Happy Saturday, StormCloud!
The Chargers are facing the Dallas Cowboys in our final preseason matchup. Although preventing a winless preseason would be great, the main objectives today will be evaluating the competition for the final roster spots and even practice squad players, and getting out of the game as healthy as possible.
The preseason has ultimately been a lackluster start to the Jim Harbaugh era, almost entirely because of the abysmal quarterback play from the reserves. This could be Easton Stick’s last stand in the NFL, as another poor performance would almost guarantee Joe Hortiz hitting the post-cuts waiver wire for a replacement, one of which we’ve already identified and is starting to get major traffic as a player on the move. It’s worth wondering if Stick’s poor play would even be worthy of a practice squad spot, as the offense as been struggling to move the ball even in training camp practices.
Tune iin, StormCloud, and make sure to use the Article version of this page for your commenting today, as it provides live updates as our members comment.
Fair ๏ปฟ๐ ๏ปฟ
And Robert Kennedy ends the election! Errโฆummmโฆ I mean, the game. Robert Kennedy ends the game.ย
Tipped by Morris-Brash
That was a really bad drive. Stick is 12/29 187 yards 1-TD, 1-Int. This was against all backups and a full game.
To be fair to Stick, there were several drops and he was obviously told to throw to Rice a lot, even though he could not get any separation.
I have no idea what this staff thinks of Stick. The dude I saw play in 2023 was not great, but didn’t completely suck, which is what I expected this year. For the salary cap allocated to him, I think he’s fine as the 2024 backup, or at least I did until watching him play in 2024. Now, I less confident…
I think 2023 Easton was an average backup. Not great, but kept the team competitive with very limited skill position players. If you look at PFF grades from 2023, Easton is better than any QB on the Raiders roster:
Other notable backups (that are getting paid a lot more):
Stick is not a hill I want to die on. If the team can upgrade, fine. Just pointing out that he’s cheap and played OK under shitty circumstances last year. And yes, he’s looked like shit all pre-season. Not sure if that’s the system, the coaches telling him to throw to Rice all the time or if he just regressed.
Lots of decisions to make regarding guys dangling between numbers 47-58 on the roster. Canโt wait to hear the TDU take on things. Sunday morning in Melbourne. Get to work, gents.ย
Sorry haha! I just finished watching with Andy here slightly delayed.
Decisions, decisions, decisions.
Fehoko > Rice & CJ (both cut?)
Would Tau still cut Derius Davis?
Who’s the 9th OL? Sarell? (I prefer Willis Patrick)
The team seems to like Stone Smartt but I’d go with Dissly, Hurst, Parham, Fisk
Tony Jefferson > JT Woods.
Neither Cam Hart nor Eboigbe showed much (if anything) this preseason, but I think they’re both safe.
My $0.02:
A few players that I have defended didn’t do much either:
Good comments Kev.
I think JT Woods deserves credit for improving. However, today you could still see some of the problems he has taking bad angles to the ball carrier and his tackling technique is no bueno. He leads with the crown of his head. It led to one bad missed tackle and the two he connected with should have been wrap-up tackles and leading at the ball carrier risked him bouncing of the receiver. I like him in coverage. He’s a great athlete too. If he makes the team, I’ll get it and will root for him. But he remains a liability as a tackler and reader of the play still IMO.
I do not have a strong opinion one way or the other about Woods. I agree with the issues with fundamentals, but my gosh, the dude is fast and that can make up for other flaws. On the play I mentioned, he did lead with his helmet, but he closed a lot of ground and the crown of his helmet hit the receiver in the chest, knocking the ball loose, breaking up the past.
I think Woods has a lot of traits the coaching staff can work with. If he’s cut, I’ll get it (and hate him as a Raider). If he makes the team, I will look forward to seeing his growth.
I assume the reason for the question is the 70 yard run. Well, last season in actual games that count, he had a 51 yard run… and 13 other carries for 50 yards (3.8 ypc) and 15 receptions for 66 yards (4.4 YPR). That is pretty awful. An occasional big jet sweep is great, but it’s an “icing on the cake” kind of play. To get on the field, he needs to actually be able to contribute as a WR, and we have not seen that. He is fast, but he is really small, with small hands, and likely a complete inability to be an effective run blocker.ย
Anyway, moving Davis would allow the team to keep both Fehoko and Rice while keeping 6 WRs. I would much rather see that.
To your other questions/comments:
CJ appears to be a cut… expect him on the PS, and expect he will play snaps on offense this season.
I would be very surprised if the 9th OL is not Sarell. I think that is a lock, and I agree with it.
