Chargers Eye Omarion Hampton Return, Shake Up OL Ahead of Raiders Week

Chargers Eye Omarion Hampton Return, Shake Up OL Ahead of Raiders Week

Guilty is charged. Guilty is charged. Guilty is charged. Guilty is charged. That’s my guy. Hey, what is up everybody? Welcome to the Guilty is Charge podcast coming to you live on a Tuesday evening. My name is Stephen and I am the host and joining me as always is my good friend Tyler. Tyler, how you doing tonight? Uh, doing pretty well. You know, it’s the it’s an early preview show for us. Usually this is our film review show. No film to review. So, here we are with the preview doing our best to preview this match up with the Raiders, which is just kind of sad at this point. You know, my dad, as a Raiders fan, has not really been watching a ton. I think after the seventh sack they gave up against the Browns, he was just like, “Yeah, this is this is not fun to watch anymore.” So, I’ll be in attendance at the game. I know that scares some of you. However, I’ve been in attendance for the last five of them that they won in a row. So, don’t panic. The Raiders are that bad. Yeah, we all know that the vibes with the Chargers are not great right now. Uh and they are nine and a half point favorites this week against the Raiders. So, that’s a huge number in the NFL. Uh that is a very indicative of where the Chargers are at in terms of uh this current season. So, um we are like Tyler said, we’re going to preview this week. Um, you know, we’ll take some questions at the end because I I this isn’t like a super important game, but uh let us be the first to wish you guys a happy Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Uh my family always wakes up and we do a little mini turkey bowl. Uh then we obviously are watching football all day, the parade, you know, eating good some good food, everything like that. Um so I I love Thanksgiving. I am very excited to get back to Utah and hang out with my family this year. So, um, whatever your plans are, hope it goes great. If you’re like me and traveling, hope, uh, everything goes well. Hope the flights are are on time and, uh, just appreciate you guys taking some time during the holidays to watch our show tonight. Yeah, have some fun, enjoy family, don’t bring up politics, eat all the food you want. Uh, have white rice with your Thanksgiving. It changes everything. All that good stuff. So, yeah, we will not be live on Thursday, obviously. I’ll be full and and using prize picks to look at games and have some fun with that. Yeah, it is going to be a little gross because we have to root for the Cowboys this week on Thanksgiving. Uh the the usual Cowboys hate watch on Thanksgiving is is going to be different this year. So, yeah, I know that sounds gross everybody, but we’re trying to get the Chiefs out of the picture. So, those those damn Colts could not finish the job off last week. So, here we are the next week rooting for uh the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving. Yeah, the Chiefs are slowly creeping back into being a good team and every little metric is starting to add up for them. Yeah, the offensive tackle situation, at least with Simmons, seems to be handled uh finally for them, which sucks. So, yeah, let’s not get the slowly surging Chiefs into the postseason. Let’s knock them out. Yeah, they ran 90 plays last week, dude. It was crazy. Yeah, 90 plays for 23 points. So, uh Wow. It is what it is. Um we’re not going to dive into a ton of the like playoff implications this week. Uh the Chargers are currently at 60% according to the Athletic and and generally most models that’s kind of where they’re at. Um if they win on Sunday, it only bumps them up to like 66%. If they lose, it is a significant drop after that. Um you know, but this is obviously not their most crucial game coming up, but a game that they should definitely win. All right. Uh before we get into everything for this game, of course, I have to give you a quick shout out uh to our friends over at Prize Picks. Like Tyler mentioned already, this episode of the Guilty is Charge podcast and every episode of the Guilty is Charge podcast is brought to you by Prize Picks. You and I make decisions every day, but on Prize Picks, being right can get you paid. Don’t miss any of the excitement this football season on Prize Pix. Or if you’re into the NBA season already, have at it with on prize pick, it’s it’s definitely up there for you as well. Uh so prize picks is where it is good to be, right? So, whatever kind of floats your boat, like I mentioned, uh, football season in full swing, coming down the home stretch, NBA season, college basketball, college football, whatever the case, prize picks is very simple to play. Just pick more or less on at least two player stats. If your picks, uh, if you get your picks right, you could cash in. Play prize picks to get action on football in more than 40 plus states, including California, Texas, and Georgia. Again, this is, uh, one of the best apps out there for daily fantasy sports. Uh, we love using it. So, I definitely encourage you guys to go check it out if you haven’t already. Please download the Prize Pix app today. Use the code guilty to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Again, that’s code guilty to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks, it’s good to be right, guys. They even had a free $15 bonus just and just like they just said, “Play it whatever you want.” And picked three. And I was DMing the guys back and forth and really rooting for a shootout with Devonte Smith and and Jaylen Herz and Dak Prescott and everybody. And I got it 120 bucks on something that was free. I didn’t have to deposit anything for that one. They just every once in a while throw in something every other week or so. They have a Thanksgiving special. So, go for it. Yeah. CD Lamb made that made you sweat a little bit for that with all the drops and stuff like that, but he he got you there eventually. Yes. Yes. Thankfully, he picked up where AJ Brown couldn’t keep up in the second half. So, yes, thank you, CD Lamb, AJ Brown, all that sort of stuff. Yeah, I know. Last season they for LeBron, they always did like Taco Tuesday specials. Yeah, I’m sure they will they’ll cook stuff up uh for Thursday specifically on Thanksgiving. So, definitely uh go check them out and appreciate Prize Pix for sponsoring this show and every episode of this show. All right, let’s get to our uh prize picks of the week. So, uh, no prison schematics this time for the slideshow. We We can’t do that every single time the Raiders play. So, yeah. Uh, nice little Vegas outline here. Looks pretty similar to like how they did all the draft stuff, you know, when when they draft a few years ago. It wouldn’t surprise it wouldn’t surprise me if the Raiders just stole things off of Slides Go and then use that for their their promotions and whatnot that week. It was actually very fun being in in Vegas. They did actually a really good job, the whole city. Um, but yeah, went with this theme. Couldn’t do the prison one. thought of some other ones, but this is this is suitable. Yeah, I agree. I agree. He looks good. All right, so let’s do a check-in on the Raiders. Uh, spoiler alert, not a lot of good here. So, um, I forget his name right now. The defensive coordinator, Patrick Graham. Patrick Graham has been there a very long time. Been there through three different regimes. And this roster might be his worst roster he’s ever worked with. Um, despite that, they’re not they’re not a total dumpster fire on defense. are 20th in EPA per play and 18th in success rate. A lot of that has to do with Max Crosby who is very very good still. Um he’s not putting up like elite elite upper echelon numbers this season. He’s getting a lot of extra, you know, attention this year. Um 41 pressures, six sacks, 31 stops is is crazy. He’s still uh to me he is one of the best rundefending edge rushers in the league right now. Um Brock Bowers has certainly returned to form over the last four games. Uh so we will be talking about him later. Um 285 yards and three touchdowns in the last four weeks. So pretty pretty good player. I think in three of those four games he’s had more than 13 targets or more than 12 targets, I can’t remember. But it it it’s been a lot of usage for Mr. Brock Bowers. Um Trey Tucker, I guess, having a breakout season. Uh 530 yards leading the wide receivers in receiving yards this year. Definitely was not on my bingo card. Obviously, they traded Jacobe Meyers, but uh that is I I guess good for Trey Tucker. And then a player you and I were like semi-interested in for the Chargers. Uh Eric Stokes has had a little bit of a mini breakout. Um top 20 in forcing completion percentage and total forcing completions for the Raiders. Um easily their best corner right now. So this is uh what we’re talking about for the Raiders being good. Trey Tucker and Eric Stokes breakouts and you know the two best players entering the season are still really good. Yeah, really rough. Patrick Graham. Yeah, I don’t know how long he’ll be with this regime. Do they blow it up in one more year? Does he stick around for a fourth one? Probably not. But then again, he’s he’s been around for three, so who knows? But I have a lot of respect for him because this roster basically stinks every year. And this off seasonason, you know, he loses Trayvon Merrick who’s not punching people in the balls. And so that was crazy, man. That was crazy. Just full uppercut, man. The full peanut punch. That’s messed up. Uh anyway, that he’s not gonna win that appeal, I would imagine. So, good for Patrick Graham. I think he’s given the Chargers more fits than they deserve, you know, than they should, I should say. Yeah. Um Max Crosby still good tackle for lost king. Bowers being back, you know, ye-haw first time they played the Chargers. Bowers was like half there for them. Not himself that day. Yeah. So, good news for them. He should be more of himself. Uh Trey Tucker, great. I I think I liked him. We all liked him as the third, fourth, fifth round kind of guy in the draft. So, good for him. And Stokes, you know, we we thought he’d be like corner six for this team. He’s their corner one like to start this season. So, which really tells you about their roster. Uh he’d probably be good with the Chargers, too. But good for him. There’s the good things we could we could think of. And thank you everyone for understanding my Veggie Tales reference and the Pirates who don’t do anything. Yeah, in case you you don’t know, uh that’s what that reference is. So, uh you know, Veggie Tales, uh Bob Middleton, big fan of the Veggie Tales graphic. So, it says you get an A+ already tonight. 