NFL Stock Exchange: An NFL Draft Podcast - 218. Fixing The Los Angeles Chargers

Episode Date: December 19, 2023

Hosts Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers discuss the current state of the Los Angeles Chargers now that both Brandon Staley and Tom Telesco have been fired. The two looks at potential HC and GMs, plus take a deep dive into the Chargers' ugly cap situation. They make some tough cuts heading into next year to get under the cap, and finish with a 3-round Chargers mock draft

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It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com slash BS, device and content restrictions apply. Local and national games on YouTube TV NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital only games welcome to the NFL Stock Exchange podcast in this episode we are fixing the Los Angeles Chargers now that Brandon Staley and Tom Telesco have been fired what do we do with this team this team had Super Bowl aspirations over the last couple of years now all of a, they're hitting reset on the major decision makers,

the people who craft this roster. So what are we going to do about it? Well, we're going to craft it ourselves. We're going to tell you about the salary cap situation, the guys that they need to cut, the guys that they need to bring in, who they're going to hire as head coach and general manager. And of course, because it's a draft show, give you a three-round Chargers mock draft to wrap it all up.

I'm Trevor Sikama. With me, as always, is Connor Rogers. Let's ring the bell. Welcome to the opening bell of the NFL Stock Exchange podcast. I'm Trevor Sikama. That is Connor Rogers. Joining you guys on a Monday edition of the show. And as is tradition now, around this time of year, Connor, it's a Monday, which means we're fixing a franchise. Today, we're fixing the Los Angeles Chargers. You and I were kind of laughing a little bit last week.

And, you know, the NFL schedule sometimes writes our schedule itself. With the Chargers not playing well on Thursday Night Football. And when I say not playing well, it's giving them a lot of credit. They move on from both Brandon Staley and Tom Telesco, which means it's time to get into their offseason. It's time to look at who they could hire as their next head coach, their next general manager, look at their cap situation, some free agent additions, some free agent cuts,

more importantly for this team. And then, of course, end it with a mini Los Angeles Chargers three-round mock draft. Connor, how are you feeling today, my friend? I'm good, man. We're a week away from Christmas as we record this. It's the holiday season. I got the Charlie Brown Christmas shirt on.

Oh, that's sick. Yep, courtesy of my great friends at Homage. So feeling good, man. But, you know, this show, it's an interesting one because I think for a while it felt like this was the end for Staley. So we had a feeling we would be doing. But this show, it's an interesting one because I think for a while it felt like this was the end for Staley. So we had a feeling we would be doing a Chargers show, which it's always a little bit more interesting when a great quarterback

is in place for a job that's kind of that golden star sitting there that you might think makes the job more attractive. I think what I didn't see coming, just because he's been there so long and he's had a fair share of hits like the quarterback in Herbert, is Tom Telesco going out the door more attractive. I think what I didn't see coming just because he's been there so long and he's had a fair share of hits like the quarterback and Herbert is Tom Telesco going out the door with him, right? I thought that might be a process that drags on a little bit or whatever it may be. Chargers fans might feel differently. They were more ready for this. Who knows? Either way, it's a big deal, Trevor. This is a franchise that, you know, ownership has a reputation as being a little cheap at times, but there are a lot of desirable things i personally think about this franchise and there's also a lot

of things you and i are going to go through that is going to take you know i would say stripping the carpet out like literally pulling the nails and ripping the carpet off and what i mean by that is bad money and rebuilding the roster and a lot of interesting things that are going to go into this we're putting hardwood flooring in this bad boy today you're right we're ripping up the carpet we're putting the hardwood flooring in we're upping the value of the house for the rental or the resale and just to live in it a little bit more comfortable yes there is there are so many things to get to you know for the panthers fix your franchise and the patriots fix your franchise i i i think that yeah those franchises have a lot of things to fix and if you miss those episodes you can go back and listen to them but for me there's so much with this chargers team

and there's a lot of creativity too because you know with the patriots we looked like okay you're you know you're following up bill belichick the roster's not too great you know how much can you move on from you don't even have a quarterback yet. For the Panthers, it was like, all right, you drafted your quarterback and now you're kind of stuck with him with whoever is going to come in and run that franchise. With the Chargers, it's a very unique situation, like you and I were talking about earlier. They have a Super Bowl caliber quarterback. Now, I know that's kind of like unpinning the grenade right at the beginning of the podcast

because I'm sure people are going to comment on the show, and we would love for you to because I'd love to hear the arguments. Other people that say, oh, Justin Herbert, what has he done? You talk about how good he is. I think that Herbert has the talent to win a Super Bowl in this league. And anytime that is the case, it doesn't matter if that's the only piece of the puzzle that you have it's by far the biggest piece it's the most pivotal piece it's what everything else connects to it is that true middle piece in the beginning of the picture that you hope is a uh image of you hoisting a

Lombardi trophy that's what a quarterback is and I think the Chargers have that in Justin Herbert so a little bit later in the show when we get to some free agent ins and outs that we think this team could and should do we're going to go through an exercise and say all right you look at this Chargers roster you tell me who you can't move on from because the list ain't that long and the rest of the roster pretty damn flexible so we'll get into all that in a little bit but I do want to circle back and start this podcast talking about Brandon Staley okay we'll get into Tom that in a little bit, but I do want to circle back and start this podcast talking about Brandon Staley. Okay. We'll get into Tom Telesco because we want to get into some of this hits and misses with the draft and free agency. That'll ultimately go into our free agent plans, how we fix this team, and then the mini mock draft. But Brandon Staley,

okay. Came into the NFL in 2017. He was the Bears outside linebackers coach for two seasons, 2017, 2018. He was the outside linebackers coach then for the Broncos for one season in 2019. Defensive coordinator for the Rams under Sean McVay in 2020. Had this magical year where he was doing all sorts of different stuff, light boxes, different looks. People thought that he was on the cutting edge of where the NFL was going. Chargers hire him at 39 years old, I believe. 39, 38, 39. Young young head coach but that was in 2021

here we are just two and a half years later and he's out had a 24 and 24 record as the head coach of this team only one playoff appearance and that one playoff appearance connor we do need to talk about at some point it was last year it was in Jacksonville it's the wild card team you're up 27 to nothing against that Jags team the game is over we're already thinking about who you are playing in the next round of this playoffs we are talking about the Chargers finally turning things around getting into the postseason Brandon Staley Justin Herbert getting where they need to go and it was about as epic of a postseason collapse as you are ever going to see. And I don't think they recovered from it.

And I think that's why today we're sitting here. Staley's out of a job. Telesco's out of a job. And we're here talking about this episode. But what do you think about Staley? What are your opinions of him during his time as a head coach, hiring, and then kind of what you think about him now with this team moving forward? I think there's a lot here.

