Fantasy Football Daily - 2021 Franchise Focus: Los Angeles Chargers

Episode Date: July 23, 2021

Joe Dolan (@FG_Dolan), Tom Brolley (@TomBrolley), and Graham Barfield (@GrahamBarfield) preview the Los Angeles Chargers 2021 season in the companion podcast to the 2021 Franchise Focus piece on FantasyPoints.com. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time for the Fantasy Points podcast, brought to you by FantasyPoints.com. Top level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room, with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. Goal, charges, goal. Franchise Focus podcast here. Fantasypoints.com and the Fantasy Points Podcast. My name is Joe Dolan. We're talking Chargers today with Tom Brawley and Grasches.

Graham Barfield. Unfortunately, our run of a podcast is going to end. Tom and I are going to a wedding. We're both in a wedding. You might have heard at the end of the last podcast. And Scott and Graham, Graham, Graham Barfield and Scott Barrett are going to handle a few podcasts for next week. But I mean, I hope you've been enjoying everything that we've been doing at Fantasy Points.com with the franchise focus series. I got to admit, guys, I've loved doing the franchise focus series. because I've learned so much. Like I, like, I've dug up some things about players where, like, man, I really feel like I'm more plugged in now, you know, for doing drafts.

And it makes me realize that next year, we got to start these things in June. Like, mostly because I'm stressed beyond belief right now. Yeah. But that's the, but next year we need to start in June. Middle of June is the new start date. Yes. Yeah. So I'm going to a little more buffer time before.

We always do this to ourselves where training camp just like sneaks up on all of us. And we're like, oh, shit. We're halfway through this series and we've got a training camp. Here's the deal, guys. I'm going to the Dominican Republic next June and I'm coming back on the 16th of June, which is a Thursday. Let's plan on starting to release the franchise focus that June 20th. Like it. We'll pencil it in on the end. That'll be two weeks ahead of time from where we're.

we were this year. That would be a world of difference too. That will make an absolute world of difference. There's not, not even close, but yeah, all right. So that's what we're pencil it in. We're starting to franchise focus 22 on June 20th. There you go. So mark your calendars, everybody. That's when we'll be talking, who's first Arizona? That's when we'll be talking the Arizona Cardinals next year. Maybe we'll do it backwards next year. Washington, maybe they'll have a name by them. No. I hope they just keep it as the football team. That'd be great. The only reason I don't love that is because of how asymmetrical it is. Yeah.

It's also one letter away from WTF, which is also great. It's like, you know, in like in, in, uh, MLS, MLS soccer. Yeah. Like, I just think like Portland Timbers sounds so out of place. Like they're trying to like do the European style name like E.C. United and Philadelphia Union and Orlando City, which in many ways is kind of dumb too, especially Ray Al Salt Lake. That one's pretty dumb.

But like it's weird when like a team's called like, where are the earthquakes and we're playing and we're playing FC Orlando. And it just sounds weird. That's why it's the only reason I'm like not in love with Washington football. It seems like they're not going to keep it though. It just they're going to have. Could you imagine they build this all up and and then. they tell their friends, we're the team.

I'm sure they'll screw it up somehow, you know, with the Daniel Snyder led organization. Yeah, that's somehow. There's nothing, there's been no safer bet than Dan Snyder, Dan Snyder wrecking everything for that franchise. Maybe he's been embarrassed in public enough, but you never know. All right, guys, L.A. Chargers, speaking of teams that have made a lot of mistakes, namely moving to L.A. in the first place.

But, well, let's just say they are on the up and up. Tom, season win total is nine. Negative juice to the over minus 122. Betterers are liking the Chargers this year. AFC West plus 575, playoffs plus 135. So they're actually a slight underdog to make the playoffs, plus 1,600 to win the AFC, plus 3,300 to win the Super Bowl. And I would think, Tom, correct me if I'm wrong,

that would make them the second best team in the AFC betting markets unless there's a serious Aaron Rogers hedge for the Denver Broncos. Yeah, they're the second betting favorites, but yeah, they got the chiefs there. They're around minus 300. I think we did them earlier this week. And I think they're sitting in that minus 300.

