Chargers Daily Links: Greg Roman and Jesse Minter set out the vision for their units

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Good morning, Chargers fans!

In a behind closed doors meeting with the Chargers’ beat reporters Jesse Minter, Greg Roman and Ryan Ficken set out their visions for their respective units. Jim Harbaugh has continued to assemble a gigantic coaching staff to support his coordinators to the best of his ability but in the meantime all three have been building their schemes without any indication as to what that could look like. The curtain was peeled back slightly during their introductory media availabilities yesterday and the insights that have been pouring out of all the media outlets in attendance have been fascinating.

Greg Roman has grabbed all of the headlines with his statement quote; “Can you imagine Justin Herbert with a great running game?”. As ESPN, The Athletic and NBC have all pointed out; we have no idea as it has never existed, since Justin Herbert first started for the Chargers in 2022 the offense has ranked 31st in EPA/rush and 28th in rushing success rate. In fact it’s not just the recent years that have seen a disregard for thr ground game, the last time the Bolts had a team in top ten in rushing yards per game was all the way back in 2007 with the legendary LaDainian Tomlinson in the backfield. Roman made sure to emphasize how he wants the team to invest in the run game, he talked about building an identity around the running game but he also went on to to say how he wants a balanced offense. Now we have heard this phrase a lot over the last few years but where Brandon Staley wanted to lean towards the pass, this time it is the opposite where both Roman and Harbaugh have historically led teams that have leant towards the run game.

Jesse Minter may have used words that didn’t grab headlines the same way as his colleague but according to reports he did share some insight into how he would like the team to address the cap issues. He made sure to say that roster decisions like those were above his pay grade however he went on to say he would prefer to keep his pass rushing unit intact “As a coach, that’s what you’d love. I’d love to have those three.” Those three referring to Joey Bosa, Khalil Mack and Tuli Tuipulotu. He also went on to to show his excitement to work with Derwin James describing him as “A phenomenal player”.

The most fascinating insight he gave was to how he wants to utilize a ‘concept led’ teaching approach to give his players a better understanding of how offenses want to attack them:

“I really just think trying to teach that concept right from the beginning of, here’s the strength of this coverage, here’s the weakness of this coverage. If they know you’re in this coverage, here’s where the ball is going to go. And then I really think the players begin to take ownership of, OK, let’s show this because we know we’re trying to actually get him to throw the ball over here. It all ties together. It’s all calculated. And I really think that as the players really learn what we’re doing, they begin to be the ones to take ownership of the disguises and all that.”

This ties into his Michigan scheme where he utilized coverage and blitz disguises, so it is likely we will see more of this on Sundays than we have done for the past few seasons under Brandon Staley. The league is shifting towards more Jesse Minter and Mike Macdonald type defenses that employ blitzes to overcome the problem of not having elite edge rushers but now that Minter, for the moment at least, has a dangerous trio to attack the quarterback it will be interesting to see if he still sticks with the same strategy.

And now for today’s links:

Chargers News:

The final pieces of the coaching staff have been revealed with four new hires (Chargers.com)

The team officially announced their new sports performance staff (Chargers.com)

Chargers’ new offensive coordinator Greg Roman’s plan for Justin Herbert is to give him a running game (ESPN)

Jim Harbaugh’s Chargers are the betting favorite to land Josh Jacobs in free agency (Charger Report)

The Bolts’ crack the top ten for total fan attendance in the 2023 season (Chargers Wire)

Jesse Minter and Greg Roman explain their philosophies for their schemes (The Athletic)

NFL News:

The Seattle Seahawks have reworked Geno Smith’s contract to free up cap space (ESPN)

Matt Araiza signs with the Kansas City Chiefs after the lawsuit against him was dropped (ESPN)

Sean McVay and Sean McDermott have been added to the league’s competition committee (NFL.com)

The Detroit Lions have signed former Charger Michael Badgley to a one year extension (NFL.com)

Saquon Barkley has shown interest in signing with the Houston Texans (CBS)

Chicago Bears’ quarterback Justin Fields has expressed his desire to stay with the team after trade rumours have gone into overdrive (CBS)