I think, number one, you know he was the notorious for i want all the smoke and i think he bought into his own hype a little bit and there's you know there's nothing necessarily wrong with that we've seen nick sirianni have a lot of success with that honestly where sirianni was a guy that i remember his intro presser was laughed at and he probably still rubs a lot of other fan bases the wrong way, but he's had a lot of success. Right. Campbell's kind of was too, right? Campbell's wasn't as much of a joke as Sirianni's was because Sirianni, it almost kind of looked like he'd never done public speaking before. Yeah. And people were like, OK, this guy's supposed to be a leader of men and he can't even get up in a press conference to talk. Like he's, as a head coach,

you got to get up and talk in press conferences like five times a week. So people were kind of clowning that. But you remember like the Campbell thing too, like, oh, we're going to bite a kneecap and then we're going to come, well, you're going to hit us back down. We're going to bite another kneecap. Yeah, it was like a joke. Some people thought that was awesome,

but some people were like, all right, this dude's a meathead. It's never going to succeed. I would say both of those guys some people were like, all right, this dude's a meathead. It's never going to succeed. I would say both of those guys were two guys that, all right, didn't really win the opening press conference, but actually did turn out to be pretty dang good head coaches. Yeah, and Staley had a ton of hype out of the gate. He was the guy that would, he was different. And we all fall in love with different. We've seen it with Mike McDaniel, right? I mean, Mike McDaniel's very different with different we've seen it with mike mcdaniel

right i mean mike mcdaniel's very different than what we've ever seen from a head coach when you have a little success out of the gate and you're unique people tend to become at least enamored with you and staley bought into it i want all the smoke video. And he kept doing things his way. And it felt like when adversity hit, he almost got suffocated in a way and got away from himself at times where he lost some of that aggressive nature or he didn't know how to recalibrate when the defense started to struggle and daniel popper um wrote a really good article on the athletic of just basically inside the demise of staley and the headline says too smart for his own good and obviously popper does an incredible job covering that team it's a really good read but i thought nfl is the alum nfl is the alum a great. So I think when you see that in the title, it just goes to show you that Staley is a guy

that could outthink himself at times. Like, why is this guy that is a bright defensive mind have one of the most ineffective defenses in the NFL? And I think some of it over the years, too, is the personnel wasn't always right. We've seen the number two corner of this team at times eaten alive. We've seen this team get run at. We've seen some of the pass rush not consistently live up to the hype

that we expect. It comes and goes in waves, I think. They have their struggles in the middle of the field. I think we're going to talk about whiffs. J.C. Jackson was an all-time free agency whiff. Bad, man. I mean, five-year, $82.5 million deal. Total disaster.

They still got 20 mil of dead money on his contract. Yeah, 20.83. Next year. Yep. Next year. That is absolutely right. Nice. Yep. Next year. That is absolutely right. You know, they are the Chargers, as they often do, are a team that deals with injuries like no other from this year.

When you look at all the injuries at wide receiver, you know, Quentin Johnson has had his struggles this year. That's why Telesco went out the door with him as well. But coaches have influence on personnel decisions as well. And a lot of the Chargers personnel decisions have not gone their way outside of some of the big headliners like Herbert and Slater so to me with Staley he's a guy that lost confidence and confidence is a very very real thing and he never knew how to recalibrate he didn't have the right answers to adjust to injuries that a lot of guys in this

league seem to have because every team has key injuries and at the end of the day it felt like even though he was a defensive head coach a lot of the offensive staffs he put together lacked an aggressive nature that didn't always fit with Justin Herbert and didn't instill confidence in a quarterback that is a dynamic vertical passing threat. So there's just a lot wrong here, Trevor. And I think at the end of the day to me, my biggest takeaway on the whole thing is that a guy that year one looked so confident, unique, and innovative completely lost himself after that year.

Yeah, I mean... He lost composure too by the way well and yeah it's hard to blame too much for that right because it's a guy who's i don't know like drowning for lack of better phrase i guess and and and he's just up there having to take these questions and you know when I say like, like it was tough for Staley, like you said, some of this is self-inflicted because he brought all this stuff on. But when he was hired in 2021, I mean, the analytics community

and even beyond just the analytics community, like there were tons of X's and o's film people who saw what he was doing with the los angeles rams and the things that he was doing creatively and they were just like this guy's gonna get he sees the game so differently and i think what was maybe once viewed as a positive with brandon staley that he hadn't been this NFL lifer right he'd only been in the NFL since 2017 yeah he was in college throughout many many years before that low level right like not even high level so he because where was he right before I'm looking it up right now I slipped my mind but he was at a a smaller program he was at John's Mac he was at jones mackerel he was at john carroll that's where he became so he went from

being a ga at tennessee like that's that's like the first job you try to do when you try to get into coaching scouting and everything like that he was a ga at tennessee in 2012 30 years old then he goes to john carroll as the defensive coordinator and secondary coach yeah and quickly after that one year there he goes to james madison who's had plenty of success for the level they're at as the same role defensive coordinator and linebackers coach he goes back to john carroll and then he's a position coach in the nfl so i think that people looked at his and then obviously like outside linebacker coach, like I mentioned, got to D7 as a coordinator for one season. And then he's a head coach. So I think that where the analytics community and even the film community loves Staley because he was this new cutting edge coach who didn't have this, he didn't have this old thinking to erase, right? I think some people look at the battle of progressive analytics and even like progressive

scheme X's and O's and sometimes head coaches, the ones that we cover, it feels like we're fighting against them because they go, no, no, no. This is how it's always been done. Like, this is how I've always done it. This is how I've done it for the last 20 years coaching this league. We're not going to switch it and do it another way. With Staley, it was like, okay, that part doesn't exist. You know, we just get to, we get to fast forward to the good stuff. He is cutting his teeth in this new wave, in this new NFL, how football was going at the NFL level. And with that

inexperience, I think people saw it as a positive because they believed in what this guy was saying. And he just, he won every single press conference, man. He won all of them in that first year, in his time leading up when he was a defense coordinator, everything, he was saying all the right things. You felt like he just understood where the game of football was going, But to be a head coach, it's different. I mean, you and the general manager that you work with, you have to put the team together. And look, I'm not going to sit here and say that it's been perfect for the Chargers. The Chargers, unfortunately, for the last, God, what is it now, Connor? 20 years, 15, 20 years

have been riddled with injuries. Now now injuries happen in the game of football i think ray sean slater said a quote like this at some point during the season maybe it was it was after this last game but he's basically like shit happens man it's the nfl like people get hurt and where that is true it's hard to just totally sweep things under the rug and be like ah you know it's it is what it is because sometimes it's a really damn good player. And that might be a player that you've really built around. Like I look at Joey Bosa and with Joey Bosa suffering all the injuries that he's suffered, man, it feels like that guy's just totally fallen off. And we'll get to what happens with Joey Bosa later in the show, but same for Mike Williams, right? Signed a contract, gets hurt, always banged up, things like that.

So it's hard to control those types of things. But unfortunately for Staley and Telesco at this point, when you get up there and you continue to say, now I'm talking this season, the game plan is correct. Our goal is correct. Our mindset is correct. What we're doing is right. We're just not executing the plan well enough. And when you continue to have to say, we are not executing the plan well enough, well, then eventually it's either on you for the plan or it's on you for gathering the players that you have gathered to execute that plan.

And for the owner, Spanos, I think that it all came to a head when it was like he probably had to hear that again after the Thursday night blowout, and it's like, okay, well, again, it's either you for coming up with a plan, or it's you for bringing these players in who can't execute said plan. Either way, I think everything kind of points back to Staley and Telesco. And that's why you got to make the move, man. They were clearly, very clearly on that Thursday night game, a team that didn't want to be there. A team that was sleepwalking, a team of zombies

who were just looking to cash the paycheck and get out of there. And that's when you really know you've got to make a change. I actually, Connor, I actually think that Brandon Staley is not going to go away. I think that Staley, because of how young he is and because of how little experience he had going into this, I think that this guy could stick around the league. I like the head on his shoulders.

