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Heat. [Music] Hey, Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] This is your Chargers linebacker D Henley and you’re tuning in with Chargers unleashed. [Music] Welcome to a very special edition of Chargers Unleashed. Jay Kefner and Dan Walenstein here with you from the LA Football Network. This is your first time tuning in to the show, make sure to hit that like and subscribe button on YouTube. You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Spotify, and Apple podcast. Dan Walenstein, we have gotten the teases for the last week or so. But when we first heard some news last week about the Chargers and Keenan Allen having mutual interest in a possible reunion and then just as practice was getting set to kick off today, all of a sudden we see DJU switched his jersey number from 13 to 7, opening up the 13 for someone. And shortly afterwards, news breaks. Chargers have officially signed six-time Pro Bowler Keenan Allen to a one-year deal, just over $8 million. Dan Walenstein, the Slayer, is back home. And I got to tell you, Dan, when we were when we were on this show, March 14th of 2024, o, it was late breaking news when the Chargers had traded Keenan Allen to the Chicago Bears. That time, we said, “Okay, we have to go live. we have to do pay kind of an homage to Keenan at that point. And I came on there and I I basically gave a toast to Keenan Allen and all of his services at that point. So with Keenan Allen returning, you you know, we got to be toasting the return of the Slayer in this circumstance. Man, let’s go. Keenan Allen officially back with the Chargers. Everybody in the chat obviously wants to talk about it. The hype around Chargers fandom is at another level right now. Dan Wenstein, I know we’re kind of doing this shotgun, but we couldn’t wait on it. It was huge breaking news. Um, how are you feeling, sir? Man, uh, I don’t even care about like the long term or about all of the optics and logist who gives a [ __ ] The vibes are like hundred right now. Peak feeling great. Yes, draft Dan, Darth Dan, doesn’t matter. I’m happy tonight. Uh, all is well in the world. The Slayer himself is back with the Chargers. Chargers fans are going crazy in the chat already. Yes. What up, guys? Um, this is this is kind of nuts and and I love the fact that the Chargers kind of teased it. By the way, it was clever what they did. Do you see the thing? Like, it’s happening. And everyone was just assuming they’re going to see Akan Allen. Then, nope, it’s Justin Herbert. Hello everyone. Hello. And then they put the DJ up image of him wearing number seven and you know everybody was like it’s yeah it’s happening it’s happening and then we get the news one year 8.5 million which it’s a good chunk of change for Kenan at this age that’s more than I was expecting him to get the Slayer is back and we’ll talk about the impact on this team what that roster looks like the weapons for Justin Herbert what it means for Kenan Allen himself and maybe what is left for this offense and what they can do. But I think first and foremost, Jake, we have to turn this over to Chargers fans in the chat because that’s why we’re here. I know folks are ecstatic. Some people might be wondering, is this enough, right? Can they go more? Who who knows? But we’ll get to all of that here. Jake, let’s get some of these comments. Um, beef tallow boy. Get a fourth round pick. Trader for lad. Resign Keenan for cheap. Have a mentor with the young guys. Oh, by the way, you get Tarheep still. Let’s not forget the poetic justice of that trade for Keenan Allen just a year ago. That fourth round pick that you got, 110th overall, was utilized as part of the trade up with the New England Patriots that got you Lad McConi. And as Dad just said, it was also part of that that ended up notching Utah Heap still as well. Hell of a trade, Dan. Speaking of the man who made that trade, here’s some first comments here. This is from Daniel Pauper uh speaking with Joe Ortiz on playing Lad McConi and Keenan Allen together. Quote, “You get good players on the field and you play them. You can get creative with a lot of different players.” I think this has been the question for a long time as far as how are Keenan Allen and Lad Maki going to coexist? And honestly, if you look at Keenan Allen and his play in Chicago last year, he he played inside outside. We saw what he can do when he he basically had shared duty even predominantly in the slot for the Chargers while he was here for the duration that he was and Lad Maki I go back to those comments from Sanjay Law they don’t like referring to Lad Maki as a slot receiver so I think that they are going to be able to be very creative of uh with this I think majority of the packages that you’re going to have you’re probably going to see Keenan Allen outside and have lad command the slot but there’s going to be several times where you’re going to be able to interchange this. And to me, as Dan has this image on the screen now, I think this firmly solidifies, if there’s one thing that we could take away from the 53man roster, these six individuals that you see on your screen right now are going to make the 53man roster. I don’t think there’s any doubt about it that the Chargers keep six wide receivers. I don’t think they go beyond that based on uh other needs at different positions, but this should be the six that moves forward into the regular season. No doubt about it. Yeah, we’ll see what that synergy looks like between this squad, right? But what I what I can’t help but think through is last year versus this year and and the lack of weapons, which we’ll get to in a bit. But just focusing on the wide receivers in a span of one off season, you add Kenan Allen, you add Trey Harris, you add KLS, that’s three. You bring in Latam Congi in his second year. Darius Davis apparently is supposed to get more utilization this year. Not to mention the other pass catchers are running backs that they already added. Not to mention Mike Williams who they added then retired. Like they were hellbent. They were hellbent. And you know for the folks clamoring for speed and for the folks clamoring that Kenan’s too old and washed and whatever, right? Look at the screen. Look at the screen. You’ve got Lad, Quinton, Lambert Smith, and Davis. All of which run 44 or small or lower. All of them. You got Trey Harris who is supposedly a bonafide baller, right? Loni went nuts last year. And you got Keenan Allen who had like what 1,200,300 yards on a hindered season because he was injured. You now have a mixture of veteran presence