Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00How's being back here again with the team?
00:03I just said, it's great.
00:04It's great to be back, man.
00:05You know, back in football, I miss it.
00:08Do you have the bad taste out of your mouth from the loss
00:11at the end of last year?
00:13You usually don't get that taste out of your mouth
00:14until you win your next game.
00:16So right now, I'll focus on the Colts.
00:20What was the message to start this new season
00:23for this new team?
00:25Well, just my biggest concern is our mindset, you know?
00:29I'm not worried about the Raiders, the Broncos,
00:31the Chiefs.
00:32I'm concerned about the Chargers and the mindset
00:34and our approach to practice every day and the effort
00:38to get better each and every day when we come into this building
00:41and walk onto this field and just do it all over again.
00:44You know, what we did last year, we
00:45can't carry that over to this year.
00:47This is a different football team.
00:49And I want to make sure that everyone understands that.
00:51And I believe we do.
00:52We have a good character group, hardworking guys.
00:55We kept our core together the best we could.
00:58And so I expect these guys to show up and work hard and help
01:04one another and continue to get better.
01:07He's part of that mindset when major publications are saying,
01:10oh, the Chargers will go 12 and 4 and win a Super Bowl.
01:14You know, external expectations, that should not affect us
01:18at all because there's no way those expectations can
01:21be higher than the expectations that we have for ourselves.
01:25But you can listen to that too much.
01:28But I feel like, like I said, this is a good character group.
01:31We got good leadership on this team.
01:33And I think we'll be OK in that respect.
01:35What did you tell the team about Melvin Ward and his status
01:38and how to deal with him?
01:40You know, Melvin's not here.
01:43We don't like to talk about players that are not here.
01:45We understand his situation.
01:47We love Melvin.
01:48We're a good football team with Melvin.
01:50But he's not here, Eric.
01:52So you're just trying to make sure that's not a distraction
01:55that the guys are just waiting.
01:55Absolutely.
01:56And I don't think it will be a distraction.
01:58You know?
02:00Seeing Hunter Henry back on the field, how does he look?
02:04He looks good.
02:05He looked good in the offseason.
02:06You know, he looked good last year.
02:07We wouldn't have let him come back that last game.
02:10But it's good to see him back and having fun
02:13and out there with his teammates.
02:14Do you get the sense that he's almost like a lion being
02:17let out of his cage?
02:20Well, Hunter's really cool.
02:21You know, even when he sweats, he never
02:24lets you know that he's sweating.
02:26I can tell, though, he's happy to be back.
02:28He's working his tail off.
02:29He looks good.
02:30Hey, Coach, can you talk about Thomas Davidson?
02:33In addition to Thomas Davidson, what do you expect
02:35from him on your defense?
02:37You know, Thomas, he's a heck of a linebacker.
02:39He's going to bring leadership to the linebacker room,
02:41experience.
02:42But first, he's got to learn our system.
02:44And he's working his tail off right now every day
02:46to learn our system.
02:47But I love his energy.
02:50But going through this camp, I want to hold him out some.
02:52I want to make sure that he's fresh come week one.
02:55He's 36 years old.
02:56But he runs around like a 13-year-old.
02:59He's just a heck of an athlete.
03:01Are he and Coach Perryman, how's Denzel Perryman looking?
03:03What's that?
03:04How's Denzel Perryman looking?
03:06Denzel looks fine.
03:08You know, yesterday, we had a conditioning test.
03:10He got a little tight in the conditioning test.
03:11We limited his reps today and tomorrow.
03:13But he's going to be fine, coming off the knee.
03:15Anthony, Russell Field came out on social media
03:19and talked about his situation.
03:20How scary was that?
03:22Or how did the players go for something that real?
03:25Well, no, we have a lot of good medical staff.
03:28We've had the best people look at Russell.
03:30So it wasn't that scary.
03:32But we wanted to take care of it right away.
03:34And he's being treated for his blood clots.
03:35And we look forward to having him back one day.
03:38But we have no idea when that's going to be.
03:42How does he seem spirit-wise?
03:44Does he seem like his old self?
03:46He's here every day.
03:47He's in the meetings.
03:48He's helping with the young guys.
03:50Right now, he's an assistant coach.
03:53Coach, what was it like to go to Tanzania
03:55and be able to do that?
03:56Man, we'd be here all day talking about Tanzania.
03:59I mean, that experience was a game-changer for me.
04:01It was unbelievable.
04:03I've never been around a group of people
04:04that's done more with less and proud of it, just
04:08the attitude, appreciation.
04:10And to open a school with all those young kids
04:13and for them to have an opportunity
04:14to get an education with the grit that they already have,
04:17I just think there are going to be some impactful people come
04:21out of that school.
04:22You said more with less and a game-changer for you.
04:25Give us a little bit of your perspective.
04:27It's just over there, it's life or death.
04:30Every day, their back's against the wall.
04:32And so I think sometimes we take a lot of things for granted.
04:34I know I do.
04:36And so I try not to do that as much anymore.
04:38I was glad that my kids were there with me
04:40so they could experience some of that, just clean water,
04:44things like that.
04:46It's a challenge for people over there.
04:48And just going to school.
04:50Hell, we had to start school at 10 o'clock.
04:51People are dead against it.
04:53I want the kids to get to school early.
04:55I don't want them staying up late and getting up late.
04:56I want them to get to school on time.
04:58But lines feed from 6 to 9.
05:01So the kids got to go to school at 10, 11.
05:04That's things that we don't have to deal with or talk about.
05:06So it's just a different lifestyle over there.
05:09But I believe it's made those people tougher.
05:11I mean, they're very resilient.
05:14And I really appreciate it, just being around them.
05:19Dan Finney was playing center.
05:21Is that to just try to increase versatility for him?
05:25No doubt.
05:26When you play on the official line,
05:27you need some position flex.
05:28And Dan Finney was going to be our starting center
05:31before Mike Pouncey became available.
05:33So it's not foreign to him.
05:34He's done it before.
05:36And I think he has an opportunity to,
05:38if something were to happen to Mike,
05:40I think Dan could step in and do a decent job at center.
05:44Anything you'd expect from Austin Nicholas and Jackson
05:47against the both of the refs?
05:49No, they got another year under their belt.
05:52I thought last year, Austin, he took it to another level.
05:55I expect him to keep going in that direction.
05:57I thought Jackson showed up last year when we needed him.
06:00And he's had a heck of an off season as well.
06:02So D-Trex, he's done an outstanding job.
06:05So I look forward to seeing all those guys get opportunities
06:09and make the most out of it.
06:10Anything specifically you like about Justin?
06:14His instincts, his production.
06:16When you study Justin, he's been productive his whole life.
06:19He's never really had the height, weight, speed thing
06:21going for him.
06:22But you look at his production, it's there.
06:24High school, college,
06:25and I believe when his NFL career is over,
06:27it'll be there as well.
06:30How much experimenting are you going to be doing
06:32at left tackle as you're trying to replace Russell?
06:35Well, it's not going to be a lot of experimenting.
06:36Sam Taber's going to be over there for now.
06:38And Trish Scott can also play over there at left tackle.
06:41Both did it last year.
06:42So we're going to ask those two to do it again.
06:46Anything new with Rivers?
06:47Same old Rivers?
06:48Any changes there?
06:51Same young Rivers.
06:53I'll just say that.