I think that he's going to be a good coordinator again when he gets that time. And I think, who knows, maybe down the road he could be a head coach someday. Maybe we end up talking about him like we're kind of talking about Raheem Morris now, right? Took over the Buccaneers job really young, really inexperienced. It failed for him because he didn't have that experience. Now he's bounced around the league, and now he's poised to get head coaching interviews, and maybe that is sort of the happy ending to kind of the Raheem Morris story.

Maybe that will be the case again for Brandon Staley, but there's no question about it whether or not you believe that's the case. It happens. It was time with the Chargers. Yeah, it happens. I mean, i always think back to pete carroll what a what a road he's had where you know it didn't work out for him with the jets in the 90s and then kind of up and then down with new england and then he went to college for a long time and had a ton of success and he came back to the nfl you know a full decade later and he's been with Seattle since.

So it doesn't mean it's the end of the road when you're a smart guy that just needs to face some adversity. And I think for Staley, the most important thing is, besides him being a smart guy, is that he is well-liked and well-connected, where it just takes one right opening and he could fall right into it. Like, what if Green Bay moves on from Joe Barry this offseason? Would Matt LaFleur give Brandon Staley a call? could fall right into it like what if green bay moves on from joe berry this offseason would matt lafleur give you will brandon would he give brandon staley a call right i mean you never know they

need a change in philosophy for sure so i think and then well i'll save it i know we're going to talk about telesco and i have a lot to say on that one um but yeah i i think this is one where you look at both them going out the door and you look at how fragile a situation can be when you have a 25-year-old franchise quarterback. You know what I really think Trevor got the ownership group to pull out completely on this? They have a 25-year-old franchise quarterback and he has been beaten to shit over the years already. Yeah, their O-lines have not been good. And I think not only does that fall on personnel, but I'm sure a lot of that also falls on the staffs they've had.

And I know Staley's a defensive guy, but when you're the head coach, you are responsible for who's hired as the offensive staff and what they are doing. And I would bet that was very high up on the list of things they saw where they went. We need to make sure we don't have an Andrew Luck on our hands. I think that's every ownership's fear built in since Luck retired. Like I'm sure Cincinnati has felt that at times with Burrow and the Chargers now feel this with Herbert.

And I'm not saying that he's the next Andrew Luck. But like as an ownership, the most valuable commodity for your billion dollar corporation is the guy under center. And there's been a lot of problems with how they've failed to protect Justin Herbert under center. So who do we think could be next to orchestrate that? Do you have any go-to head coach candidates?

We just did the patriots episode and right funny enough we floated around the idea of them trading bill belichick to the chargers or maybe just you know firing bill and him going over to los angeles chargers is he still now that the report has come out which is funny we did the episode and then a report comes out that it looks like belichick is going to be gone. But our Gerard Mayo takes to look good. They aged well. Absolutely.

They did. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think that Gerard Mayo is still candidate number one to take over in New England. Like we said on that episode, but is Belichick still in that mix for you, for the chargers?

Do you still like that idea? And is there anybody else that kind of comes to mind as a head coach candidate? Absolutely. Because number one, I think we hinted at this on the New England side of things for a guy considered the greatest coach of all time there's not a ton of homes for Bill Belichick when you look at this offseason one now maybe I'm I'm talking myself the wrong way because I said this is an ownership group that has a reputation for being cheap. Bill Belichick is a guy that we don't know had coaching salaries. He's making upwards of $20 million a year.

So that's number one of, I don't know if this is really going to happen. But there's not a million openings. Now, would he go all the way to the West Coast? I don't know. It's not a bad place to live, you know, in terms of weather and. He's going to have so many button down shirts that are one button too far in the press conference. Yeah. You know what?

What's the attire on the sideline in Los Angeles? It's some sort of like white linen button down. That's like one button too far down. You're's, that's like two, but like one button too far down. You're like, that would be a great character turn for him. If he started coaching like that, but he's got like some kind of little stitched in chargers logo.

Like maybe just the bolt, right. Just the bolt. But it's just like, it's like a Tommy Bahama short sleeve linen line. And it's just like the Bella check. Yeah. Okay. He's got like cargo shorts now

we're getting somewhere because he's got to show off the calves because i got to imagine that guy's got some beefy calves now we're now we're getting somewhere right in all seriousness with bill why you can even talk yourself into it besides the fact this defense needs to be completely revamped is that bill also knows how to build an offensive line. And I know that's failed with New England in recent years, but I'm going to go with the full sample size of when New England consistently had a great offensive line through that dynasty. That was always a priority for the Patriots.

They always end the communication, the hiring of who was coaching the offensive lines, the personnel, how they treat draft capital on offensive line. So that's why Bill makes sense. Now, if you get away from Belichick, because we don't know if he wants to go there. We don't know if the Chargers want to pay him. We don't know so many things. Where else do you think makes sense for them, Trevor, in terms of what kind of coach they Staley was a young guy, a defensive guy,

an analytics-associated, innovator, new wave kind of coach. Do we see a complete turn where it goes back to, maybe it's a drill sergeant, maybe it's the same style as Staley, but on the offensive side of the ball? What is the identity that they need? You know, I think blending this into a little bit of, like, Telesco talk, I think why you have to get rid of Telesco.

You know, at the top of the show, you were like, ah, you know, maybe they didn't have to move on from him, and we'll get into some of his hits and misses. And it's not like they're not justified by moving on from him you could certainly make that case if you wanted to even just from the roster moves but i think that ownership looked at telesco because he was the general manager for 11 years and he hired three different head coaches he hired uh anthony lynn he hired brandon staley oh who's the one right before that i just blanked my mind oh my goodness now it's gonna i got you keep going this is gonna drive me nuts

chargers head coach who was it i it's people are screaming at me from the other from the other side of oh mike mccoy thank you yes yeah i forgot i forgot about mike mccoy too that was a weird era so he hired he hired mike mccoy he hired um anthony lynn and he hired brandon staley all three head coaches lynn lasted four years mccoy lasted four years staley lasted two and a half slash three none of them had prior head coaching experience in the NFL. None of them. And I think that is a, I think that's going to be a theme or maybe even a requirement that ownership puts on whoever the next general manager is. Like, you've got to go find me somebody that is not green at this. I am not going to fail because this guy is learning the ropes for the first time.

So that's why to me, Belichick actually makes the most sense because of that. You could even take away whatever you want about the coaching pedigree, things like that. It's truly just the experience that I think the Chargers would be really interested in. That's why I keep bringing it up. But Dan Quinn is somebody else who I think makes sense for this team. I think that Harbaugh would make sense for this team. Jim Harbaugh would make sense for this team in that regard, right? Quarterback guy, gets to work with a quarterback, has been a head coach in this league before,

been a successful head coach in this league before, won a Super Bowl, or sorry, got to a Super Bowl before. So, you know know i think about bobby slovak and ben johnson and even guys like eric biennemi or something like that it's to me the and maybe it's just the sting of ripping the band-aid off maybe it won't be as much of an emphasis as i think but i can't help but believe that Spanos and the ownership group that is there is looking at the last three tenures of head coaches and being like, they didn't get it. They weren't head coaches.

