The Los Angeles Chargers faced an all-too-familiar foe by the time the Week 6 win over Denver was all but sealed up in the 4th quarter last Sunday afternoon; the injury bug. Between the end of the Bolts’ Week 4 game against another AFC West rival and the end of this game, one position had suffered more than any other. The cornerback group had been all but wiped out. Asante Samuel Jr., Kristian Fulton, Ja’sir Taylor and Deane Leonard were all unable to help their team mates get off that Mile High Stadium field with a win. That is CB1, CB2, CB3 and the starting Nickel all out with no guarantees of their return for MNF against the Arizona Cardinals.

But wait, this is not the Chargers’ teams of old that were paper thin and made of wet cardboard. This is the new reality for Jim Harbaugh’s powder blue clad men; the next man actually steps up when it matters. Two rookies, both selected in the 5th round of the 2024 draft, took up the mantle and delivered very good performances to help earn the win. So in lieu of a full game analysis I have decided to look at how Cam Hart and Tarheeb Still did against Bo Nix and the fighting orange ponies.

Cam Hart

The big corner (6′ 2″ / 204 lbs) got his first start of the season after ASJ and Leonard were ruled out through injury. In fact it was his first defensive snaps since the preseason after being a special teamer only for the first four games of the season. I couldn’t have been more impressed by how he looked from the first snap.

On the first play of the games Hart played the edge contain role well as he swooped down with his long wingspan looking a daunting presence. He showed patient footwork to keep his balance and leverage to give the running back nothing to work with whilst running away from Daiyan Henley who made the eventual tackle.

That very good start was followed up by an even better end to the drive. Molden may have got the pick but Cam did his job admirably to reduce Bo Nix’s options. I think it speaks volumes about this team that they sent Cam Hart out there on his third snap in the NFL to be locked up in isolated press man coverage against Cortland Sutton who was lined up as the boundary X. That’s a tough assignment for anyone but Hart was fearless in getting into his soft press stance opposite that $60 million receiver and he went toe-to-toe with him.

The breakdown below goes one step further to explain just how much Cam has improved in his one off-season in Jesse Minter’s defense.

Minter’s belief in Hart wasn’t an early drive gimmick either, up until Kristian Fulton’s injury in the 3rd quarter Cam followed Sutton whenever the chance arose. He held him to zero catches on zero targets on those plays.

It wasn’t just in the pass game that he took it to Sutton. On the run play below Cam took on one of the toughest blocking receivers in the game and managed to to get around him, which smartly maintained his contain gap integrity, before flattening his angle of pursuit inside towards the ball carrier. He leapt at full extension to force the back inside towards Denzel Perryman who stopped Javonte Williams getting an inch more ground.

His hustle has been noticed on special teams in recent weeks and it showed up on Sunday too as he consistently motored all across the field, playing until the whistle. The play below shows you an example where he fills in after the Chargers made some uncharacteristic missed tackles.

Now it wasn’t all sunshine and roses, if any rookie looks flawless on debut it likely means the other team messed up. Cam got beaten badly by Sutton on a dig route against a Cam’s outside quarter of Cover 6. This is a coverage breaker if the underneath defenders don’t gain the depth but Hart was well out of position so it wouldn’t have mattered if they were. He experienced a veteran receiver’s favorite “lean” when breaking inside, which is more like a one arm shove, and it threw his balance off leading to a lot of separation. Luckily for Cam a flag back at the offensive line’s feet scrubbed this off of his stat sheet.

Tarheeb Still

Now for those of you who have read my draft analysis pieces on both of these corners you’d know that I preferred the Still pick over Hart’s selection a few spots later. I think he’s got all the tools of a smart Nickel corner and that is where he started his first game against the reigning Super Bowl champions in Week 4. He performed admirably and continued that display when he was in his preferred role inside the hashes, he had some trouble in this game when he was asked to play outside after Fulton went down early in the third quarter but we will get to that.

First up we have the obvious play; his highlight deep breakup of Nix’s deep attempt to the speedster Marvin Mims Jr. Tarheeb does a really nice job playing catch technique, bumping his man up the seam before staying underneath the deep ball and playing the receiver’s hands instead of looking for the ball. Chargers’ fans are used to seeing yellow laundry as undisciplined players tried to look for the ball and ended up taking their eyes off the player leading to an easy flag.

This is never an easy rep playing from a leverage disadvantage with no over the top help and he had to scrape under Derwin James position as well. Just a fantastic slot rep that deserved the credit it is getting.

Now I want you to watch that play again but this time look at the top of your screen because Cam Hart showed some incredibly corner skills that went unnoticed because of what happened downfield. The hip-flip that Cam deployed on this play was masterful! He played this whole pivot route like a vet:

• Gave a convincing two hand shove under the outside shoulder to throw the route stem off balance
• His downfield hand is maintaining contact the whole way through
• Sinks his hip in perfect timing with the receiver which is incredibly hard to do
• Then the cherry on top: he reverses his downfield foot into a hip flip to stay over the top of the lateral cut from Sutton

This is the type of stuff that gets coaches excited!

Okay now back to Tarheeb. This next play might seem like a negative one because it allowed a critical catch in a big moment of the game but let’s look at it to see what, if anything, Still could have done better:

The answer is: he couldn’t have unless he was prime Richard Sherman. In his deep third responsibility he has to squeeze the post route but Still reads the flight of Nix’s release at lightening speed, baseball turns to reverse his momentum and gets to the catch point within a flash. That is a genuinely great play from the rookie to do this well against a concept that is traditionally known as a Cover 3 beater.

The touchdown throw to Sutton was another great rep that was just beaten by the smallest margins, and an officiating debacle. He played it 98% correctly with his only error being that he didn’t squeeze Sutton upfield as he turned to look for the ball, that left a tiny window for Sutton to slide in, which he did to perfection. It was clear on replay that this should have been overturned.

As I mentioned earlier though Still went through a rough patch at the start of the 4th quarter where in the space of 9 plays across two drive he allowed 3 explosive plays for 86 yards. He made coverage mistakes in his less familiar outside role where he just did not adjust in time to affect the zones he was trying to defend. The above play was a pure lack of concentration which is something you never want to see. I felt at the time like these were all coachable mistakes and after watching the game back in more detail I’m happy to say he did a good job of picking himself up from a moment that could have knocked his confidence.

The plays in the video above all showcase how readily prepared these two players are for the league. Interestingly most of them came late in the game when Minter had his defense in zone prevent mode which is hard to play tightly with almost no underneath help. The communication between Hart, Still and the other secondary members was outstanding in the context of the game, neither rookie looked panicked and, for me, they have shown that they are ready to start should the injuries mean that is the case.

One additional note: It cannot be overstated how impressive this coaching staff and front office have been. 6 rookies played over 18 snaps in Week 6, that’s all but the 4th and 7th round picks getting significant playing time and none of them look lost or over matched in the slightest.