Agree the team seems to like Smartt but I don’t. I could see the team picking up a TE from another team’s roster cuts, meaning the Chargers TE3 might not be on the roster today.
Disagree completely on Jefferson. He had a good game today… in preseason against non-starters and largely vanilla coaching. Woods has actually looked good lately at CB and thus offers CB-S versatility. I prefer him over Jefferson.
Agree Hart and Eboigbe are safe, and believe they should be.
Aside from all that, I remain interested in the FB situation. In 9 of Roman’s 10 seasons as OC, he has had a FB play more than 400 snaps on offense. Are they not going to do that in this offense, or is McFadden going to play FB that much? The latter seems unlikely.
I’ve enjoyed thinking about your different reasons for cutting or trading DD, but if I was the GM, I’ve determined I would keep him:
I guess if you posed a specific hypothetical I could arrive at a different outcome. But I would prefer to keep only one of Fehoko (6’4″) & Rice (6’2″) since Palmer, Chark and QJ are also all tall. Derius can be the back-up shiftier smaller player to Ladd. I like to build a diverse receiving room with guys who excel at different things.
Sarell’s only advantage (I can discern) is his versatility. However, we already have 4 guys who can play tackle (Slater/Alt/Pipkins/Salyer) and Sarell plays poorly at every spot on the line. I don’t really get why he’s got so many opportunities in the NFL given how poorly he’s played (possibly his five-star high school recruiting status). I guess Willis Patrick is likely to survive waivers, so I’m not too aggressive with this take. But Patrick has had a good preseason and I see the advantage of having a back-up Guard who’s actually played Guard all his life.
You seem to be fairly anti-Jefferson, but the team looks deeper at corner than we thought heading into the season and Minter’s scheme doesn’t ask his corners to do as much as his safeties (which protects them). For example, Matt Hankins has been just as good as JT Woods at outside corner. Jefferson was really impressive today (even though it was against back-ups). It was how he read the QB’s eyes that flashed most. Something JT Woods hasn’t yet shown. The team needs a 4th safety and I would take Jefferson and risk Woods to the PS.
Matlock got some looks at FB today. But my surprise pick would be Tucker Fisk making the team as the 4th TE/FB.
On your comment that his ceiling might be closer to generational than JAG… sure, anything is possible. But lots of guys have made All Pro as a PR… without researching it, I feel confident that many more of them were JAGs than turned out to be generational.
For an NFL WR, Davis’s production in college was far below the norm. It would be a welcome surprise if he ever develops into a WR who warrants even 2 targets per game at the NFL level.
We’ll see. I appreciate you finding the most positive perspective on it.
I should also add that Foster Sarell had a good game last night per PFF.ย I wasn’t paying that much attention to the OL on the ‘live watch’ other than noticing that the passer was being kept fairly clean. So, at least yesterday, Sarell appears not to have played poorly.
Interesting comments. Rice and Johnson’s lack of production this pre-season has led me to the thought that keeping Davis is the better path. It’s not that I disagree with your logic – I agree that keeping a WR that can’t play WR is not great roster management. I just think that no other WR has taken Davis’ roster spot from him.
I think both Jefferson and Woods can add value to the 2024 Chargers team. It was pretty clear in the game that Jefferson is a very smart player. He was diagnosing and positioning himself to make plays. Woods speed makes up for much of his shortcomings. I saw the dude fly in from nowhere several times to make plays. I think the Chargers need to find a way to keep both.
The Chargers have 6 above-average-to-great O linemen: Slater, Johnson, Alt, Salyer, Pipkins, Bozeman. McFadden may turn out to be OK. The rest are below-average. If Sarell is cut, I don’t think there will be teams looking to add him to their roster. I actually think I would keep 8 OL, stash the rest on the PS, use the roster spot to keep a CB, RB or WR, then look to add a vet cut by another team.
TE….not that the writer isย wrongย about Parham, but has Smartt overtaken him?
Safety….I like what I’ve seen from Woods playing more CB. Is it enough to keep him in the safety group?
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WR….I think Davis sticks, at least for now. Roman needs to scheme more ways to utilize that speed.
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RB….Bye Spiller.
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Edge….Bye Rumph.
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redacted” rel=”nofollow ugc”> https://chargerswire.usatoday.com/2024/08/24/chargers-53-man-roster-projection-2024-season/?newsletter_origin=chargerswire.usatoday.com&newsletter_post_position=2&email= redacted
I was thinking more PS but yes, IR is likely the better option. I mean bye as in I doubt we’re going to see him much, if at all, in a Charger uni going forward, barring injuries to the other edges.
I think Smartt has improved a great deal.ย Not sure if his blocking is good enough for him to stick.