They weren't ready to be head coaches at that time. So do you try to take out that inexperience by going after one of those guys? To me, it feels like that's really good because they already did the cutting edge thing right they already did the ben johnson you're looking for like the mike they already did the bobby spulik right like they already they already did that and you know if the packers took a nosedive this year and matt lafleur got fired i mean like matt lafleur would have been that's the guy perfect to bring over but they're not gonna fire him but they are they are not having a good finish of the year. What a soft schedule.

They are straight up not having a good time. They are straight up not having a good time. But yeah, LaFleur will be back. So that's why that is where my mind goes. And I'm always curious to hear what people think in the comments that are listening about head coach candidates. Because you could sit here and talk about the shiny new guys with all the potential in the world hell i mean there's rumors about lincoln riley at usc right would lincoln riley ever make the jump to the nfl pretty good situation to do so right you already got

justin herbert talking about a guy who's an offensive guru and has put up points in bunches both at oklahoma and now at usc like if he makes the jump would they be interested feels like cliff part two though right i don't think so because they've already done that right so that's why i uh it lincoln couldn't build a defense in the pack what do you think it's going to be like in the nfl against patrick mahomes and sean payton. I'm with you. And Aiden O'Connell that just dumped 60 plus on your ass. Hey, man. No sleeping on Aiden O'Connell anymore. Shout out Aiden O'Connell.

But that's kind of where I come from. So I am more of the veteran route. I'm trying to think of like other coordinators. You know, Jim Schwartz comes to mind for the job that he is doing. He's a wild man. Obviously, he has been a head coach before. He's been around this league a long time. You know, Jim Schwartz comes to mind for the job that he is doing with Cleveland. Obviously, he has been a head coach before. He's been around this league a long time. But Schwartz is truly like a defensive-minded dude.

I don't know if that's all the way what they're going to go for. So I thought about him as well. But again, I think that Belichick, I that quinn i think that um harbaugh would be higher on that list than those other guys so that that's my opinion on potential head coach candidates i you guys know where i would go say it all the time i'm a dan quinn guy you are the you are the dan i'm a dan quinn guy he had success in atl, could have won a Super Bowl in Atlanta, was good enough to win a Super Bowl in Atlanta. He's got a deep Rolodex of coaches that he knows that he could call for offense coordinator. Hell, if you like what you've seen from Kellen Moore,

if you like what Kellen Moore has been able to do, he worked with Kellen Moore in Dallas. So Kellen Moore, he could probably get Kellen Moore to stay. So I don't know. I'd be a Dan Quinn guy stay. So I don't know. That's a, I'd be a Dan Quinn guy here. Harbaugh is fascinating. It makes sense.

When you look at a guy that's going to come in, be with a quarterback, build an offensive line, has had success in the NFL. He does wear people out, but it's a risk you're willing to take and clearly wants to come back to the NFL. He does wear people out, but it's a risk you're willing to take and clearly wants to come back to the NFL. Yeah, I agree. I'm intrigued by Harbaugh with Herbert. I actually think that team would have some bark in them that they really need. I know he's nuts, but

that one makes sense to me. Of all the Har hardball spots, I feel like that one does actually make sense. Herbert is excellent at taking to coaching. That's why. Like a lot of guys, hardball, like I said, he burns people out. But Herbert and him, it doesn't feel like oil and water, right? Like a lot of landing spots at Harbaugh. Like everybody does this all the time. I hear Harbaugh all the time because of the jets.

They're like, well, the jets, cause Woody Johnson's been infatuated with him forever. I'm like, yeah. Imagine Aaron Rogers and Jim Harbaugh together. It's a powder keg.

It is. But Justin Herbert is a guy that like, it's like, no, he'd sit there and be like, yeah, coach. All right,

cool. Like, I trust you let's go do this right and i don't think like some people might hear that and think that oh like jim and and and aaron wouldn't work together because jim's a dumbass like we know it's not at all yeah they're just very different they're fixed in their ways yes and they're they're like alpha headstrong dudes and i don't think that that would work very well i agree with you you want to talk about telesco yes let's get into it so telesco 11

seasons of the chargers general manager i mentioned he's hired three head coaches before been the general manager since 2013 had an 86 and 95 record overall only had three playoff appearances under his 11 year tenure you know that, that's just straight up, not good enough. Um, there, you know, there's some good draft picks, you know, he's been there 11 years. So you got a lot of them to choose from a lot of big names. I've Justin Herbert's the big one. Of course, you got Keenan Allen, Joey Bosa, Mike Williams, Derwin James, Asante Samuel Jr. Ray Sean Slater. Um, I'll throw in totally too low to I'll too I'll throw in Josh Palmer who's been a good find for them as well Des King has played for them um Drew Tranquil I think was a good pick by them

but then you've also got especially when it comes to the mid rounds some whiffs Jerry Tillery not good Quentin Johnson doesn't look great that's a rough one right now kenneth murray way overdrafted nassir adly forest lamp i like dj fluker those guys just absolutely not panning out so he hit on a lot of his his top ones right and you want you want to have a high hit rate with your top picks so first round picks joey bosa justin herbert uh derwin james mike williams like those were hits for them which is great but i didn't i didn't fact check every single one of his picks but i did i read that he's re-signed only four of his original draft picks rounds two through seven in his 11 years as general manager he's re-signed only four of his original draft picks round two through seven.

So somebody could throw that through Twitter's fact-check machine or an AI fact-check machine, but that is what I read. this team isn't good because outside of the 22 or 23 starters that you have, depending on if you're in nickel or base, the rest of that roster from 22 to 23, all the way to 53 was not good enough. And it was not good enough for way too long. The depth of this team, the rotation of this team could not support the starters starters the first round picks and the things that they hit on and that is also a big part of being a gm not just hitting on the big ones with the big swings in the first round you got to be able to build the depth of this team and when it came to free agent signings and and mid to late rounds in the draft, Telesco just was not good enough. That's what it comes down to.

And the reality is here with Telesco, who has been the GM since 2013. That's a 10 years as a GM. It's a long time, man. You got something right. And sometimes they're just looking to turn the page. I wouldn't call Telesco's time with this team as a failure necessarily. Like he drafted Justin Herbert. He did draft some good players with them.

He had some bad injury luck. Ultimately, it didn't work out. But he's a guy that I think might get a second chance. I really do. Ultimately, it didn't work out, but he's a guy that I think might get a second chance. I really do. I and maybe it's he goes and he's a VP of scouting or an assistant GM for a year or two, and he builds his name back up. When you have it on your resume that you took Herbert in a draft where there were a lot of questions about Justin Herbert and that pick. It can take you places. Now, the failure to build the offensive line is a massive issue, especially in today's game

where these quarterbacks are just getting killed. And the reality is the best teams in football right now all seem to have a foundation on the offensive line. So that's something that really, really hurts him here. I think that is where it starts with who do they hire next, right? Because you are, this is a tough hire for the Chargers because they have, as we said at the top of the show, with all of the financial issues on the books, they really need to strip the carpet off this thing. But they also, they're not a team

that's just going to go in the tubes for two years because Justin Herbert's still there. Like you're still trying to, we call it on Badlands, the competitive rebuild. Can you make some market level moves and write draft picks while taking the carpet off that gives your quarterback and gives your staff a chance to compete while you're really trying to turn the roster over to a two- to three-year period?

