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Locked On Chargers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Chargers

Jim Harbaugh's Decision: Will Los Angeles Chargers Rest Starters?

Duration:
33m
Broadcast on:
31 Dec 2024
Audio Format:
other

Jim Harbaugh's latest comments have made it seem like he could be willing to rest his starters if they are locked into a playoff spot. As the NFL season heats up, the Chargers face crucial choices that could define their postseason journey. This episode unpacks the potential impact of resting starters in Week 18, with insights into how this could affect key players like Justin Herbert. Explore Joe Hortiz's impressive tenure as general manager, where his savvy roster moves have transformed the Chargers into contenders. The discussion also covers the offensive line's evolving dynamics, featuring Jamaree Salyer and Trey Pipkins, and J.K. Dobbins' explosive contributions to the running game. Don't miss this engaging analysis of the Chargers' playoff prospects and strategic maneuvers. Tune in for expert insights and in-depth discussions that could shape the Chargers' path to success.

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And if you have an existing number with another service, Open Phone will port them over at no extra charge. - Jim Harbaugh always wants to win, and it seemed like there was a good chance that even if the charges were locked into a spot that he might decide to play his starters in Week 18, but after his latest comments, it seems like there's a chance he could rest his stars. (upbeat music) - You are locked on Chargers, your daily podcast on the Los Angeles Chargers. Part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. What is up, man? Welcome into the locked on Chargers podcast. I'm your host, Daniel Wade. Join as always, by my co-host, David Drurgmaire. We've been covering the Chargers now for nine seasons together, but this is our seventh year as the hosts of the locked on Chargers podcast, bringing you your team every day. Thank you to the every dayers out there for making us your first listen and to make sure that you never miss a show. Go subscribe or follow for free on the locked on Chargers YouTube channel and listen wherever you get your podcast from. David, what do we got today? - Well, Daniel, the way the NFL schedule shook out, the Chargers will know, before they suit up on Sunday, whether the game is going to matter as far as seating is concerned or not. Will that matter to Jim Harbaugh? That's something we got to talk about. And Joe Ortiz has done a truly phenomenal job at putting this roster together with very minimal resources. He deserves some recognition for executive of the year. And this offense is cooking. Can they keep it going? - Yeah, because, I mean, if they can, I think the thing we'd be most afraid of in a playoff game is that offense disappearing again. They can keep clicking. They could be a dangerous out once the playoffs roll around, but it's a foregone conclusion now that the Chargers will be in the dance. The part that we don't know is where they're going to be, where they're going to be headed once they get there. And also just wanna shout out to every dayers for giving us our biggest show on YouTube of all time. Yesterday, 15K is pretty humbling to see you guys show up like you did. I mean, especially when we had a bonus show that went crazy and then to do that yesterday. Shout out to you guys. The every dayers we have are the best in the world. But I was afraid that Jim Harbaugh was going to play his starters in week 18, no matter what. He says, "Hey, 11 sounds better than 10." And he's doing the rounds and doing podcasts and stuff, saying, "You know, Durham and James said it." He's our captain. He said, "11 sounds better than 10." That's what's going on. He's a stubborn old fashioned football coach who thinks things differently, right? But after his comments today, I'm starting to feel a little bit hopeful that things might not be set in stone in week 18. And it is Tuesday. So we are getting into our chargers, biggest overreactions and storylines that are going on right now. And this I think is the biggest one, which is just like buy or sell, Jim Harbaugh will play his starters even if the chargers are locked into the 60. David, are you buying or selling that after what we know now? - Yeah, after his most recent comments, honestly, I am pretty convinced that he is going to wait and see what happens on Saturday. And I think what happens on Saturday is going to dictate what his decision is going to be. He said, "Hey, I'm not going to go through "all of the hypothetical situations." But reading in between the lines there, it kind of seems like to me like, "Hey, also," he said, "we're going to do what's best "for the football team." So just putting all of those things together, I am going to sell the fact that they're going to play the starters regardless of whether they have something to fight for or not. I think Jim Harbaugh understands if there is nothing, absolutely nothing to gain whatsoever, then I believe some of the starters will play a little bit, but I doubt they'll play a full game. - This is the exchange with Daniel Popper that had me raising my eyebrows. Jim Harbaugh when asked about potentially resting his