100%. Big part of my childhood. Yeah. I’m not definitely Veggie Tales is like one of the It’s like a core piece of any millennial’s childhood. Like, I was going to say, yeah, none of my kids would have any idea who these people are. I don’t know. And I don’t think my grandparents would, but just specifically me and my parents who showed me it. Yeah, Veggie Tales is like all of that. I It’s becoming really popular to like for our generation, uh, you know, like when a lot of my friends who have kids, they’re like showing their kids all the stuff from our childhood. Um, so like my my 2-year-old nephew is obsessed with Space Jam because his his my brother-in-law is just like showing him Space Jam, the original, the good one. As much as I’m a LeBron fan, that one sucked. Sure. Um, so every time we go over there, he’s always like, “Deven, Stephven, pace jam, pace jam.” It’s It’s so funny. So, uh, millennials, keep showing your kids, uh, you know, the good stuff from from our childhood. I think it’s is fun. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. All right. What is bad? A lot of bad. Uh, you you mentioned how your dad is feeling, so I’ll let you take this one away. Yeah. Uh th this is this is really bad and it’s worse than I thought. So the we know about Chip Kelly and the firing. We’ll get to it. The offense is 32nd EPA per play. If you didn’t know, that’s last um and 30th in success rate, which is bottom three. They also have the 32nd ranked special teams unit on PFF. And they fired their special teams coordinator already this uh this season. So they’ve fired their offensive coordinator, they’ve fired their special teams coordinator. Their defense is, you know, average, slightly below average, and there’s that. Um, their offensive line is tied with the Browns for the worst pass blocking efficiency. ESPN’s metrics are a little bit more favorable for them. They’re like in the 20s or so, actually better than the Chargers. Um, but they did just give up 10 sacks. Uh, the Chargers don’t have a Miles Garrett, but they did give up 10 sacks. Ashen Genty, the prized first round pick because So, they didn’t draft a lineman or defensive lineman or anything that could help them with the previous things. So Ashton Genty, they drafted him. Great player, unfortunately, averaging 3.6 yards per attempt while averaging 3.1 yards after contact. The run game stinks. It’s the blocking stinks. There’s no help. It’s sad watching watching Genty just kind of waste a year at this point. He’s got generally the touches and the volume, but it’s just not great in front of him. And Pete Carroll might already be coaching for his job. Did we think the Raiders were going to be, you know, winners this year? No. that I think it was going to be this bad with Gino Smith at least kind of stabilizing things. We’ve seen them give the Chargers fits with Aiden Okonnell and whoever the other guy was that I can’t remember that’s how bad it was. So you think with Carol with Smith it’d be okay. They already fired two coordinators and Pete Carol might be coaching for his job. That’s not where I thought I’d see the Raiders. I again I think we’d all assume they were fourth in the division but this bad I didn’t expect. Yeah, I definitely did not expect it to be this bad. I think it’s, you know, you don’t just like forget how to coach, you know, if you’re Pete Carol, but I think it shows really like how bad the roster was. And I think their biggest mistake is, you know, kind of overestimating where that roster was at. You take a running back in the first round, that’s a signal that like, hey, we think we’re ready to compete. And like, we’re trading for Gino Smith. We think we’re ready to compete. And the roster was just not there. So, um, you will see what happens with Pete Carol. I was reading a couple of Raiders beat and it’s just like this the vibes this year have been worse than it was under Antonio Pierce because Antonio Pierce had like he was not a good football coach, but at least like you know he was a vibes guy and like he kept people happy and you know the the reports are that the locker room has just been like a just a depression center for like the last two months of the season. So, it’s it it’s bad in Vegas. Um, I don’t know if they can afford to fire another coach because technically they’re still paying Antonio Pierce and they’re still paying Josh McDaniels. Um, so I don’t know how much money Tom Brady’s like infusing to the situation, but it’s it’s it’s a bad vibe. Uh, for those who don’t know, former Charger special teams coordinator Darius Swinton is their interim special teams coordinator. Uh, and Swinton obviously led one of the worst special teams units in the league when he was special teams coordinator of the Chargers. Um, and then obviously the thankfully the Chargers upgraded to Ryan Ficken after that, which is one of the two or three best things that Brandon Staley ever did during his tenure. Um, so yeah, it’s it’s just been a lot of bad. They have had uh I think five weeks where they have been dead last in EPA per play on offense which again with Gino Smith and Brock Bowers and Ashton Genty and Michael Mayer and Jacobe Myers like it’s it’s worse than it ever should have been. Um so it’s it’s a lot of bad vibes. Again referencing like the former or the the uh betting number here nine and a half shows you that everybody kind of thinks that this Raiders team is just a a dumpster fire right now. There’s not a lot of things that we can talk about to prove otherwise. Yeah, it’s it’s really rough. I did not realize Swinton was the the intern one for them. So, small world and all that sort of stuff. Uh you I How are you 32nd? I I don’t know. Anytime anybody’s 32nd and it’s not the Browns or the Titans or some of these teams like h how can you possibly be that bad with this group? But yeah, I I I don’t know what to say. I knew the Raiders were bad. I’ve watched plenty of Raiders games and other than being mildly competitive on defense against like the Broncos, for example. Yeah. It’s just it’s just bad all over. I mean, the worst offense, the worst special teams unit. Two firings, arguably the worst offensive line. I mean, that just that’s that’s that’s really bad. Sadly, though, the Chargers are technically 31st in special teams, so they’re they’re not too far behind. Thankfully, they have Herbert. Yeah, they have Herbert and uh you know, at least a better roster on defense. So, you uh you do not want to be next to the Cleveland Browns and Tennessee Titans and New Orleans Saints and total EPA per play. Minnesota Vikings shockingly at 28th. So, um again, I just did I did not think it was going to be this bad. And you know, I I know that there’s a lot of people dunking on Gino Smith. I still firmly believe that in a better situation, he would be a much better quarterback. So, uh you know, we’ll see what it is. My dad’s already chimed in. Says, “The Raiders will successfully play for the loss.” So, yeah, looks like Raiders fans are already uh gearing towards the draft. So, it’ll be interesting to see, you know, do they take a quarterback next year? Do they like fully embrace the tank and things like that? Um, this isn’t like a great quarterback class it sounds like. Although, uh, Dante Moore, Fernando Mendoza maybe seem like potential guys. So, long way to go for the draft stuff, but yeah, I can’t imagine Raiders fans, your dad included, were expecting to be embracing the tank in November when they traded for Gino Smith back in March. No, no bad vibes. They got Genty, who’s who’s I mean, unless you wanted a trench pick, Genti is kind of what everybody was hoping for. A lot of Raiders fans wanted Ash and Genty and then just Yeah. Just a just a bad bad bad season for them. Yeah, exactly. All right. So, obviously like an hour after the game, it came out that the Raiders were firing Chip Kelly, which is always so funny to me how fast things move in the NFL. Um, so this was a really bad loss to the Browns, they’ve had several bad outputs. I talked about uh I can’t remember who they played, but in like week five or six when Bowowers was out, they had one of the worst offensive games since like the 2000 Houston Texans. Like it it was bad. I again I never thought that Chip Kelly was gonna be like amazing. I didn’t think it was going to be this kind of level of bad. So they’re somehow pivoting again to Greg Olsen who’s been like on and off this Raiders staff for like my entire life. Um I don’t understand how this is this is where they’re at. Um Olsen has obviously Chip Kelly has very specific schematic background, you know, primarily doing a lot of college stuff. Olsson is like tried and true John Gruden and Shawn Payeyton kind of offense. So I’m curious to see really where this this the changes can happen. Obviously the you know firing mid-season you’re never really able to make a ton of changes. Um but Pete Carol highlighting like the run game play action as really the key points of emphasis moving forward for for Greg Olsson. Yeah, I would imagine at this point in the season with, you know, only a third of it to go and with where your season is, they’re just going to focus on the basics here and the things that just aren’t working as well. Yes, Brock Bowers has, you know, been like solid. I mean, hey, it’s great production for a tight end, but for Brock Bowers hasn’t quite been that same production. Yes, there were injuries, but he comes back. You’ll highlight some of um him a bit later. And then Ashen Genty, like just just get that working. Get the run game working. do the basic bare minimum things. Unfortunately, this is kind of a great week for them. I think I don’t know where the charges are going to be postby. I think they’ll be energized. I think they’ll be ready. They handled Genty the first time for the most part, but I think they’re going to try to just focus on the basics. Get Genty going, get Bowowers going. I don’t expect some crazy new passing game from them. Just get the basics going. Keep Gino Smith upright. Uh is I mean, geez, it’s it’s it’s just