Notes from Anthony Lynn’s Zoom call

Head coach Anthony Lynn met with the media on Wednesday afternoon to discuss his share of topics, with most of those themes running similar to what was discussed in Tom Telesco’s call earlier this week.

Lynn was his usual self: calm, collected, and portrayed his normal manner of sly humor. The highlight of the call was when I was finally called on to ask my questions, Lynn interrupted me and said, “I was wondering who you were, Michael. You look like a left tackle up there.”

Two things: 1.) My quarantine body must not be too bad these days and 2.) It was the first time Lynn engaged with me on a more genuine level as opposed to just the normal ask-and-answer relationship some coaches have with writers.

We enjoyed a good laugh. But in all honesty, coach, I’ll play whatever you need me to play. Hell, I’ll sign for a quarter of the minimum. No questions asked.

Conversations with Lynn are always enjoyable, no matter the topics or talking points. Here are the rough notes I took from the call and my thoughts on the subjects that ranged from Tyrod Taylor to how he’s going to maximize the chances he has left with his players to prepare for such an unusual football season:

• Lynn said he is stressing to his players that they will have two separate opponents this year: the teams on their schedule and the pandemic. Since the coronavirus isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, he wants his guys to prepare to combat the virus with the same work ethic and effort they put in against opposing teams. The teams who can keep both at bay the best will have the highest chance of winning this year’s Super Bowl.

Opportunities and chances to impress the coaching staff are going to be very limited this year compared to the norm, for both veterans and young players. TT and Lynn have both stressed the importance of “getting creative” to maximize their chances. When I asked Lynn how he and the staff have tried to evaluate their UDFAs without actual field work, he simply said they’ll be doing their best to replicate some of those chances within their new structure. The goal is to not make those players feel like they’re just falling through the cracks.

• Echoing what Telesco said on Monday, there hasn’t been a single player on the Chargers that has mentioned anything to either him or TT about opting out of the season, for any reason. For now, it sounds like the players are all-in. He also said there were no unaccounted for players. All 86 players showed up on time. Lastly, the Chargers have yet to record any positives through their initial round of testing.

• Lynn said him and the team will have to “welcome chaos” this season in the wake of ...(waves hands around) ... all of this ... That’s a hell of a phrase and I think someone needs to put it on a tee-shirt. I’ll buy three.

• Lynn seems just as confident as TT in getting their plethora of contracts done that will be coming up after this season. It’s an air of confidence that says: “Hey everyone, no worries. We got a new stadium to fill and games to win. We’re not letting all of our best players go because we want to pinch pennies. We’ll get it done.”