starters said, "The plan will be to win." Pretty vague, doesn't mean who's going to be out there trying to win. Of course they're all trying to win all the time. And so Daniel Popper says, "So even if Pittsburgh wins "and the Chargers can't gain anything as far as seating, "he would still play his starters." And then he said, "I didn't say that. "I'm not going through all the hypotheticals." So he definitely slammed on the brakes when Daniel Popper put out the hypothetical, "Okay, are you still going to play these guys? "Even if that game means nothing?" - Yeah. - And that's what raises my eyebrows, because he wouldn't do it. And I think there's still obviously some gray area, right? Could he go out there and play them for a couple of series? I think me and you are both on the same page and we say, "Listen, if there's nothing to play for, "just in Herbert should not be touching a blade "of grass that day, he shouldn't even be active "for that game." With the injuries that he's had already this season, if you give him a chance to rest up and you have nothing to gain, you absolutely take it 'cause you probably have a trip to Baltimore coming up and you need them as healthy as possible. Especially with this team, right? Because we're talking about this team in 2022, Brandon Staley had this exact decision to make in one of the most maligned moments of his truly kind of strenuous coaching tenure with the Chargers was when he decided to play his starters, "Hey, we'll play them a couple of series. "We'll go show how good we are and we're continuing everything." They went on to get the breaks beat off of them by the Broncos in a game that didn't matter to either of those teams. And then Mike Williams breaks his pack. Like that, it's as simple as that for me. And I think that the nice thing is is hearing him, it doesn't seem like he's just set in stone that they have to play, but I think there still is kind of some ambiguity around it where it's like, does not playing them mean, "Hey, they get a couple of series." For me, I'm not playing them at all. But at least to this one here, we have from Big Daddy Yu who says, "Bye or so, playing the starters against the Raiders "to try for a five seed is not as important "as getting players rest in guarding important players "from injury." This is a fair question, right? Because the Chargers are in the playoffs, we know that. There's nothing that can happen that's going to knock them out of the playoffs. Is it worth risking the injury David to just move up and see them? - Absolutely, it's worth it. Because, I mean, the whole goal here is to win a championship. And if you have the ability to kind of navigate your path and your path takes you on the quote unquote path of least resistance, that means that you get an opportunity to go against the Houston Texans, which I think we can all agree that they're one of the teams in the tournament that is definitely kind of sputtering towards the end of the season. And so that's an opportunity to go in there, win a playoff game. And then like Jim Harbaugh said, maybe potentially host a playoff game at home. So you just, if you have that opportunity, you absolutely have to go play the starters to go secure that because you're in the playoffs already. Yes, but the goal is to win a championship. And this is definitely the path that lets you get there to me the most effectively. - Yeah, I mean, I think I'm selling it because to me it's as simple as if you have, I'm selling it to play for you play for it, right? It's hard to tell these guys at any time, you know, to do not try to win or whatever. And whoever plays it, you know, they're going to be trying to win. And the Chargers have to go throughout this week and they have to prepare as if the starters are going to play, period. That's just what it's going to be like. But he's right. I mean, Jim Harbaugh saying, "Hey, we have a chance to get the five-seat "and it's unlikely." But there's a chance we could host in an AFC Championship game if one of these lower seeds goes on a run and we do too. You're going, if you're going to go to the Super Bowl, you're going to have to face some hard teams, right? But you can't win the Super Bowl unless you win the first game. The easiest way to win your first game to me is if you get the Texans. And that's why I would say, "Hey, play for it, try to get that five-seat." But let's get to this as well because another thing that came out during Jim Harbaugh's press conference was honestly the first thing we've heard at all about Alohi Gilman since he went on "Injured Reserve." And he hinted at the fact that this week, Alohi Gilman and his 21-day activation window might be open. And this is great news because we hadn't heard anything. We know it's Radio Silence once these guys go on IR, look at Asante Seimi Jr, we hear nothing about it. This is great news. Obviously, the secondary is depleted. And also it gives us a chance to clear up some things yesterday. We talked about the fact that the charge can only bring back eight players from IR during the regular season and it bumps up to 10. So two additional after week 18, once the playoff start. Seimi Fajoko had made it seem like the charge had already activated everyone. And we went with that yesterday to kind of play out the scenarios. Daniel