brutal. Yeah. Apparently, uh I did not realize this, but uh Chris Bey, the former Chargers wide receiver coach, also on staff with the Raiders. So, he was with the Browns or not the Browns, excuse me, the Bears last year. Uh so, now he’s he’s back in the AFC West. But yeah. Yeah, I think um yeah, I think this specific kind of scheme should fit pretty well with Gino Smith. Um just knowing what we know about like that Shawn Payeyton universe. Um, but again, it it’s it’s really difficult to make drastic schematic changes, you know, over the final six weeks. So, you know, maybe the Raiders get a little slight bump uh up for just like overall offense, but I think it’s it’s going to be tough for him to overhaul everything that Chip Kelly was doing. You know, you know, NFL playbooks are so extensive that you are you probably talking about maybe some key tendencies changing. You know, how you utilize certain personnel might change a little bit. Maybe you give Bowers some more like jet sweeps, stuff like that. Um, but overall the schematics probably shouldn’t they they they should stay relatively stable from what we have been watching previously. Yeah, I’m trying to think if there’s I don’t think there’s a single unless you count Colton Miller who isn’t playing. Uh, not any overlap between the 2021 offense and Olsen because that was the last time Olsson was there as the coordinator. Yeah. So, not Genty, not Bowers, not Mayor, not Tucker, not BCH, not Thornton. So, yeah, there’s there’s no nothing there. Yeah. What was Jacobe there in 2021? No. Right. I want to say that’s the Pat something, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t think I don’t think 2021. That was probably Rugs and them. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so yeah, not great. Uh, Chip Kelly is making a lot of money to be unemployed. He was the highest paid offensive coordinator in the NFL. Uh making more than a lot of head coaches actually. So that’s bizarre. Yeah. I can’t believe he left Ohio State. That still Yeah. surprises me to this day. And now Ohio State obviously is like, you know, even better on offense apparently. So yeah, I I was surprised when that happened. I again did not think it would be this bad, but uh Raiders will be if they don’t overhaul the entire coaching staff, they’re going to have a very important, you know, coordinator off season obviously with, you know, offensive coordinator. And if they draft a quarterback high, you know, you’re going to have to be, you know, making some another big name higher probably to to get things right because Pete probably only has two or three more years left to coach anyways. So, it’s lot of turnover for the Raiders. That has always been the case. And uh you know, fortunately for us as Chargers fans, that’s kind of where where we’re at. Hear me out, guys. All right, Raiders. I I got a solution for you. You got to give him the associate head coach title, but Greg Roman will do play action for you. He will use Ashen Genty to the most the most carries he will be able to handle. For sure. I guarantee that. I I’m I’m positive that’ll happen. So, all right. Uh we’re going to take a quick break for our audio audience and then we will be right back after this with more Chargers Raiders preview. All right, so no injury report today. Um the Chargers did practice um but since they’re practicing on a Tuesday, they did not have to uh release an injury report. So few notes from Jim Harbaugh’s press conference today. A positive development for Amarian Hampton, who is going to have his 21day uh window open. Uh he did practice today without a non-cont yellow jersey. For what it’s worth, I think is a pretty good sign. Um they are also opening the window for Otto Bona’s return. Um which if both of those guys come back, I think that leaves them with one other spot to use for a potential return. Um, so those are the two injury developments that we have since there are no injury report, but both of those are very positive. Uh, Bobby Hart practiced as well. I know he’s been dealing some stuff. So, the Chargers should be relatively healthy coming out of the by-week, which is much better than that year where you tweeted out, I think that would have been 2022 where they had a by-week and then the injury report was like 20 names long. Yeah, that sucked. That was Let’s leave the buy and then get more injured somehow. Yeah, that was rough. Obviously, the story is is Hampton. Do I expect him to be back in full? No. Does he even need to be? No. This is a this is a Monday Night Football against the Eagles problem really. So, he’s back out there in any capacity. Can chip in. I mean, technically play like he did against the Raiders the first time, which is not even as the official guy just kind of working things back in. I lied. Was Naji taking over at that point or is it still No, that was about a 50-50 split at that point. Okay. That that was the first time where we like really saw Naji Yeah. take some carries. I think the snap distribution was like 6040, but they did not run the football all that much. The Raiders, to their credit, are a really good run defense. Um, you know, and they did not The Chargers did not have a lot of success running the football that day. No, no, they did not. But now we have Kamani Videll who it’s the it’s the odd number game for him. So, he’s going to do abs. No, sorry. Even game number start for him. So, he’s going to do fantastic. So, he should be just fine there. Glad Hampton is back in some Oh, sorry, I’m jumping the gun there. If he’s back in any capacity, great. If not, it’s next week and we’ll be fine. Abonia, I’m very curious about obviously doesn’t mean he’ll be back this week, but you highlighted that Naquon Jones should be uh active on game day and playing over Agonia. I think that he is even different from Aubonia in usage and in style. So, it’s not like one is the nose and one can’t be or both both are the nose. Um, but I hope this doesn’t take away from Jones getting on the field. Not that Jones has been on the field, right? I would love to see Postby Jones get on the field. Yeah, I’m I’m a little surprised by this. Um, just because they they don’t necessarily need Otto to be healthy. Um, you know, I would say like best case scenario for Otto is that he’s their fifth defensive tackle, you know. So, this is uh I was a little surprised by that mention. You know, granted they have 21 days, so, you know, worst case scenario is that he comes back and then he’s like a healthy scratch or whatever. But I was a little surprised that they’re even doing this, but if he’s healthy, he’s healthy. So, we’ll see what happens there. Um, with Hampton, I think even if he’s out there for 20 snaps this week as he kind of, you know, works back into things, I think that really does help the offense. Um because they’re their rushing success rate isn’t horrible right now, but they’re they’ve lost a lot of EPA per play without Omari Hampton. So even just like if he only, you know, plays 20 snaps and he gives you one explosive run, maybe gives you an explosive reception, that’s a that’s a huge, you know, monkey off the back of this offense. So I if he is not able to play, I think the Chargers will be relatively okay with the run game. Again, the Raiders run defense is is pretty good. So, I’m not expecting them to be like, you know, 120 yards for Kamani Maidel by any means. Um, but I think Kammani can handle the load for at least one more week. And then, like you mentioned, next week against the Eagles is a much more important game, much bigger game obviously on Monday Night Football. So, Hampton coming back is great. I have really missed watching him play. Um, really sucks that he got injured when he did, right as he was like truly finding his stride. But, uh, you know, I’m excited that, uh, that he’s back. You also put on here that the Chargers did reportedly make a push for former Texans running back Damen Pierce. Sounds like the Broncos and Chargers were both offering him spots on the active roster and then he decided to go to Kansas City to be on their practice squad. So, I I don’t really know exactly like how much of the details we have there. Um, but he is with the Chiefs on the practice squad. Uh technically speaking, the Chargers could still be negotiating with him because he is on the practice squad. Um just a bummer because I think that would have been a great fit. Um you know, hopefully he’s not impacting the Chiefs positively. Um but uh I guess it’s good that they’re trying. Yeah. Yes, I suppose it is good that they are trying. A bummer that they could not land him. I don’t know how much he would really contribute as a running back, but please in the return game, anything would be great. They weren’t gonna bench Darius Davis, I don’t think, but it would have been nice to have a second option out there. Haskins is not he’s he has to miss one more game anyway before he can return, which might be the final um activation for them. So, would have been nice. Not the end of the world. It just sucks it was the Chiefs. Yeah, it does sucks that it does suck that it was the Chiefs for sure. Yeah. Mhm. Um the most important thing potentially from the Harbaugh press conference today is the offensive line update. So, at practice, so Harbaugh does his press conference before practice and then they practice. Um, the offensive line in practice featured Jamari Sawier at left tackle. The media is only able to view practice for like 10, 15 minutes. Um, so it could have changed after they left, but when they were out there, according to Chris Rim, Dana Popper, Eric Smith, all those guys, it was Jamari Sawer at left tackle. Um Jim Harbaugh was asked about the tackle situation and he did say that Trey Pipkins, Bobby Hart, and Jamari Sawer were all in the mix. And then on a follow-up question, he added Trevor Penning. So those those four are in the mix. I don’t really know how in the mix Penning is since he technically forgot him the first time around. Um but it does sound like it’s I would assume that Pipkins at right tackle is pretty safe. So, you’re probably looking at Jamari and Bobby Hart potentially, you know, challenging each other this week for the starting left tackle position. Um, again, it sounds like Bobby Hart is is healthy now, which is good for him. I I cannot believe we’re at this point, but uh Bobby Hart probably at left tackle would be