We’ve just released Episode 120 of the Thunder Down Under Chargers Podcast.
Our synopsis for Episode 120 is below:
THE REGULAR SEASON IS HERE! Finally, real football begins for Season 2025 and today we preview the Chargers Wk 1 Opponent, those much-hated CHIEFS! We also discuss the Chargers’ initial 53, engage in a lightning round Q&A, bring out the #TDUMailbag and make some bold season predictions. Don’t miss it!
You can also listen on Spotify below (or download on audio wherever you like to listen to podcasts):
As always, you can support us by doing any or all of the following:
– Rec’ing this post and leaving any thoughts/feedback you have in the comments section below.
– Following us on Twitter (and ‘liking’ our tweets) at @TDU_Chargers, or individually, at @TDU_Alister, @TDU_Jack and @TDU_Andy.
– ‘Subscribing’ to our YouTube channel, clicking the ‘Like’ button for today’s episode, and engaging with us in the comments section.
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– Spreading the good word to all of your awesome Chargers friends and family and encouraging them to listen to our show (and engage with us on social media).
Hope you enjoy the episode! Thanks so much for listening 🙂
Alister (@TDU_Alister)
Long time team fan, podcaster (with Thunder Down Under Chargers Podcast), husband to a beautiful wife, friend to all fellow Chargers fanatics, and father-to-be!
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And now Becton added to the injury list as questionable with an “illness”. WTF????
Apparently none of the bars here have smart TVs, or don’t want to show the game since it’s not on a “regular” channel. I’ll try to watch on my phone. Ugh.
Great and fun podcast yet again! Thanks for that.
I have to chime in regarding Allister comments about the strong/special Belgian ales. I have indeed had some pretty tough nights when going all in on of our stronger beers. Especially those that don’t even taste or feel(at first) like they are that much stronger than a regular beer. I also have to say that don’t usually end up in huge hangovers.
That being said our special beers don’t shine the brightest when you use it as your I’m-going-to-get-hammered-tonight drink of choice. They are the perfect drink to get fairly buzzed in a setting where getting fairly buzzed would usually be frowned upon. Say for example a family get together or even better a playdate with (small)children. Nothing beats the feeling of being quite a bit drunk during daytime while your children are rumbling around in a playground. As a cherry on top you can say to the Missus you only had 3 beers and come out as a fairly responsible and measured dad. 10/10 would recommend :).
Looking forward to next week to hear you guys hopefully recap an exciting Chargers win!
Thanks Arne!
Belgian beers are my favourite. Deceptively strong despite the smoothness they bear – a bit like Ladd McConkey! God bless those Trappist monks :-p
Enjoy the game tomorrow and bring on the victory pod.
Great podcast – Enjoyed it as always.
Thanks for answering my questions:
I think the season predictions were reasonable. Here’s how I see the season play out:
I’m skeptical on the first two points, but think Harbaugh gets this team to 11 wins and a playoff win regardless. If the first two points happen, then this team is challenging for a championship
And here I thought you were consistently down on the interior OL… 🙂
(You have just written so much criticism of the interior OL that your fingers couldn’t type interior DL…)
Sorry, late night comment. I meant DL.
Interior OL is my biggest concern for the 2025 season
Thanks Kev!
The failure to draft a Center in 2024 has become a consistent critique in this forum. I wish they took a Center or a Guard. It would have been great to acquire at least one IOL in that draft.
That said, I also have to be true to my own grading fromthat Draft:
You can see how, with the way the Board fell, we opted to go in a different direction each time. It’s unlucky that Colson has started so poorly but that’s hindsight bias. Drafting is hard!
I liked the Colson pick at the time as well. In hindsight, the team would have been much better off with Dominik Puni. Overall, liked the process & decision making with the pick. Don’t like the outcome.
I didn’t like the Eboigbe pick at the time – thought it was the worst pick in a very good draft. I would have taken Bortolini here (who I liked better than you). Nourzad also would have been a decent choice here. Didn’t like the process or decision with this pick.
Trading up to get Ladd: I didn’t like this decision at the time & was worried about Ladd’s ability to stay on the field. I was wrong about that one.
They were marked as potential spam. I dont get notified when that happens, easiest thing to do if you run into that issue is tag me like you have here.
I’ve tried taking down the sensitivity settings for spam protection as low as I can and removed what could be removed, but I’ll check again if there is anything I could have missed.
I liked the Q&A (both before the mailbag and the mailbag). You guys demonstrated good overall NFL knowledge outside of just the Chargers and the AFC West. Well done.
On Jack’s answer to Erick’s question, I don’t equate the question to having only two answers, either what they did or “going all in”. There is a broad spectrum, and IMO they chose the most conservative end of the spectrum rather than a middle ground approach. IMO that is unnecessarily conservative, and I believe that will prevent the 2025 Chargers from reaching a ceiling that was possible had resources been used differently. I hope this is not their exact approach every offseason.