Popper put out there today that it's only been seven guys that he knows. We thought the math didn't really add up. Either. He says it's Gus Edwards, JK Dom, his DJ shark, Junior Colson, Nick Neiman, Dean Leonard Haydenhurst. That's only seven. So technically by his math, they could still bring someone back and then still two more additional people from the playoffs. But the fact that the Chargers, especially with the Elijah Moulden News, David, that came out over the weekend, could potentially get a starting safety back going into the playoffs. Especially if they're planning on opening his window now, it at least makes you feel good. Hey, he could return potentially for the playoffs. That has to be great news and it's the first time we're hearing about it. It's spectacular news. I mean, this is a unit that has cycled through a lot of bodies where they've had to continuously go out there and try to grab people that fit the system, that can make plays, that can, you know, at least keep things afloat while they have been able to deal with these injuries and hats off to the gentleman in that room and to, you know, Coach O'Leary and the, you know, Coach Klink scaled. These guys have been fantastic. Being able to get these guys up to speed and out there and playing fast and not being a liability. Too many times in the past, we've seen players at various different positions get thrust into the lineup and you see a drastic and immediate drop off. We have not really seen that this year and I think that's a credit to the players in that room and the coaches that have been able to get these guys up to speed, but getting a guy that knows the system back, you know, this late in the season, I think it's got to be a gift from the football gods. - Yeah, you know that he's well versed in the playbook. You know he's been there all year. That is going to give you a leg up, even if it's been kind of an up and down season for him. Getting him back, getting key depth in the secondary back, it's huge, especially 'cause it's hard to get reinforcements, especially guys who have played as well as we just saw him playing last season. So if he can tap back into that, the Chargers will be okay on the back and even with some veterans back there that you're not as sure about. But I think it also is, you know, is a credit as far as where this team is right now and the fact that they could rest their stars in 18 because of the work that their general manager did. And the Chargers aren't here right now without Joe Ortiz nailing free agency for the most part and having one of the best Chargers drafts that we've seen. And I think he should be in consideration for executive of the year. So we're going to be talking about that and much more on today's lockdown Chargers podcast. First thing I talk to you guys about Rocket Money. Did Rocket Money help you find any subscriptions you forgot about or that you were paying for twice? That definitely happened to me. I had a few subscriptions that I didn't even realize I was still paying for, which is so annoying and Rocket Money made it so easy to track them all down. It's like having a personal assistant for your finances. 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Dude, we have more buyer sales to get into and one of the things we thought about yesterday when we were keeping the praise onto Jim Harbaugh and the way that he's been able to lead this team and turn them around and have them where they're at right now, is just the fact that one of the things that goes a little bit unnoticed and I know the bulk fam knows and it was great to see this man get a chance on the runway when the Chargers fans welcome back their team after clinching the playoffs in New England. That's Joe Ortiz. And I mean, we've talked about it many times this season but I just don't think it should be overlooked that this team and where it's at right now is hugely, hugely overachieving from where they started when Jim Harbaugh and Joe Ortiz took this team over. So the buyer sale today is simple, David. Joe Ortiz should be getting some executive of the year consideration. - There's absolutely no question about it. I mean, inheriting a roster that just went five and 12 that had to fire their head coach and obviously general manager, which allowed Joe Ortiz to get this opportunity and really took over a little bit of a dumpster fire. 60 million over the cap had to make some very serious and very difficult decisions on some very expensive, very important members of the football team, Khalil Mackjoy, Bosel, Mike Williams and Keenan Allen. And then what he was able to do in free agency signed several guys to these kind of one year prove it deals or some really low kind of money deals that have really paid some tremendous dividends like Christian Fulton, like Will Disli, like Puna Ford, Denzel Pearman, Deere Tarte, just to name a few. And then after that, you know, you get some really key impact guys in free agency and then you go and you nail the draft and you get four guys that came in right away and became immediate impact starters for you day one. Your right tackle, Joe, obviously your wide receiver and, you know, one of the best rookies in Chargers history, Lad McConkie and then your pair of corners later on in the draft, Cam Hart. And obviously Tarheb