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Transcript
I think this is an interesting time because a couple of the guys that we're going to bring up, by bringing up one, you are sort of leaving out another and I think that it's part of kind of like a multifaceted conversation, which is why I want to go first because when I decided, um, we're talking about offensive breakout candidates, when I decided on Omari in Hampton, um, and I have a wide receiver for my second one, I think what I realized at the time is that.
I'm also saying that I'm buying in slightly more on Omarion Hampton in Mike McDaniel's new offense than I am Ashton Genty in Clint Kubiak's new offense, right?
And I think that's an interesting, That's an interesting component there.
And I think if you read the tea leaves, both of these guys in Kubiak and McDaniel both went out and got their own guys or have been talking up other guys outside of the bell cow on the team.
When Clint Kubiak got the job, He was talking about how important it was to have like 2 or 3 people like Ashton Genti, um, in the room.
And so really, this is just, you're flying blind a little bit.
It's a similar system in theory that tends to produce really great running backs.
Both of them are 3-down guys in theory, but I like Omarion Hampton, I think is that breakout candidate.
Just a little bit more than Ashton Jenny.
Do you think I'm crazy for that?
No, I like, I, I actually agree in that if you hadn't given me the names, your names first, then I might have taken him.
Like, I think he classic move by me, by the way, is to just take the, take the good ones and be like, Albert, I'm doing this.
Deal with it.
I think the combination of like Jim Harbaugh's ethos, right, um, and Mike McDaniel's system.
I, I think the vision for Omari in Hampton was give me what I had in Frank Gore in San Francisco, you know, all those years ago for Jim Harbaugh, and like I think Hampton's interesting because he's also gonna have the benefit of having the two tackles back presuming they can stay healthy, and that's Joe Alton or Sean Slater.
Um, what I mean, Mike McDaniel needs as much as anything else to run his offense is a Like a beyond the obvious is a smart center, right?
So they bring in Tyler Bioish to play center for them, and I think that's gonna be huge.
And, um, and yeah, I mean, I think like outside of that, you look at the tight end position, which I think is gonna , is, is integral in any offense to moving safeties out of the box, right?
Like and being able to avoid playing with eight-man fronts.
And they bring in Charlie Kar and David Njoku.
They've got Aronde Gadson here.
Like there's just so many pieces that I really like there.
Trey Harris coming back.
I think he's a breakout candidate too.
Ladd McConkie, I think he'll be better in his second year.
I just, you add all of it together, and it's like there's just gonna be a lot for people to account for in that offense, you know, even without like a Julio Jones type of number one receiver, there's a lot to deal with.
And so, I think that only benefits somebody like Hampton and with, again, that ethos that Jim Harbaugh brings to the table.
You're talking about, you know, an effective running game.
A head coach is gonna be committed to it, and, you know, I think Omari and Hampton could go for 1,4 or 1500 yards.
Now you have the Keaton Mitchell issue and not issue, right, but you have the Keaton Mitchell of it all, um, where Mike McDaniels literally printing out wanted posters with Keaton Mitchell's face on it and slamming it on the GM's door, and he gets them , right?
And so I think if you're a, um, you know, If you're uh Omarian Hampton fantasy devotee, if you're just someone who cares, uh, at all about this, I think that probably gives you some cause for concern.
But here's my like twisted chaos theory on it all, OK?
Omarion Hampton was a really good gap scheme runner last year.
Mike McDaniels on the Shanahan tree, and, well, I think it's a bit of a misnomer.
You know, Shanahan, they like to get their running backs to the outside.
They like to dominate the outside, right, with outside zone running.
I think that the NFL after just getting pummeled by this for years, I think last year, there was a couple of really good defenses that finally figured out enough, right?
And that was the Jim Schwartz tree.
If you wide nine, you're shutting down.
Outside zone or at least you're preventing you just have to be tearing set edges, you know, that's the big but wide 9 too is even more it's almost like doing that on steroids, right, especially if you're widening with Miles Garrett or you're widening with Will Anderson or something like that, right?
The whole idea is to shrink the field, right?
Like, so you wanna, you wanna shrink the field and you wanna like kind of force everything back inside, which is It becomes simple math, you have more players inside on a play like that, you know.
So for people who are saying, well, Keaton Mitchell's gonna, gonna fit more into Mike McDaniel's run game.