and leadership, speed, ability to win against press and one-on-one coverage in isolation. You can win inside, you can win outside. That’s not what they’ve had before. If it was just Keenan in isolation, it’d be different story. But this is kind of like an icing in the cake in a well-rounded deep crew, right? You think about who can win when Justin Herbert has those got to have it moments last year. Who was it? It was one person. The only guy who could beat man coverage. Apparently, it was Lad. That was it. And so far it’s looking like lad that’s what they brought Trey Harrison for. Third and Allen that was literally coined because how often he won those KLS seems to be balling. That’s four. Then you add in Gatson. You add in a Tyler Conklin. You bring in a better running game. He’s got options. He has weapons. And it’s depth to where opposing teams don’t know who they’re going to go to. So vibes are high, right? This hell, okay, he’s not Michael Parsons, but like, okay, let’s get our heads out of the clouds for a second. The Chargers just got Keenan Allen back. And oh, by the way, we talked about like the fleecing of the Bears and all that stuff. They also saved like 20 what 20 30 plus million last year by not having Keen on the roster. Sign up for 8 million this year. That’s like a net of like $22 million in savings. His cap hit in the final year that he was with the Chargers before being traded, his cap hit was $34.7 million. 34 $26 million difference. I mean, I’d say he’s happy to be home. You got to tip your hat. And I I got to say, I was curious what the numbers were going to be for Kenan Jake because he’s a prideful guy. I mean, the guy has almost all the receiver numbers for the Chargers. He’s within a hundred of all-time receptions for the Chargers history. He left because a lot of it was apparently because of money reasons. He got a good number. Like 8.5 is more than I thought he was going to get. Like, how do you see this wide receiver room strength versus weaknesses? Like what are they missing something here? And I’m not trying to be a Homer. Like, please keep me in check. I try to keep my, you know, level down. I try to be tethered to reality. But like, what is this group as a whole now missing? Dan, I I wouldn’t say it’s much. I think the best thing that you could say about this group is that it’s so versatile and it may arguably be the the most versatile crew that Justin Herbert has played with. and one of the most versatile wide receiver cores that the Chargers have ever had. And yes, I’m including Malcolm Floyd and Vincent Jackson in that category because look at the interchangeable pieces that you have. We mentioned the Lad Maconi, Keenan Allen, how you could essentially use them both inside outside. Trey Harris and Quint Johnston, they can both play the X receiver spot. Trey Harris and KLS can both be the X uh or excuse me, Trey Harris and Quinton Johnson can both play the Z. Yep. Trey Harris and KLS can both play the X and Kanan could play the X. I mean, look at what you’ve got here. This is some versatile chess piece pieces with a very, very young nucleus to build around Justin Herbert, not just for this year, but for years to come. Feels good. You tip your hat to Joe Ortiz once again. And again, this isn’t us trying to like, you know, blow smoke. This isn’t bad. Aar Jake $5 donation. Money talks. We’ve always said it. Appreciate everybody. Aar $5. I just want to say this is all caps. You know how it goes. I just want to say give me Baltimore in the AFC title game at home. I do not want Mahomes. He’s five. So he’s dangerous. Well, nobody wants Mahomes with his record. Literally, he played 15 games last year. didn’t and the only game that he didn’t play is the one game that they lost essentially in the regular season. So, and that was with essentially a bad a bad team for for their standards considering how their offense performed in a down year for Travis Kelce and after losing, you know, some of their biggest wide receivers. So, yeah, I get it. But hey, I’m sick and [ __ ] tired of the Kansas City Chiefs winning this damn division. Let’s go. Let’s go to the beast’s mouth and let’s go at him with these weapons. Come on. Yeah, this um you know, this is this is definitely a vibes day for sure, right? You get the miked up stuff and then you get the Keenan Allen news and and it’s hard it’s hard not to be excited about this. It’s hard not to be excited about this. And and you think about for me, right, I think about like the person and like the type of character that Keenan Allen was on and off the field. Like the guy was ultimate competitor. The guy was so competitive trash talker, right? He did the work. He was an artsman of his craft and was the leader in the clubhouse. Was great at what he did. And you think about like that stalwart mentality, that phrase that Jim Harbaugh company talk about all the time, competitors welcome. Like Kanan’s got that Kobe in him, like that type of mentality that’s like I don’t care who’s across from me, I’m cooking it. And this Chargers team, especially this wide receiving core that is young. Look at this. Look at the visual we have here. Darius, aside from Kenan, Darius Davis is your veteran in this picture. Jaylen Regger would be the veteran of the squad. Like that’s hard. Come on. Come on. And uh look, it’s vibes are good. Uh Jake, I said it before that I totally screwed up. Let’s get to the comments here. Keenan says, “Alex Keen has spoken into existence. Said he is coming back to LA.” Yes, he did say that. He did. J Kicker and Denzel the free man. What a day. What a wild couple days for the Los Angeles Chargers. Jeez. No. No, I I is that whole thing is I don’t know. Rob the sneak geek. Chiefs defense punching the air as we speak. Not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Um I don’t know if I would agree with that. I don’t know if I would agree with that. Uh watch the Chiefs defense be still great. Uh, I say that not just from the standpoint of who they have with certain guys like, uh, Chris Jones, but they took a handful of players that I talked about on this pod. As far as some of my favorite draft prospects, Omar Norton Lot, uh, Noah Williams at quarterback, who’s going to be a [ __ ] to pair with as far as their quarterback group that they have. Uh, Aston Gelotti, who was one of my favorite edge rushers in this group, and now you’re going to play him across from Caroftus. like they just keep recycling pieces. And with Spagnolo, he’s just he’s become that defensive genius that can adapt so well and get so much out of young talent. So, I I I wouldn’t start