So they're pretty heavy favorites. And that's why it is still a plus money price on their playoff odds because they're going to have to snag one of those, one of those, you know, wild cards and you got pretty stacked, AFC North and AFC East. So not a guarantee that they get one of those playoff spots, but they're certainly a team that's gotten a lot of momentum over the offseason. You know, they kind of nailed it in the draft,

getting Rayshon Slater and Assonte Samuel and, you know, getting Josh Palmer in the third round. And they, you know, really address their major weakness on the offensive line, getting Corey Lindsley and Matt Filer. Just a lot of good, solid moves. Nothing too splashy, but that's the kind of off-season they needed to have. And, you know, just the question is, you know, can this defense perform a little bit better?

They bring in Brandon Staley, young up-and-coming coach to take over for Anthony Lynn, who was, you know, basically a disaster the last year or two with his in-game decision-making and all the close games that they ended up blowing. Tom, just to interrupt, even if they were just bad in close games, Anthony Lynn probably still has a job. Yeah, the funny thing is they started one in seven and then, of course, in pure Anthony Lynn style, right when it looks like he's, you know, for sure getting fired, they go four and oh in their one score games to end the last season.

They ripped off a bunch of one score victories, but it was not enough. It was not enough to save his job, but, yeah, they, they, They've been, you know, that was dating back to the Philip Rivers the end of his tenure there. They just, it was like they were inventing ways to lose games at the end. What was the game where they called a run play with no time out? I was against Buffalo, yeah. I was against Buffalo. Yeah, that was the end of the first half.

That was, they had a couple. That was two, because they really screwed it up, I believe, at the end of the game, too. It was an epic failure at the end of the first and the second half in that game. It was like one of the funny. end of halves that I've ever seen. Number one was Kurt Cousins kneeling when he meant to spike the ball? Do you remember that?

That was just a total brain fart. That was like a Thursday night game or something. Yeah, and the Eagles were so bad it didn't even matter. They still lost that game. But I think that was, I think that might have been the last. I was actually a Saturday night game because that was like around Christmas. I remember it. I think it was, uh, it might have been Chip's last game with the Eagles.

But like, yeah, it was, oh man, that was hilarious. but Anthony Lynn is no longer here, but Graham, the offense, I like Brandon Staley. Everything I've been reading about Brandon Staley, it seems like he's in lockstep front office. That's always good to see. Joe Lombardi's the offensive coordinator, and you go back and look at his tenure with Detroit, and it was a disaster. Matthew Stafford absolutely hated him. He thought he was a weapons grade bell end.

And now Lombardi has come back and said, I made mistakes. mistakes. What are we expecting to see from this offense, Graham? Yeah, I did a deep dive on this for the article version of the Chargers. So definitely go check that out. But yeah, Lombardi, you know, he's been a, he was with the Saints for, you know, back starting in 2007. He was, you know, like an offensive assistant. And he, he worked his way up to be the, to be Peyton's, Sean Peyton's QB's coach. And then he went to the Lions in 2014 and 2015. And yeah, the Lions went 20, in 2014, they went 11 and 5 under Jim Carlin. well, but there was a lot of underlying problems with that offense.

I mean, they finished 23rd in points for game, 15th and 15th in yards per drive. Stafford made the pro ball, but I mean, he wasn't super efficient. I mean, he just had like a league average touchdown rate, league average and reception rate. He just didn't have anything close to one of his better seasons. And then the following year, the lines opened up one and six. Their offense completely stutters out of the gates in 2015, and they can everybody. So yeah, definitely a pretty rocky year and a half in Detroit farm. Then he goes back.

Lamarty goes back to the Saints in 2016 and he spent every season since as the quarterbacks coach under Sean Payton. So yeah, Lombardi has the right last name and he spent a lot of time with Sean Peyton. That being said, I have, I don't even know what the word would be. I'm just very cautious, I guess I would say that like, you know, last year Shane Steichen did a phenomenal job with Justin Herbert. I don't know if Lombardi can kind of bring back that same magic.

I think, you know, Tom mentioned the offensive line has improved. That's fantastic. But at the same time, Lombardi is a major, major question mark in this offense. Like I said, I wrote up all of his, you know, Lombardy's tendencies in the focus article. So definitely go check those out. But I just think there's, there's a lot of question marks on what this offense is going to look like. Yeah, I think we got to be a little bit worried about Herbert, too. I mean, you know, switching offenses here.