my choice. Um, just given his success in one-on-one situations, which we’ll get to here in a second. Um, but you know, a lot of Chargers fans were very excited today to find out that Jamari Sawyer was in the left tackle spot at practice. Yeah, I don’t think Bobby Hart qualified for the snap cut off I was looking for, but I was, now granted, these players have played some guard, some tackle this year, but I filtered, you know, 20% snap cut off on PFF or pass blocking efficiency. I think it gave me about 170 linemen at guard or tackle. And I only had to get through, I think, 28 names before I got through four of the Chargers options. So, Sarill, Sawier, Penning, and Deculus were all there in the the bottom 28 of out of about 180. Yep. So, sounds about right. I I It’s an interesting one, this Jamari Sawer thing, because I know a lot of Chargers fans, and even I kind of joke, too. Wouldn’t it be funny if the the tackle that they needed all along was the tackle they already had this entire time. It’s been I mean last year was so strange too. Not quite the same time. It was a few weeks later but I remember Pipkins was the guard from the jump and then Pipkins got hurt. They played Jamari because they had to against the Patriots. It looked too bad and they went hm maybe we should give him a shot. And then it just was not great. He got hurt. Pibans got hurt in the Texans game or didn’t play the Texans game tomorrow. got hurt. So, he missed the Patriots game, played week 17, got hurt in week 17, missed 18, and then the playoff game. Gotcha. And then Jamar didn’t look great in in that playoff game. Although, there was competition leading into that game and ended up being Jamaru or something like that. Anyway, it didn’t work out. I I don’t know. I I really don’t even know what to say at this point. If it solves the all I care about I don’t care about being right. I don’t care about being wrong. I care what solves the problem. Yeah. And if that’s Jamari the pro the problem is protecting Justin Herbert. If Hampton Hampton comes back and Hampton’s post contact work, his natural gifts and whatnot make up from some stuff in the run game that you lose by not having more of a mover like Penning or Deculus out there. Fine. If Hampton gives you more in the run game and Jamari Sawier is the focus for pass protection, great. You’re going to lose the mobility in the run game unfortunately. But whatever. We’ll just keep using Trayus like a tight end. So, and inactivating Willisley for some reason. Yeah. If it solves the problem, great. Do I expect him to be the the guy the following week? I don’t even know at this point. They’ve made You said this would be if it’s Bobby Hart, it’ be their eighth combination. Uh if it’s Sawyer or Hart, it would be their eighth because Sawier hasn’t started technically at left tackle. So they’ve had a lot more in-game combinations, but whoever they start at left tackle, unless it’s Penny or Deculus, whoever they start at left tackle, this is going to be their eighth different starting offensive line combination of the season. Eight. Eight different. That’s that’s that’s that’s absolutely brutal. Uh question. Not that this is a question, but if when Beckton inevitably leaves this game, good correction. Good correction. Who’s the right guard? Yeah, thi this is like to one of the main reasons why, you know, I not that I don’t want Sawer at left tackle, but one of the main reasons why I’m a little apprehensive about it is because if you have an injury at right guard, that means you’re putting Foster Serellin at right guard for Mai Beckton. So to me, the difference between Jamari Sawer and the other tackles we’re talking about is it’s it’s really is not that much. I I know that people think Jamari Saw is like an awesome backup and he was great his rookie season. He was very rarely left on an island during his rookie season. I’ve said that a bunch of times. His pass blocking efficiency rating at tackle is actually worse than Austin Deculus in one-on-one situations this season. It’s a very limited sample size. It’s only like 18 reps for Jamari Sawier. Um, but on those 18 reps, he’s allowed four pressure. So, his pass blocking efficiency rating is below 90 in those one-on-one situations. So, I don’t even think it really like solves the pass protection. Whoever is at left tackle, you have to chip and double team at a far higher rate than what they have been doing. So, to me, if the pass protection is is about the same and I can get a better run blocker, that’s what I’m doing. Now, that being said, I’m not going to sit here and like pound the table for Bobby Hart, but Bobby Hart has the second highest pass blocking efficiency rating in one-on-one situations of any Chargers tackle outside of Joe Alt. And that includes Trey Pipkins, who who is third on that list. So to me, I think the best the best possible scenario here is that Bobby Hart plays left, Trey Pipkins plays right, and then Jamari can play right guard when inevitably Mai Bevekin gets injured. So the worst the worst outcome here is that Foster Serell plays right guard for you. Like I I am trying to avoid that at all possible at all possible. You know, that’s where we’re at. So, I would just rather figure out left tackle in a different way and keep Jamari as my right guard backup because we all know that Mai is not trustworthy to be on the field and that is way more important to me than being like a slight upgrade over the other left tackle options. Yeah, it’s probably the smart thing to do in terms of being proactive. I understand why an NFL team can’t go, okay, well, when when Mai gets hurt, we should prioritize what that backup plan is versus the actual starting. I I understand, but I think we’re all Anybody on the chat want to bet that Beckton is going to play the entire game? I’m not. Granted, it is postby, so maybe he does get through one game uh and then it’s it’s every other game basically that he he’s able to finish. So, yeah, that that’s even being generous. I think it’s three of the 11 games they’ve played. Four if you count the 98.7% game that he played. Maybe next week because it’s a revenge game. Maybe next week we can get two in a row. That’s asking too much. Is it really revenge if you’re coming from the Super Bowl winning team? I don’t know. Uh whatever motivates you, man. If you want to call it a revenge game, fine. Yeah. Not great. Either way, I like you. I I don’t care who it is. If it gets fixed, if Jamari Sawer has an awesome game this week, great. I I will get up here and I will say that I I’m very happy because at the end of the day, I’m just tired of seeing Herbert get hit, man. Like last week, the tape against the Jaguars was just it was so tough to watch. You know, every other play Herbert is essentially in the fetal position. Like, it was it was tough. So, whatever gets the job done, if it’s Bobby Hart, if it’s Sawyer, if it’s Penning and a lot of chip help, I I just want to see my quarterback get protected at a higher. That’s the other thing I think we’ll talk No, I’ll I’ll wait till we talk about tackles in a second. All right. So, no, you’re totally fine. I got it. Uh, so we’re going to focus on our key coaching storylines first. I think the preview part of the show in terms of the game, it’s going to be quick. I just I do not have a lot of talking points for the Raiders at this point. Plus, we know them. Plus, we’ve already previewed them. Uh, so for me, what we already discussed during the buy, the ACT stuff, the easy button stuff, ahead of the nasty defensive line, not necessarily of the Raiders, but the following weeks after that, can we just start after the buy using the stuff that we discussed and added or changed or whatever during the buy? Can we add some yak stuff, the easy button stuff? I mean, Shadur Sanders had a touchdown where he just threw it to the right and the guy ran for 55 yards. Is that possible for the Chargers? Do they have somebody that can do that? Can Greg Roman call that? Can they block that? Because I think I think they at least can block that. These receivers block their ass off. Dre Harris, Gown Lakoni, even Gazin chips in very well. Tucker Fisk, all these guys. So, can can we get any of that? Anything Greg Roman? I don’t know. Chargers are pretty much league average in terms of Yak per reception. Um, I think that maybe includes running backs. Um, so I think they’re a little bit better above average with the Quentyn Johnson’s, the Trey Harris’s, Lad Mcconies, and whatnot. Raiders, uh, have the fourth most missed tackles this season with 85. Allow a league average, 100 yards after the catch per game. Neither of these teams are great at getting Yak or defending Yak. Try something. Get it working. If this is the QJ revenge, not revenge, the QJ versus Raiders game, fine. Resurgence. Resurgence. Yeah. Which is al honestly another mini story line. is like can hug you to get back to that stuff you started the year at. So yeah, I think um any and to me like you have to spam the yak concepts going forward, you know, the wide receiver screens, the slants, the the short crossers, anything to get these guys the ball going forward to like their league average in Yak I think in a very large part because of the scheme. I think they have the individual pieces to be a lot better when it comes to this department. So, um, the Chargers coaching staff has been talking about, you know, they know that they need to protect Herbert at a higher level. Herbert says he needs to stop taking so many sacks today. Whatever that looks like, I think it involves a lot of uh, you know, yak kind of concepts. And I think, you know, if they are true about the self scouting, I think that is the biggest change we should see should see in the offense is a lot more short area stuff, a lot more quick game. Just let Herbert play point guard right now. I I think you’re you pivot concepts, you pivot ideas because you you want to be this push the ball down the field offense and you you just don’t have the pieces right now. So, um I I I if they really self-scouted as they said they did today, um I think that’s the biggest thing that we’ll see uh in this game and going forward. Yeah, I hope so. And that’s a good I’m glad you said in this game and going forward because I think there’s a tendency and I’m guilty of it too to overreact to what we’ll see in this game versus Yes. Yes, I think the Raiders