poo pooing the Chiefs defense all of a sudden. They had a solid draft as did the entirety of the AFC West. Robert D, where’s Boston Bob at on this topic? Lol. Sneak peek. We actually have Bob from Boston that called in. It was before this broke. Wait, he left a message already. It was It was before this. Before the Keenan news broke, but Bob from Boston is here. Should we get the voicemails? Should we get to the voicemails? How many do we have? I don’t even know. We have two voicemails. One that just happened and the other from I think it was yesterday. Reminder, anybody who wants to actually call into the Chargers unleash hotline, the number’s on the bottom of your screen, 3239027586. If you guys are getting tired of chatting and need to, you know, loosen up the vocal cords a little bit, call the call the Chargers hotline and we’ll play it on the show. Happy to do it. Boys, Bob from Boston, Colin from Summer Vacation. Damn it. Good to hear from you, Bob. This is gonna be good. Okay, here we go. Very excited about the Chargers and that Hall of Fame game was amazing. We were the aggressors. That Nico Reed was really promising. And we got Slater locked up. Amen to that. But, and there’s always a butt with Bob. There’s always a butt. Oh, here it comes. He likes big butts. He cannot lie. You know, I’m the discipline guy. I’m super optimistic about this team, but since summer started, Niji Harris had an accident with the fireworks. Thurman got arrested for freaking weapons violations. I don’t care if he’s buying bazookas and flamethrowers for his own fireworks party. You don’t do this baloney right before training camp. None of this is going to lead to a tough mistake-free football team. I want Hara to take his handcuffs, put Nick Fury and Rambo Pam under house arrest, shove him in the room, then the lock key with Shaw Shank and Green Mile on Dawn stop until they come out focused on football. You know, my old nun since Tapazzi once caught me two and gum in class. She goes, “Excuse me, Bob. Do you have gum for everyone? I was a smartass.” And I goes, “Actually, I do.” I take a box of gum out of my drawer. I hands her the gum. Double What? What did he hand the gum out of his what? I wasn’t the only one that heard that. How do accent? I knew what what that word was. Double whammy. I get hit with the ruler. She takes the gum out of my mouth, puts it on my forehead, and she says, “Keep it there until the end of class.” Now, that’s a tight ship. I want Hara to glue a stinky jock strap on the helmet of any player who doesn’t get with the program and keep it there until he towes the line. Seriously, boys, I wasn’t worried before, but this team looks so good. We have a real chance to win, so we need to toughen up now. Sorry. Before it’s too late, get these guys in line. Love you boys. And Jake, you gave me no material to work with this time. Good boy. Good. Okay. So, obviously humor arrives whenever Bob from Boston decides to open his mouth. Uh, obviously Keenan Allen is going to carry the majority of this show, but we can dissect a couple things. Dan, I was actually out at uh, training camp on Saturday. Uh, this was actually the day that we heard about the Denzel Parimeman arrest. Thankfully, that has all been wiped out and dropped. We heard that Jim Harbaugh went to actually go visit him while he was incarcerated, which is just wild. Um, but I but I the more you read into that, the more you felt like this was going to be something that would would pass. So very happy that all of that is quickly behind Denzel Perryman. as it relates to Naji Harris. I was there standing next to ESPN’s Chris Rim as we were noticing, you know, Naji now has lost the sweatshirt, lost the the glasses, has now upgraded to the helmet and the visor, the full pads, and now with a weighted vest on top of it. And he was doing laps around the field just walking while practice is going on. And that and that was his day on Saturday. And apparently he did the same thing on Sunday. I don’t know because I know practice is pretty much just wrapping up right now for the Chargers currently at 6:37 local time. I don’t know if he was doing the exact same thing today. If anybody else has seen any updates on Naji Harris, please feel free to to shout them out. But um it’s a step in the right direction at least in like we’re gradually losing casual pieces of clothing and we’re putting on pieces of uniform. It gives you some indication that he’s close to a return at least. Yeah. Uh Chris Rim says, “Gm Joe Hortis said the Chargers are fired up to have Keenan Allen back on Latin Keenan’s fit. I think JJ Moors played a lot of slot and they both were on the field 80% of the time.” Yeah. Goes on to say the quote that you gave, play good players, good players play. Competitors welcome as they say. They sound like a Harbaugh quote though. 100%. Good players. 100%. The aliens are looking young and fast, says Alex. Jason, let’s get some of these comments real quick. Got two more voicemails. Jake, I got to the top of the hour, so we’re try to go rapid fire here. Jason says, “And you got to remember Keenan is a great mentor for the younger guys, helping them get their footing in the NFL.” Yep. You saw Keenan with Josh Palmer for a bit, right? Keenan and Lad. She those one-on- ones are going to be I feel bad for those receivers, man. Lad said for the corners for the corners. Lad Mcconi said on Up and Adams that Keenan Allen’s film is part of his film study when it comes to running routes. It’s it’s it’s a beautiful pairing. I cannot wait to see what these two do when they’re on the field together. Matthew Doll says, “What’s the point of getting wide receivers if you’re going to if you’re going with the same interior offensive line?” Now, I’ve said for months now, one thing has to be true if you’re trying to be a good offense. Either you block the hell out of the opposing defense so your quarterback has time to find receivers who can’t get open but can kind of thread the needle or you have weapons on the outside who can get open so your quarterback can get rid of the ball quickly. You have to have one. I mean, you could add in there the third element of a run game, but like in the passing game, those are your two options. If you don’t have one, you’re royally effed. That was last year. Aside from Lad. Now, they at least have one. They’ve got, like we said, four dudes here. Keenan, Trey, Lad, KLS. And if you want to just stay Kenan Trey lad possibly PLS quitting in the slot doing his Z routes short stuff underneath whatever you know we’ll see right what he’s improving to they went from one to three