EL SEGUNDO — Justin Herbert tossed spirals to a squadron of fleet-footed, sticky-fingered wide receivers. Derwin James Jr. shadowed those receivers down the field. J.K. Dobbins took handoffs from Herbert and darted through the offensive line before Tuli Tuipulutu could get a hand on him, halting play.
The Chargers’ first day of training camp seemed so familiar in so many ways.
But it was not the same as it has been.
How could it be?
Jim Harbaugh’s mere presence on the field made it different from recent opening days of camp under Brandon Staley or Anthony Lynn or Mike McCoy or any number of Chargers coaches over the years, perhaps dating to the days Marty Schottenheimer had the job in the early 2000s.
After all, Harbaugh is the most accomplished and highest-profile coach the Chargers have hired in a generation. Or maybe even in the history of a franchise that has been in business since 1960 in the AFL. He is coming off a season in which he led the University of Michigan to a 15-0 record and the national title.
“I was thinking this was the first day of school, homecoming and Christmas Day all wrapped into one,” Harbaugh said Wednesday. “There’s definitely changes (from Michigan), but, yeah, the way it feels, it’s like New Year’s Day. It’s like being born, coming out of the womb. Everything is comfortable and safe and now you’re out. Born. Lights are on. It’s bright. Chaos. People are looking at you, talking at you.”
The Chargers officially opened their new training facility with a ribbon-cutting ceremony before Harbaugh conducted a crisp, 90-minute practice on the three grass fields. When it was done, when he met with reporters inside the gleaming new building, Harbaugh laid down some simple goals for the rest of camp.
“Just want to build,” Harbaugh said. “Just want to keep building. Just the idea of seeing if we can be better today than we were yesterday, better tomorrow than we were today. Just that so-simple-it-might-just-work approach. Keeping guys healthy, continuing to get bigger and stronger.”
Harbaugh’s only complaint about Day One – and it wasn’t really a complaint – was that the Chargers practiced with a little too much energy near the end of the session. He was concerned they were going too hard, diving for low throws or tackling instead of just touching down the ballcarrier.
He was worried about injuries.
“We had a few tempo violations at the end of practice,” he said. “Just pointed those out (at a post-practice meeting with the players). A couple by the defense. A couple by the offense. We’re not in pads. We’ve got no armor. We’re in pants and jerseys and helmets, so we can’t play like we’re in football pads.
“We’re a plane taking off from the runway. It goes from a dead start and it starts to build up speed, so much speed that it just has to get off the ground and then it takes off and it’s not too long before you’re at about 32,000 feet. Just making sure we don’t have any mishaps in that, I call it ‘glide.’ We’re in ‘glide’ time.”
However, he said asking the players to slow down certainly beat the alternative of having to tell them to pick up the pace.
“Take it as a compliment, take it as a compliment,” he said by way of explaining the “tempo violation” definition. “If we had to talk guys into wanting to practice, it would be different. Some guys you have to pull back and some guys you have to talk into (practicing). Definitely, we were on the side of pulling back.”
Junior Colson, a linebacker who was the Chargers’ third-round draft pick, underwent an appendectomy recently and was placed on the non-football illness list to start training camp. Harbaugh didn’t know when Colson might be sound enough to rejoin his teammates. …
Running back Gus Edwards had an undisclosed surgery during the offseason and didn’t participate in team drills. Edwards didn’t join his teammates for spring practices after signing as a free agent. …
Herbert acknowledged feeling more comfortable being the only player in a gold jersey, as he was during spring practices. The distinctive jersey is a reminder for defenders to stay far, far away from the standout quarterback, lest he be injured in an accidental collision.