I think Mike McDaniel has got to fit his run game more to do what Omarion Hampton does, which is he's a little bit better of a gap runner, right?
He's, he's a, he's physical, right?
And he's a guy that's gonna break tackles.
He's gonna set the tone.
Whereas, you know, Mitchell is good and you'll get the ball and you'll get your home runs out of Mitchell, but like, I'm, I'm personally not worried about him in relation to Hampton.
Like, I think that McDaniel's run scheme is versatile enough anyway.
It's not like these guys are just running outside zone every play again.
I think that's a huge misnomer.
But I do think that it's one of those things where the freak out over this and oh, there's other players and that McDaniel likes other stuff.
I think this Chargers offense is set up to produce a really good down over down running game.
And for everybody that's like, Mike McDaniel's gonna blow up Justin Herbert, he's not.
Here's my prediction.
Justin Herbert's not going to have his best season statistically, but Omarion Hampton is.
It's, this is more about the run game than it is the passing game.
That's my, that's my bold takeaway here.
Let me ask you this.
Why, what reason is there that the Chargers won't be really, really, really good?
Wait, Albert, we've had a version of this conversation on this podcast every year since 2018.
I know.
I mean, maybe it's like losing Jesse Minor, right, like, which that's a big loss, but I think Chris O'Leary's been like sort of trained to do it really good and like Chris O'Leary had the same sort of.
Like trajectory of some of these other guys, right, like, which is like Mike McDonald and Jesse Minter went to college.
McDonald was at Michigan for 1 year, came back to run the Ravens defense.
Minter was at Vanderbilt, then Michigan for 2 years, then he's running the Chargers defense.
Chris O'Leary for a number of different reasons, went to Western Michigan last year and got to run a defense.
Now it's a different level, of course, but now he's coming back with play calling experience and having had the experience of working.
Under Minor before that, um, I just don't, I mean, look, like, I mean, people I don't think people pay attention to like how good like Tuuli Tuaelotu has become for them on the on the edge, right?
Akeem Messador, Khalil Mack, Tarhee still is a really good young corner for them.
Derwin James, one of the best players in football, they've gotten bigger on the interior, Dan Henley is a really good off-ball linebacker.
I just You start, you just like look at the group and it's like, man, I, I don't know why this, this isn't gonna take off the way it did for, for Jim Harbaugh in San Francisco, you know what I mean?
Like, I don't, I don't know.
The the, the Charlie Koehler and Alec Ingold of it all was what sold me, right?
Because when you can upgrade your infrastructure, you can get this team and, and it's not like the Chargers didn't have a good fullback, uh, a good blocking back .
I mean, they did.
But if you can maximize, well, Scott Matlock is one of my favorite players in the league.
I mean, you know, the, the just like a 320 pound ginger just like joke slamming people, like last year, I mean, everything about him was perfect.
Like I remember like last year he was wearing like they put him in a different color jersey because it was like he's not offense or defense.
They gave him like this like black jersey, which was like the coolest thing ever.
And then the fact that like he's named Matt Locke, which is like the name of like an eighties show, is like fucking, it's just so perfect Harbaugh in so many ways, and Scott Matlock is one of the most perfect and now he's like, I guess gonna have to make the team as a D-lineman because and goals there, but yeah, I mean, what a diss by Scott Matlock.
You could come play for my team, buddy.
Um, anyway, uh, I, I, I don't know.
I, I think that again.
I would be willing to bet that amid all the Chargers hype, and you know, when Mike McDaniel goes over there, we're like, Justin Herbert's going to throw for 5000 yards and ba ba ba ba ba ba ba blah blah blah.
I think the one thing that we can, uh, like that we can almost count on is that Omarion Hampton's going to be top 5 in the NFL in rushing.
Uh, maybe Keaton Mitchell is the more efficient back, but I think that Omarion Hampton.
He is, is, is the guy that is the bell cow in my 100 bowl predictions.
I have him leading the NFL in rushing.
I don't know.
So that's why he's my breakout candidate.
That's my thoughts on that.
Give me one of yours, Albert, because my first one's gonna be a Houston Texan, Jaden Higgins.
Um, he became a starter last year, was sort of a spot starter for them, got better as the year went on.