and that’s just receivers that’s not including Conlin that’s not including Gatston that’s not including Hampton that’s not including Najias they’ve improved with Mai Beckton so generally speaking they went more the latter route add more weapons, get the ball out of Justin Herbert’s hands faster. If you could do that, if you can pair that with a better running game with Mai Beckton up front with Joe Alt, that should help a ton. So, that’s the point in my opinion. But what do I know, Jake? We’re at 757 people live in this thing. I don’t think I don’t think anybody’s too happy that Keenan Allen’s returning to the Chargers. It doesn’t look like it at all. No. HH for says, “Go get a FKK guard already.” Look, we can address this because I know a lot of people had talked about it yesterday when Jim Harbaugh had come out and basically said that right now his starting five would be from left to right. Rashawn Slater, Zion Johnson at guard, Bradley Boseman at center, Mai Beckton at right guard, and Joe Alt at right tackle. Um Dan emphasized this yesterday when he had quote tweeted in and said right now which obviously you can emphasize that things can change at any point and obviously with the first depth chart unofficial being released today. That’s precisely how they had their starting offensive lineman. Now Dan, I told you that I predict this going one of two ways. Either Zion Johnson was going to win the starting center job or it should be Andre James. I really didn’t feel save for the addition of Mai Beckton that you would run back four fifths of your starting offensive lineman particularly centralizing around the left guard and the center position after what you saw in the playoffs. Now again, I’m not in these coaching meetings. I’m not in these player meetings. At surface level, it you there’s no way you can’t question this. I think it’s 100% plausible for people to question that type of move to have those two positions run back with the same players that you saw for what they gave up in Houston. And as I know others have pointed out, you’re essentially, knock on wood, one injury away from having the offensive lineman be five for five back to the way it was last year. It’s risky move. It is a risky move. I would feel a hell of a lot better again if this offensive lineman had Andre James starting at center. And I felt optimistic a week ago when Greg Roman started mentioning his name in the starting competition. And we’ll see as this preseason goes along because remember for the Hall of Fame game for an extra preseason game the Chargers had. Nice touch for them in terms of evaluating the rest of their roster. Most of their veterans did not play in that game. I’ll be interested to see what the rotation is going to look like because we know Zion Johnson started that Hall of Fame game. Be curious to see what happens because you’re obviously going to give some of these veterans some time to get up to game speed before week one of the regular season. But I would really like to see some additional snaps for Andre James to compete with this for the center job. I would too. And and after going back and watching, right, like I think after Zion Johnson got through those bobbles, which again, like that’s a huge asterisk, right? Once he stopped bobbling and jacking up the snaps, like he looked pretty good. He looked okay. He looked all right. Like he looked like, okay, there’s promise there. I can see why there’s interest there. The key question is going to be how much time is this staff going to give Zion to ramp up? How much of a leash are they going to give him to become the starting center? Are they going to go until this weekend’s game against the Saints? Let’s say he plays well. Then do they kick that can down the road or the week or do they snap the line, make a decision then? Do they make it before then? And how will that affect either him or whoever is that’s in competition for that? To me, it feels like I’m less concerned about what the ceiling could be at center and left guard than I am what the floor will be at center and left guard. And so having a veteran like Andre James versus an unknown of Zion Johnson and then Zion Johnson or Jamari Sawer or whatever at left guard. Which one can you depend on more? Which one is more safe for you as a floor? It’s only going to get so bad. Who would that be? That’s what I’m worried about. That’s what I’m looking for. They could go out and get a shirt for Hernandez, right? Like that could happen. But if they’re solely looking at they have what they have now, to me, it’s less about who can give the highest ceiling versus getting rid of those catastrophic lows and mistakes. All eyes point to how long they’re going to give the staff, how long they’re going to give Zion to showcase what he has. Mind you, you you start the season off with three divisional games and with the hardest of the three being in Brazil and going up against one of the premier defensive linemen in Chris Jones to start the season. I said during the last show following the Hall of Fame game, you know, there were some good, there was some bad of Zion Johnson when he played at in that center position for those limited amount of snaps, but it didn’t it wasn’t enough to give me confidence to say, “Yeah, he should go out there and start against Chris Jones in week one.” No, it did not do that for me. So, again, we’ll see what transpires here over the next three weeks. Key word Jim Harbaugh said for now. We’ll see if he sticks to that mentality 3 weeks from now. Yeah, Breeze B with a donation. Appreciate you, Breeze. Chiefs have offensive line turnover. Kelsey regression, a rice suspension impending. No Tyreek. This isn’t the same Chiefs team. Meanwhile, the Bolts got bettered. New word. The Chiefs got better, too. Like I’m sorry, but the they had a pretty like Jake mentioned before, like their draft was pretty good. They had all this. They had Kelsey Kelsey looked overweight and tired last year. Rice was hurt. They had fluctuation the offensive line and they still went to the damn Super Bowl. They went 15-1 in the regular season with a shitty team. And now they upgraded their offensive line and Kelsey has dropped a lot of pounds and they’ve reloaded that wide receiver room on top of Xavier Worthy. You just so happened to pick up Jaylen Royals in the mid rounds which sucks on a variety of different levels. Like also apparently he’s been balling there. Don’t dis don’t dismiss the Chiefs. I am I want to beat them as badly as any one of you in the chat. I’m 100% with you there. Yeah, but until someone actually proves that they can overtake the division that the Chiefs have had a grip on for the last nine years straight, nine. It sucks. We got to go out and do it. And aren’t they like 20 of their LA? They’ve won like 20 of the last 22 games they played against the Chargers. Like it’s disgusting. Their divisional record alone over the last several years makes you want to vomit. 