I really like what I saw from Woods vs. the Cowboys.ย Fast, around the ball.ย Physical.ย Looks like a different dude.
I don’t see how you can keep Spiller based on the way he ran in the pre-season games.ย I am confused as to why he continues to get so few touches.
Yeah, I can agree with IR’ing Rumph for insurance. But I also don’t think he’ll see many, if any, snaps unless there’s an injury and can’t imagine him here next year unless something suddenly clicks. I think edge will be a draft focus next year.
Smartt has improved. Enough? I dunno. If availability is the tiebreaker then that’s understandable. I just wish Parham could stay healthy because there is ability there, particularly in the red zone. His blocking though….ugh. Gates wasn’t much of a blocker either….but he was Antonio Gates.
It would shock me if Harbaugh kept only 8 OL, even temporarily. If they find a roster cut they like better than Sarell, I expect them to keep Sarell initially and then replace him with that other player.
@tau837ย
They could also be sneaky and cut Sarrell thinking that he wonโt get poached, then wait a week and swap Sarrell off the PS for maybe Rice before week 1. I, too, doubt they face Vegas without nine OLs.ย
I think they cut him & then ask him to come back to the PS.ย ย I believe he does not have to clear waivers & can sign wherever he wants if the Chargers cut him.ย Easy roster decision – just work a deal with him and have him as insurance on the PS.
I know he had good seasons in 2016-2018. 2018 was 6 seasons ago, about to be 7.
I’m fine with him on the practice squad, which keeps his veteran leader voice in the locker room and position group meetings. You didn’t mention that in your post I replied to.
I agree 100% with your take on the Jefferson/Woods debate.ย For two years, I hated the JT Woods draft pick and believed that he was a horrible safety because he could not tackle to save his life, so matching him up one on one in the open field seemed like a disaster waiting to happen.ย But I like JT Woods the CB.ย That guy is long, has a good vertical leap, has good coverage skills and is very fast.ย His open field tackling exposure should be somewhat reduced at CB as well.ย Also, his tackling is at least improved, though still not a strength.ย What I see from Jefferson is a smart, but not overly athletic player that does well against reserves, but likely lacks the athleticism to be consistently effective against starting caliber players.
I agree that Davis does not offer much as a WR, but who returns kicks for us if we trade him?ย I like what Gill has done in the preseason, but we are not keeping him.ย I think Fehoko has earned WR5 and he is a better athlete than some think he is.ย I am underwhelmed by what I have seen from Rice so far, but that is a very limited sample size.
Regarding FB, I think McFadden has okay straight line speed for an OL player, but he does not seem very athletic in terms of moving to make blocks in open space.ย In that sense, he does not remind me of Ricard (Ravens) at all.ย We could get somebody that does not fit another team’s scheme after cut down day or we could use one of the two bigger TEs that we brought in (Heins, Fisk) in that capacity.
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And then Iโm not sure that coming out of a timeout that Stick or runnng back shit the bed. One first down ends game and we are going backwards.
What a great play by Matt Hankins!!!
Hey guys – been working all day today, but I just want to say it’s AWESOME seeing everyone chatting on this open thread! Are you using the Article Page, or the Forum Page? If you’re using the Article Page, how are you enjoying it?
If you’re using the Article page ( https://stormcloud.blog/chargers-cowboys-preseason-open-thread/ ), it updates live so you don’t have to refresh, has a chat bubble that let’s you know when new comments happen, and highlights new posts in yellow.
It also posts the most recent stuff first.
If you’ve already used the Article page version, there’s no major recent change… I’m just curious how it worked for people in a day where we’ve had rapid comments coming in.
Looks like the article page. I didn’t really have many issues. It switched on me a couple times but I think it was something on my end as far as commands go.
I’m not sure either, but I agree – it’s easier/better to use. Having to scroll across multiple pages is annoying, but would be unworkable on a game-day thread.
I was on the article page and it’s great. It’s like a better version of the SB nation commenting system with some extra bells and whistles. I like it a lot.
We will see how it holds up during a regular season game but this sure as hell feels and looks promising!
OK THAT was
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Welp, Morris-Brash, welcome to the 53.ย
@dtsmith-fiatbux heโs earned a spot for sure. Much better player than Rumph. Rumph is a ST player though.
I think maybe they’ll get to avoid making that decision if Rumph can be placed on PUP/IR, or whatever the hell you call it before cut day ๐
Man the number of plays that haven’t even developed because Stick’s internal clock is broken is depressing.
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PS: How in the world is defensive holding call on a run play possible TWICE?
