2026 LA Chargers Preview: Roster, Odds & Win Total

Welcome to the acclaimed podcast, The Deep Dive, featuring your esteemed hosts, Andy Monitor and Drew Dynzik, powered by BetSpurts. Welcome to The Deep Dive. Talking Chargers next up in AFC West. I haven't actually, I forgot to check the odds to see if they were still third. I'm sorry, see if they're still the third up, i.e. the second choice. Oh, that's a good call. Broncos might have flipped them and I wouldn't be surprised, because of the Tyler Biotish injury, which we're going to get into, among other cursed Chargers news. But this is a fun team to handicap, because I don't think there was any other team that made, that had a head coach. Challenge me if you disagree. I don't think there was another team that had a head coach stay intact, that got an upgrade at offensive coordinator, more sincerely than the Chargers. No, no, I don't, I don't think that's. There's not even a close second, right? No, there's like, I'm trying to think of somebody like. You know, you can, you can, look at this, it's funny. Certainly doesn't feel like Sean Mannion is going to claim that, that crown from, from. Currently. Go ahead. Go ahead. The Chiefs. This is Chris Pricing. Chiefs, plus 174. Broncos, plus 180. Broncos have almost flipped to first. They're very close to flipping to first, probably because of our podcast, obviously. And then Chargers are now third. Okay. Plus 205. A little bit of a drop. Raiders remain fourth, a close fourth at 17 to one. That's going to be a fun calci graph over the balance of the preseason. Oh, it's going to be like. The three-layer horse race. Yeah, yeah. It's going to be the horse race. Braided girl's hair. Three-way horse race all season. Awesome. Anyway, AFC West is going to be awesome this year. I'm excited for a lot of these games. And honestly, betting the AFC West is going to come down to sequencing, schedule sequencing, market entry, as we will get into. We got into it with the Broncos, who start five of their first six as dogs. We're going to get into it today with the Chargers, who are double-digit favorites for the first two games. And we're going to get into it with the Chiefs in podcast number four in this division. But ultimately, I think the Chargers were perceived as one of the. One of the biggest winners of the offseason because they retained a coach that everybody believes in, in Jim Harbaugh. And they added an offensive coordinator in Mike McDaniel, who comes from the, of course, the Shanahan tree, and was able to make Tua look pretty spectacular for a couple of years there now. At least for a little bit. You know, Tua was. That was a tough hang because of the injuries in the last year. The last year and a half of the injuries to the wide receiver and the kind of the starting to break down. And that is my only knock. My only knock on this guy doesn't have a plan B. He has an incredible fastball, doesn't have a change-up. Like, you kind of know what you're going to get. And when it's working and everyone's healthy, it's like you can't stop it anyway. Hey, he's going to throw a bunch. He's going to throw all the running backs at you. He's going to move them around. He's going to have a. He's going to have a ton of, you know, a ton of motion, a ton of guys just relying on Yak. And when it works, it's. I mean, when it works, he dropped 70 on the Broncos. When it works, it works great whenever it's healthy. Just didn't love what we saw when it's like, oh, hey, Tua's not good. And now a couple of your wide receivers are hurt. You can't seem to work your way out of this. I like. It's one of those two where it's like a double upgrade. I like him better as an OC than a head coach. Yeah. Obviously, we like him as the OC over, you know, what we had there last year. The negative for the coaching staff is we did lose Minter. I think a lot of people had a lot of respect for what he did. I will say, and I just. This will be the conversation we have about this guy because we're going to. We'll get into McDaniel plenty, but are you familiar with this O'Leary character? Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes. A lot of thoughts. He was just. Yeah, he was just on this team two years ago. He was under Minter. He left to be the DC for a Mac team. I got to go look it up now. Western Michigan. Yeah, this has all of the. Literally. This is all of the fingerprints of this. It feels continuity, right? This was Harbaugh's long-term plan, which was he knew he was going to lose Minter and actually wanted O'Leary to get his feet wet in a different environment. And I thought O'Leary. He acquitted himself, like, impossibly well last year. Yeah, I did. Like, in terms of taking over a dogshit defense and making them pretty good, it seemed like, just looking at. Really good. So that was. Whenever I run into. He might have a very, very strong pulse. We'll find out. I mean, you never know with a guy who's never really done it. Actually, you know what? Real quick, Andy. When we get to a guy that I don't know shit about, really, because it's like, hey, this guy was in college, and I look it up. Like, no, he was on Harbaugh's staff. I'm like, which one of these is right? Oh, it's both. He left for a year. And then you dig into what he did at Western Michigan. Literally, coordinated that defense using 2024, 2025, maybe even Chargers tape. He installed Minter's defense up there, apparently. So it's not as if he went to college and started doing some other, you know, hey, we're running a different defense. Now he's going to come back and figure it out at the NFL level. Granted, it is a different game. Things are different. Faster things are more complicated. Offenses are tougher in the AFC West than they are in the MAAC, I would suppose. But it was a good team. It was ninth in the FBS in scoring defense. They won the MAAC championship game. It was a good team, and he's back. It's going to be, you know, just Minter light at worst, I think, and basically said, we're going to run the same kind of defense. We have a lot of the same guys back. So it's not going to be, you know, somebody having to come back and say, we're going to come in and rebuild or learn a system. It should be fairly heavy continuity, you would hope. So I'm not as worried as I was when I'm like, I don't know who the hell this guy is. Yeah. Here's the thing, Andy. You know where the signal is? It's not even what he did at Western Michigan. It's that Harbaugh brought him back? It's that Harbaugh hired him, period. Yeah. Have you seen Harbaugh's list of defense? Defensive coordinator hires? It's not bad, I suppose. Yeah. When he, his three years up at four years in San Francisco, his Michigan hire was McDonald. Yes. Mike McDonald and then Jesse Minter. Like I'm the five, five. There's no, there's no turds here. Like this