870 currently in the chat live here on Chargers unleashed with the Keenan Allen news returning to the Los Angeles Chargers reuniting with Justin Herbert. Leave it to Chronicles of Christian Jake to completely [ __ ] on all of the excitement. Kenan will ruin the chemistry. This was a bad move. [Music] I respectfully disagree. Just let that thing marinate for a bit. Next voicemail. Jake got a couple. Again, we got to the top of the hour, so let’s try to get as much of these as we can. Next voicemail, Jake. Dan, this is Matthew. What’s going on, guys? How are you guys doing? All right. Um, well, I’m doing great, Jake. How are you? I am doing fine. Nice of you to get that little, you know, question in there, Dan, since you didn’t get a chance to ask it at the beginning of the show. Nice touch. Better late than never. Just got the news s come back, which is exciting. Uh, very happy. Um, Chargers Hall of Fame game was pretty exciting to watch. Um, but right now I am um I’m a little frustrated right now with Jim Harbaugh with his his talking saying that oh competitive welcome and stuff. Yeah, all the team except the interior offensive line. You know, this interior offensive line thing is very frustrating. You know, we got my client bet, but other than that, like there’s no help. So, there’s no competitive welcome with this with this interior offensive line. So, it’s really frustrating. Um I don’t know how this season can go. I mean, yeah, it might be good and stuff, but um this AFC West is very tough. Um I don’t know about we’ll have to see what happens this year. I mean, Char Herman’s got weapons, but if he can’t protect him, then what’s the point of him releasing the ball? So, let me know what you think. But, um, right now, I’m trying to be positive, but I his off interior offense line is pissing me off. And, uh, we’ll see what happens this year. But, um, thank you guys. Hope you guys have a good day. And always remember, [ __ ] the Raiders. Love you guys. Folks up. Just had to throw that one in there. He chronicles are just like buddy buddy right now. Great. Um I think we answered this one, Jake, about Yeah, we Yeah, we kind of covered that um during the last round. Again, that’s that’s my thoughts on the interior of the offensive line. You know, I’ve seen a bunch of different people kind of talk about that whole thing. Competitors welcome. Why isn’t it being done on the offensive line? Again, the Chargers have the luxury of an extra preseason game to evaluate certain things. They got extra time. They started off training camp early. As Dan Wenstein alluded to, Jim Harbaugh said right now, which means things can change. We’ll just see what the next few weeks of the preseason have in store. Yes. Next voicemail, Jake. Dan Jake. There he is. There he is. Aar is here. This is your boy Athenan coming back. Justin Herbert is in the driver seat for an MVP. Let’s go. MVP talks. So, Justin Herbert, appreciate you here. Uh, had some firepower this year. We talked about it earlier, but look at this screen. Look at this visual. Every one of these guys, aside from if you want to say cut Quinton out because you think you’re, you know, he sucks, you think he’s you’re a hater, whatever, he can’t catch, give me all your B, whatever. Keenan, Gadston, Harris, McConi, Conklin, KLS with Hampton and Harris presumably to the Rock. Like, when is the last time the Chargers had this much collective firepower for Justin Herbert? By the way, Jake, we’re at 920 and counting. This is [ __ ] nuts. First of all, Justin Herbert has never had this type of collective weapons or collection of weapons at three different positions like this. Number two, it’s depth, Dan. It’s depth. Like, there’s players that are that you don’t see on this screen, specifically at running back, that make up the rest of that group. Yeah, this is not counting Kamani Videll. It’s not Rocket Sanders. players here in tight end that you don’t see on the screen that make up the rest of that group. Not counting Tucker Fisk, not counting Will Dley. We’re not counting Jaylen Regger. We’re not counting you name them, right? Who’s the guy that just picked up from the Patriots? Not counting him. We’re not counting Nhem Hines either. Like, there’s so many dudes here. Like, this is just like the tip of the iceberg here. This is the tip of the spear of these firepowers for Justin Herbert. Like, this isn’t Devonte Adams. This isn’t DK Medv. I get it. It may not be the big names, but collectively at three positions of offense in one off season, this is what you did. It’s pretty good. It’s pretty [ __ ] good. Like, like all the people that were clamoring for them to bring in firepower for help Justin Herbert, free Justin Herbert. Like I mean sure we we we talked about the potential trade for I mean and that would have been great. I’m not I’m not totally dismissing any of those type of free agency moves. Brad here bong hits for everyone by the way but to get this collective group as a consolation prize pretty damn good. Yeah. Yeah. People in the chat Q Jizzel about to be off go off this year. There’s a lot of weirdness in that message. Hold on Dan. I was standing next to uh Chris Rim at practice again on Saturday. Quinton had and I tweeted this out. Quinton had a fantastic fingertip catch that he had to jump up to get. I believe it was Taylor Hineki was actually uh in there throwing the passes at that point in time. Uh and it got an audible reaction from the crowd. About 20 minutes later, Quinn Johnson has an easy route over the middle. It’s there for him to catch. He drops it. He is, you could tell, physically just, you know, emotionally pissed off. He picks up the ball. He spikes it down. And Chris Rim and I just looked at each other like, “Well, that’s the one that everybody’s going to remember.” And sure enough, it was. It was. So, look, I I I am I I I’m not going to try to, you know, keep the Quinton Johnston drop thing that everybody wants to keep making videos about. Trey Harris had two drops yesterday. A lot of the receivers had drops yesterday. Quinton yesterday in practice didn’t actually have a drop in practice. I I get the frustrations. Again, we’ve had this conversation about Quinton Johnson so many times, and I’m totally on the same level of people