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So went to the Bolt today for the first time. Awesome place. Highly recommend. Super nice sea breeze kept things cool and comfortable. Following are my thoughts:
The reports of improved play by QJ are real. He made a lot of nice grabs with no obvious drops he should have caught. He caught short and intermediate throws and a deep bomb as well. He missed a contested TD catch he almost hauled in with one hand. I think he would have had a better chance on that throw if he didn’t get slowed down hand fighting with the db off the line. He needs to learn some kind of rip-thru move bc that hand fighting threw off the timing. He still almost made a circus catch.
As good as QJ was, DJ Chark was better. Caught two deep bombs for TDs and some intermediate throws. On one of the bombs, it was underthrown and Chark did a reach around on the db to bring in the ball. DB was lost and did not turn around to see the ball.
Rice with a nice catch. Hurst looked really good.
Surprisingly, McConkey dropped almost every pass thrown to him. I’d say shocking. But it’s only one day.
Herbert looks like he added 7-8 lbs of muscle since the beginning of OTAs. That was my friend’s opinion. I said probably 4-5. By the end of the session, I said yeah, 7-8 lbs. He wasn’t terribly accurate today, but was always looking deep for a WR, sometimes settling for an intermediate route when the deep ball wasn’t there. Connected on several deep balls, but overthrew 3 wide open receivers. All in all, encouraging. Dude is a stud.
Dicker looks like a middle LB. Unbelievable. Dude put on a LOT of muscle. JK Scott boomed 60 yard punts as often as he shanked 30 yard punts. Hang time when he hits is 5 seconds.
Harbaugh is a maniac. He did the complete strength and conditioning program in the “4th quarter with the team, including Turkish Get Ups. My friend and I couldn’t stop laughing at this old dude keeping up with pro football players.
Fun day.
I was also at the Bolt today. It was also my first time at the facility. A great location, relatively close to the ocean so it doesn’t feel too hot. The staff there was super friendly too.
I think you summarized the day perfectly Uncle Jamms. I didn’t get a great view of the QJ missed TD catch because I was on the left side of the field, closer to the food trucks. But it almost seemed like he did the same thing that he did numerous times last year by not attempting to catch the ball with two hands. Instead he tried to make a one-handed circus catch in the end zone & missed it. To his defense, it would’ve been a difficult catch either way. But overall, he made some nice catches today. And through three days he’s looked very good. Still tempering overall expectations of him.
The other very interesting thing I saw was Jordan McFadden receiving numerous handoffs from Herbert. Looks like they’re taking a very close look at what McFadden can do as a Fullback. I’m sure we’ll see him in goal line situations & jumbo packages this regular season. Should be fun to watch.
Overall, a good experience. One piece of feedback I have is they need to start selling beer too at the Bolt! 🍺
@lfg_boltz For some reason I can't respond to Uncle Jamm's above, but his quote here:
The reports of improved play by QJ are real. He made a lot of nice grabs with no obvious drops he should have caught. He caught short and intermediate throws and a deep bomb as well.
This is obviously good to hear. But I'd love your insights on how real the reps are right now at training camp. Are the CBs trying their out there? Are they jamming the receiver at the line? Are they breaking properly on the ball?
The main things I thought QJ struggled with in games last year was getting free off the line, holding his line and not being redirected during the route, keeping his balance at the stem, and being strong at the catchpoint when there are real bodies there trying to break up the pass.
Do you think what you saw today could dispel any of those concerns? Or was today more like routes on air without any real similarity to game play. I think QJ - as a great athlete - would look great in shorts catching passes without having any real fear of being bodied during his routes or at the catch point. But sadly that isn't what the NFL is like at all...
@alisterlloyd I don’t think you can take these reports thru 3 days as anything more than what it is. QJ has done well without pads and in shorts (at least yesterday, they were in shorts). The defense was a little more aggressive than anticipated, but they were still holding back. So I’m not willing to say I’m convinced QJ is set for a breakthrough season. But at least he’s not dropping passes habitually in this scenario. I do find it telling that the team has him as WR4 on the depth chart.
One other observation. The D is very rowdy. They were whooping and hollering on every defensive play. The O, on the other hand, was much more subdued.