are a decent defense. It’s not a great defense. Um I don’t want to overreact to them going, “Oh, look, we did the Yak stuff.” And then it’s just like, “Oh, just kidding. It’s the the Eagles. We forgot, right?” Yeah. And the Eagles, they run a scheme that invites Yak, so should be interesting going forward. Um, for me from a coaching standpoint, um, the Raiders, again, they are changing offensive coordinators here, but they have essentially made Brock Bowers a wide receiver since he returned back from injury. So, I tweeted this out a little bit ago, uh, but in between from weeks one to four, Bowowers was lining up in line as a traditional, you know, traditional tight end on 52.7% of his snaps. That number is down to 17.1. Uh his slot percentage number has jumped from 34% before he got injured to now it’s 57%. Out wide was 12% now it’s 25%. Like he is he is essentially their wide receiver one and like that was the case last year from a targets perspective but now from an alignment perspective he is lining up in the slot or out wide at essentially a 70% clip which is insane for a tight end. They’re playing a lot more two tight end sets technically with Michael Mayer out there than they did to start the season. Um, so I think this is just very interesting from a a schematic standpoint. When he’s in the slot, it’s going to be Derwin James like that. We know that that’s been the case. They have done that against every, you know, slot receiver. When he goes out wide, though, they essentially treat him like an ex receiver. They have thrown him 12 contested catches, contested catch opportunities over the last four games. like they’re running him on go routes. They’re throwing him boundary routes. They’re throwing him deep post routes. He is their ex receiver for the most part outside of like a few snaps where they’re um trying to do like the Trey Tucker thing or trying to do the the Taekquon Thornton thing. Um so this this is their biggest test in terms of schematics. They have not allowed a 100 yard receiving game. They’ve allowed excuse me one 100 yard receiving game. Bowers is going to get fed the football. Like I mentioned, he’s had 12 targets in three of the last four games. They’re using him like their number one wide receiver. I think this could potentially be a really big opportunity for kind of like a Cam Hart big game. You know, I would imagine that when he’s outside, I think you want size on him. And so I think you would want want to have, you know, Cam Hart out there or Benjamin St. Juice out there. Um, so what does this look like from a schematic standpoint? Again, when he’s in the slot, very easy. Derwin James is your guy. when he’s in the when he’s out wide, when he’s in traditional inline tight end sets, what is your game plan here? Because he he is the Raiders offense. He is going to get fed the football. Um, and I think again when you’re an interim coordinator, job number one is let’s feed our best player of the football or on defense, let’s make our the life of the best player easier like when you know obviously the Chargers with Derwin James that last four games of of the Brandon Staley era. So, I expect Bowers to touch the football a lot 13 15 times. Like, I think you you feed him the football as much as you can if you’re Greg Olsen. And where you line him up, I think is just very interesting because Olsson is like again, he’s a very traditional West Coast guy. Putting the tight end at X at the X receiver is not very traditional West Coast offense. So, I’m just very curious what this looks like with a new offensive coordinator. How does Jesse Mener counteract that? You know, I I don’t really want to see like Dante Jackson and Tarib still on on Brock Bowers. I want more size out there. So hopefully this is a Derwin James Cam Hart opportunity. Can you create a turnover in those instances? So Brock Bowers, he’s their best player on offense and they’re using him that way. And just how Jesse Mener goes about coaching him, I think is really interesting this week. Yeah, really good call there. I did not realize before you had mentioned it today that that’s how they were utilizing him. Not that it’s, you know, 80% out wide, but still it’s significant. So five of his targets last week and he had three catches on five targets were against Denzel Ward, Tyson Campbell, the outside corners of the Browns. So I don’t know. I obvious obviously lining up wide does not mean you only catch go balls and and to do the boundary work stuff, but that’s how they’re using him. I almost would prefer that over it being Henley or Perryman or whoever it might be over the middle and they could barely stop Darren Waller and thank god Tua stinks um in that game. And so I think Brock Bowers could do something pretty nasty to them in this one. So if that’s the way they want to go for it, I I trust Dante Jackson to get it done. I think Cam Hart would be a ton of fun. Kind of the same way they they tried and and did kind of work with Michael Davis back in the day against Travis Kelce. Just like get that big bigger corner out there against this tight end. Not that Kelsey was out wide, but you know what I mean? One-on-one versus the tight end. So right, I don’t mind if they want to play him out wide. I really don’t mind that. It’s clearly their best player. They’re gonna feed him targets, but I just I think that’s not if I’m attacking the Chargers, that’s not what I would do. So, I don’t necessarily think that’s going to be a ton this game. But, we’ll see. Yeah, I would definitely use him over the middle a lot more. Use him like the way that the Colts use Tyler Warren, but, you know, we’ll see. Maybe the Raiders don’t feel like they have the the pieces out wide to to do that right now. Yeah. All right. All right. Well, we’re most excited to see I think you have the right one here with Omar and Hampton. And I think like overall here, you know, when we go back to week two, there was a lot of uncertainty for like, you know, how the Chargers weapons were all coming together. You know, we kind of talked about like the Hampton Naji Harris split. Keenan Allen led the team in targets that day. It was a it was a pretty good Quentyn Johnson game, but we’ve seen recently like Lad Mani has really settled into back into his number one role. Kamani has settled into a really nice spot. Aronda Gadston has, you know, emerged over the last few games. Like I don’t even think he did he even play in that week two game. I think he was inactive until the third week maybe. Yeah. If he was active, he did not catch the football. I I know that. So I think the the Raiders defense is it’s a lot better than what we are going to see online. Like you mentioned, they’re 20th like overall, but like their run defense is particularly stout. Um, so how do the Chargers kind of get these weapons back into a groove? You know, the last couple weeks have not been great for anybody outside of LAD and obviously if Hampton is back, then that changes quite a bit here. Um, but I think the the best thing about the Chargers right now, the Chargers offense, I should say, is definitely the weapons. So to me, like, let’s get them all the football in, you know, as many, you know, yak opportunities as we can, like we mentioned. Let’s get Gavdon going against a very poor linebacker and safety unit. And I think overall just like the health of the weapons is a in a much better spot than week two. And that performance for the Chargers offense wasn’t really that great. Like they scored 20 points. They kind of struggled to move the football at certain times. They did some, you know, there were some headscratching mistakes in that game from all parties. There were some drops. There were some penalties, stuff like that. So, I just I am really anxious to see like the consistent playmaking come out in this, you know, game and and really set the tone for the final six weeks. Yeah, they’ve answered I don’t know if they answered him well, but I think with some injuries and some issues ahead of them, they now have more answers and more at least more knowledge about the players that they have with them with Gatsin, with Videl in particular, right? Arguably even Hampton because that game wasn’t his big breakout game either. So, you know, a bit more about these guys. It pains me to find pictures from this game because every time I do, I see Joalt and I’m reminded of how just that’s very different. So, but like you said, h how these guys have settled into their roles and then how they take the next step from those roles uh is is definitely a story line to watch. So, yeah, it’s all all the different offensive pieces hopefully coming together would be would be nice. Yeah. And this group outside of Hampton and Naji obviously have been pretty healthy. So hopefully that uh continues going forward. Yeah. Uh Tyler, what is keeping you up at night about this game? Basically the let down. Do I think they lose this game? No. This this Raiders team is is bad. It’s as bad as that Titans team. Arguably worse at this point, although they have a few more quote unquote star players in theory. Sure. I I just the good news is they’re not traveling to the east coast for this game and it’s not a 10 a.m. kick on the east coast for this game. But I can’t believe when we discussed this over the buy like crazy, the Giants, Commanders, Dolphins, Titans, and Jaguars. How did those games end up in losses or give me more anxiety than the Vikings or the Steelers this year or the Chiefs this year? I just I I don’t know how that happens, but we’ve been expecting a level of Harbaugh team, Harbaugh experience, Harbaugh isms, whatever. And in these games against really, frankly, bad teams, this arguably being the worst of them, they just have been a big big letdown. Yes, they won the the Dolphins game. They won the Titans game, but they really should have won those by more than they did it and not looked as sleepy as they did. So, yeah. Now, this this is again not an East Coast trip, not a 10 a.m. kick. It’s at home. It’s after a buy. But even that, right, could be I mean, look, this this is to me what a trap game is. You play the the Eagles at home next week and you have an awful team this week, you’re looking ahead to the future team. This is arguably a trap game. I still think they they win. The Raiders stink, but I am worried about how slow this this could start. And you never know. They