is, this is an absolutely ridiculous run of defensive minds. We'll give them. Yeah. We'll give them Mike McDonald being good, Minter being good. So yeah. Um, it's crazy cause we're going to shit on Harbaugh about, oh, sure. His, his, some of his decision. And by the way, like his, his hiring of offensive coordinators, not as glorious, really, really loved Roman. He might've had one just kind of fall into his lap where it's like, even he can't screw this up. This guy can just call an offense and he doesn't, he doesn't, I don't think he wants to be a head coach. Cause I don't think, I don't think obviously maybe it's different because of the situation. I don't know that he enjoyed being head coach. He certainly did. He didn't in the preseason last year. So might've just been a really fortuitous, Hey, there's a guy available. We're a desirable stop. We have a young quarterback. We have some pieces that he wants to see and we need an offensive coordinator right now. So might've just kind of worked out for him to make the right hire there. And yeah, it's funny too. Cause Harbaugh is the ultimate case for this guy should be running your offense or excuse me, should be running your team. He should be in charge. He should be the voice that leads this team. Somebody else should be making the end game decisions for him. Just unstoppable at that point. If you could, you can find a, it's just like, Nope, John or Jim. Nope. We go to the first, we're going to the nerd for that one. Fourth down decision-making first chink in the arm of Jim. 32 out of 32, buddy. All right. So the turnover of coaching, I, I'm, I'm, I'm going, I'm already at war as a mentor guy this year. I have coach of the year bets in pocket. Um, I'm expecting Chris O'Leary to step in and do as well with this defense. I'm expecting Mike McDaniel to be an upgrade. Um, a little bit of commentary on McDaniel. Um, I thought his tenure in Miami was, was pretty like, it was somewhat predictable for a first time head coach who had a little bit of, uh, you know, kind of offensive genius. Kingsbury. Kingsbury. Sure. Yeah. But just like offensive genius handed the clipboard and, uh, given God, like weapons, like it was, it was awesome and you got a completely impossibly good efficiency out of tua for the first couple years um my gut my gut and i don't have any confirmation in this this is my gut is that it all came apart for mcdaniel mcdaniel in miami because of tua and specifically your offense specifically because of the concussions right like if there's one playing quarterback is a cerebral exercise it's true and if you get concussed to the point if you get concussed to the point where your cognition is impaired you're not able to be as effective of a quarterback and i think when mcdaniel got there he had godlike weapons he had average you know capable quarterback play and he had brilliant scheme and what i always kind of distinguished his scheme and what was so good for mcdaniel was you know his ability to kind of kind of craft uh efficient running out of thin air a lot of times just by using space whoever yeah with whoever just yeah just by using next man up next man up like like next minute next best running back in the nfl by on the tape on tape and it was all just because of his way of his of using motion he used motion to the point where it was like uh the league had to step in and change the rules like it was a little too much motion uh but yeah i mean it was he was using motion he was using uh kind of manipulation of space to generate plus you know hugely efficient rushing attack um i think he still did it last year even with the change of rules um and i think that you know if you have that in your bag of tricks that's like what makes ben johnson special that's a huge part of what makes shanahan and mcveigh special is like if you can if you have this like relative relatively high floor because your rushing attack is making the rest of the offense relatively easy then it doesn't matter what the defensive system is going to be number one they have to play more base number two if they are playing more uh you know if they are playing more uh light box stuff and more coverage because they're worried about the trying to limit your explosives then it's easier to matriculate the ball down the field if you're running it at eight yards a clip so it's it's kind of it's kind of the shortcut to top five offense having that level of amazing rushing and i i think when then hire was announced that mcdaniel was coming uh it was literally like oh shit like if he gets a rushing attack for the chargers up to like top 10 top five level just based on what he is asking them to do in terms of manipulating space and putting guys in position to you know utilize uh utilize their their physical gifts then now all of a sudden you're making things easy for justin herbert who can attack every every part of the field and that was so like the like on paper that was like this is the easiest bet on that we've seen in a while um since that has been announced um done a lot of soul searching about are we expecting too much does herbert have limitations are we gonna see uh the same uh you know type of explosiveness without an elite set of skills last year was being on his back you know it was uh yeah if you count the playoff if you count the playoff game which is a big if because that's a big number it was 60 sacks he scored three points in that game like that that losing uh gosh what was it there was like 6 500 snaps across the five offensive line spots last year and like 300 of them were guys who were on the team this year and two of them two of those two of those are really highly touted highly picked offensive linemen that you need to play like that's where it could peel apart a little bit again if it's a hey you can't get your guard out there you can't protect your quarterback it's going to be a little harder and that's where i think it yeah you might come back to earth a little but man that yeah it is exciting to see what he can do with quentin johnston who was hey he's got limitations i know but it's it's not the same fit as like the the two of waddle stuff but it's just like hey you know what you know where miami struggled a bunch with when he was coaching and running that offense in the red zone yeah and some of that some of that again was to it but i think some of that is his scheme relies on space and they never were great in the red zone give me a big guy who he's massive when it comes to contested catches yeah give me a few good tight ends you know a couple guys on roster that i think can make catches in the red zone that's where that's another spot where i need mcdaniel to improve and add to his game and then we can continue to just say all right he's he's in the shanahan mcveigh sphere because i caught some shit