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Today the team was in shells for a lighter practice after running in full pads yesterday. The team ran most of the offense vs defense drills on the far field today during the first half of practice before the moved over to the closer field. But here is what caught my eye.
Bursewagon
I highlighted him yesterday, but I am going right back to him and officially starting the Bursewagon for Isaiah Burse. The dude can play. And it looks like I'm not the only one that thinks so, as Burse got reps with the 1's today during a few of the 11on11 periods. He is also very much in the mix for Kick Return duties. At this point, due to his kick return ability and what he has looked like in practice, I am hoping he has jumped Javontee Herndon and Dontrell Inman and makes the roster.
James Jones
Jones continued to look impressive today. He can basically get open at will with his good routes and the way he uses his body to shield against defenders. He's probably going to take some snaps away from other receivers, but he was a good pickup to replace Stevie Johnson.
Melvin Gordon...Kick Returner?
This I have a problem with. Melvin Gordon was in the rotation of players taking reps in kick return drills. Getting him going at RB should be the ONLY priority right now. Don't give him something else to worry about, let him focus on being a running back. Once he gets that down, if you still want to put him at a position the league is basically trying to get rid of for safety reasons, be my guest?
Damian Square over Ryan Carrethers
From the 2 days of practices I've been too, it is VERY clear that Square is way over Carrethers in the depth chart. Square was even getting reps with the 1s yesterday with Brandon Mebane out. I don't know why they seem to hate Carrethers so much but the majority of his snaps continue to remain with the 3rd team. It is disappointing to say the least.
Backup QB's
The backup QB's are all bad. After Mike Bercovici's good day yesterday, he came crashing back down to earth today. On his 11 on 11 series in 3 plays in a row he had a pass behind a receiver, held on long enough to get sacked, then one of the worst overthrows I've seen thus far. Kellen Clemens and Zack Mettenberger were not any better. Mettenberger even through a pass over the middle that would have gotten Burse killed by Dexter McCoil....again.
2 minute drill
The team came and ran the 2 minute drill on the near field at the end of practice and something very "Chargers" happened. The first series run by the 1st team offense was nearly flawless. Besides 1 incompletion, every play they ran was for positive yards and the series finished with an amazing TD pass to Antonio Gates over triple coverage in the back of the endzone. Then the 2nd team went out and probably would have settled for a FG, but Greg Ducre kinda jogged it out after a completion over the middle to Tyrell Williams that Tyrell took into the end zone. Here is where they Chargers became the Chargers though. The 1st team came back out and NOTHING went right. First play: false start. Second play: Pass complete to Hunter Henry, stripped by Te'o and recovered by the defense. Third play: Incomplete. They gained maybe a total of 8 yards and had to settle for a long field goal. It was very strange to see the first round go so smoothly, then have the second round fail so epically.
That was it for Friday's practice. Fan Fest 2016 here we come!