Um, I know a lot of like NFL people who really liked him coming out.
I also look at him, this is sort of similar to what happened with, um, if you remember with uh Christian Watson with Green Bay, where the Packers traded down, and they probably would have taken Watson in the like the 20s, and there was no receiver taken from that point to the point that they traded down to, or no, they didn't trade down.
That was the year, I'm wrong, let me correct myself.
That was the, that was the Devonte Adams trade year.
So they, they wound up, they had a high 2nd-rounder, and they didn't take a receiver at whatever was 22, I think that's where they took Quay Walker .
Probably would help if I did some research on this before.
But like they could have taken Watson 22nd overall, whatever it was, they wind up getting Watson in the 30s.
He's a good player for them.
Um, in this case, the Texans traded down from 25, where the Giants traded up to get Jackson Dart, and no receiver went between that point and 34 where they got Higgins.
So they still got the next best receiver after Matthew Golden went off the board at 23.
And I, everything I've heard about Higgins, and, and I, I, I, I, I, I like the talent.
I like the, like the, the, the reputation he and Jalen Noel had coming out of Iowa State was pristine, like typical Matt Campbell, like, hardworking, smart player who has, and, and he, he added the physical ability to that.
He's as big as Nico Collins.
And I think this is a key here, right?
So I had somebody describe it.
Somebody there describe it to me as it's like having a power forward and a small forward, right?
And that like Nico is like the stronger player, but Higgins is like the looser athlete a little bit faster, and I just look at it like when they, when, when the Texans break the huddle, Nico Collins is the first guy you're gonna be worried about, right?
And so you're gonna do things to match up with Nico Collins.
How do you deal with another guy who's 6'4 if you, if you're putting resources towards dealing with Nico Collins because taller receivers generally are difficult to deal with to begin with, but now you've got this other guy on the other side of the field and like how do you reckon with dealing with 2 6'4 guys at that level.
So I think that plus second year for Nick Kaley, um, second year for CJ Stroud in Nick Kaley's offense.
Um, an improved offensive line.
I think, you know, Oronte Ursay being in his 2nd year, Wyatt Teller, um, you know, Braden Smith, if he can stay healthy.
I, I just think like Higgins is positioned.
To have a 1000 yard season.
And, um, I really like where he stands and just the spot that he's in.
Um, I think he's gonna have a really good year.
I was in Houston for minicamp, a lot of buzz, um, certainly about Higgins there.
And what I think I like about him the most is that he's the perfect receiver for Stroud right now, where, you know, and, and, and, and if you watch, Well, there's two things here.
If you watch the tape from last year, what's really cool about Higgins is he's doing all the things like, like, he's just slip, like he's not dominating, but, and, and, and so sometimes I think people will dismiss him because of that, but it's like watching closely, it's almost like watching some of those old great Patriots wide receivers, like he's winning in the margins.
Like he's making really tough catches , um, as he's like going out of bounds, he's like slipping defenders just at the right time and making tough catches.
And I think that there's a lot of value to that plus, the fact that like, you know, I mean, you look at, You, you search for Jaden content online right now and then, you know, the one thing that it's overrated and I think also simultaneously underrated this time of year, there's just a swath of videos of him doing speed training and all this workout stuff.
You're, that's, that's where the big growth happens, right?
It's that.
First real offseason where you're not doing combine prep and you're doing actual NFL training and diet and all that stuff all offseason.
You're getting the college out of you.
And so this is when the, when, when the leap happens.
So I agree with you, man.
I mean , I think that he's a guy that could have an absolutely dominant season.
And I think that really the like the Texans fixing that offensive line is gonna be such a propeller for the rest of this stuff and it's just gonna cascade from there that that's, that's I think like the other thing is too, it's just kind of like you look at the quarterback's history and Like CJ Stroud had his greatest success at Ohio State throwing to Marvin Harrison Junior, and Marvin Harrison Junior is another one of these big taller receivers, like, so he sort of fits stylistically, um, like you'd see CJ.
He really knows how to give a guy like that a chance at a ball.
You know what I mean?
Like, he really knows how to, and so I think that there's gonna be something that lines up there too, and that he did that in college and he's done it as a pro now at Nico Collins.
And so I just, I like the match, I like the spot, I like all of that with Higgins.