from a few people for saying he's overrated which is a relative term i guess i don't think he's bad i never said like hey this guy's shit and it's just not gonna work out it's just we are blowing him right like as a collective that's because there's such a there's such a shortage i know and that's what i'm saying just like relative to the hype i'm like let's let's pump the brakes because there were there were issues in miami and he needs to like he needs to work past that the game the the plan b the red zone stuff if that stuff improves this is gonna be a i get i i understand where you're coming from yeah i want i want to go on record you know i don't hate mcdaniel you can only there's only so many off seasons can you slurp the same five guys and in mcdaniel in a new spot with a better quarterback was was the darling of the cycle of you know what could what could be what might we see um and then you know i might i have enthusiasm but it's tempered um i clearly recognize that the weapons that he has to work with in la are weaker than what he had when the defense in miami was truly singing um tyree kill was one-on-one when he was at his peak and the there could be some there could be some moments where quinton johnson is just running uncovered like 50 yards down the field and justin herbert puts it on his hands and he doesn't call that holiday right like don't put that he kind of this there's there's there's there's potential for things not quite being up to snuff in terms of the weapons he's working with and there's yeah there's there's uh there's always there's also the fact that the team is cursed and everybody that is counted on to be healthy and available particularly in the trenches uh can't can't be out there um it's funny too we talk about the this is what we're slurping because it's the excited off and exciting offensive coordinator hire of the offseason i mean i i made a case for i love the davis webb thing but again davis webb is a super unknown uh i'm i'm above the market because i'm i'm buying on it but he has very little coaching experience and we just don't know we even we both even posited that it might be uh hey i'm taking play calling back mid-season because this isn't working out and you you know you graduated college in 2018 buddy you just shit ain't happening right now you're too young but like think about the other hires who else are we possibly excited about well maybe michael floor like tommy reese declan doyle petzing flurry table yeah no david blah like they're just the enemy yeah yeah who's i guess the enemy a little bit but uh that's kind of a retread who else are you even excited about maybe michael floor a little bit yeah um i guess here's here's here's a critical question for you okay would you have uh would you have been willing to um go out on a limb with your perceived pessimism or cooling cooling take on mike mcdaniel if he was taking over as the seattle osc i'd still would i'm very no you wouldn't i would be like you would be so excited come on no i mean i mean to be fair i'm still excited this is a clear this is an upgrade on like like 28 teams oh of course yeah i think uh maybe mcfay shanny and the other floor ben and o'donnell o'connell o'donnell yeah maybe and o'connell i don't think is a slam dunk ahead of him yeah that's that's fair no that's close like there's like four or five guys where he's not an upgrade i don't mind putting payton in this in ahead of him just because of the the length of his career he's not an upgrade he's not an upgrade time he's done it i don't mind putting reed ahead of him just in terms of offensive mind you know sure sure like uh yeah yeah so yeah but yeah i mean liam cohen maybe uh i would listen to the argument um but that yeah we're we're running out we're running out of names here uh so yeah yeah well believe me if the ravens do what they can do and declan doyle kicks ass this year you're gonna hear a lot of declan doyle praise i'm ready i'm ready i'm ready to start carrying the flag anyway declan doyle's gonna be coaching the eagles in two years by the way the point is it was an exciting marriage and it really really did kind of steal the show of their entire offseason. The big changes for the Chargers from a personnel standpoint are really just getting Alt and Slater back. Alt, it sounds like, will be back shortly. Slater is feeling significantly less certain. Lingering flare-up of a surgically repaired knee. Yeah, the powers that be who make decisions. Jim Horitz? Oh, sorry, Joe Horitz. Joe Horitz, I don't know if. Hortiz? Hortiz. Yeah, for some reason, Joe Hortiz is way off my radar as far as who he is as a decision maker. I just kind of assume this is a Jim Harbaugh kind of. is ultimately the buck stops with him. He has a big say in things, yes. Yeah, so the emphasis in what they did in the offseason was pretty obvious to me. We need to transition this offensive line into more effective players through free agency in the draft. And I don't know. I just don't know that I love the additions at guards. It doesn't sound like they for sure have their answers at guards in terms of who's going to. They absolutely do not. The interior could be an abject disaster right now. So you need Alt and Slater to be. 100% back and playing all 17 games. Otherwise, you have a definite issue up front because of the. And we'll get to the Beatish injury. It sounds like that's for the year. Multiple ligaments is the early prognosis. Looks like he is going to miss and you're probably starting a rookie at center at this point. So let's go through some of the rest of the offseason. I mean, not much else to say about last year. 11-6, second in the West, made it to the playoffs. Embarrassed themselves, scored three points. What's that? Yeah, New England. Greg Roman fired. McDaniel brought in. Herbert, as I mentioned, shitload of sacks. Joe Alt played six games. Rashawn Slater played significantly fewer than that. That's a problem. You got some stars, though. You got some stars. Like, good things happen. Derwin James is still a star. Tooley is definitely a star. Khalil Mack was pretty good for being 35, I think. 