Who can do all of that? There's financial responsibilities. There's personnel responsibilities. There's free agency responsibilities with not a lot to work with. I'd look at it. It's kind of like what a little bit like Joe Shane walked into with the giants. Think what you want now about Daniel Jones. But when Joe Shane got that job, it was looked at, okay, can we make it work with Daniel Jones? And we have a ton of horrible money on the books and we need to turn this roster over,

but we want to give Daniel Jones a shot because ownership really likes him. And that first year Jones played well enough with Dable that he got a contract extension while they're still trying to turn over the roster. I know it hasn't worked after that, but I think that's a similar comparison with an even way better quarterback and Herbert for whoever gets this GM job. So I do. So I agree with you.

This is a, there's a lot on your plate. If your plate if you get this general manager job. PFF's very own Brad Spielberger, who is the off-season king, wrote an article a couple weeks ago highlighting GM candidates. And I think there's a lot of articles that get floated around there. Hey, who are the next big head coach candidates? But there's really not a ton of information out there on next general manager candidates and brad put together a pretty extensive list with some reasoning and background too which i really like so i took a

look at that and looking at that with the charger situation there were three guys that came to my mind one of them is kind of an obvious we've talked about him uh for the last couple years in this show ed dodds he is the assistant general manager for the indianapolis colts i don't have to spend a ton of time on him because i feel like a lot of people know him uh he was the he eventually became the director of pro and college scouting for the seattle seahawks from 2007 to 2016 during like the legion of boom era so like he brought a lot he helped bring a lot of those players in, orchestrated one of the best events in the NFL. And then after that,

he went over to the Indianapolis Colts. Now he's the assistant general manager there, but I believe he does pro, I think he's the VP of player personnel. So like pro personnel. So like in league players. So for anybody that doesn't necessarily know titles, when you are a director

of college scouting, you are of course in charge of the draft. You are in charge of the national scouts of the area scouts of the like scouting interns, and you help put together the draft board with the GM. And you have basically your job is to scout talent at the college level when you are a pro scout whether it is a director of player personnel or just a pro scout underneath him your job is to evaluate players that are already in the league so potential free agents that could be coming up guys that you would want to perhaps trade for at the trade deadline things like that and you're always looking one, two, three, four, however many years out. So you have this plan of who might become available for

your team that works with the coaching staff that you have, that works with the salary cap, you're working hand in hand with the salary cap guy that you have on staff as well. So those are kind of the two different areas of a front office that work under the general manager. Dodds has experience in both of these areas. And you mentioned, not only do the Chargers have to draft well, but they also have to scout well around the rest of the league because the whiffs that Telesco had with free agents really put them behind the eight ball

or just made this team not very deep. Basically like, hey, we got our starters and we're good. And if any of these dudes go down, replacement level is not good enough. On that same line, Glenn Cook, who is the general manager, sorry, the assistant general manager for the Cleveland Browns is somebody that I really like. He was a pro scout for the Colts and the Packers up to 2015 when he then got hired by the Cleveland Browns. He was a pro scout with the Browns, and now he is the director of pro personnel with them. So this guy knows the league very,

very well. And to me, that's the biggest area this Chargers team has to get better. They have to be a better free agent team. I know you build through the draft and that's where you get your cornerstones. That is an obviously very important part of this, but the health of this team, the depth of this team will come from one. They got to get the cap figured out. We'll get to that in a second, but then signing the right free agents, not just the home run free agents, the two-year deal, three-year deal guys. Hey, this guy's going to be a rotational pass rusher. Hey, this guy's going to be a depth cornerback for us. This guy's going to be a sub package linebacker. This guy's going to be a swing offensive lineman. Those kinds of players that have been desperately missing from an otherwise

at star studded roster for the chargers. And yet we wonder why this team can't win. It's because they don't have those second and third string guys to come in and be able to play well so cook is 39 years old he actually interviewed for the bears gm job before ryan poles got it two years ago and he and he interviewed for the titans gm job last year uh so he has experience interviewing for the gm jobs so he's kind of on that track but he is one of the younger guys at 39 years old and then the other guy i will shout out, John Spitek. He is the assistant general manager for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He's been in the NFL for more than 20 seasons.

This is his first, I believe, as the official assistant GM, but he has worked hand in hand with Jason Light throughout the Bucs draft process. And Light and the Buccaneers have been one of the best teams in the NFL over the last, I'll say five years at drafting, especially in rounds two, three, four, five, you know, like those meat and cheese areas of your team that you were trying to put together. And spy tech's been a big reason why they've been able to do that. So to me, those are three general managers that for what the chargers are looking for, I think make a lot of sense for this team. So let me go back to Dodds, because interestingly enough, he has a connection with Harbaugh, where we saw.

Oh, does he? We saw this package deal rumored to the Raiders. It ultimately didn't happen. But Harbaugh and Dodds were both with the Raiders back in 2003. I believe Harbaugh was the quarterback's coach. Dodds was a pro personnel intern. It was his first NFL job. So there is a connection there.

So if you want to tie one of our head coaching candidates to a GM candidate, Harbaugh and Dodds makes a lot of sense. Honestly, it really does. I think that'd be a good connection. I really like Glenn Cook. I need to learn more about him. Me too. As I was reading his background, I was like,

man, he's interviewed for jobs before. Right. I think that that means he's close. The roster that the Browns have put together, especially on the defense side of the ball, they've drafted well, but they've brought in some really big hitters as well. They've gotten a lot out of some of those free agents. So I kind of like that one too.

Obviously, if you guys have any general manager thoughts, let us know in the comments. We got to get to this cap situation because it is an absolute mess but well do do you have any other gm thoughts because i got an ad i got to read right before that but no i think i think you covered i think it's one of those things where when they make the hire we can go more in depth on a guy i'm so curious to see what direction they ultimately look at because i have notes on a lot of these different guys and brad did such a good job writing these guys up so you know going back to your your idea with cook i do like his long long time experience in pro scouting so he's a guy that can come in

and would bring an assistant gm with him that has a ton of experience on the college side and you have a head coach that has some experience at the college level, then that's a hire I would trust because that's the right balance between pro and college personnel. Yeah. And hopefully you're able to draft really well. And then also maybe find some veteran gems that he is been keeping track of for many,

many, many years. So it's not like he's doing that for the first time. He's already got a, probably a deep Google sheet of google sheet of of all of these guys that could become free agents that could really help out these chargers team well los los angeles we're gonna get to their cap situation because it's a mess they without a doubt have to secure their financial future but so does your family starting with life insurance fabric by

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Not available in certain states. Price is subject to underwriting and health questions. Cap situation? Connor, it's not great. Oh, it's not ideal. I don't know how else to put it. Kindly. So we don't just lose all Chargers fans right here right there is well we held them

for 45 minutes we're gonna give you hope right here on this podcast we're gonna come up with a plan to help you get back under the cap with a bright look into the future you're probably not gonna be very good next year but but that's not that you were, we're, we're talking future. We're talking future here. So first and foremost, I did want to mention this.

