clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Chargers Training Camp Notes: Melvin Gordon's struggles continue

Let's all over-evaluate talent in practice as we break down the San Diego Chargers Training Camp today.

By Garrett Sisti
Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

It was Day 3 of Training Camp and the team's first padded practice and we learned the extent of Stevie Johnson's injury and we found out that Bosa's camp and the team haven't talked for days but let's get to what happened today on the practice field.

Offense

We'll start off with a video, well multiple videos, of Melvin Gordon struggling again today. First, here is Gordon in drills getting stood straight up by a stationary object on a spin move. It happens on his second rep:

Here is Gordon having issues pass blocking:

That's it on Gordon today. He did break off a nice long run all set-up by a lane clearing block by D.J. Fluker.

With Stevie Johnson out for a while WR Tyrell Williams got the start in his place when the Offense ran 3 wide outs. By the end of practice Keenan Allen and Tyrell Williams ran close to the same amount of snaps working out of the slot. Tyrell Williams made a sideline catch on Craig Mager for a big gain. Williams has been impressive ever since Mini-Camp and Dontrelle Inman, who many assumed would be the forth wide receiver on the depth chart, has been relatively quiet throughout camp.

Since we're talking about wide receivers Travis Benjamin and Keenan Allen were the only two players out there to return punts in Special Teams drills today. Also UDFA WR Dom Williams made a great diving catch on a terrible throw.

The Offensive Line showed out today in 1-on-1 drills, outside of Kenny Wiggins who was visibly upset when he got beat. Tyreek Burwell stonewalled Tourek Williams and Tyler Johnstone put a defender on the ground today. O-Line beat the D-Line in Monday's practice.

Hunter Henry showed off his great hands today extending for a completion down the sideline on tight coverage from safety Adrian Phillips. I haven't seen Henry drop a ball thrown his way, in Rookie Mini-Camp, the team's Mini-Camp or any day of Training Camp thus far.

The Quarterback play continues to be awful. They ran a fun drill where the QBs had to throw over the goal posts and into a net. Rivers and Bercovici tied, Clemens and Mettenberger couldn't even hit the target. Errant passes galore. Rivers and Bercovici had to have a tie-breaker to see who won today, here's the video:

Defense

Denzel Perryman did not practice today but in his place at Inside linebacker was Nick Dzubnar and Jatavis Brown, with Dzubnar getting the bulk of the looks between them. Dzubnar is the "veteran" who knows the system so it's not a shock that he's getting the nod but if Jatavis Brown keeps playing like he does, Brown will jump Dzubnar on the depth chart in no time. Not to say Nick Dzubnar has played bad, Brown flashes with more playing time. Pagano sent Brown on a blitz and he blew threw the line so fast he met Clemens for a sack at the top of his 3 step drop. He was playing downhill all day. Staying on the inside linebacker group, fellow rookie Joshua Perry had a would be a sack and UDFA ILB James Ross had an interception today.

The young "McSafety" duo of Dexter McCoil and Adrian McDonald had another good showing today. McCoil got a strip and McDonald recovered the fumble. McCoil got a good break on a ball for a pass deflection and McDonald came off the edge for a tackle for a loss, except without the tackle of course.

It might sound like I'm picking on him but I'm not, Craig Mager is getting roasted in practice. He's not just giving up a completion here or there, he's already given up a TD to Williams and Benjamin and today he was beat for a big gain by Tyrell Williams and took an awful angle on tight end Jeff Cumberland for another big chunk play. It's a real concern early in camp, he might be having the worst start to camp of any other player.

CB Brandon Flowers played inside all day again and made a great play on a ball for an incompletion vs. Keenan Allen. He's been quiet, hasn't given up much of anything so far. Let's hope we can continue that through the rest of camp.

The team ran a lot of two tight end sets again today and Kyle Emanuel got most of the reps over Jeremiah Attaochu. It stayed that way most of practice, which mirrored Day 1 of camp.

That wraps up Day 3 of Training Camp, feel free to ask me about other guys but there are 90 players on the field so there is a really good chance that they just haven't done much to stand out.

More From Bolts From The Blue