34, at least. He's pretty old. Quentin Johnson wasn't terrible. You had some nice things go on. But, yeah, the offensive line was an issue. Some of the interior secondary was a problem. And some of the linebacker play was a problem. So we did add some pieces. Not a banner free agency class, though. Besides, I think the Biotish thing was a good move. And now it stinks because he's gone. You brought in Cole Strange from Miami. Miami, former Patriot as well. He hasn't been good anywhere. He stopped. So I don't love that. David Njoku for a one-year deal. He's just kind of in your stable. You have three tight ends. They can all play. Delvin Tomlinson was one of those where he was released from Arizona, I think. And then you said, hey, we can use another nose tackle, another interior guy. I'll fight for him. He's big. He has a good run defense, Mark. Like, you know. You might not get much pass pro or much pass rush out of him. But if you need to stop the run and you need an NT to plug in and a 3-4, you could do a whole lot worse. He's close to among the best in the NFL. I would say he's in the top 10, right, for NTs? I'd say like 10th, 12th, somewhere in there. I have him actually like in the eighth. It depends how you rate it. If you go strictly nose tackle. If you go all interior. Fair, fair, fair, fair. It's hard. You maybe shouldn't grade him against guys who are more of the, you know, the Aaron Donald style. I'm an interior. No, I know. Leonard Williams, Quinton Williams, John Franklin Myers, all better than him. Jeffrey Simmons is kind of that Aaron Donald-y type of player. So he's tougher. Roy Robertson Harrison, better than him. Jalen Carter and Chris Jones are more of the Aaron Donald style. It's hard. It's not an apple. Andre Sweat. I would have Sweat after him. I would take Tomlinson over Sweat personally. Anyway, carry on. Charlie Kolar. Another tight end. Again, you just have a big old stable of tight ends at this point. You mentioned Minter gone to Baltimore as the head coach. Chris O'Leary, the previously discussed Western Michigan Bronco brought in. You lost few in what? Perryman, Jefferson. Oh, Perryman and Jefferson resigned. Yeah, you resigned a few of the defensive pieces. The Khalil Mack thing, he likes the direction things should go. And he says, I'll come back and play. The defense is effectively a run it back with Dalvin Thomason at it, right? Yeah. These are the guys that started the majority of snaps for them last year. And then draft class. You took the Miami, other Miami edge piece, Akeem Mesidor in the 22nd pick straight up going into the rush rotation. Like he is, he is going to be part of your pass rush rotation. Buzzy. Yeah. A little buzzy. He's a fun one. If that's a good defense, maybe a fun DROI bet. I know he's probably about 10 to one because he's a highly rated edge. So you're not going to. Plus he's also a million years old. So he's got an NFL body. Yeah. He's got grandkids. And you drafted some depth in the interior offensive line. That'll sit behind Biotis at center. Cross all that out. And Jake Slaughter from Florida starting at center. Most likely. Slaughter time, baby. You do not have a starting center. Brennan Thompson, Mississippi State, a kind of a speed outside depth, wide receiver, tackle depth behind all to Travis Burke from Memphis in the fourth round. And then some more defense and. Offensive line, depth, safety from Arizona and Genesis Smith. You can use help in some of those spots because Derwin James doesn't actually play safety some of the times he's kind of all over the place. He's more of a nickel guy at some points is how this how this amorphous defense tends to work. Nick Barrett, defensive tackle, South Carolina. He's going to rotate through probably if he makes the squad in the interior. And then Logan Taylor, B.C. And Alex Harky from Oregon, both interior offensive line depth, which, again, got a little thinner. So good thing you got that. Harbaugh runs back year three. Mike McDaniel joins defensive line. Mike Elston, I think. Came with O'Leary. Double check that. I don't know if he was here still. I think he's a he's a Leary guy because they did want to do the one thing they said in the quotes I found. From the. Defensive stuff. The one thing they want to do different than mentor was be wider and more aggressive on the fronts with the edge rushers. And you wouldn't get yourself a first round edge rusher. You have some good edge rushers. So I'd rather go to more of a wide nine and have these guys lined up way outside like Bosa used to do a little bit of fun in San Fran. Could be fun defense. Yeah, for sure. Ortiz retained. Ortiz. Ortiz. It felt like the decision making on how to address the skill position room was informed by with a vision that Mike McDaniel has, which is they went. Like you said, they got they have a loaded room of tight end and running backs and a bunch of flawed wide receivers. And I don't mean to like disparage a guy like Ladd McConkie, who's a fun young player, but like he's pretty clearly limited if he's getting CB one attention. From the other side, the limitations on all the other guys are pretty well known. Trey Harris is too slow. Quinn Johnson has center block hands and their depth is questionable. So, you know, I kind of it's it's funny. It's funny and fun that we get to answer the question of what would Justin Herbert look like in a good offense this year? And a good offense with a good offensive play caller. It's I still wonder what would Justin Herbert look like with an elite wide receivers? He's throwing to because. Like it's kind of it kind of feels talent. Doesn't it feel it does feel like that. And it kind of feels like we're wasting a little bit of his talent because like I don't want to see him targeting running backs and tight ends. Do you even if it's an efficient, even if we get a trickle at the ball type of stuff and this offense is doing well in scoring, I'm going to be like, you know, even if it's not all Hampton, but if we can get an a chance season out of Hampton where it's just like, oh, we're just getting him the ball in space and letting him do things. And this is a fun offense. I guess I don't care how they get there. If I'm betting on them, if they get there. Yeah. I mean, it's a lot more fun with wide receiver one. We should put that on a shirt. Yeah, we should. And honestly, like there are teams like the Patriots who have too many wide receivers. If I was if I was Hortiz, if I was Joe Hortiz, I would be I'd be making some calls to Foxborough to see if we couldn't pry a Keyshawn booty. If you were Joe Hortiz. This would be a weird podcast because you're clearly biased. I don't think you'd be able to hide it. Your ratings would be much higher than mine. i think you're a little higher than me anyway but it would have been clever of me to pretend like i didn't know my own name though um all right i'm not a thousand percent sure i'm getting it right that's how i see it okay before we get into ratings we do like to thank circus sports and the circus sports yeah it could yes it could very well be ortiz with the h is silent oh yes soft h anyway we're gonna get to it ortiz or why not just spell it that way why not ortiz is a very common last name very common anyway circus sports a very common name in las vegas henderson and sparks nevada as well as a few other states but you do need to go to nevada and sign up for this contest if you have any questions on how to do that how to acquire a proxy or just you know how to put together