So Jason Fitzgerald, who works for over the cap, he is their cap guru over it. Over the cap. He's the founder. Is he a founder? I believe so. I just know he's,

I just know he's the man in charge. Yeah, Jason's been a mainstay on Badlands since the Jets are usually in offseason hell all the time. I'm pretty sure he is. If not, he is, yeah, the dude. Well, we use over the cap religiously here, especially this time of year. So he recently wrote a situation where they have a cap ceiling

projection so we don't know exactly what the cap is going to be every single year but as the nfl makes more money we assume that the cap is going to go up which has been the case for every single year basically except for the covid year so j Jason wrote an article recently that talked about how they projected the cap to be a certain number. I think they projected it to go up to $256 million per team from $224 million because they thought that the new TV deal money was going to make up for the COVID year that they had. But apparently, according to multiple sources, the cap is actually going to be more like $242,000 instead of $256,000. So $14 million less than some teams maybe thought that they were going to operate under. It's a lot of money.

And it is a lot of money, especially- Is there a reason for that? These TV deals keep rolling in. I know. I guess- There's butts lot of money. And it is a lot of money, especially when you're- Is there a reason for that? These TV deals keep rolling in. I know. I guess- There's butts in the seats. Hot dogs in hands. I don't know.

Jersey's on people. I don't know. I got to go back and read the article. Keep pressing them. He's saying, I don't know. Leave me alone. I don't make the- No!

I didn't write it. Stop asking. I pay for Red Sox. Not enough hot dogs so the chargers are currently a projected 42 million over the cap saints territory uh i think the saints are the only team with i mean of course the Saints are like 80 million. Hold on. Now I got to find this.

Where was this? They'll find a way. Where was this? I'll look it up in a second. But I think I'm pretty sure the Saints are the only team. So you got to find cap casualties. Did you? Oh, the Bills.

The Bills are the second. It's Saints, Bills, Chargers. The Bills? The Saints are 87 million over. Effective cap space, they are 97 over. The Bills are a sneaky 43 and then effective 52. The Bills are one. Like, you look at the von deal

they they understandably you know we're like hey we can win a super bowl they went all in on a lot of different things and once again folks like if you're throwing a temper tantrum right now yes all of this can be manipulated like you can get under the cap you can restructure it's still gonna go somewhere like you still exactly you're still kicking cans down the road and so that's what the chargers did right listen to this so this is this is this is 2024 salary cap all right khalil mac has a cap hit right now going into the last year of his deal he has a cap hit of 38.5 million dollars next year. Joey Bosa, $36.6 million on the cap. Keenan Allen, $34.7 million on the cap.

Mike Williams, $32.4 million on the cap. Those four players account for 57 58 that is top heavy of their entire and if you throw derwin james in there who is next derwin james is 19.8 against the cap then that auto that goes to their top five paid players take up 65% of their cap space. It's nuts. They've got to do something about it. And unfortunately, I think it's going to come at the expense of some guys who have been there quite a while. Do you have any players that you look at there? Or did you, did you look at any contracts that you think like, like man they got to get out of this thing yeah i mean i'll tell you who you have to keep like you're not getting rid of keenan allen no matter what i agree i agree there's a justin herbert factor here i don't care if keenan allen makes a billion dollars so so keenan is going into the last year of his

deal yeah and you know what you're doing honestly trevor you're extending keenan allen correct i agree with you yes that's right it's a band-aid but because he's he's 34 million dollars on the cap next year you can't you there's no there's no world where this is status quo either he's getting cut or he's getting restructured and they're not gonna they're not gonna cut keenan yeah you just extend them he He's going to be 32 next year. He's still an incredible player. He's not somebody that is going to fall off a cliff with the style of football he plays. Like he'll be effective even as he gets older. So if you can find a one year extension with him

that could split some of this cap hit and he's willing to do that, which I'm sure he's happy there. He has a great rapport with Herbert. That makes that one I think is really salvageable, in my opinion. And then his cap hit goes down significantly. I agree. I think you also extend Mack.

He's 33, though. I know he's 33, but he leads the league in sacks right now. And I know this. Look, look, look. This is a PFF podcast, okay? I'm not sitting here, like, saying that sacks are everything. But he's at least still playing at a decent level. And the reason why I say you keep Khalil Mack

is because I think you cut Joey Bosa. Does he have the quietest 15 sacks of all time? I mean, yeah, because we're too busy yelling about Brandon Staley. And now people can go like, oh, actually, Kalu Max, can I like having a kind of a dope year? He hasn't had 15 sacks since his second year in the league with Oakland. He had 15 that year. He was first team all pro. Renaissance, man.

So the reason why I think that you extend Mac is because one, I think he's a freak like that. And I think that you can probably get another two decent years out of him. If you cut him, you save, let's see. You save like 22 million, I think. Right. Which is a lot. But if you cut Bosa, you also save $22 million. And which one of those dudes are you going to cut?

It's probably Bosa, which is wild. You're probably going to cut Joey Bosa. He's hurt a lot. So I think you restructure and extend Khalil. You restructure and you extend Keenan so that they're not nearly as high on the cap. If you cut Bosa, you save $22 million. If you cut Mike Williams, you save $20 million. I think you do both of those things.

That gets you to the 42. That gets you to the cap immediately. Now you need some more wiggle room, though. You got a draft class to sign and your team's cheeks so you got it you're like you gotta you gotta bring other players in cory lindsley is on ir because of a heart condition so he might retire but if not you can you can cut him and you can save 11 and a half million dollars if you cut sebastian joseph day you save another seven and a5 million. If you cut Sebastian Joseph Day, you save another $7.5 million. And then Eric Kendricks is the other one. You cut Eric Kendricks, and you save $6.5 million.

If you cut those five players, and then you restructure Allen and Mack, you are saving at least $67.5 million on the cap, and then that's not even to say whatever those restruct those two restructures do for you to me that's what you got to do with your the chargers i agree you got to do yeah i agree i think those are the ones that make sense that um the mac one i didn't think of until you said it but when you look at it it's you could have him play it out you could extend him i don't think you just outright dump him the math doesn't fully add up bosa's the emotional one right because it's like man we drafted this dude he's been a good player for us yeah but he hasn't been but he hasn't he hasn't

been he's aging poorly yeah which is weird because he's not even 30 yet. He's just beat up. Let's see. I mean, he's been better as of late, so his pastor's grade is a lot better. Because he's healthy. He's not often healthy. Look, maybe you restructure him and extend him too. But what's his deal?

No, I don't think, I don't think, I don't think a new GM would want to do that. Like, it's a weird thing for a new GM to come in and like, okay, I inherited this mess. Let me reward half of it. Cause he's got two years left after this season and his cap hits are massive the next two years. So if you were to extend him,

you're talking about, like, then a four-year deal for this guy. Then he's going to be 32. You're already worried about health concerns with him. You know what's tough about Bosa? You're probably trading. You trade him. Yeah, you could trade him. You could trade him.

He has value. And then you can get some more assets. What's tough about Bosa, and I don't mean to make this the pile on Joey Bosa, because he's a really good player. He's had a really good career. He has six and a half sacks. Four and a half of the six and a half are from two games, the Jets and the Titans. Obviously, I covered the Jets game.