fired uh Callahan. Mike McCay almost got that team a win against against the Chargers, the Titans, for the love of God. You fired Chip Kelly and if he was much of a pain in the ass as he kind of reportedly is, and perhaps that just fires up everybody. I don’t know, man. I I I do not expect the Raiders to win this at all. Yeah. 99.9% chance the Chargers win this one. But I’ve been there, done that. I think in general just like how on the field what’s the answer here is Max Crosby and Brock Powers, but uh you know just in general like I I need to see what the vibes are with this team. You know, I think we really think this coaching staff should bring in a really high standard of of preparation and vibes and things like that. Um, but there there have been several teams across many NFL seasons that have a very poor showing leading into the buy and then that poor showing just kind of fers and fers and, you know, the Chargers have six games remaining here to, you know, obviously clinch a playoff spot and and go on that potential like late season run and maybe the by-week was just like at the right time and it just kind of helps reset everything and they’re able to go do that. But it’s also possible that they are just they they don’t feel like they have the horses this year. The vibes are not great. The preparation is not great. And you win two of these final four games and miss the playoffs. Like unfortunately that is a possible outcome here. So it how does this team respond? Last year after the buy, they came out absolutely swinging at Denver. The game was a lot closer because Bonick scrambled for like 95 yards or whatever it was. Um, but at the half it was like 23-3. And if that happens and they’re able to finish that game, then I think just like the vibes will be much more positive, you know, going into the Eagles game for them. I I don’t think like the fan base vibes are not great right now and I don’t think that’s really changing if they beat the Raiders. But for the players, you know, Koulam talked about heading into after the Jaguars game was like, yeah, you know, we’re gonna find out who we are after the by-week because, you know, it’s it’s part of the nature of the NFL where you you just kind of on these up and downs. It’s a week- toeek situation. If they lose to the Raiders, man, like the natural tendency of some of these players is just going to be to start checking out. It’s just the reality of the situation with all the injuries and, you know, the Chiefs are kind of back and things like that. So, I I just need to see how this team responds. If this is a game where they come out and just like thump the Raiders, then I I I feel like we’ll be, you know, relatively okay going forward. But if they struggle to win this game, if they look like they’re asleep at the wheel, if they lose this game, then that’s really going to tell us where this team is at from a mental standpoint. And uh obviously that’s that’s not a great spot to be in. So hopefully they are able to come out and just, you know, put a beating on the Raiders and say, “Hey, like we’re we’re back. like we’re we’re the team that we should be and build some momentum going forward because the the last five games as we’ve talked about before are brutal and if they lose this game then it’s going to be potentially curtains on the season at that point. So, I just need to see what are the vibes like, what does it look like on the field? You know, are they doing the right things? You know, are they making few mistakes? How does special teams look and stuff like that? So, I not that this is like a season defining game, but I I need to see them respond in kind to playing a bad team. It’s the It’s the first step in a race towards the end of the season. Like, your first step has to be great or I don’t know, first step on a route, whatever you want to call it. It is an important one. Is it the most critical game? No, it is their easiest game. By a million miles, they’ll play the rest of the season. But you have to, as you said, just show that you all the points we’ve talked about before. How is this offensive looking now that we’ve know more about these players? How have they changed week two? You know, against the Titans, let’s say, even against the Jaguars, it’s just like, look, can they just win whatever? If they struggle to win, they win by one. I don’t care. I want them to just get healthy, get to the next week. And that’s what it felt like for the first 11 weeks. Now that you’re post by, you really have to establish and and show that you have established who you are. You now have that rest and you’re playing at home. It’s not like there’s any travel here either. Now that whole like, oh, we’re just like we’re just trying to survive the season. That excuse really isn’t there anymore. Now you have to go out and you have you have to beat the Raiders. This can’t just be a oh my gosh, they last minute field goal. If anything, if it’s struggle to win, I don’t need them to win by, you know, 14. I don’t even need to win by like 10. but at least win by a touchdown or at least cover the spread or something. Um, again, nine and a half is still pretty crazy, but you should you should at this point show that you have some dominance and you can like beat up these teams. Um, I don’t know where the Cowboys are going to be at in a couple of weeks. I’m sure they’re still in it. We’ll see on Friday how that ends up going for them, where their season’s headed, but these this is the worst team you’re going to face. And I hope I hope I hope that they get it together early, put this thing away, call it a week, get to the next one. Yeah, I agree with that. Um, X Factor selections for me, it’s it’s whoever starts at left tackle. Um, what does that look like? Do are you able to get to kind of your run concepts? You know, I I said this earlier, but to me, Bobby Hart should be the selection, and I can’t believe that that’s where we’re at this season. Um, but his 97.8 8 pass blocking efficiency rating and true pass sets is best on the team behind Joe Alt. The others are all well below 93, some of them below 90. So to me, whoever plays left tackle is the X factor. If they are just going to keep doing this thing like, okay, we’ll play Sawer this week, it goes bad. Okay, we’ll play Bobby Hart next week, it goes bad. Okay, we’ll go back to Deculus. Like, somebody has to stop the cycle of left tackles. Like, they can’t just keep rotating characters here. Um, so hopefully whoever starts this week is just the guy for the final six games and and things look better and stabilize, but you know, it’s it’s it’s hard for me to pick any other not X factor selection this week just given the uncertainty there. Yeah, not even knowing who’s going to be that guy is the X factor. And then how they play, of course, that’s an X factor X factor moving forward. Please stabilize the spot. Again, don’t care who it is, just stabilize it. Or even if you’re just like even if you’re all equally terrible, at least pick that guy and you’ve got that guy for the next six weeks or however I mean how long the season goes for them into the postseason. Anything I’ll take it. So yeah, very curious to see who they go with. Seems like saw if that, but I don’t know. They’ve again, like you said, they’ve changed it every other week, so I couldn’t tell you. And even if he’s this guy this week, I hope he’s the guy moving forward. Uh to me, the X factor is Trey Harris. literally possibly X factor here. What what what are we doing with him? You know, you drafted him in the second round. Yes, you added Keenan Allen that threw a monkey wrench in things because what are you going to not feed Keenan Allen to start the season? Um Quinton Johnson had a heck of a start to the year. Lad Munky was figuring it out, but now he’s been the guy. Great. What are we doing with Trey Harris? Gazen has his defined role. Granted, he only had to beat out like Will Dizzy, Tucker Frisk, and Tyler Conklin who stinks. So, it’s not like there’s a great receiving option ahead of them where there is for Trey Harris, but you believed in him for something and I assumed it wasn’t just to be practically your move tight end. So, can we get anything more out of him? The reception perception profile on him for this season so far from Matt Harmon wasn’t like glowingly, you know, there’s no McMillan or Ibuka profile here. One, he was never that prospect. Two, he’s not getting the targets. But, you know, 90% sex success rate, excuse me, on slants. Screens are screens, but 100% success rate on screens. But can we give him a little bit past that or or I don’t know. Or heck, even if it is slants, can we feed him on that? So, I I just want to see him move even if you don’t change much to your offense. Even if Greg Roman’s not going to have some revelation on how he does things, the easiest thing you can do then is to just feed the players you already have who are finding success in your scheme. Let it rip. Feed him more. I don’t think against the Jaguars it hurt them or sorry, it helped them by not feeding him or in these moments it’s been good for them by not feeding him some targets. Get him involved. He’s a young athletic big player who’s earned the right to get more targets. Get him out there. Yeah, I think um the by-week is a lot uh a lot of times post bye-week you see teams start funneling more opportunities to young players who have kind of like been doing the dirty work and and have really developed. We saw this with Palmer. We saw this with Lonkey. Um I I think it is time to start giving Trey Harris more opportunities. I think it just is there’s a different gear here from an athletic standpoint obviously, but he’s playing a lot of snaps. he’s just not getting a lot of targets. I think he’s somebody who you definitely should feature going forward just with his ability to make people miss and you highlighted like the Raiders miss tackles earlier. To me, that’s a Trey Harris opportunity and Quentyn is really good after the catch as well, but to me Trey Harris is like that guy that should be able to to create those opportunities for you. So, um would love to see an expanded role for him and I think we we could see that. Um people asking about Bobby Hart playing left tackle. The answer is yes. He made two starts for the Titans at left tackle back in 2022. Um I know that was a long time ago, but uh he spent basically