On the targets question to Andy, he mentioned all of the WRs, but I suspect one of them will be inactive, likely KLS. There have to be 7 inactives. I don’t see how they can easily get to that without including a WR.
Thanks for answering my questions!
I thought Andy’s answer on the Sri Lankan bar question was perfect.
I agree with Jack and Al on Parsons, as I have posted a number of times in this forum.
Most underrated team for me – Jaguars with new coaching staff.
Most overrated team for me – Vikings with McCarthy at QB.
Great show!
I met up with Al and Andy when I was in Melbourne last December. They picked this Sri Lankan bar/restaurant. We sat out on their deck (where it was hot as shit) and Andy proceeded to get a bit… tipsy?
That was my way of poking fun at him.
And… Agree with your comments. I am curious to see what O’Connell can do with the Vikes. I thought they were going to suck last year, and instead Kevin made Darnold look like he was a quality NFL QB. Can he repeat that with McCarthy?
Oh i was tipsy too Kev don’t worry. I just didn’t fall asleep and miss a family gathering afterwards 😉
Thanks for the praise, Brian!
We’ve considered starting a second podcast about the NFL (at large) and targeting Australians as our audience. But for now, we have too much fun with our Chargers-specific pod.
I share your sentiments about the offseason approach. It’s not binary. There’s a spectrum. Yes, we reportedly showed interest and maybe made offers to some FAs that never materialised in a signing, but that itself relects a certain level of conservatism or stubbornness. I really hope it’s not Owner-driven, otherwise we really may never reach the mountain top.
I’ll be disappointed if KLS is inactive. Tre’ has been a little inconsistent and reportedly was working with trainers on the sidelines during practice last week. I could see KLS having at least one key deep completion against the Chiefs. Would prefer him to suit up.
Good answers on the underrated/overrated teams!
Yet you called my responses about the Parson’s trade “binary”. I gave 2 quick responses as I’m on the road….can he block for Herbert and are we 1 player away from a championship? Two is not binary.
But let’s look at the compensation in the trade. Two 1st round picks isn’t binary. There’s 2 opportunities to address holes in this roster.
I must ask this question….how many championships did Dallas win with Parsons? We’ll see what happens in GB, but if the NFL truly is the ultimate team sport, one player doesn’t win championships….not even QB’s. The Cowboys were 12-5 each year since Parsons’ arrival but no championship.
Yes, he’s a great player and a difference maker. Any roster improves with his addition. But I’ll continue to stand on preferring to have the 2 first round picks when trying to build and develop a sustainable roster. To those who say they’re just late picks….plenty of “late” picks have been phenomenal players AND there’s never a guarantee you’ll be picking late.
Yes….a range of ways to build a roster. I’m not saying GB was wrong, I just prefer to primarily draft and develop. And I think other positions are more important right now for the Chargers to address. Neither view is right, wrong, or binary.
Buck one way I have looked at the potential Parsons trade to really make it seem more palatable should it have occurred was to see it as using the 2026 pick to draft Parsons. Looking at it like that we would only be giving up a 2027 Rd1 pick. Of course the $$ is a whole different issue, but at least it makes the compensation look even more reasonable.
And that’s a reasonable view. But you and I have both remained pretty steadfast that this team isn’t (wasn’t?) just a year away. While I agree that roster building involves acquiring players through various means, I think the sustainability that Hortiz and Harbaugh both tout requires a strong emphasis on draft and develop….and apparently some career rehabilitation.
Totally fair. As I have always said from when Jim and Joe were hired that I thought this team was 3 off seasons away from really being considered a legit contender. I know we have yet to kick off this season, so this may sound ridiculous, but 2026 is a huge off season for this regime IMO.
I tried to be careful with my language on the pod Terry that the binary part of the analysis would be viewing the move as only being worth it if the team is ‘one move away from a championship’. So, if the answer to the question is Yes, you do it. But if it’s No, you don’t.
I don’t think that’s the (single) right question to ask, and I’m not suggesting you’ve only limited yourself to that question either! If that’s not the only question you’ve posed then your anaylsis isn’t binary and I’m not suggesting it is.
It’s clear that by trading for Parsons you forego at least two first round rookies under cost control, and you also are committed to allocating a reasonable % of your salary cap to him whereas some of that same space could be spent on additional players. So I actually think there are plenty of reasonable arguments you can make (and have done so above) to support not trading for him.
