idea is this is this is where you got to think if you’re a content creator watching this or if you’re just a viewer and you just want to know more about the psychology that goes behind this. My idea is is to go against the anti-QJ propaganda and I’m going to now follow QJ around all practice. I already did for the first practice. I have him catching like five passes. I have him catching like a one-handed pass when he’s just kind of messing around. I have him catching a touchdown pass. Nice, beautiful over the shoulder touchdown catch. And I’m going to do it again for this practice. and we’re going to have 10 15 QJ catches, one-handed catches, and I’m just going to go completely the other direction and I’m going to I’m going to put in the text hook like, “Oh, you guys don’t think this guy can catch or something along those lines.” I did something similar with Micah Parsons a few years ago when he’s in a contract dispute. He’s still in the contract dispute. Now, saying that Micah Parsons isn’t going to let the Cowboys practice and followed him around. Basically, showed a bunch of Micah Parsons highlights. So, that’s kind of what I have in mind. But, if Derwin James starts going off at practice, I’m ready to go and switch this idea to Derwin. I’m playing with the news. I’m playing with what we have right in front of us and what we can plan out and think about. And then I also pivot on the spot. You know, when there’s a player playing catch with the crowd, just give the phone to Rose like this. Here you go. And catch the ball. 500 plus thousand views right there. And that QJ post I’m talking about, it’s going viral on Tik Tok. It’s going viral on Twitter. It’s going viral on Instagram. It’s going viral on YouTube. And that would be what, like my third or fourth viral video of the trip. And I don’t consider like 10,000 views, 20,000 views viral anymore. I’m at a point now where I consider 100 plus thousand views across platforms as a viral video. And especially when we start to get hundreds of thousands of views on one platform. And when we talk about this in a content creator business sense, right? I went to NFL training camp and I got my hotel comps because I have a brand deal with a nearby hotel. You guys saw at the beginning of the video the gas prices. That’s really the fee that I had to pay. The hotel hooked me up with the tickets. The hotel hooked me up with the passes. the brand deal that I scored for this. And shout out to the Sinesta Hotel. If you guys want to stay there in the Elsagundo Sinesta Hotel or if you’re going to Cowboys training camp in Oxnard, there’s one in Camarillo. Both my discount code will work at NFL Mike. Use code NFL Mike. But these type of connections that I built over the years of being a content creator make this trip damn near free to go to Chargers training camp. I just told you about all the viral videos we created. We get anywhere from $1 to $5 per,000 views depending on the video on Tik Tok. We get anywhere from $1 to $2 per,000 views on short videos on YouTube. We get pennies on Facebook, too. We get pennies on Instagram as well. You throw in the brand deals. I go to an NFL training camp like the Chargers and I make thousands of dollars to watch Chargers practice. And I want people to understand that this is a life that’s out there right now. Especially with AI, especially with robots, especially with everything that’s going on in the world today and politics and everything now more than ever, can you do whatever you want with your life? And these things that we call phones, they have all of the keys. I learned everything that I know. I do everything that I do on this phone. It is the most powerful tool ever invented in humankind’s history. That’s the business side of it. to actually get these videos to go viral. It’s just a simple mind game that we play. We’ll go over more stuff and I will be going to Cowboys training camp here in a few days on the 25th and 26th. You guys see me there again, please say hello. I’ll have a giveaway item with me. But we’re going to do this all again. We’re going to make the whole vlog. I’m going to review all the players at practice. Keep my eyes on everything that I can possibly see at practice and bring it back to you here on the NFL Mike YouTube channel. And then maybe we’ll go to Rams training camp again. We go to all the training camps every single year. We can go to Arizona. I want an excuse to go to Arizona. I really do. I want to see Marvin Harrison. I want to go see Kyler Murray. Can we go to Arizona? Like this video. Like content. Like this. Subscribe to the channel if you’re not already. I noticed that 95% of the people that watch my videos aren’t subscribed to the channel. I create it on all 32 NFL teams. I am a Chargers fan though, so you will see some Chargers bias over here, but I’m sure everyone is fans of their own teams. I love football. That’s really the core of my purpose on this planet is that I love football and I want to spread that joy. So, please subscribe to the channel, like the video, and uh let me know what you think of these kind of videos, and I will bring more to the channel. Will that Cowboys practice top this Harbaugh practice? I don’t quite think so, but I guess sooner rather than later, the ball definitely won’t lie. Bill Flames, I’m with Mike on the mic. What’s up, the brand new one for your mind? He gave me warning. Now, it’s time to smack them in the mouth with that sports talk from the town. Sweet chin music to your favorite shows faster.

Come along with NFL Mike for an epic VLOG at the Chargers’ 2025 Training Camp at The Bolt! 🏟️ See Justin Herbert’s throws, the bold new all-yellow uniforms, and rookies like Tre’ Harris shining. I share my creator tips for capturing NFL action and dish on roster battles, Harbaugh’s coaching, and Mike Williams’ exit. Are the Bolts Super Bowl-bound? ⚡

Comment: Love or hate the yellow unis?

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Timestamps
00:00-3:20 Getting ready to go….
03:20-5:00 CHARGERS FACILITY
05:00 – 15:00 PRACTICE!
15:00 – 20:29 CONTENT GAME…

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