three years on practice squads. So um he has made several different starts in the preseason at left tackle. Um this past preseason for the Commanders, he uh he started all three games at left tackle. So he’s he’s played a lot at left tackle, just not, you know, relative to who we’re talking about. But it’s not like this is, you know, a thousand career snaps kind of thing. Um, but yes, Bobby Hart has played left tackle in an actual NFL game before. That That’s where we’re at, guys. That is where we’re at. Has he played generally speaking on the offensive line on the left side before? Yeah. And Helix says four square in seven years ago. Yeah. But he’s been pretty good this year, man. Like I I I’ve been very pleasantly surprised. Like the most pleasant surprise I can ever remember is Bobby Hart being actually like fine in the NFL. Oh man. Just sign or draft everyone named Hart or Herbert. You know you’re good. Yeah, exactly. All right. Uh final game predictions. I am choosing to believe that the Chargers are going to come out swinging this week and so I think they will cover the nine and a half. Um I don’t think they’re going to put up like 40 points out of nowhere. I do think this offense is going to have some struggles, but to me, the Chargers defense this week just has such a significant advantage over who they are playing. The Raiders offensive line is horrible. Um, the schematics, whoever your coordinator is, I don’t think are that good. So, I have a very difficult time picturing this Raiders offense given everything that they have put out on tape this season just coming out and scoring like 30 points. Uh, of course, now that I say that, they’re probably going to. Um, but to me, like I trust that the Chargers defense will be able to shut them down. They shut them down in week two and that group was, I think, in a much better standing. Um, so I’m going to say that they cover the nine and a half. I’m going to go 2613. Again, not a great offensive performance, but to me, this is just like this is a bad team. You you’re more healthy coming off the by-week. I think Jim Harbaugh’s been pretty good off the buy, so I’m I’m gonna nervously say 26 to 13. Good. Good for you. I I don’t have that kind of confidence. Uh I don’t think they No, I mean win by seven for me, win by 13 for you. They cover the spread for you. Not in mine. I think there’s the one because you know, then if it’s like, oh, well, they’re not going to score on the Chargers. There’s always the one random play or heck, the punt return, you know, stuff like that. Granted, that special teams isn’t great for them. Well, let’s say someone rips off a good punt return. Couple field goals here and there. Their kicker hasn’t been great this year. The Chargers win this one. I’ll say 24 to 17. They win by a touchdown. It’s a quiet car ride home for my dad and I and we just kind of talk about anything else but that. My mom just tries to play therapist in the middle. Uh you guys are just both upset by that pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, we only barely beat the Raiders. Oh, actually, my dad would be stoked if the Raiders lost. So, you know what? My dad will be happy if the Raiders lose. They’ll be happy that I am happy, that my mom is happy. So, I’ll say 2417, the Raiders do a random thing. The Chargers probably are up by like three at the half and then they close this thing out by the third quarter. Do you think the vibes amongst Raiders fans is bad enough for them not to take over the stadium? No. No. I I’ve I’ve Okay. I mean, I’ve seen so just awful Raiders teams and it didn’t matter. I’m gonna be b there by myself basically again and there and the Raiders are probably going to clear out by the third quarter, but I’m gonna be by myself there again. And someone’s going to get in a fight and always. And you know, it is what it is. Yeah. Raiders fans always fight each other at these games, which is so funny to me. Like Oh, yeah. Yeah. Anyways, uh people asking what happens if the Chargers lose. Um, it will not be a very positive podcast on Sunday night. I will tell you that. I I don’t even know how to react to a game if the Chargers lose to the worst team. Yeah. On the remaining with the Eagles the following week. Uh, if they lose to the Raiders, like I mean, we’re not in season firing territory, but that is whoever was responsible for that, it needs to be gone by the end of the year. Yes. So yes, if Justin Herbert gets hurt in this game, all that just should there be a podcast if they lose? Yes, there will 100% be a podcast. We will be cranky. We’ll be very My dad will be upset if the Raiders win this one. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. So uh like Tony mentioned, he will be at the game on Sunday. So we will be recording after Sunday Night Football. Um, so if they do lose, we’re gonna have a lot a long day to to stew on our feelings after that. Um, so yeah, we’ll be will be very interesting. Yeah, let’s not think about it. They’re going to win. It’ll be great. Yay. People I think will be upset with maybe how they win, but they’ll win. The Raiders are that bad where I think like almost regardless the Chargers will win. It’s just like is this like a 20 to7 game? Is this like 21 to 20 and they sneak by? Like even that I think will be bad vibes. But um I I think the Chargers should be able to win and cover the spread. I think so. I think so. Yeah. We’ll try to invite Alex on if they they lose because I’ll just need someone to drink with. So, all right. Uh let’s close out with some of these super chats. Uh Mr. Chow. Chow. He changed it on us. Changed it again. Uh, isn’t Jim Harbaugh a disciplinarian like Mike Singleary and Marty Shottenheimimer were? They yelled and shouted all the time. Maybe that’s needed. Um, that’s just not like coaching culture nowadays. Um, you know, that is how you lose a locker room very quickly. You know, this is this this is the an era where you overcommunicate and you you are more uplifting. I ju I just don’t think that Harbaugh is that kind of, you know, person or coach with his players. Like when he was with the 49ers in Stanford, like he would like he was very firm, but he w as far as I know, he wasn’t ever like get in players faces and yell at them. I could be totally off base there. Um, but Chris Rim did an article before the season about how Jim Harbaugh kind of eased up on a lot of how strict he was. Um, and I think that’s kind of endeared him to this particular team. So I I just don’t think that’s in his nature, at least not anymore. And in general, like that style of coaching is just not like Mike Singleary went on the podium and very famously like, “Yeah, my team’s a bunch of losers.” Like nobody does that anymore. Like that gets you fired immediately in today’s NFL. So I just I don’t think that’s Jim now and it’s not coaching now to to do that. Yeah. Yeah. I would say maybe he’s more like Shottenheimer, but I Singleary, like you said, that was a whole different thing. and Singleary was a, you know, former player and just like, yeah, that was the style, you know, that was the style of, I’m sure, how he was coached, too. So, yeah. Uh, no, I just don’t think that’s that works anymore. Um, Christian Morcus says, “Happy birthday to Bradley Stalworth Boseman.” Uh, very funny that the Chargers social media page did not actually like post that. It was just like an Instagram story, so they they they definitely know. Oh, that’s funny. Uh, yeah. Well, I didn’t realize they didn’t do that. I didn’t catch that. Happy birthday, Bradley Boseman. What’ you wish for? Talent. That’s mean. I’m sorry. I could never play offensive line. No. No. Uh, Nitser says, “A hearty happy Thanksgiving to the whole Gat crew from Canada. Enjoy the time with friends and family.” We appreciate that, Nitser, for you jumping in here. Canadian Thanksgiving was a few weeks ago, I think. Sounds about right. Sounds about right. Yeah. Happy happy belated Thanksgiving. Happy future Thanksgiving to all of you guys. So, yeah. Yeah, I agree. Uh Bob Middleton says that he’s okay with Roman. You can only put so much lipstick on O line. To me, the key is completely healthy. Defense needs more consistency. Menter hasn’t been great. Um, I don’t know how I feel about Roman. I guess I’ve never been in as we’ve mentioned. So, I don’t know. I’m indifferent. The line, yes, the line, the line has been terrible. We can sit here and scream at George. He’s all we want. There’s just some stuff you just cannot prepare for either way. Um, they could have done more to prepare, but both tackles being out now. Uh, D needs more consistency. Mentor hasn’t been great. I think there’s definitely been ups and downs with Mentor in the defense, but ultimately as we kind of did the zoom out picture last week, they’re still a top 10 group in most metrics. So, could they be better? Absolutely. Will they be better? I think so. And credit to at least the secondary for now or the corners for holding it down. Yeah, I think the primary thing that we talked about is is the run defense definitely needs more consistency and the physicality definitely needs to be more consistent. Um, I think to Roman’s credit, like or or maybe not credit per se, but it it’s impossible to run this specific scheme at a really high level with this kind of offensive line. Uh, does he deserve blame for not making adjustments and not chiphelping on the left tackle or whoever the left tackle is? Yes, absolutely. Um, if you have the right pieces up front, you can run an effective offense with Greg Roman. they they do not. Um, but he he’s been an NFL offensive coordinator for like 15 years and he still has no idea how to, you know, adapt his scheme at all. So, that to me is like the biggest issue. And like we’re seeing so many offensive play callers around the league just like dramatically change their teams because they are, you know, running modern offenses and they’re doing modern pass concepts and tendencies and formations and things like that. And if you watch if you go back and watch a 2011 San Francisco 49ers game, you’re going to see the same exact plays that the Chargers are running on a week- toeek basis. So that that is my primary issue with Greg Roman is like he is who we thought he was and you know yeah you know there’s no changes to this offense at all and you’re just putting Herbert out there at risk every single week. Yep. Uh