a team if you are trying to do something like that hit us up we can help you out but we'll be out there next thursday signing up for several entries into the survivor and the millions i'm not doing a grandissimo this year got burnt last year i'm kidding i didn't i do know some guys that uh made out pretty well in that stupid packers stupid packers honestly we didn't do great in survivor because the stupid packers rethinking our strategy probably gonna we're not gonna win this year but we're gonna get deep and it's gonna be fun yeah i'm gonna have a sweat at least i want to have a sweat at least i enjoyed the sweat last year with the millions hopefully we can do that again and we're always always excited to talk about the contest as the season go on so get out there join up if you have any questions hit us up uh there's a link in the description to this podcast and this youtube video if you need to look at the rules or how to do it or anything that everything's on their website if you if you do need more details so check that out and we'll move on to rating great experience superchargers great song san diego superchargers um do you think they have to move back to san diego to break the curse they absolutely do okay not only that but they have to resurrect the san diego chicken okay uh that was the padres that was the padres i know but he was part of the the san diego chargers mascot was the bolt man that guy was intense intense he was no nightmare pelican but that was one of the more aggressive uh uh that was one of the more aggressive mascots it's up there with that cake baby cake baby cake baby and nightmare pelican were pretty pretty gritty's fun all right justin herbert is a very talented quarterback uh he is often injured which makes it tough to kind of parse his data i just kind of want to remind everybody that last year towards the end of the season and into his playoff appearance against the patriots which sucked uh he had broken a finger on his non-throwing hand um he was wearing a club on his non-throwing hand he was wearing a club i had to google the pictures because i was like wait a minute was he really playing with the club he was um and i think that affected his performance a bit in 2024 he was dealing with high ankle sprain and plantar fasciitis uh that started in week three uh and really got re-aggravated a bunch during the season that affected him in 2023 andy i don't know if you remember this he fractured bones on both of his hands uh and uh did didn't do great things for his performance uh 2022 rib cartilage fracture and a shoulder labrum tear uh he is an iron man he plays through these injuries it affects his performance it's part of the data sample just you just know it acknowledge it um and the fact that he is so frequently pounded into the ground because he's behind a uh an offensive line that shouldn't have quit their day jobs as plumbers and electricians uh is is a huge part of the equation uh and it looks like it's going to be part of the equation this year so i don't think you can realistically take the highlights that you see from his overall performance and use that to anchor an expected price going in but um but i'm definitely you know still a believer uh that he can do it all and deserves you know at least top 10 consideration here especially paired with mike mcdaniel so i'm coming in with a number that's even higher than the rams number here for qboc at 7.5 let's see you flat seven um little uh my hesitancy was the sacks and it's okay it's a hard puzzle because on one hand good quarterbacks can play behind a bad line okay and not get sacked 60 times they can find their way out but part of that equation is they have an offensive coordinator that knows what they're doing that can kind of help them out with that like hey he doesn't have any tackles we should run a slightly different kind of offense he had one of the slowest um you know times to from snap to throw especially with that you know that bad offense like that's i think part of the equation was roman so i don't know if i want to ding him too much but at the same time it's still a little bit and he's not i don't know that he's ever ever going to be 100 healthy he's not going to break that many bones this just hurts forever so i'm i'm fine with him being very very good not quite elite we'll see and then i mean most of my upgrade is mcdaniel yeah he looks healthy now uh and i think that is important um i have him rated just for context i have him rated below pat mahomes which we'll get to next i have him rated below uh drake may i'm just naming afc uh i have him below i have him below joey b i have him below lamar and josh but they're clustered pretty close yeah there's not that much separation these are all awesome awesome quarterbacks awesome quarterbacks i'm gonna put i'm gonna put aaron in there too because he's he's reunited with his family and i think aaron who migrated aaron aaron uh right aaron rogers aaron rogers oh i'm kidding i am i'm excited that he talks to his family now yeah that's a good that's a good outcome happy for everyone involved um yeah so uh that's the biggest number for me of any of the numbers for the la chargers and it's the most important number and coming up with a fair so uh chargers number for me is going to be good um but is it going to be better than the broncos or the chiefs is really the question uh skill position has a huge part to play in this um as i mentioned i'm really really cool on this wide receiver room i like the tight end room i like the running back room i'm prepared to love the running back room i'm prepared to love the tight end room it's going to take a very very consistent positive uh signal into the first through the first half of the season for me with this wide receiver room to put the skill position group overall above a five so i'm starting out with a 4.2 for skill what about it's the same we uh every once in a while we have the exact same number and it's funny because i actually had nicer things to say about quentin johnson i think he is a nice piece he had his route running is excellent yeah it's uh it says he's able to make contestant catches he's he's sometimes not able to make uncontested catches though which is a problem um lad mcconkey's good not great um it's nice to have a slot piece that can play like that he has been great we've seen good games from him and then i just it's it's kind of a question mark at the running back room because hampton's young and he grades fine but the the guys behind that it'll be interesting to see how he uses them because much to the chagrin of the fantasy football community it sounds like it's going to be a just mix it up hot hand i do what i want kind of thing by mcdaniel with the running back room so it's it's hard to actually map out a touch share for that