because we’ve seen Quinton Johnson do this before in training camp. He needs to do it when it matters most. And I’m hoping that after the last couple of weeks, especially following the Mike Williams retirement and stepping up with this young group of of wide receivers that with this collection of wide receivers around him and again this coaching staff, you I’m not saying that he’s going to be wide receiver one. I don’t have those type of expectations for him. No one has said that. I don’t believe that he can be a consistent ex receiver. He should be living in as the Z and they shouldn’t move him out of there period. That’s been proven that he can’t do that. So if you keep him there, that should be where he’s best and productive. Depth. Oh, sorry. Something new to the organization. Yeah. Going to be such a hit. A word we haven’t used in a very long time, especially through the last uh through the last organization regime. Yes. Yeah. Uh, I was actually thinking soon as he signed back Kenan, I was thinking, man, you know how many jerseys, you know, 13 jerseys they’re going to see in Brazil? Oh, damn. In that throwback Navy, no less. That’s going to be great. Oh, and I get to wear that Keenan jersey again. My wife gets to wear her Keenan shirt, man. I don’t know, man. I don’t know. Uh, Chronicle says, “I’m not trying to kill your buzz, but I need to see it to believe it.” Totally understand. I I will not disagree with anybody who says that. I get it. See it to believe it 100%. Yep. I don’t know. I don’t know. At this point, if we’re again, if we’re just being honest, wide receiver one is probably led. Wide receiver two, either I mean, it might be a battle between Keenan and Trey and Quinton. Let’s Let’s also kind of use the unofficial depth chart that came out today. Jack [ __ ] I mean, yes, I I get it, but let’s just take that for now. So what KLS and Trey Harris were what four and five even though I again I’m with you that’s [ __ ] because by the time we get to the regular season things are going to change but I would think with the veteran experience of Keenan Allen and the rapport that he has built up with Justin Herbert over the last couple years he’s going to set foot on that field like riding a bike and it’s just going to fall right back into rhythm with he and Justin Herbert. I do not believe there’s there’s not going to be any feeling out process or trying to get back in the rhythm. I think it’s going to start from the moment he sets on the field. So, if it’s me, Keenan’s going to be too by the time that we get to the regular season. I don’t have any doubts about that, honestly. Who do you think the defense is going to put more attention on? All Yeah. Keenan Allen or Trey Harris or KLS or Quinton Johnson? It’s going to be tough for the fact that you have Lad Maki now. Now you’re gonna have to pick and choose which one do you want to focus on. But out of that group of wide receivers, I’m putting more attention on Keenan Allen than UJ, Trey, and KLS. I think that bourbon’s got to you. Jake’s a potty mouth on today’s show. It’s a good show today. I know. There’s a reason for me. We deserve it. Damn it. Right. There’s a reason for me to be a little happy. Yep. Roman may have a different game plan for different defenses that feature different guys than Ry the hot hands. Yes, he talked about that last year. Jeff Friday says Keenan brings fire. 100%. Look, I think this is the bottom line about the Quinton stuff and people like try to get it all twisted. They try to just take shots at the player, but right now people were pissed because they thought Keenan or they thought Quinton Johnson was going to be wide receiver two or one. He’s not. He now is probably going to be wide receiver three at best. most likely wide receiver four. That’s not bad. Like that him as your wide receiver four. Sure, it may have been a miss in the drafting of him by Tolesco in company, but him as your wide receiver four after two years of the new regime going to week one. That’s a huge upside. The dude just had almost 800 yards and eight touchdowns last season. Like, put it in perspective. Like, pump the brakes here a little bit, right? like Lad Makoni, Kane Allen, and Trey Harris as a trio by himself, it’s pretty damn good. Add in the rest of the group, that firepower for Justin. Like, come on, guys. Give him Jesse Mentor again for another year. They got Jim Harbaugh at the helm again. I’m not trying to blow smoke. I’m not trying to be like the Homer optimistic guy, but like, yes, Jorge, exactly. Sold the word out of my mouth. Keenan can still ball. Like, the guy is always open. He was always open. I will never forget when I was going into the soccer stadium. I had buddy of mine that went with me. He’s a big Bills fan. Chargers Bills StubHub. Keenan went for like 13 receptions, a buck 60 or something like that. Literally the Bills fan next to me. Keenan All is open. He’s right there. Keenan All in the slot. Like you cannot stop him. And so, sure, is he People in the chat saying, “Oh, we’re not saying 2018 Keenan Allen.” Sure. Is he 2018 Keenan Allen? No, you’re not asking him to be. I’ll take 2023 Keen. I’ll take 2024 Keenan Allen. Do you remember what he where he finished with his numbers in 2024 or prior to being or excuse me, technically it’s a 2023 season, but yes, his final season before being traded to the Bears. Does anybody remember what he finished with? His receptions were ridiculous. His yardage was over a thousand. Speaking of over a thousand, you just got over a thousand in the live chat. I will take 2023 Kenan out. I don’t give a damn. Thank you. Yes. Like, put some respect on this. Like, you give just We’ve all talked about give Justin Herbert weapons. See what happens. They just did that. The weapons he has, the firepower he has now is what you’ve been clamoring for. Could it be better? Sure. Could it be a hell of a lot worse? We’ve seen it. Yes. Yes. Like, quit bitching. This is like I’m sorry. I’m getting too heated up for this. This is not like And you’re not even drinking. I’m not freaking drinking a sparkling pineapple water. That’s for some reason that sugar has gone way to your head. There is no sugar. That’s the hard part. Holy [ __ ] Dan. You need to calm down. Damn. Like, okay. Like, all right, I’m done. But like, look, look at this screen. Okay. You you could argue honestly as a pass catcher, you could argue that Justin Herbert has one, two, three, four, five, six pass catchers that he can go to before having to rely quote unquote having to rely on Quinton Johnston. That’s not me being a homer. Like that’s fact. Everyone’s hyped