@alisterlloyd The reps are real, but the D is not bringing the 100% physicality yet. In his training campy opening presser Harbaugh talked about “Tempo Violations”, which means players cannot follow through on their tackle and cannot block to the point where they’re throwing someone down with the risk of getting injured. So I think we do need to take it with a grain of salt. Also, QJ was all over the practice field last year too, & then we saw some of those bad habits you mentioned during the regular season like his releases off the line & being strong at the catch point. But I am comfortable saying that it looks like he’s really worked on his game this offseason & we are gonna see a different QJ this season.
At the same time, many of QJ’s receptions this training camp have been contested catches, whereas last training camp most of his catches were more screen passes & in the flat. And he took many of those to the house. I’d say his game has definitely improved year over year.
Very nice report. Thanks for sharing it. Jim doing Turkish get ups with the team? That sounds hilarious by itself to imagine Jim Harbaugh doing it.
Just read that both Rashawn Slater and JK Dobbins exited practice early with injuries.
@buck-melanoma I read that four players exited early. Slater, Dobbins, Parham, Olatoke. Slater came back and worked off to the side with trainers then left again. Practice today will be a good indicator. Fingers crossed.
@spanos-must-go 3/4 of these players have been injured a lot recently, so this report is concerning to me. I love Parham, but he seems to be very injury prone. Like his body can't take the NFL abuse.. he may be a cut candidate. Slater, I'm hoping it's something really minor, and that with the new strength and conditioning coach that they help make his body stronger. I can see the hesitation on the Chargers part on not wanting to overpay the guarantees on a new contract for Slater. Dobbins -> it's like karma, he just said he moved past all this and it's a new page, and here he is again. Hopefully something small and precautionary, as I would love to see him play a full season in the lightning bolts. Olatoke probably needs another year or two of NFL conditioning, so he'll be practice squad or a cut. Would love to see Chargers develop him and tap into that speed he has.
Thanks for the updates, @unclejammsarmy and @lfg_boltz - awesome insights!
There are two 'roster battles' developments that have stood out to me through the first three days of camp:
- Per Daniel Popper: "Poona Ford and Scott Matlock were the interior defensive linemen with the first team in the opening 11-on-11 period. Christopher Hinton and Morgan Fox also worked in with the first team."
It looks like Harbaugh's old Michigan player, Chris Hinton, has a good sniff to make the team this year. True NT, behind Poona.
- Again, per Daniel Popper: ""For the two-minute drill and the move-the-ball periods, McConkey, Chark and Palmer were the receivers working with the first-team offense. Dobbins and Patterson were the running backs. Will Dissly and Hayden Hurst were the tight ends.
Johnston, Rice, Johnson, Derius Davis and Simi Fehoko worked in at receiver with the second-team offense. Isaiah Spiller, Vidal and Elijah Dotson rotated at running back. Stone Smartt and Donald Parham Jr. were at tight end."
Another surprise name to look out for, RB Jaret Patterson (played for the Commanders 2021-2022 and has had 95 carries at NFL level in regular season games, 344 yds (4.0 ypc), 2 TDs, 1 fumble). Spent most of last year on our practice squad. Seems like they may like him for now ahead of Spiller & Vidal. Interesting.
Thanks for the in-person updates, guys.
Jim Harbaugh's press conference on Day 4 was the first instance of him getting frustrated with Daniel Popper.
See here from approx 2:00-4:00: https://www.chargers.com/video/jim-harbaugh-training-camp-press-conference-day-4-2024
Harbaugh's responses the question he'd been asked about Slater's injury status made it crystal clear that he didn't want to provide specific details about players' injuries, yet Popper didn't follow these social cues or body language, and in the quest to do his job proceeded to ask a similar question about another player, and then the same question about Parham's health status.
'He's working through something", "He's working through something", "He's working through something", said Jim three times with increasing levels of irritation evinced in his voice.
If this Chargers team were ever to lose consistently, I could see Harbaugh v Popper confrontations in press conferences becoming weekly viewing. Hopefully it never comes to that. But there's just something about Popper, he riles these coaches up!
@alisterlloyd yes, a momentous occasion indeed! I just posted about this exact topic in a different thread. Popper is doing his job well, & Harbaugh is doing his job well. In the end of the day, I’d rather that Harbaugh not give us any intel on injuries. Keep the opponent off balance (and the fans for that matter).
”Working through something” might become the favorite go-to phrase going forward…lol.
@lfg_boltz I think it was a great example of what makes Popper (a) awesome at his job, and (b) really annoying for (some) coaches.