and the same thing with the tight end room because like in joku is a one but i don't know that they're listing him that way uh you know gatson's cats and it's very good in his own sense so um kind of a kind of a weird it was a weird one to to rate for me and i think it does go up quickly if we see uh it's gonna be on mcdaniel again it's gonna be in like how how are how are we using mcconkey how are we using trey how are we using qj and how's the running back room shake out this could quickly go above the 50th percentile so okay um i'm it's gonna take me a little more i'm gonna need to see more especially because they play such easy teams early on if they're doing great i'm not gonna overreact all right uh the offensive line uh back when a lot of public uh you know ratings came out about this today yeah back when a lot of the public ratings came out uh the chargers were pretty consistently considered a top 10 offensive line i think because the people were so excited about seeing the tackles back and healthy since that point in time uh the news and the clouds around rashaun slater's comeback have been very concerning um and then it's worth reminding folks rashaun slater's injury was a patella tendon tear and rupture excuse me rupture and there are a handful of injuries where you just kind of You just put a little star and you're like, there's a world where this shouldn't say there's a world of this, but there's a non-zero chance that this truly does affect his performance, not just in year one coming out of it. But, you know, he's never really the same player. And the fact that he's having issues now is concerning. And I think that in general, the red flags, the, you know, the voice in the back of my head is not, is not, you know, kind of screaming, everything will be fine for Slater. He may be. Available for week one. I'm going to need to see him perform at the same level we saw before the injury to, uh, to say he is a slam dunk, uh, at, uh, your left tackle position. Uh, the Biotish injury loss is brutal. Um, the three players on the interior offensive line were already a bit of a question mark in terms of their contribution. It felt like Jake Slaughter was on track to take over the left guard position. Yeah. And now he's almost certainly. Backfilling your center position, which means we're back to question mark for the left guard. Um, no matter how you grade these three in the interior, I think they're all minuses. So you're going minuses and inexperience now across the interior. Um, which means if you're facing a team that can generate quick pressure, uh, Herbert is going to have to have, you know, maybe you have the right tools in terms of running backs and tight ends. So you're going to have to have a lot of quick, uh, you know, quick, uh, quick ball out of his hands, get rid of the ball offense, but, um, uh, they're going to need it. And that's, that's a concern. So yeah, three, 3.9. So what I said, 3.8, 3.8. That's what you said. I'm at a 3.5. So, I mean, you didn't, you didn't say anything. I wasn't going to say, uh, they have been collecting other teams, high draft picks that didn't work out. They have Trevor Penning. They have Trevor Penning on this roster too, who I thought maybe would play last year for them. I thought maybe he would compete for the left guard spot too, but, and then it seemed like maybe it'd be slaughter's job. Now slaughter's definitely going to have to step in at center. Um, but yeah, I don't, I don't have a strong take on coyote. I was Sika. Okay. Um, I know Cole strange is dog water and then we have the rookie. And then really, really, really good tackles. But at the same time, alt or excuse me, Slater has missed a bunch of practices now. I mean, we're in the third week of camp. Some of it is, Hey, it's a veteran rest day. And it's like, is it because then there's, you know, it's lingering flare up is what we're thinking here. And when you miss five straight practices, you're sitting out and you had that eight. Yeah. Eight. I had, uh, this is my old notes. It's up to eight. Yeah. This is, this is an issue because as you mentioned, it is a bad injury. I have, I had a partial tear of my patellar tendon where I just dislocated my kneecap and I didn't walk right. No, I couldn't, I was, you know, crutches for months fucking around with that. And then even six, six to eight months later, it just wasn't your knee doesn't feel solid. Like there's just a little bit of movement left in it. I don't know. Maybe it's better if you actually tear the whole damn thing and they replace it. But Jesus, yeah, it's a little worrisome. This is a further downgrade. If we lose, uh, if we lose Slater and have to go to, I don't even know who you have penciled in there. It might be Trey Pipkins, the third at that point. So, uh, we could probably, we could probably downgrade a little bit further. So Dude, Pipkins is missing practice too. So, uh, Isaiah, Mr. Isaiah worldwide. Um, I'm not putting Penning in a tackle. Travis Burke. Dude, Penning's past blocking grades last year were Actually, no, Isaiah, Isaiah world. He was, uh, he was, uh, not, uh, UDFA. That's He's out too. Yeah. He, he, he tore his ACL in the, in the college football playoffs. Um, He's, he's, he's, he's, he's probably not playing until. I mean, there's anyway, like we're, I, I hate to, I hate to speak this into existence, but October, the Chargers offensive line could be, we were forced to move Joe all to left tackle and we're starting for rookies. Right. Yeah. I don't know how this, how this could shake out. Has any team? Has anyone ever started four rookies? That's what Logan Taylor. Has anyone ever started four rookies on the O-line? Well, I don't, I don't know that you draft besides the Burke guy. I don't know that you have another tackle, like Harky. Well, no Burke slides up to right tackle. Alt moves over to left. Slaughter is your center. And then Logan Taylor and Alex Harky are your guards. Yeah, that wouldn't be fun for, we talked about all this fun, like, Hey, it's going to be a fun offense. That's no fun. We get a year where, we're like, Hey, we can't get sacked 60 times. Well, guess what? He didn't, he got sacked 73 times. Well, all told, That's what we're going to run into. All told my expectations are you're dealing with the 58th percentile offense, which is good enough for 15th in the NFL. As we flip over to the defense, Andy, I love the continuity here. The strength of the defense is their coverage from what I can tell. Yeah. um derwin james is an absolute monster and a perfect kind of player for just elevating everyone around him in the secondary tarheib still and elijah molden i had really good coverage grades on for last year tony jefferson was solid cam harhart is solid the fact that cam hart is your weak link maybe is like kind of crazy good their