A lot of it was against Billy Turner. I'd argue he's the worst tackle in football. Genuinely, I actually at least were one of the three worst in football. And the Titans have a terrible offensive line. I actually at least were one of the three worst in football. And the Titans have a terrible offensive line. Like he's been shut out by basically any capable unit. Any capable unit. So you have to sit there and wonder too.

Is he really that effective anymore? By the way, there's I thought about it. I don't think you can. You can't trade him. No, because the contract. Yeah, yeah. Because because the contract think you can. You can't trade him. No, because the contract. Yeah, yeah. Because because the contract's too bad. You just that.

Man, it's it's a hard reality of inheriting a job that has foundational players that are on the wrong side of their career. Right. Joey Bosa might go somewhere and become a situational pass rusher that keeps him healthy. And he has 10 sacks in a season before he hangs it up. Right. But that doesn't mean you made the wrong decision because it's not in the best interest. By the time the Chargers get this right, he's going to be on the wrong side of 30. Yeah, no, I agree.

Right, right, exactly, exactly. I agree. And Khalil Mack will be 38 with double-digit sacks like Julius Peppers. Wild, brother. Absolutely wild. Okay, we're going to go through this roster. We're going to identify the must-have players on this team,

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So we get an official price picks lineup for PFF. This week, Eli's back in the lab. He's cooking up something again. DK Metcalf, more. 61.5 receiving yards against the Eagles. Okay? This is the Sunday. This is the Monday night one.

Kenneth Walker, Moore, 47.5 rushing yards against the Eagles, obviously. And then we had to get a kicker one in there. Jake Elliott, over 1.5 field goals made, baby. I'm on that tonight. For happy hour. That was my best bet. Was Jake Elliott? Yeah, Jake Elliott, over 1. half field goals made, baby. I'm on that tonight. For happy hour. That was my best bet. Was Jake Elliott? Yeah, Jake Elliott.

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it's that easy folks get that first deposit match up to 100100. All right, Connor, you got the roster pulled up? I certainly do. All right, you tell me. Who is not move on from a bull on this roster? I'm not saying like, oh, well, they got to keep this guy because they have to have a defensive tackle obviously play on the team. No, no, no, oh, you know, well, they got to keep this guy because they have to have, you know, a defensive tackle, obviously play on the team. No, no, no, no, no.

You tell me the names of these players that over the next, I would say two to three years, you'd be like, yeah, okay. I mean, like we're keeping that player. We're good with that player. Cause I don't think it's that many names. So who you got? Keenan Allen. Okay.

I agree. Rashawn Slater. Agreed. I need to watch more of their interior offensive line i love jamari salyer when he came out of school i couldn't believe he went in the sixth round and zion johnson they obviously took with a high pick so i have zion on you have to keep zion i know salyer was more of like a depth piece when he was drafted right right so i'm not confident i like salyer but he i'm going to have him on this list. Right.

Okay, we can't move on from these guys. It's just nice to have him, I think. I might say Josh Palmer, because I'll say why, Trevor. If we dish this whole plan that you're cutting Mike Williams, Josh Palmer has to be there. Because Quentin Johnson looks horrendous. I don't have Palmer on here, but I don't hate it. I thought about him. So, and hopefully QJ has a really nice second season, figures it all out. And there's your

11 personnel Keenan Allen, Josh Palmer, QJ. What? QJ, you just got a shorty. You just got a shorthanded even more just huge. You just. Huge has a good season. So realistically, right? Slater, Keenan Allen, Zion. Herbert. You can make the argument for Palmer. Obviously, Justin Herbert. I have to have Easton Stick. Of course.

Yeah. Yes. I have. I sit on offense. OK, I have three more. I have three names on defense. Yep. At Derwin Jamesames even though he's

having not a great year derwin james is yes he's he's still derwin james i agree uh i guess the other two yep tully he's one of them hell yeah he is because if you're moving on from bosa you better you better be thinking that till he's two week below two is going to be there a bit and khalil mac uh sante samuel jr sante samuel jr that's what i was thinking too i don't think Tui Pelotu is going to be there a bit. And Khalil Mack? Or Asante Samuel Jr.? Asante Samuel Jr. That's what I was thinking, too. I don't think Mack's a must-stay. We just like the idea of making it work.

Yep. Yeah. That's it. It's those three. I had seven, and you had eight, because you threw in Josh Palmer. Yep. Herbert, Slater, Derwin James, Keenan Allen, Asante Samuel Jr., Tui Pelot too, Zion Nelson,

and then you had Josh Palmer in there. Yeah, Eckler leaves in free agency. He has not had a good year. He's been hurt. No. Great career for him there. He'll go Simon a contender and be a third down back. So Chargers team needs edge rusher.

A lot, yeah. Offensive tackle. Corner, absolutely. edge rusher a lot yeah offensive tackle corner absolutely might be one and then i would also just throw a wide receiver in there at the end yeah sure okay all right we good with those four but you're probably taking a swing on day three yeah yeah or you know maybe. Or, you know, maybe. Hey, I don't know what the mock draft's going to show us. Maybe something juicy. Good point.

Maybe there's something we like. Maybe something a little juicy. Yeah. You know what's funny to me? Not to do this, but to do this. I really liked Jalen Hyatt for them last year because of the fit. I thought they needed vertical speed. And Hyatt's been, not largely, but he's been better than quentin johnson this year has he yes

i haven't seen much i think so he's he doesn't play as much because the giants have nine million wide receivers and he was a third round pick but he had a hundred yard game against new england oh wow i guess i didn't even realize that uh Let's think about who's played quarterback for the Giants. Yeah, who is... Packers game. Packers game. I think I said it on this show. I watched the first pass in with Jalen Hyatt, and a defender bumped him as he was going out of bounds.

I was like, see, I told you. It's no victory lap. I had Quinn Johnson ranked ahead of Jalen Hyatt. But it's just funny to look back at that and think, man, I don't know. they still need speed to me uh yeah they just need anybody okay are you mock draft on this draft yeah that's good all right let's pull up the pff mock draft simulator which you can go over and do right now over pff.com if you have a subscription uh here we go chargers uh let's go three round By the way, you guys can go all the way up to seven rounds

if you're absolute sickos like that, which we are. All right, so three-round mock. Where are we picking? It is pick. Wait. Where do they? They're not picking fifth. They're picking eighth. okay all right hold they

are tied record wise with the titans giants jets and bears but they don't have strength of schedule over the giants jets and bears okay giants just okay that might be why it was in there incorrectly it might have been uh it might have just been messing up the strength of schedule all right so we got uh so we got, so we're picking an eight. A little technical difficulties. We'll get on that after this show. So you're picking eight. Here we go.

Yeah. I love that the Jets took Leatu Latu. It's really complete just taking an edge rusher every single year and letting Aaron Rodgers get fucking rocked because he didn't take joe off restart the draft i'm just kidding i'm just kidding edge isn't even a need for them we don't even have it they just took will mcdonald the year before that they took jermaine johnson they have bryce huff Bryce Huff. Truly just taking you could never have enough. Too many good edge rushers, baby.