Mr. Chow Chow back says bring back Marty Ball. I don’t really remember the Marty Shanheimimer era honestly. Um, but I have looked at stats and like there’s like 150 yard passing games up and down Drew Brees’s Chargers tenure. Like that just again that style just does not work in today’s NFL. Bring Leinian Thomasson or something. Yeah, fix it. Yeah, even the best running backs in today’s NFL have they have tough weeks. I mean, we saw Jonathan Taylor just be a complete non-factor against the the Chiefs last week. So, you you’d live and die by the passing game in today’s NFL, even though like, you know, run game is definitely more important now than it was like five years ago, but you you got to throw the football to win in today’s NFL. Uh, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man wants to know, would Pipkins be an upgrade over Beckton at right guard? I think in terms of what Beckton can do and I expect what I expect him to do which is kind of look more like how he started the season. No. I think Beckton is is genuinely when he was good to start the year pretty darn good. So I would say no. But will he play the whole game? I don’t know. Yeah. To me this is a very clear no. I think Trey Pipkin’s issues overall as a player get a lot worse at right guard. Um, and I just don’t think he can. Mai Beckton’s pass protection over the last four weeks prior to the bye-week was an issue, but he still was generating a ton of movement in the run game. Um, so hopefully Beckton can be the prior pass protector that he was in the first few weeks of the season. Um, Pipkins was just very below average at guard. I think he is like maybe average at best at tackle, but that’s way better than what he was at guard. So, I’ll just like that never should have happened. That never should have been an answer for them. So, to me, Beckton is is the right guard unless he’s injured, which is often. Yeah. Yep. Um, who are the strictest head coaches right now? This is for Mr. Dark Chow Chow. I would probably say Mike Vrael and Demo Ryan. I don’t know. I don’t know. Definitely Vable, but I I don’t know the answer to the other. I mean I mean I’ve heard like the Tomlin practices are the the worst charges practices are the Tomlin like regulars. Yeah, that’s um strictest if strict also is is more of like a a meaner my way or the highway kind of guy. Uh yeah, probably that’s probably it. I can’t I can’t think of Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe Shawn Payeyton. Dan Campbell doesn’t strike me as as that. No. Dan Campbell’s like very very laid-back with his guys. Yeah. Not like Mike McDaniel laidback, but a lot more laidback than you would think. Yeah, there’s a balance for sure to being too laid-back and too harsh and stuff like that, but yeah, Vable and Tomlin, I think, are probably the two. Yeah. Yep. Uh LA Chargers fan 559. Shout out Fresno Central Valley. Uh says, “Thankful my wife and baby are healthy. 35 weeks on Thanksgiving.” That’s awesome. Love to hear it. Uh he says, “I get the Roman hate, but I wanted Harbaugh and that includes who he wants as OC.” Yeah, that was definitely part of it. We were hoping that it would have been somebody else, but it is who it is. Thankfully, with Harbaugh came like Jesse Mter and some other good defensive coaching staff members. So that’s that’s at least positive. Hopefully they can keep leaning on the positive stuff from the Harbaughisms. Uh would love for next year to be for this season to be positive and next year to continue to be positive. 35 weeks on Thanksgiving. You guys are are almost there. Good luck. Uh possibly even the next time you send in a chat, you know, could be I guess 35 weeks on Thanksgiving. Not right now, but you’re getting pretty close. So congratulations. Yes, definitely congratulations. Hope everything in with the birthing goes well and obviously you know stays healthy uh going forward. Um I I think to Jim Harbaugh’s credit I think one of the best things he did at Michigan was just like consistently search for better on his coaching staff. Um, and you know, during the COVID season, like the Michigan made Jim Harbaugh take a pay cut and then he, you know, went outsourced obviously went to his brother, but you know, Mike McDonald, Jesse Mentor, and that whole like he overhauled the defensive coaching staff that year and and ultimately got paid off in a national championship. So, he’s he’s searched out upgrades and I do think that like if it gets to a certain point, he will eventually move on from Greg Roman, but I just don’t think like with all the injuries, I don’t I I just can’t see it happening. I think it would have to take like a catastrophic final six weeks for them to move on from Greg Roman. Yeah, it’s not happening. And injuries don’t hurt his case. Yeah, I agree. Uh, you’re from the neighborhood Spider-Man. Uh, has Jim ever called plays before? I don’t believe so. Um, he was a quarterback’s coach for the Raiders and then he was straight to head coach for San Diego and I I believe that he had a play call there. Stanford, he did not call plays. San Francisco, no plays. Michigan did not call plays. So, he’s a he’s a bit of a rare coach who played quarterback and did not call plays for his teams. Yeah. Um but unless he did at San Diego, the answer to this is no. Yeah. It doesn’t say anywhere. It’s possible somewhere because sometimes they say like, “Oh, I’m taking over play calling duties.” And it’s never official because it’s not like they fired the person for that. Like I think uh gosh, Dan Quinn took over defensive play calling duties. I don’t know if he still is, but he did. And they didn’t fire their Dcoordinator, I don’t think. So maybe that happened, but looking at his history, it’s consultant, QB coach, head coach of a team since 2004. Yeah. Yeah. I would have to go back and look at some San Diego articles, but I I do not believe he called plays there. No. Um I I’m sorry. I don’t even know how I would say this. You the Delta. I I don’t know. That’s a lot of Greek letters. I know that. uh sent in two super stickers. I don’t know if there was an intentional question here. Uh thank you. Oh, here’s a question. Do we need linebacker help? I think linebacker has definitely gone up the draft list for me. Um Troy Dy is under contract. Henley’s under contract. Oh, it’s immortal. Okay. Oh, it’s upside down. Okay, that makes sense. That’s pretty clever. Um but the delta sign is a D. Never mind. Forget it. Yeah, I don’t know. Um, yes. The answer to this question is yes. I think it’s tough for me to like really trust Denzel Perryman at this age. We have no idea what Junior Coulson is. Dion was great last year. This year it’s been definitely more up and down. Um, so yeah, they they need linebacker help. I I question how early they can make that choice in the draft. I do not believe they need like a veteran free agent. Um, but there’s not a lot of long-term certainty with this group right now, and I think that’s probably where I would I would attack that spot. Yep. 100% agree. Alrighty, Immortal. Okay. Next time you jump in here, I’ll remember that. But yeah, that was I was like, what what am I reading here? That’s cool, though. That’s fun. All right, Tyler. Uh, any final thoughts before we head out? Uh, go to the game. Anybody? You won’t. It’s fine. I do. This is the sixth time I’ve said this on the show. Uh, on this show every year, whether it’s SoFi or StubHub or whatever, just just go to It’ be nice to see you all there. My section is usually solid, so I don’t think I’ll be too much by myself. They’ve won every year I’ve gone, so you can rest assured they’ll probably win this one, too. But yeah, it’ be nice if you guys were all there. They’ll have great stuff in the team store. Yes, the tickets aren’t super expensive, so give it a whirl. This is the closest This has to be the most guaranteed of a win they’d have all season of all their home games. Yeah, I would say it has to be. It has to be. If you at least want to pay money to see a win, if you’re going to pick any game, go see this one. But you won’t. It’s okay. But leave me to fend for myself. My little my little mother and I fend for ourselves in a sea of Raiders fans. Um, so I’ll see you. I’m looking up tickets on ticket master right now, dude. For a Raiders game, this is about as cheap as I’ve ever seen. So 500 500 sections are going for 85 bucks right now on Ticket Master. I’ve never seen that. Never seen that. Yeah. So, what section are you? Usually 230, right? 231. I know that the cheapest ones were listed for like buck 30 right now. So, yeah, I see some for 157, 160. I’ve never seen Raiders tickets this cheap. Never seen. No, it’s always been so much sooner. So, there’s there’s hope. Every time I’ve gone, it’s been pretty much the first five weeks of the season. So, yeah. I don’t remember the last time I saw a November Raiders game. Yeah, it’s usually the other way around. Usually they’re finishing the season in Vegas. Week one or two or three is always like at home against Vegas. So, they they flipped it this year, which is great. I Please continue to do that. Let’s try and get as few Raiders fans in the stands as possible. So, uh yes, I will be in Utah obviously on Sunday or excuse me, on Saturday. We’re flying back on Saturday. Um, but uh I’m very jealous that everybody can get a second opportunity at all the Navy stuff. When I went for the the Steelers game, they had zero Navy stuff out and it was I was hoping to to snag some, but uh hopefully uh if you guys are on the fence, the Navy stuff alone is probably worth it. So, you know, even if they lose, I guess. Yeah. Oh, I’ve I’ve carried arm loads of merch after a loss home before. So yeah, even if you lose, you can win. Yeah. Yeah. Do some uh shopping therapy for sure. I’m good at that. Yeah. Same. Uh all right, guys. That is going to do it for us today. Like we mentioned earlier, we will not be back until Sunday for the postgame recap. So, wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving. Uh hopefully you get to eat a lot of good food. If you’re traveling like I am, you know, stay safe. Happily, you know, hopefully uh flights go smoothly for all of us. Um, and we appreciate you guys for tuning in. So, that is going to do it for another episode of the Guilty is Charge podcast. We’ll see you on Sunday night. As always, bolt up.

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