depth is kind of good um and in general like i'm again not going to doubt the ability of a jim harbaugh hire to have his guys in position to succeed in the secondary um decent chance that they like as you mentioned i had that note too they're going to potentially play more you know less um uh you know kind of extra uh defensive backs on the field less fewer light boxes i guess is a fair way to say that and um that should help the run stop that should help the pass rush so i'm going to have higher numbers than what we saw from this unit last year in those two i again i like dalvin thompson as a run defender in the middle next to taylor tart it's going to be very tough to run on the interior against this team i have a great coverage grade for linebacker diane henley khalil mac is still an absolute monster tuli tia polosu is a little overrated but maybe a little overrated as a pass rusher but uh again you have a keen mesador uh as an off-speed pitch there so uh i have this grading out as the seventh best defense from my personnel and very balanced 5.7 for me for run stop 5.8 for pass rush and 6.1 for coverage yeah basically 666 tuli polo too gets a lot of love because of the number of sacks and that that sometimes that's a it's tough to you know it's like when a cornerback is in the right place at the right time they still have to be a good cornerback to get interceptions but sometimes it's like hey this isn't the best cornerback in the league he just has eight interceptions kind of the same thing tuli polo too is very good but he put up some he put up some sick numbers and he's actually in a bit of a he's waiting i think he's was going to hold out he didn't hold out he he participated in practice so the holdout risk is gone i did want to mention that uh tarheem still is dealing with something minor where he's working on a lot of things he's working on a lot of things he's working on a lot of things he's working on a lot of things he's working through it kind of i didn't see that yeah it doesn't seem like it's major he is uh he missed some practice and then he returned in a limited fashion and he's just starting outside corner so keep an eye on that if that lingers into the season obviously the the major injury is still you know slater and biadish but i had quentin johnson got banged up in the joint practice seems like he's okay still seems like he's working his way back and then uh that was that was kind of it the lad mcconkey hamstring from earlier in the summer is fine um and joe alt seems fine after i was it was an ankle that was an ankle that's the opposite of the slater that's like you put a star next to the slater to monitor you put a check next to all that yeah all should be all should be just fine uh so real quick my defensive numbers for the la chargers are a tab i just closed so we're gonna get you covered how about that yes actually that would be nice so my run stop's a little lower than yours and i do like tr tart i'd like uh i like thompson added but i don't have very good grades on the at the linebacker level um henley didn't grade well tuli who's calling tuli is not great against the run he's kind of a one-trick pony pass rusher so it's a little below average i'm a 4.5 their pass rush i'm at a five that could go up depending on if max still has it if mesador steps in and actually contributes right away off the off the jump i think i should probably be a little higher you are i'm at a five and then coverage i'm at a seven i'm higher than you um yeah this is good i actually that's good that's actually a good confirmation for me i i wanted to go a little higher and i turned it down to 6.1 just because i was nervous that the scheme was going to affect it a little i mean like cam hart bit of a problem at times like he he's soft on the outside there but still is very good james is very good um molden's tough at times and free safety but for the most part it's a good scheme and it can be a very high-end coverage unit especially if we continue with a heavy zone it sounds like again continuity continuity continuity o'leary if it just if it just turns into mentor continued i think we're going to be fine we're close on special teams and we're pretty close in our overall ratings i have it as a 54th percentile team you as a 55th yeah plus 1.3 for you plus 2.4 for me um worth noting on coaching we are far apart um i find jim harbaugh's repellents to making the correct decision on fourth down unforgivable yeah everything else he does seems to be quite excellent but uh the and actually you know what you want a positive spin zone on this andy yeah his fourth down decision making in 2025 was worse than the nfl it was it was it was less worse than 2024 so he's trending in the correct direction right his 2024 he was last with like a bullet and left so much win probability on the table it was almost unforgivable um 2025 he was still last but it wasn't quite as bad so good hopefully he's trending in the right direction and you know what else if you have a phenomenally good you know efficient rushing attack um and actually i'm surprised this didn't come up in your uh in your mcdaniel takedown or takedown defense uh mcdaniel does suck in short yardage for some reason i have no idea why he needs space he needs space but i just but even like fourth and one fourth and you know fourth and one fourth and two third and two at the 50 like for some reason they struggle and i don't understand why anyway um yeah yeah so that's the one the one clear and obvious weakness i keep playing i do keep playing with how i rate coaching and i'm struggling with it and i shouldn't waste so much time on it because it's such a small percentage of it and even even the guys who are the worst in fourth down are costing their team like six points over the course of a season you know yeah it's it is but it depends where those six points happen if they you know if they all happen in games they lost by one and you know you're gonna you're gonna be well below your pythag and you might miss out on a better playoff spot at that point because of it it's fair point um the schedule for the chargers has some problems we got some problems uh the reverse opening yeah the opening two games my guess by the way is that the raiders probably lose to the dolphins in week one uh and uh that helps accelerate the fernando mendoza timeline uh and then that week two game is going to be chargers in the 10 to 10 and a half point favorite zone so i think you're opening week one week two at home as 10 point plus faves then boy oh boy are we going to test this team this stretch from week three to week eight is among the more heinous stretches uh of any team in any schedule if you want to add nine and ten attack that on to that like we are this they are going to war here they are it and you know what's funny