But…my view is…with the salary cap space increasing substantially YoY and all the avenues available to GMs to build successful, competitive rosters, I don’t think arguing that the team isn’t one move away from contending is one of the better arguments for not having made the the move. I think a good GM in 2025 could make the Parsons move, forego those things I listed, and still wheel and deal their way to a championship roster through savvy drafting and other moves. IOL generally get drafted in Rounds 2 and beyond, etc, etc.
I’m having flashbacks to when Melvin Gordon was forced into the starting line-up following his ‘holdout’. From memory it cost the Chargers the game.
If Najee hasn’t taken ‘live reps’ since his eye injury, I’d prefer riding Hampton hard as the RB1 (20+ carries) with Haskins or Vidal providing any spot relief. Harris likely needs to round into proper form and fitness and I would rather that NOT occur against the Chiefs.
I’m hoping this is the opening act of Hampton’s ROY campaign. Harris may get a few carries to drive the pile forward, but it’s a big ask for him to play his way into game shape.
Great observation. They need to take it slow with Najee. I hope one of the PS RBs (Hines is my preference) is active Friday.
Sounds like it’s going to be Najee. If he runs for 2.5 yards per pop, resembles Gus the Bus and/or fumbles, I’m going to smash my tv screen.
This episode had me crackin up. Thanks!
We aim to please!
Watched the show this morning and commented 2 or 3 times on YouTube. Now you likely know my real name. 🙂
Currently in Green Bay, just hit the pro shop for my daughter’s bday.
Thanks Buck (Terry!)
Happy bday to your daughter. Enjoy your time in “Titletown”
Glad the trip is still doing well Buck. Hopefully you find a good spot for the game on Friday night!!
Thanks buddy. Already scouting that out. I’ll be in Mackinaw City MI for a few days starting Thursday so should find a spot. 🙂
Man, you are really leaving no stone unturned on that trip. You will be my go to travel advisor once you are done.
TDU thanks for answering my mailbag question on the pod. As a retort to Jack’s answer I will say that a macro view of the last 2 drafts might not be as rosy as it seems.
As Tau pointed out on another post, there are no 6th or 7th Rd picks from either draft on the active roster. Hortiz has yet to address the IOL and in doing so might have bypassed the best IOL draft in history, Colson looks like a bust, and the Alt pick was just about a no brainer and if he wasn’t the selection, the other players in that range were: Nabers, Bowers, Lathan and Fashanu, all of which look to be good to great players. Ladd was a fantastic pick and can’t be argued, but outside of Alt and Ladd, Hortiz is being propped up by the selections of Still and Hart (who the jury is still out on b/c of health). We have yet to see the 2025 picks in action yet, so we could have some more big hits there.
However, a huge question for me is this, “Is it worth coveting comp picks for the sake of spending on players when they can’t seem to even make the 53 man roster?”
Don’t get me wrong, I like most of the things Hortiz has done at this point, because they show a level of savviness and roster depth focus we had never seen under Telesco. I am just mildly concerned that the roster build will be to conservative going forward. Herbert is 27, before you know it he will be in his 30’s and who knows how long Harbaugh has? It’s not like we have a rookie QB and a coach in his 40’s. There’s going to be a time to push the chips in the middle of the table. I just hope Hortiz has the (to steal a word from the pod) “plums” to do it.
I did write that somewhere but later corrected myself, since Mickens is a 6th rounder. Here is a better summary I posted elsewhere:
I understand 6th and 7th round picks are low probability picks, and this isn’t really a fair thing to criticize. But I find this to be an interesting early track record:
It’s early to judge these moves, but this makes it appear that so far:
Maybe seek more trades?
Yes, this was the post I was referencing and you are correct about Mickens. I think trading these late picks to add some depth to the 53 or to slide up the draft board is probably the best use for them. 6th and 7th Rd picks are usually dart throws anyway.
It’s way too early to judge Hortiz’s draft record. What we know for sure:
We also have some early indicators on others, although the jury remains out on them for now:
Overall, if the #1 early returns pan out, that would mean getting 9 good to great players out of his first two drafts, even if some (KLS, Mickens) are players with smaller roles. I don’t think it is reasonable to expect much better draft performance than that.
Also, out of his picks that seem most likely to turn out poorly, we can assume one of them was a biased pick (Colson). As Harbaugh gets further distanced from his college coaching career, there should be fewer of his ex-players available to draft, so hopefully that will not occur again.
Thanks for submitting the question!
I think the retort (to your retort to Jack!) would be something like: Even if Hortiz’s 6th or 7th round picks have not, to date, been successful; this approach to drafting pays off in the long run. The more picks the merrier (you can use them to trade or to find the occasional late-round gem).
But I generally agree with your view that having “plums” is important (see, for example, Howie Roseman), and there is a real question mark around the Chargers staff having the necessary testicular fortitude. I say this not only in relation to player acquisitions, but also on fourth down in games.