Steel. Both these guys have been tremendous value at the bottom of the draft and the top of the draft. Man, 10 wins, automatic and clinched a playoff spot in his first year as a general manager. This is something that took Tom Telesco about 10 years to achieve. So Joe Ortiz deserves all of the credit and all of the flowers for the job that he has done and his relentless attitude of continuously turning this roster to make sure that the Chargers had everything and anything they needed to go win a football game. Hats off to you, Joe. - Yeah, and I mean, just thinking about the players after the season started, who is at it, right? Elijah Molden, Taylor Heineke, after the season started, right? Then you get a Marcus May. You get an Eli Apple who comes in and plays ball free. You bring in an Eddie Jackson when you need it. You put in a claim for a Deontay Johnson. You take a chance on a Jalen Rager. You take a chance on a Levisca Chanel. He has done everything you've always wanted your Chargers GM to do, which is do whatever you possibly can. Now, are there flaws in the roster? Did all the free age acquisitions work out? Absolutely not. And yes, there are flaws. The same time though, when you look at this team and where it's at right now, they were old. They had terrible contracts. They're paying JC Jackson 20 million freaking dollars this year. He doesn't play for the Chargers anymore. Thank god. Yeah. You had $60 million just this season and dead salary cap hits. Not only did he put together a playoff, potentially 11 win roster. He did it without mortgaging the future. There's no Albatross contracts that he's given out. There's nothing that's going to hinder them. The only multi-year contracts that he's really given out. You feel decently about, like, we'll just love that. That's a deal. Three years before they got him. JK, you know, Gus Edwards, two years, bud to three, two years. Okay, you can squabble on, you know, reserve players here or there, but you have to love what he's been able to do. And I think that, you know, getting the best rookie in the draft, getting a top three wide receiver as the ninth receiver taken in the draft, he's been so good and he doesn't get the credit they deserve and Jim Harbaugh's turned it around a lot of places without Joe Ortiz. Don't get me wrong at all, right? At the same time though, he made this pick for a reason and Jim Harbaugh has always been really good at evaluating people that can evaluate talent, evaluating coaches that know how to coach. And this is just the latest in that long list of people that have found themselves near success next to Jim Harbaugh. But it does bring us to the next one here from Ark of Darkness who says, buy or sell. Now we have basically seen a full season. If Marvin Harrison Jr. was still on the board at five, the Chargers still take Joe all David by herself. Yeah, this is the easy buy for me. Obviously, you know, this was a much, much clearer and opposite decision before the draft. I was all Marvin Harrison, you completely, we, we all did. We all wanted Marvin Harrison for, for a good reason. I mean, his college table was some of the best that I've had ever seen and I'd watched six, seven years of draft film on guys. Sure. Like, you know, seem like he was automatic and then there are Malik neighbors in there too. Yeah. We were both being in the table for either of those guys. No question about it. But now obviously having the benefit of hindsight, you know, seeing what Joe all has, has meant to this Chargers offensive line, an offensive line that is clearly flawed on the inside, but had an obvious advantage on the outside with the tackle play and, you know, he was a big part of that 561 pass blocking snaps, only six sacks and 20 pressures allowed the entire season and 11 of Joe all's 15 games, he's allowed one pressure or less. He's been spectacular and also not to mention he's been an above average run blocker as well. So to be able to come in right away, switch positions to a position you had never played before at all at any kind of level of competition and be able to come in and be one of the top 10 right tackles in the National Football League immediately. I think that's just an absolutely completely amazing pick and you got to give your hats off to Joe Ortiz for bringing them in. But yeah, I'm taking Joe all it all day. I mean, it's pretty easy, you got a guy who's going to be a stalwart offensive lineman for you for at least 10 plus years. That's what the hope is for sure. First, they need to give us on later. We extended to right away, keep those immediately, especially while Joe all it's relatively cheap for his position. Yeah. I'm buying it 100%. And the reason I'm buying it is because reports have already come out after this. It was not down to Joe or Malik neighbors or Marvin Harrison Jr. I mean, Colin Coward was one of several people now that it says the Chargers decision was actually Joe or Brian Thomas Jr., which is not something anyone really had. But now seeing what Brian Thomas Jr. has done, the only person who's had a better rookie wide receiver season than lad McConkie, I think another feather in the gap for their evaluations and their talent scouting department, because they had taken BJJ five, like that nobody would have seen that coming. He went well later