You know, he played at an unbelievable level, but, you know, is he going to be able to maintain that real high level of play? We saw it kind of slipped off a bit towards the end of the season. It's just a, and there was just like, I don't know, like Keenan Allen, his, you know, he was under 10 yards of reception, you know, 100. Henry had like, yeah, he had a career low, like catch. There was just a bunch of like, and Mike Williams was very inefficient on his targets. There was just a, some underlying stuff that has me, you know, just a little cautious on Herbert. Because I think the general

consensus is that, you know, Justin Herbert's the next, you know, next Dan Marino, basically. He's, he's just going to keep ascending, keep ascending. And, you know, more often than not, I think whenever we see these rookies have this absolutely spectacular rookie season, they tend to take a little bit of a step back. And that would be my main concern here. And it's probably why I'm a little bit underweight on him in terms of, you know, in fantasy drafts this year. You know, he's going at a pretty hefty price in the seventh round. And I just, just a little bit worried. And the cast is, you know, we lose Hunter Henry there. You know, don't really bring in much of a replacement there. So the cast is slightly weaker here going into the season.

So I just have some concerns here with Justin Herbert in the offense. Yeah, real quick on that note, too. I have, it's kind of crazy to see Herbert go ahead of Russell Wilson, like, Jalen Hurts. Like, Justin Herbert doesn't run. Like, not even close to it, though. And I think that's why people are drafting me. He just, yeah, you just didn't. Yeah, he can.

And then it comes into the question of like, will Lombardi let him do it? I mean, Herbert is a fantastic athlete. But in the games that echo, played last year, Herbert was just dumping the ball off. You know, because, like, that's the thing that these running quarterbacks do. Like, Jalen Hertz does it. Lamar Jackson does it. It's like whenever they have a chance in the play, you know, their first, second,

third read is not there or they're facing pressure. They're not really looking to dump the ball off. They run. And, I mean, Justin Herbert did not do that last year. He averaged 3.1 rushing attempts per game. That was the same amount as Tannails. So, yeah, like Tom was saying, I mean, there's a lot of, you know, like you were saying, there's a lot of underlying issues, I think, that kind of didn't really come to

the fray last year for fantasy because the volume was so good for Kenan and Echler too. But now, yeah, I mean, you're switching OCs. You don't really have a running quarterback and now Herbert's a bit overpriced. Yeah. How are you handling Echler, by the way, Graham? I know we have him projected lower than, I think, consensus. I struggle with Echler. I always struggle when we're lower than consensus on somebody who has the ceiling of an

Echler, but what's your read on Echler? Yeah, I mean, last year, Echler averaged more receiving fantasy points per game than Alvin Kamara. And Alvin Kamar led all backs in receiving fantasy points per game. He had basically the same target chair as Camara and Herbert starts too. But the biggest thing is, like, are they going to let him score touchdowns? Because in those final six games after Echler came back after that, like, nasty hamstring injury, Justin Herbert and Kalin Belage both led the team. They tied for the team lead in goal line carries with five.

only had two, I believe. So I think that's the other big question in this offense is like, hey, is Lombardi going to let Echler be the goal lineback? Are they going to give it to Roundtree? Are they going to give it to Kelly? Is Herbert going to have a couple sneaks? Like, I think that's really the biggest thing holding Echler ceiling back is the touchdowns. Yeah, and that's going to be kind of a little bit of a storyline.

I'm going to follow in camp because, you know, if he is going to get those goal line opportunities, I think, you know, he has to kind of bolt up. into the no doubt first round, you know, one of these first bound running backs after, especially after we lose Cam Acres and it gets thinned out a little bit. And, you know, he's maxed out at three, you know, rushing touchdowns in a season here to start his career. But, you know, he's had Melvin Gordon in front of him. Anthony Lynn has liked these bigger backs at the goal line. Does that all change, you know, with Lombardy and Staley? Do they want the more smaller, more elusive back at the goal?

line. And it's going to be a very important question because, you know, if he does have, you know, six to eight touchdown upside, you know, in terms of rushing touchdowns, yeah, he's kind of a top eight back, no doubt, and, you know, maybe even higher than that, if he's going to have that kind upside, you know, around the goal line. Yeah. The one thing I will say is I know coaching staff has yet viewed Echler as that guy. Now, maybe Lombardi and maybe he does. Maybe Staley and Lombardi do view him as that guy. But the one thing I will say is in terms of who's the number two guy here. Well, Justin Jackson's always produced when he's played.