Oh, man. Damn. That brought out the F-bomb, too. That was great. That was good. That was my one for the show. You're like the rated R movie. I've had a new pact.

I only do one a show. If I do one at all. I know people listen sometimes. They're kids in the car. the car i apologize yeah but they're like timeouts right you know you can bank them and then if you don't use all your timeouts then like you just get four or five next game right that's true i can unleash hell on apple podcast all right so we got a lot of obviously i think a great contenders here on the board. Joel would be dynamite. That'd be something. I mean, you have Ray Sean Slater on one side, Joel on the other.

Jerzon Newton, I think, would be a good one. Yep. Chop Robinson. We will get to edge rushers this Wednesday. We will update our edge rush positions. I'm not going to be this high on Chop Robinson anymore. No. Letting you know let no great athlete needs some refinement a little tease yeah so for me this one comes down to

joseph p all sounds like a law firm jerzan k newton or Nate B. Wiggins. No idea what any of their middle names are. Oh, wow. You just, okay. It's all. Okay. Now, Johnny in the middle of that defense is, now we're getting somewhere. Yeah.

But I just think you can't pass on the tackle. Slayer and all protecting Herbert is what dreams are made of. I agree. I agree. because who do they have now they got pipkins there right now right yeah trey pipkins all right he's from what sioux falls college i remember it's funny what like the memories that stick with my brain when guys get drafted when i used to do the br show and the pick comes in live pipkins was a third round pick yeah i'll just i'll just never forget it is the rest of my life james earl trey pipkins the third damn he went full government name on that one yeah all right so so here at 40 so we got joe alden hand who Queen on Mitchell.

What other corners are there? Just so I can compare your boy, TJ Tampa. I would take Tampa, but that's just me. Um, not really. I mean,

Caitlin King is here. I still like King, but they have small corners already. I don't, I don't need a small corner. I would want a big, long press corner that can open up and run. And that's Tampa. Chris Jenkins is here, but I'm, I don't yeah i don't need a small corner i would want a big long press corner that can open up and run and that's tampa chris jenkins is here but i'm i don't i don't think i'm taking jenkins over tampa or mitchell no it's a really nice second round board by the way yeah for them

it does it does come out well they got wide receivers on the board too like for people who are listening audio only they got keon coleman's on the board ad mitchell receivers on the board too. Like for people who are listening to audio only, they got Keon Coleman's on the board, 80 Mitchell's on the board. Um, Jermaine Burton, who I really, I really need to watch. He wasn't in my wide receiver rankings. I didn't rewatch him from two years ago.

Um, he's, he's pretty nasty, man. Yeah. I've heard, I've heard a lot of really good things. I will catch up on Jermaine Burton for my final wide receiver rankings.

Yeah. Yeah. This one for me, Trevor is one of those corners. I know you, obviously this is your board. You like Mitchell.itchell um yeah i like him a little better okay he's just graded out so damn well man he doesn't play a lot of press though but you probably you ain't gonna want asante samuel playing a ton of press. I know he can.

I'm going to go Mitchell. Okay. All right. I'm going to make the executive decision. I'm going Quinion Mitchell, the cornerback from Toledo. So we got one more pick here in this three-round mock. I'm merely a scouting intern. All right.

I'll let you. I kid. You can have full reign here. And by full reign, I mean if you don't pick Tavondre Sweat, who is still on board. Dude, I'm taking the camper, Tavondre Sweat. The double wide, baby. Dude, I'm absolutely putting his big butt right in the middle of this defense to just shut it down. That's a sick draft, actually.

Just so we scroll down here so people get the full mock experience. Ruka Roro, the other interior defensive lineman from Clemson. He is here. Jack Sawyer from Ohio State. Nice player. He is here. Byron Murphy, the other defensive lineman from Texas, the interior defensive lineman.

He is here. I like him. Johnny Wilson would be like their new Gerald Everett. Yeah, he would. You stick him in tight end, basically. Yeah, play him big slot. Put him in that big slot alignment. You know who's good down there?

Obviously not for them, but who's popped for me? Adisa Isaac from Penn State. He had a really nice year. I want to give him some love randomly on this show. We'll be able to shout him out and talk about him a little bit when we get to the Edge Rush show on Wednesday. Some people like his floor

more than chop robinson's right yep yeah that is a real conversation um but yeah for this you know what though i'll say this as much as we're taking the the big camper here into vandre sweat uh zach frazier at center would be really intriguing to me as well depending on the status of cory linds, but I'll sweat's just, he's such a good player at this pick. He's who they need. Yes. A hundred percent.

All right. We're going, we're going to Mondry. I think we actually won the mock draft simulation. This is, this is sick for dude, for all of the fix your franchise mock drafts that we're going to do. This, this is, this is the biggest double in the mall.

It's up there. Chargers get Joe Alt in the first round. Offensive tackle from Notre Dame. Quinion Mitchell, the corner from Toledo in the second. And then big ass double wide himself. Devondre Sweat, the defensive tackle. Nose tackle from Texas. These are cornerstone players. and major positions in need.

And you come in, if you're the new GM, you get a little street cred because you got Joe Alts, and now you're looking at how Herbert's protected with the two tackles. This team badly needed a second corner. That's not Michael Davis. I mean, they've had a rough go of it with that. And you got beef for the middle of the defense. We got beef, baby.

You got the beef. We got beef. There we go, folks. We have done it. We have fixed the Chargers. I hired Dan Quinn. Who did you hire? Did you hire Dodds?

I like the Dodds-Harbaugh connection. Oh, yeah. You like that. So I like the Glenn Cook-Dan Quinn connection. You like the Ed Dodds and Jim Harbaugh connection for the coach and general manager scenario. We went through the players that we would move on from. We got the Chargers under the salary cap

and with a little bit of wiggle room. And then, of course, we had a fantastic draft giving them Joel, Quinion Mitchell, and Devontre Sweat. We want to hear from you guys as well. Let us know your thoughts about Brandon Staley, about Tom Telesco, their potential general managers, head coaches, where this roster is, what you think of the Chargers. Can they be a quick rebuild type of a team with Justin Herbert as their quarterback?

And then, of course, let us know what you thought about the mock draft as well. Best way to do that, youtube.com backslash NFL stock exchange. If you were audio only, you can hit us up on Twitter or Instagram at Tampa Bay tray at Connor J. Rogers. But yeah, sound off. Let us know that we,

we love the fixture franchise episodes. Cause we get to hear so much from you. Not only do we get to fix the franchise hypothetically, you guys do as well. And so we love reading those comments. It's what makes this NFL draft kind of community a lot of fun. so connor you got anything else before we get out here i think that covers it over an hour on the chargers i think um we showed a lot of things to be positive about with them why it's an attractive job in some capacity and they're a team that'll be fun for us to cover

because a couple right hits and all of a sudden things look a lot better when you got the star under center. When you've got the star under center, like you just said, it can be as quick of a rebuild as next year. So we will see how this one plans out. Wednesday, we got the updated edge rusher positional rankings. We'll go through the top 10 of those guys as well. Sounds going to be a lot of fun. I'm Trevor Sycamore.

That is Connor Rogers. Thank you guys so much for watching and listening to the NFL Stock Exchange Podcast. See you guys on Wednesday. Bye.