in the draft and he's been a total stud. Yeah. Who the decision was between Joe Walt or Brian Thomas Jr., yeah, which is crazy to think about now. That is wild. We do have a fear calling in. And if you're thinks the Chargers could be dangerous, especially if Greg Roman can keep up what he's done in the last couple of games. Daniel David. As your bio. So just to help those, it's a very dangerous cat. For example, if Blake Roman called the same way he has been calling the last two, I am buying it. I don't care about the ASE. I don't care how many kids back in there, how they can take this into the Super Bowl. What do you think? Thank you. Love you. Why are you trying to do it there just for clarification? And what the buying yourself here is this, if Greg Roman can keep up the way he's played called over the last two games, the Chargers are going to be dangerous in the playoffs. Yeah. I'm going to buy it. And one of the kind of the key factors or one of the key weapons that they have utilized to great effectiveness, not only the last few games, but throughout most of the season is play action and it has brought big play after big play after big play. And you know, even when the Chargers have not necessarily ran the ball as well as Greg Roman has wanted them to, the play action game has always been effective. And if they are able to continue utilizing that, then they're going to keep putting big plays out there for people to see. I think the thing with this is one of the things that scares you most and gives you the least confidence in this team. Once they get to the playoffs and start playing against good teams, the amount of stretches they've had against good teams where the offense has completely disappeared, right? Now we're talking about a two game stretch by Greg Roman's offense where they've scored 74 points over the last two games and scored six points in every quarter, a touchdown. I like seven of the eight quarters. That is all you can do. I mean, obviously the Patriots are whatever, but the Broncos were the number one defense in the league going into that, right? Yeah. The Chargers will be dangerous that their offense can start exploiting bad defenses and keep them in games when the defense isn't looking like the best defense in the league on the Chargers side of things. Think the defense and the lack of good defense played against good offenses is very high up there on the list of concerns when you're talking about playoff teams and the quarterbacks and offenses you're going to have to play. But if Greg Robbins, Greg Roman's offense keeps looking like he does right now. We haven't heard many complaints about him over the last couple of weeks, including us, right? So everything's going in the right direction. If they can keep that going, they're absolutely a dangerous out in the playoffs. But we still have more great buyers to get into, including if this offense will continue using someone who kind of shined in that last game, but it hasn't been starting. Jamari Sawyer is a time to make him the permanent starter at guard and is the Chargers running game now fixed because that's going to be a big part of this. This offense continues to have success because yeah, play action is great, but the running game has been good. The last couple of games, that's made a big difference. We're getting into all that and more on today's lockdown charges podcast. Thank you guys. As always, again, for making us your first lesson, we appreciate the every day is out there. And of course, thank you. And we have so much appreciation for you guys giving us our best show that we've ever had on YouTube yesterday with 15,000 views yesterday just on YouTube, and not even including the podcast. Every day is out there, and thank you for making us your first lesson. If you need a second lesson, make sure to check out the newsletter locked on NFL where they have two shows a day covering everything going on around the league with Tyler, the madman, Roland, and my boy, Tony Wiggins, as they bring on the people who cover their teams every single day on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts from, David, let's continue this buyer sale was a couple of good ones we wanted to get to. And then we had so many good buyer sales for thinking even tomorrow's Chargers mail back. We're probably going to throw some of these buyer sales in there again. So tomorrow may be a make show of mail back questions by yourself questions because we had a lot of good ones. But this one comes from Chris Said's who says by yourself, Jamari Sawyer should be starting a guard over Trey Pippkins. This is not the first time this has gone brought up this season, but the discourse has been getting louder and louder with the injury to Trey Pippkins and how Jamari Sawyer performed last week. It's become very real. And I think a legitimate conversation to have, David, so are you buying this or selling it? Yeah. I mean, I've been a guy that's kind of been pounding the table for most of the year to try to get Jamari Sawyer more touches at the guard position because you know, and limited snaps. He has played pretty well. I mean, in parts of, you know, about 10, 12 games this year, he's only given up eight pressures and one sack and he only allowed one pressure in the last game now. The Patriots