We’ve just released Episode 138 of the Thunder Down Under Chargers Podcast.
Our synopsis is below:
The Chargers’ 2025 regular season concluded on Sunday with a “meaningless” game against the Broncos at Mile High, Denver. Most of the team’s important starters were rested ahead of the playoffs, but Harbaugh’s men nevertheless battled manfully – led by QB2 Trey Lance. After a while, the disparity between the Broncos’ starters and Bolts’ back-ups became too great, and the Broncos secured victory 19-3 (also claiming the AFC’s #1 overall seed in the process).
Now, Wild Card Round beckons. The moment is almost here. And it is to New England, Massachusetts, that Justin Herbert, Derwin James, Khalil Mack, and the rest of the team will travel, desperate to make amends for their early playoff exit in Season 2024. Of course, Mike Vrabel and Drake Maye will have other ideas, eager to cement their status as a new, rising AFC powerhouse. Today, we discuss it all on TDU and answer some listener questions from the #TDUMailbag. This is your ideal prelude to the big game #BoltFam. Don’t miss it!
You can also listen on Spotify below (or download on audio wherever you like to listen to podcasts):
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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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Obviously, the Chargers weren’t trying to win. It doesn’t even make sense to ask the question when the Chargers intentionally held out several of their best players who were healthy enough to play. It wasn’t terribly different from a preseason game, other than having only 55 players to draw from to play instead of 90.
Build a team of players from eliminated teams is an interesting question. I had not seen the question so I paused the show to form my own answer before listening to your discussion. Here is what I came up with:
QB – Burrow (CIN)
RB – Bijan (ATL) – fewer TDs than Taylor but more yards and more efficient
X WR – Chase (CIN)
Z WR – London (ATL) – didn’t want the Pickens diva/wild card factor
Slot WR – St. Brown (DET)
TE – McBride (ARI)
LT – Wirfs (TB)
LG – Nelson (IND)
C – Humphrey (KC)
RG – Lindstrom (ATL)
RT – Sewell (DET)
Edge – Garrett (CLE)
Edge – Hutchinson (DET)
IDL – Heyward (PIT)
IDL – Q Williams (DAL)
IDL – Simmons (TEN)
MLB – Campbell (DET)
CB – Jackson (CAR)
CB – Rodgers (MIN)
Slot CB/S – Fitzpatrick (MIA)
SS – Hamilton (BAL)
FS – Branch (DET)
Andy and I picked 8 of the same 11 offensive starters, and we picked 7 of the same 11 defensive starters, differences partly driven by 3-4 v 4-3 and nickel or not. Glad Al mentioned Burrow.
Nice dig on Keenan. My only reaction beyond what we already discussed is to saying “get some practice squad receiver in there”. They had 2 non-WR practice squad elevations and 7 inactives. So his snaps would have been taken by receivers who were active.
Agree on these quick hitters: release Becton; re-sign Penning for camp; Roman returns; re-sign Allen; re-sign Mack; address center; Herbert takes it.
Not sure I agree on Lance as QB2. He looked bad last week IMO.
Was Kev’s question on Rivers actually “one day”? I thought it was next season. IMO no to next season. Al missed the details slightly on that; his oldest son is a rising 4 star senior QB who will be heavily recruited (and hopefully will go to NC State!) and his youngest son is a rising 9th grader so will be playing on the same high school team. He wants to coach his sons. Maybe long term, once his sons have moved on from his high school team.
How far does Denver go in the playoffs? IMO they lose to the Chargers in the second round. So obviously I’m predicting the Chargers to beat the Patriots.
Minter could easily go to the Ravens. I disagree the Ravens are a rebuild. Jackson is by far the best QB at any of the franchises with open head coaching jobs. That’s a big deal. Their defense has been challenged but will get players back next year, and we already know Minter can coach a defense to better results than implied by the sum of its parts.
I doubt Minter would take the Raiders job and choose to coach against mentor Harbaugh twice per season. I think his second choice would be the Giants, as I have posted before. If I were the Raiders, I’d be pushing hard for Stefanski.
I predict a 23-20 Chargers win, same as Andy.
I predict these winners: Chargers, Texans, Jaguars, Rams, 49ers, Bears.
Great show!
Thanks again for the commentary mate!
I think the spirit of this question was: “With the players he had, was Roman trying to call the game to win it, or was he not wanting to show too much“. From memory I asked this one while saying it was regrettable that Trey Lance got his ‘one chance to shine’ with some limitations around him.
I’ll also take you behind the scenes here. When I’m on the show I’m like a quarterback with a clock in his head. If I feel I’ve been talking too long, or I’m going down a path I shouldn’t, or someone hasn’t said something for a while, I will sometimes throw a question to them to keep things moving. The question will sometimes be sub-standard, as a result 😂 Probably a lesson in that somewhere 😅
I’ll pass this on to Andy! Both your teams look pretty good to me (although I didn’t love the cornerback room for either team which is interesting to note…is there something in this?)
They had 2 non-WR practice squad elevations because Keenan was playing.
I think if I was coach of the Chargers, I would have thought it was important for the following to have a week of rest before the playoffs:
And then I would have chosen the PS elevations accordingly after that. I haven’t done the math (and it’s not possible for me to know who is carrying an injury) so maybe it wouldn’t have been possible to field a team and also make Keenan inactive. But I also note they chose to make QJ and Ladd inactive. Were those injury related? No idea.
Hopefully Keenan has 10 catches, 133 yds, TD on Sunday and puts this one to bed.
I would be happy to move forward with him as the (hopefully) long-term back-up. He didn’t play well against Denver, but nor was he put in a position to play well for the reasons we discussed on the pod.
If Herbert got injured mid-season and Lance had to come in for a couple games, I think he gives you a chance to win (the athletic dynamism helps). He’s also still young enough that I’m hopeful he could improve YoY like Malik Willis has done in GB.
I don’t feel strongly about this one FYI. Just don’t think finding a better back-up would feature in my top ten list of priorities this offseason.
Thanks for clarifying this one. I was never going to get this right on the spot.
Thank you!
Using Malik Willis as a comp forces me to comp Matt Lafleur to Greg Roman. I don’t think that comp works in the favor of Lance growing as a long term backup to Herbert, since I think Lafleur was crucial to Willis’s performance. To state the obvious, Roman is not Lafleur.
If you want to generalize, then keeping a same backup for years could theoretically be beneficial. Though it wasn’t with Easton Stick. (Different regime.) Could it be beneficial to Lance? I’m skeptical. He has already played 2 seasons under Kyle Shanahan, 1 under McCarthy, and now 1 under Roman, and he doesn’t look good. If he hasn’t gotten better by now, is it truly likely he ever will? I doubt it.
All that said, I agree that Herbert’s backup is near the very bottom of the priority list. If it is Lance again, provided it is on a minimum contract, that’s fine.
Some bonus clips taken after doing some tape study into the Patriots
Clip 1:
Clip 2:
Clip 3:
Clip 4:
Coaches Film Clips we posted to X from the Broncos Game
Clip 1:
Clip 2:
Clip 3:
Clip 4:
Clip 5:
Clip 6: https://x.com/TDU_Chargers/status/2008696866087788743
Clip 7: https://x.com/TDU_Chargers/status/2008706953716154524