The problem is that. He can't stay on the field. It just feels to me, guys. And Graham, you know Josh Kelly and I don't know if you watched Larry Roundtree. It just felt like this was a new staff coming in. Josh Kelly was terrible last year. They drafted Roundtree to kind of be what maybe they thought Josh Kelly was going to be last year. Yeah, I remember watching Kelly for Yards Crud, and this, I mean, he was literally the most, like, forgettable pack I've watched in the last five or six years. And he turned around and it was pretty bad last year. He was like bottom three or four and like all of the efficiency metrics I look into. And yeah, I think I think Kelly's going to lose his job. I think it'll be roundtree. And, you know, Dave, you know, he lost his job last year with Kalin Blage. I think Kelly got a little banged up there. But yeah. I mean, if you lose your job to Kalin Blaheimbaugh. Yeah. It's, it's going to be, I think it's going to be, I think it's going to.

be roundtree as the two. But that's a camp battle. We'll have to keep an eye on. Yeah. I remember Cocell watched Roundtree. Call him like a no-nonsense back. You know, like one of those guys, you turn the tape on, you know exactly what he is and you know there's a spot for him.

He's just not going to be a star. No, absolutely not. And he's not a volume back. He's just a, he'll be a fine change of pace guy. I mean, he was Mazuse like Bell Cow, not Belcow, but like War Horseback. He handled like almost all over their carrier last year. He'll, he's going to definitely mix in on the goal line and takes. some of those touchdowns from.

Oh, my God. That's kind of qualities is like a Kelly. They're just trying to basically upgrade it. Essentially. The impression I got. Yep. Larry Roundtree, by the way, if and when he becomes fantasy relevant, maybe Echlor goes down for a couple weeks or something, there will not be, I guarantee you, will

not be a player whose name is misspelled more on Twitter. Every time I go to type it, I have to, like, think about it. I got to be like, don't put the D. There's no D. Yes. It's not Roundtree, it's Roundtree. There's no D in there, but oh my God, he is going to be called Roundtree on every radio program, every podcast, on Twitter. Oh, man, I'm already looking forward to the mentions for poor Larry Roundtree, who has probably had to deal with his name being misspelled his entire life.

We didn't spell it wrong in the franchise focus article up at FantasyPoint.com, though. I just did a little quick one. I was not to say. I can do a little up on that show. I'll make sure you're not lying there. Yeah. I'm looking at it right now. It looks like we're pretty good, but call us out if I miss that on my final edit.

He's Graham Barfield at Grand Barfield on Twitter. At Tom Brawley on Twitter. At FG underscore Dolan on Twitter. That's me. Follow the site on Twitter at Fantasy PTS. Make sure you subscribe to the website. This is nut cutting time. This is when you start to separate.

This is when the fish are. starting to dive into the best ball waters. You want to eat those fish. This is the best time to do it. I'm hungry, Joe. I'm hungry. I love it, man. Tom, the fish are, I'm driving up to Pennsylvania tomorrow.

It's a 10-hour drive. Whenever my wife is driving. Virginia on the wheel and get a little best ball drafts on the side. I'm going to be getting some time. You remember when we were driving to Kant a couple years ago? I think you did like three drafts from a passenger. I think I did. Yeah, we just kind of did them together.

And I was like, We need to talk about this pick here, yeah. That was a lot of fun. Tom, I'll see you. Well, we're recording this. Yeah, we're probably out golfing as you listen to this podcast. As you listen to this. Yeah, I'll see you. We're recording this on Wednesday, but Tom, I'll see you tomorrow night up in Scranton, Pennsylvania. My neck of the woods, baby. Yeah, you used to live up there. Any PA guy for four or five years. So go back to my old stomping grounds. There you go. Graham, we'll see you whenever we see you.

You'll be with Scott Barrett early next week recording some of the podcast. I'll be back at some point. Tom and I'll be back at some point on the pods. But for now, thanks for listening to us for three weeks. I hope you all enjoyed, and we will talk to you next week. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform. And come join the roster at FantasyPoint.com.