don't have anybody on the interior at all to get to really scare you from that perspective. No. As far as the past Russia is concerned, they don't really have anybody on the outside either, which is why the Chargers gave Justin Herbert literally all day to throw the football. But I like that performance. I think that's something that can be built off of. They've already used him in the short yardage situations. Now you saw what a full start looks like level of competition definitely is something that you have to think about and consider when, when trying to make a complete and total switch here. But you know, if Trey Pippkins is, you know, not feeling good, if he's not going to be back in the line up, then I wouldn't hate seeing another game from Jamari. I would go as far as I mean, I'll buy it. The thing is that people forget is Jamari Sawyer is one of the worst guards in the NFL last year period. Yeah, most pressures a lot in the NFL last year at the guard position early this year. He wasn't good either when he was playing in place of, you know, injured players, you know, when the tackles got hurt, he had to come and he wasn't great. But lately, he's been good and just over the last few games. I mean, if you look at what he's been able to do is last 74 pass blocking snaps, he's only allowed two pressures. That's really, really good. Jim Harbaugh when talking at his press conference was pretty non-committal about who was going to be the starter. He would not say it. He praised the entire offensive line, but he would not say that Jamari Sawyer was going to take Trey Pippkins's job, but he wouldn't also say that Trey Pippkins is our guy moving forward. He'll be, he'll be out there at the same time. They're switching out Jamari Sawyer with Sam Mustifer in this last game. So I think that kind of shows you where they feel mounted and the chances of it actually happening. It's hard to say. I'll tell you one thing. I don't like the substitutions. Obviously, they played great last week. The offensive line did as a whole. I'm not a fan of subbing in guards when both, you know, when everyone's healthy. It was off the chemistry to me communication is such a big part of it and has been such an issue for them. I'd like to find one dude to put out there, whoever that is, primarily, but I think overall, I think you just had to be impressed by how well the entire offensive line played when Jamari Sawyer was in the game, which leads to our next buyer. So, which is this by yourself, the offensive line is playing the best that they have all season. And last week, obviously switch a Mario Sawyer in the lineup, David, are you buying or selling that? Yeah, I'm buying that for sure. I mean, Justin Herbert was hardly, hardly touched in the last game and they were able to run the ball a lot more effectively against the Broncos, at least, you know, they were able to hit it and hit it and then finally kind of break the dam towards the end of the game, getting that big run from Gus Edwards. And then carrying it over in this game too, also running the ball extremely well, breaking off and ripping off some big chunk runs, some eight, nine, you know, even 12 yard runs from J.K. Dobbins, who's coming back looking really strong, looking fast, looking quick, looking powerful. But the offensive line was opening up holes for him to run through as well, which is not something that we saw a lot this season. And yes, you know, it was the Patriots, you know, in the last game, completely understand that. But even when you play that well right there, that's something that you can hold on to you. That's going to give you confidence no matter what, because you're going up there against a professional and you're dominating. So having that performance, having that inventory in your mind is only going to make you play better in your next game and keep that positive momentum flowing. Yeah, as the highest, I mean, I would buy it the highest profile focus grade as a unit that they've had 90.9 this year as a team in past blocking felt like the cleanest pockets adjust and Herbert's been throwing out of this year about it zero sacks allowed. Only five pressures allowed on 43 past blocking snaps by the offensive line as a extra pressures allowed by Matt Locke, J.K. Dobbins not a vaunted group of passwords like we talked about. I think the big thing for me is still not getting the consistent push in the run game. I would say one of the more impressive things about the Chargers running game was just the fact that there was no big giant chunk run to kind of inflate the numbers a little bit, because like even the Gus Edwards game you brought up wasn't a great rushing game, but you get a 43 yard run from Gus Edwards. All the numbers start looking a lot better. All the averages balloon up. No question. They didn't have a 25 plus yard run in this last game, but they still put up over 100 everyone averaged around four point yards, 4.0 yards per carry or better. I think a huge part of that is because J.K. Dobbins was back and the running game looked completely different with him in it, but the buyer. So is this J.K. Dobbins has fixed the Chargers running game. Yeah, I love J.K. Dobbins. I love what he brings to the table, but I'm going to sell it. Yeah, it's definitely not a J.K. Dobbins problem