about KLS. KLS is there. Tyler Conklin, he’s there. Ronnie Gaston, former wide receiver, putting up basketball numbers. He’s there. Trey Harris, second round pick, he’s there. Keenan, third Allen is there. Lad Mcconi, he’s there. You haven’t seen him out of the back field. Like what? I Yes, sure. They could have added more into your offensive lineman. How many teams in the NFL have five quality starting offensive linemen? Well, It’s very few. How many? Two. One. Like if this crew with this coaching staff can’t win when you have three Pro Bowl offensive linemen plus this plus Justin Herbert plus Jesse Menter. Then what are you getting paid for? I’m sorry. Like I it’s so easy to give excuses for a lot of these players because of the [ __ ] that’s happened in the past. Like there really aren’t many excuses. Even if Justin Herbert’s getting blitzed the [ __ ] out of, he’s got so many dudes now that can go get open. HH4 Jake the day that Trey McKitty and Michael Bandy are long gone. I remember I remember when Michael Bandy was the darling of preseason. I think we all remember that. I remember when Trey Kenny was drafted. I go to this one. Dan can’t be sure about the young and unproven players can only hope. Well, I will say this. Agreed. Everything that we heard from Laden McConi during preseason practices translated immediately to the regular season. I will say the difference is coaching. And the other thing I will say is if Trey Lance is out there performing with those type of passes to KLS and KLS is making those type of route runs. What do you think he’s going to do when 10’s back at center and we’ve seen it. I was there on Saturday. KLS had two 40 plus yard touchdowns. One was beating Dean Leonard. The other he moved right across the field breaking through the coverage of the safety in the corner and caught it in the end zone. Trey Harris is owning the middle of the field in recent days in practice. I I I get it. You don’t want to get too hyped up and that’s traditional for rookies and you don’t want to try to, you know, oversell the expectations, but I also think that there’s big expectations for the roles that they’re expected to play, especially KLS. And you talk about this post Mike Williams now because of the retirement. Who’s going to be the downfield primary ex threat that’s got juice and speed to beat the defenders? Who just had a nice what what was that Dan? 35 40 yard catch back shoulder ball was placed perfectly between the corner and the safety. The confidence of KLS Dan that’s the other thing that carries. He says when the ball is in the air I said I feel like it’s mine. That was his quote. When the ball’s in the air, I feel like it’s mine. I get it. Don’t want to blow expectations too out of proportions for rookies. I agree. I’m trying to keep it level, but at the same time, I think there is a level of expectations for these certain players. Omarian Hampton, Rande Gatston, what you’ve seen from him already in preeason, what you’ve seen from Trey Harris in KLS, it’s it’s too good to ignore. It’s too good to put a ceiling on. Yep. And again, I I really reflect off of from the moment that Lad Maki set foot on the practice field during training camp. All you kept hearing was the rapport and connection between him and Justin Herbert has just been like this since day one. We saw it. We were there. And look what happened throughout the regular season. And that’s when people knew they were going to him. And there’s no one else they can go to. I don’t know. Uh, I apologize to the people out there. I got a little heated. I don’t know where that came from. Clearly, I had some pep up anger I had to get rid of. Technically, this is impromptu kind of Chargers unleashed after dark, but dark somewhere. You know, you press the right buttons for Dan and he can lose his [ __ ] sometimes. Oh, man. Um, all right. We already went over the top of the hour mark that we probably were supposed to go till. We’re still over what, 10:50 now. Tell you what, Dan, let’s go. Eight more minutes. Let’s round out the hour. Okay, eight more. Anybody have any rapid fire questions? Dan and I will do our best to answer them in the next eight minutes. Ready, set, go. Eight more minutes. Here we go. Uh, let’s see. I think Denver has the best defense, and I’m not sure they can stop us. I’m feeling confident. Uh, Denver’s defense is going to be I mean, it’s as good as they were last year. They added they added you have now Jedi Baron to go across from Patrick Certain. That’s going to screw some [ __ ] up. Arguably the best secondary player in the draft. They’re it their front line of their defense is going to be nasty again. Like they can get after the quarterback. That’s what kept them in a lot of games last year and it only improved. Jorge, we did get this on a shirt. We’ll focus on Hefner 2028. Oh, please no. The last thing I would ever want to do is be never is go for politics. Hell no. Absolutely not. Objectively to Kyle Trey Harris was supposed to be a first round player. He got injured and that was lucky break for us. We got a second first round offensive talent in the second round. Yes, Dan. What did I say about Trey Harris? While I love the pick, like eyeballed a year in advance as one of my favorite targets for the Chargers, remember what he was doing through the first seven weeks of college football. He was on a tear. He was the best receiver in the country before going down with an injury. Literally, it it’s almost fortuitous from the standpoint of that specifically led to the drop which led to the Chargers selecting him in the second round. Sometimes weird [ __ ] ends up working out in the end game for you and you’ll take it like again weird [ __ ] Chargers trade Keenan Allen for a fourth round pick. They get lad mcconi tarhe still save $24 million whatever that is and then get Keenan back the next year for 8 million weird [ __ ] I don’t know if [ __ ] that’s what we should put on a t-shirt. Just weird [ __ ] Chargers Caleb only. Okay. With the offense looking how it is right now, what do you expect from this offense going forward? It’s very That’s a good question. It’s a good question. Kind of generic, hard to pin down, but Jake, I’ll let you go first. Uh I would definitely expect an uptick in players beating man coverage this year. That is 100% true. When it comes to contested catches, I would definitely expect that to elevate. That is evident from what you’ve seen from Trey Harris, from Gatston. This running back room, I have said it since we got into the off season. Greg Roman’s vision of what he had with JK Dobbins and Gus Edwards and Kamani