about this is it's bouncing around uh buffalo week three elite quarterback good luck seattle week four elite defense good luck denver week five elite defense good luck kansas city week six elite quarterback good luck out of the bye los angeles rams elite quarterback and an elite defense good luck week nine elite defense in houston good luck week 10 potentially an elite defense and an elite quarterback good luck look at all the pink and so many of those all those teams are coming off all those teams are coming off by or or a big rest advantage they are crazy hate fuck the jets just like finally you get to play a bad team oh my goodness gracious assuming that there are still healthy bodies on the chargers come november 22nd i think that's probably the bet on point but even then like new england tampa is not a lovely back-to-back um jets vegas it's in there and then a really tough closing stretch yeah i can't see denver denver to close the season i gotta tell you man not great for it's just an indoor team if this if this was a fully healthy squad offensive line fully healthy if they had made an addition at wide receiver and we were sitting here saying man like all of the enthusiasm and excitement for the chargers is warranted even looking at this schedule i would be like we gotta pump the brakes buddy like this could definitely go sideways they're either going to be like perceived as well well below what we thought they were pre-season if they're losing games to buffalo seattle denver kc right like if they how many of those games like again realistically you probably lose two two or three of buffalo seattle denver kc which means you are three and three or two and four right or i guess you're four and two or three and three at the bye um you probably lose that game to the rams maybe by maybe like miles garrett up against this offensive line does not feel fair um the and what if the aaron donald's back the aaron donald and miles good luck good luck um the so like at that point there's a there's for sure a market correction where the chargers are like probably rated below their fair and so it's at that point it's going to be just picking your spots to try to bet on them when you can count on their um you know relatively uh um like well coached defense and you know high floor rushing attack to kind of get them some wins against maybe some of the closer calls on their schedule like houston new england tempa tampa right uh san fran so you know it there's there's definitely in my mind scope for catching the chargers as small dogs in some of those games if the market overreacts and they're not like one and a half point favorites against houston if they're like two point dogs there if they're like dogs against new england dogs against tampa potentially dogs against san francisco like that kind of interests me as far as when you would want to buy low on these guys but the way that the schedule is sequenced and disadvantages on here to me looks like they've kind of been punked punked that they're not going to make the playoffs this year two of their road games out of all of them are indoors the rest are outdoors as an indoor team one of their road games is just in their home stadium that yeah that's true that happens every once in a while we get the lowest it's the lowest home field advantage in all of in all sports chargers hosting the ramps yeah um three trips east miami tampa baltimore in the second half of the schedule uh you got to go to buffalo east or early followed by at seattle that's not a lovely back-to-back travel spot um nothing about this sequencing to me feels like it is leaving the door open for a surprise and i think it's going to be a big surprise for the guys we are winning the west we are getting a one seed if they're the seventh seed i'd have not a big probability but there is a distinct probability they're the seventh seed and the team that wins the division is the second so there's a distinct possibility they play at denver two straight weeks oh that's i i say it's kind of fun just because of the matchup but god i hate when that happens it's so dumb it just makes the it always happens it makes the week 18 game such a such a it just cucks that it's like man if they lose this game they got to come right back here again jim uh or if they or denver you know denver is locked in the two the chargers are playing their way to come back next week so they're gonna have to get leave all the good plays on the field today leave the equipment here yeah get rest and come back to that uh you're already yeah just stay to the altitude? - Oh, I would definitely just go to, I'd go to Air Force and hang out for a week. - Sure. All right, man. I think honestly the schedule has just come, I was thrown. - Scares me. Danny and all cold water on trying to get any kind of preseason features on these guys. If you are going to be a smart ass trader and you're going to grab some chargers West now and hope that they win their first two games in Denver, you know, Denver and Casey will, one of those teams will lose. If the other team that wins then loses week two, you could have, you know, a two and O lead on the division heading into week three and sell that position maybe for a couple, couple cents, but I'm not even remotely considering that. No, I don't want to extend this too far. Cause we've already got an hour, but if the chargers don't make the playoffs this year, like they're expected to take a step forward. Mike McDaniel joining the crew expected to take a step forward. They could put up great efficient statistics, be the top 10 DVO a type of team in both sides of the ball. We wouldn't be surprised by that and still be nine and eight and miss the playoffs and a very, very competitive AFC. Do you agree with that? Yeah. There's a lot of tough teams. Is there any, is there then, and in my mind there's not enough fan pressure that people are going to really turn on Harbaugh on McDaniel on Herbert. If that's the outcome of the season, does that sound right to you? There's no fans who's going to do that, right? Like there's the idea of we got to this, this just isn't working, right? Like they're not going to blow it up, right? This is setting up as a decent bet on team for 2027. Yeah. If you want to get ahead, if you want to get ahead of it like that I had to go look up Mezzador quick. Mezzador is 14 to one defensive rookie of the year. Just thinking of ways to bet on this team. I wish that were a little bigger. I kind of want to see what his, his role is, but I was like, I like a pass rusher, a pass rusher this year. Yeah. All right. We went over, kill it. That was a fun one. Kill it. Go talk to some chiefs. Yeah. Maybe next year's chargers, maybe next year's chargers fans fan chargers fan. That one Asian lady, that one Asian lady, she's a Vikings fan. Apparently.