because like I just talked about in the last buyer cell, the Chargers offensive line hasn't really opened up a ton of holes throughout this season, especially on first and second down, there's just way too many, second and nines, second and tens, just one or no yard runs. And of course, this is a multiple type of situation where the running back has to try to make things happen, but it's hard to make things happen when you're getting hit in the backfield, which unfortunately happened way too often. Now J.K. Dobbins has the ability to make things happen a little bit more than anyone else on the roster at the running back position, and he does bring the explosives and, you know, we've documented that. But this was not just a J.K. Dobbins problem. I mean, the blocking was definitely was not there. So J.K. Dobbins helps makes this a lot more explosive, a lot more dangerous, but it is definitely not fixed. Yeah. And I mean, it's not like they ran for 200 yards in this last game either, right? I mean, it was a good, solid performance, especially since you didn't really get much from Justin Herbert in this game. You like what you saw from them. And I think Kamani by now has actually been quietly, pretty good recently, you know, first four games, average 2.4 yards per carry over the last five games, that's up to 4.4 yards per carry, which is getting in rhythm at all, especially when we talk about the kind of flaws of the blocking in front of him. It would be nice if we get a scene Gus Edwards build on that big run and not get hurt and hope that you're adding what we saw from J.K. Dobbins to a Gus Edwards, who's maybe finally finding his footing, hard to have a lot of faith in that, right? Like he was just starting to get going and then he gets hurt and hard to know what that's going to look like if he comes back. But I think the only way the Chargers get a consistent running game is they have J.K. Dobbins. I'm not saying that they will get it, but that's their best chance at it. And I just think that even in this last game, you saw it's not about the yards of the yards per carry that hand. It's just what it looked like, right? Several runs that should have been no gains that go for four yards. A third and two, that should have been a loss of two that he balances on the outside and finds a way to get a first down. The contact balance is crazy. I put that he looks like a bumper car when he's running because it's just like collisions and people are just bouncing off of each other, but he's still right there on his feet ready to go forward again. Yeah. 264 rushing yards over the last two games. That's a great start in the right direction, but they also have five games this year where they had 61 or less rushing yards, four game stretch where they didn't hit 100 rushing yards. Obviously three of those, they didn't have J.K. Dobbins there. Their best chance is with him, but I'm not fully ready to buy into the Chargers, having the running game. We hope they would have. It's been better under Greg Roman, but it's been a bad rushing offense by Greg Roman standards that he set for himself, which is basically I have a top 10 rushing attack everywhere I go getting closer to that the last couple of weeks. We'll see what it looks like this week and we'll see once the games are super important, if they can keep that balance, if they can keep teams off balance and if they can keep the play action is a big part of the game plan, because we know that's where they're at their best, but that's going to wrap things up for today's show. Shout out to me and David Flute game battling the symptoms battling, you know, being under the weather to get a shot to you guys. How could we not? You guys gave us our best show ever yesterday. We're going to try to be back here tomorrow with a Chargers mail bag. If you buy yourself, didn't get on today's show, we're probably going to throw some buy ourselves into tomorrow's show as well as we lead into the new year and have a fresh crossover Thursday on Thursday and have our keys for success show for a very weird game the Chargers are going to have on Sunday, but thank you to the every day is again for making us your first lesson. If you need, if you ever want to make sure you can't miss the show, go subscribe for free on the lockdown charges YouTube channel and listen wherever you get your podcast from as well as finding it every day on all of our social media, you can find it on our Twitter at lockdown lac on our Instagram at lockdown chargers and a lockdown chargers Facebook page as well. You know, let's find the show every day on our personal accounts for me at dantox boards and David Adro talk SD on Twitter and if you guys want to be like a fear and get your voice mail on the show, go on to three, two, three, five, two, four, seven, nine, two, four, leave a 30 second chargers by yourself or a question that you have for us for the mail bag. We will try to get it on. But make sure you guys are back here tomorrow for this Chargers mail bag, but until then, guys, take it easy and go bowls a prime members. You can listen to this lockdown podcast ad free on Amazon music download the Amazon music app today. Thank you for making locked on your first listen every day for your second lesson. 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