He actually reminds me of my younger brother, who's a brilliant lawyer, but can be painful in certain conversations 😆
Popper's great skill is asking follow-up questions to initial answers provided by coaches and players. He listens carefully, and is prepared to ask: "When you said "X", what did you mean?". That's a key journalistic skill. However, the outcome of that approach is it can make the coach feel as if they are being cross-examined in a court of law/under interrogation. Coaches are happy to answer open questions with media. They are less happy when their answers are then scrutinised and put under the microscope with a number of follow-up questions.
Here is the part though where I think Popper (and my brother) can become annoying.
Popper had already asked Harbaugh some follow-up questions about Rashawn Slater's decision to leave practice. He eventually got the clarity he was looking for from Harbaugh, but it was painfully clear that Harbaugh did not enjoy the line of questions and would prefer not to give specifics about player injuries.
Popper then had a question to ask himself and decision to make - "Do I still ask my next planned questions about Player Y's, and Player Z's injury statuses, knowing what I do now that Harbaugh won't want to give me specific details"?
He decided to ask those questions anyway. THAT POINT, I think is where one can decide if Popper is 'doing his job' by asking these questions, or is simply being a pain in the a**, asking questions he knows are likely to be rebuffed. THAT, can be viewed as him either being good at his job, or being bad at reading body language and pissing people off unnecessarily, and straining relationships.
'He's working through something", "He's working through something", "He's working through something", said Jim three times with increasing levels of irritation evinced in his voice.
Just watched it. I don't agree with your characterization here. I didn't hear any "increasing levels of irritation" in Harbaugh's voice as he repeated "he's working through something." In fact, he smiled at Popper as he said it the last time. It reminded me quite a bit of Bill Belichick's "on to Cincinatti" press conference many years ago.
I expect Harbaugh to calmly handle this kind of thing on a regular basis in a way that Staley was unable to do. Obviously, this is not Harbaugh's first rodeo... this is old hat for him.
Seems like a nothingburger to me.
@tau837 Sorry tried to reply below. Stormcloud still stumps me sometimes.
Hey, maybe there are some examples where a person can respond with the same abrupt statement three times without being the slightest bit annoyed. Kids: "Dad are we there yet?", Dad: "Not yet", Kids: "Dad are we there yet?", Dad: "Not yet", Kids: "Dad are we there yet?", Dad: "Not yet". I guess it's possible, but not very probable 😆
He definitely smiled at the end.
It's all fun and games for now during training camp. But when they're questions about why Greg Roman did or didn't do something on Offense and we lost the game, and Popper isn't satisfied with the answers and asks more question about the response, we'll see if Harbaugh is still laughing about it 
I totally expect Harbaugh to handle this kind of thing better than Staley. But I also think it's ludicrous to suggest he wasn't annoyed by the questions. Harbaugh repeating the same brusque statement 3x suggests at least some level of annoyance.
@alisterlloyd Doesn't really matter if he is annoyed. And, by the way, I did not claim he wasn't annoyed, since you seem to have keyed on that. You said you heard irritation in Harbaugh's voice, and I didn't. I heard a calm voice repeating a non-answer. Not the same thing IMO.
There is no coach alive who wouldn't be annoyed at some point by a journalist with Popper's intelligence and tenacity.
All that matters is how he handles it. Eventually, Staley melted down. That will never happen with Harbaugh.
@tau837 - Ok we are mostly in alignment then!
Staley melted down. That will never happen with Harbaugh.
This will be the interesting part. Staley melted down on a scale rarely (if ever) seen, I agree.
Harbaugh though is not Bill Belichick. He's a passionate, emotional person who is no stranger to sideline histrionics! Maybe if this were Chuck Noll, I'd have your same level of confidence that we'll never see him meltdown. With Harbaugh though? I'm not quite so confident, and in fact this was the reason why I managed anything at about this Popper exchange at all! It took me a little by surprise.
If Harbaugh is getting even slightly annoyed at vanilla training camp questions about injuries, which Staley didn't do (from memory) earlier in his tenure, then perhaps there will be cause to get the popcorn out after all!
But...I don't think a Harbaugh-led team will find itself under quite so much pressure as Staley's did, so maybe the occasion will never arise...
@tau837 You have no way of predicting this. Never is a very strong statement, especially given the sideline tantrums we've seen Harbaugh throw in the past.
That will never happen with Harbaugh.
@buck-melanoma Yet I am confident in saying it. You may not be confident in it, and that's fine.
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