I have been defending Stick a bit, but I really don’t get his shitty play this pre-season. While not great last year, he was not horrible either. He looks lost in this offense. Will be interesting to see who is waived and what moves the Chargers make.
What makes no sense to me about Stick is how has seemingly everyone not named Chris Hinton or Easton Stick not improved. JT Woods for goodness sake switched positions and made plays out there today but the guy whose been in the same room as one of the premiere talents at the QB position and supposedly see’s the game in the film room got worse?
To me Herbert will only get better having someone that is actually NFL caliber sitting in the QB room. All arguments made to retain Stick seem DOA after these 3 preseason games. Given the time of possession differential in all 3 of the games, it’s amazing how the defense has performed with guts and grit. Lance looked better than Stick and he threw 5 picks lol
Donโt be fooled by 20-points. The Chargers have 10-first downs entering the 4th quarter. Stick unable to generate consistent drives.
Woods with a hit! If I werenโt watching, I wouldnโt believe it.ย
Tony Jefferson another int! Wow! Three turnovers and a sack! Hard to cut a veteran playing like this.
Great pick by Jefferson. He took three steps into the passing lane before Lance threw the ball.
And the tipped ball for a pick. 2nd tip like this. Heโs staring down the check down and allowing D-line to get hands up.
Cornelius Johnson having a solid game! ย
I noticed that too.
That was a decent pass by Stick. Interesting that he’s playing into the 3rd quarter.
Well, if he keeps making shit decisions like that sill lob pass that got picked, then this may be his last NFL appearance.
If I’m Brenden Rice, I hate Easton Stick so much. Oline got the coaches message this last week of practice, the DBs again learning on the fly and improving. I like what the DL has put together thus far, still looking for a little more. My one genuine question is, what happened to CJ Okoye? I would have thought for sure he would be a guy Harbaugh could get his hands on. Haven’t heard any reports about him at all this offseason; it’s like he hasn’t existed.
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Iโm sorry but Stick is just too errant with too many throws. 10-straight incompletions. Cornelius Johnson with a nice catch, absorbed a hard hit for a first down. Johnson with another catch. He is a big target.
Just got home – watching part of the 2nd half. More shit play from Stick?
Bad drop by Jaylon Johnson. Forced fumble by Tony Jefferson! Third big play by Tony Jefferson!
Offensive PI! Shoved with both hands.
Wide Receiver: Chark, McConkey, Palmer, Johnston, Davis, Fehoko. Rice and C.Johnson to the practice squad.
I am going to bed. Not staying up through the middle of the night for preseason. I got 2 kids to entertain tomorrow so I need some rest :).
Nice chatting with you guys! See you in the regular season
I just donโt see Spiller making the team. He just isnโt special. Edwards, Dobbins, Vidal, and Patterson.
Damn it Stick. Corner of the end zone was open as well. He could have lifted that ball over the defender.
He seemed to be targeting the receiver closest to him so the pass was lower and in reach of the defender. Play design indeed was beautiful
Nice chatting with you all; gotta go.ย Take care.
Matlock with a solid block out of the fullback position. Two plays, two solid blocks.
Lol, I was going to complain about leaving the middle unprotected on third and short.ย Then the pick.ย ย Typical preseason game: good play, bad play.
Tony Jefferson with a highlight diving interception. Two big plays for him. Making a late charge??
These last WR spots are going to be very interesting…
And Fehoko locking up a spot on the 53!!
Haha, 2 minute break and probably pretty expensive technology to determine that 3rd and short was indeed 3rd and short
Nice sack by Tony Jefferson. Just overwhelmed the running back.
Second pass attempt was behind the receiver and allowed DB to knock it away. ย
Oof, number 82 not helping Stick keep his football career going. That was a very catchable ball
Stick almost throws a pick on his first pass attempt.
Horrible throw
This is the first time I’ve watched them this season live. I get the impression that the defense is swarming to the ball more than they did under Staley.
Yeah it has been written here several times: it just looks like the defensive plan is clear for all the players and they just can play more instinctively. Great and refreshing to see to be honest
That was a poor PI call against Leonard.ย ย
It looked like he grabbed the receivers shoulder a bit too much. These types of calls aren’t always very clear to me though
Was that the exact kick that you want with the kickoff rules? Bounce right in front of the end zone and then into the end zone.
Sweet run by Davis!
Yeah that was beautiful. Exactly 1 minute after I was thinking to myself how boring pre seasons games are :).
I guess that seals his roster spot?
As always, thank you for the forum Kyle.
Lackluster defensive effort on first drive until the redzone. Nice pbu by Finley and nice tackle by Junior.
Thinking Derius Davis just made the 53.