Videll and Hassan Haskins. He had an idea that unfortunately just did not end up panning out. I truly believe that he was the big plan for him was to go running back by committee. It didn’t end up working out like that for a multitude of reasons. JK Dobbins ended up really just grasping a good hold of that RB1 and produced admirably. Again, I would have loved to have seen JK Dobbins return to this team. Fortunately, it didn’t end up panning out like that. But now you look at the this running back stable now with Omar and Hampton, with Naji Harris. You got guys that are big time powerbacks that can win you the games and take it over and crunch down that clock in the final four minutes of the game. And now with Kamani Videll, Hassan Haskins, and finally Dan, Rocket Sanders getting on the practice field, I’m really looking forward to the possibility of him coming in and playing and getting that time because they have talked a lot about Rocket Sanders, Joe Hortiz specifically, since they took him in the undrafted free agent pool. This is a versatile group of running backs and I fully believe that this running back stable is Greg Roman’s game 2.0 that he wants to break out this upcoming season. All right, Jake, we’ve got literally three minutes, so we’re going to actually do rapid fire here. All right, one sentence are the answers that we get to give now. Okay, starting Jorge, what’s the worst case scenario for this year? Total win record, Dan. Go. I took the last one. Worst case, comma, injuries, comma, they go seven wins. Best case, what’s the question? Ellie, how sentence your Okay, cool. What’s the question? Apologies if we all touched on this, but Jim preaches competition yet continues to say Zabos. Yes, we touched on that. Yes. Uh, let’s see. Can’t wait to see Harbaugh effect two smash Hulk smash. Yes. HH4 says, “Bully ball.” What do you think, Jake? This is for you. Of Mario’s little eight yard scamper in the preseason. I think it showed his strength, break tackle ability. We all know he has shows his strength in his leg. One sentence. Go. Encouraged. I’m encouraged by it. There’s some things that could be fixed specifically with that last run that he did where he tried to break it outside. But he’s going to learn from it. I’m encouraged by it. What’s one word to describe Jim Harbaugh? You’re good at this. Gamer. A lot of people are saying Broncos are a Super Bowl fit this year. I don’t see it. It’d be because their defense and hopefully Bon Knicks continues to be who he was the back half that season. Jorge asks, “Would you rather have Keenan or Mike Dubs assuming Mike doesn’t retire?” Next question. I I would I would lean towards Keenan if you’re really pressing me to answer that question. HH4. Does Darius Davis make the roster? Yes. Yes. Pie or cake? Depends on what type of pie. Wow. Uh, let’s see. We sweep Denver again. No. What came first, chicken or the egg? The egg came first. Uh, are we three and0 after the Donkeys game? Yes or no? Or yes or hell yeah. Sorry. Uh, no. I unfortunately I don’t think that they’re gonna go three and 0 in the division. would love to see it. That would just be, you know, the Chargers are hitting on all cylinders, but no, I don’t see that happening. How do you feel about our defense this year? Fantastic. I think I think they’re going to surprise a lot of people in the interior. Who’s having a better year, KLS or Trey Harris? 1100 in the chat. Crazy. I’m still going to stick to Trey Harris. In-N-Out or Waterburger. Oh, In-N-Out 10. In and out. Get out of here. Absolutely not. Drew Soul $5 donation. It’s not Micah. But we got a grip of first downs and arrested defense because if you can’t double cover Keenan lad all the time, Herbo eats. Amen. Okay, that was a lot. I think we did it. Damn. There’s got to be one more question in here. Okay, here’s a question you asked me, but you get to answer it. What is the What is now the realistic optimistic expectation for the season? Let’s let’s talk wins. I still stick to my original prediction, Dan. 11 and six. I think they go the same uh have the same record that they had last year. But you know something, last little touch. It’s going to be This is more than it’s going to be more notable this year considering the schedule that you have this season as opposed to last year. Which is the biggest name to be cut? Corner. I’ve talked about it. Uh with the ascension of Nico Reed, I think that Jere is firmly on the bubble as it stands right now. Do we trade for Micah? No. Do they sign another interior lineman to potentially start or maybe a trade? Possibly isn’t good. I mean, I’m rattling off one word answers. If you don’t like them, that doesn’t mean I’m not good at rapid fire. I beg to disagree. Yes. Golly. Do we have the deepest wide receiver room? No. No. At least I’m not Peter Griffin on Family Feud where he’s like chair. Big chair. If the team come Mikey comes to the team, will the team be a Super Bowl contender? If Mikey comes to the I mean, yes. That’s a beautiful question for another universe, but yes. Okay, this is fun. We’re up to,00 people here. Y’all are crazy. Chargers sign Keenan Allen one year 8.52 I believe million dollars. Keenan resigns with the Los Angeles Chargers. Reunites with Justin Herbert. see what the Slayer can do already out there. And there’s somebody in the chat like somebody has to give up their jersey. He already did. DJU switched from 13 to seven. Jake, anything else you want to tell the great friends before we jump on out of here? I Dan, it feels good today. It really does feel good to have this type of news with Keenan Allen returning. Uh I’m excited to see the other layer that it’s going to add to this offense moving forward. Again, we’ve got the Chargers second preseason game coming up this Sunday. I’m sure we’ll have a lot to talk about as we get closer to that and certain things that we want to see, but today is all about the return of Keenan Allen. So, wherever you are, whatever you got in front of you, celebrate because it’s a good day for the Chargers fan base. Slayer has returned. Chargers wide receiver room gets deeper and Justin Herbert is happy. Uh, Chargers fans, this has been fun. Do us a favor. If you have not done so already, please hit that like and subscribe. Helps us out a ton. Jake, I’m about to go breathe. About to go have some dinner. About to go. Put an ice pack on your forehead. Cool off. I got I got a toddler newborn. I ain’t relaxing over here. Come on now. Ain’t nobody got time for that. Oh man. For Jake, I’m Dan. It’s the Chargers Unleash. We’ll talk to you next time on Chargers Unleashed. [Music]
