“When you get a guy like Coach Harbaugh, who has been there and won at a bunch of places, he’s not testing it out for the first time,” the veteran edge rusher says.
EL SEGUNDO — New coach. New coaching staff. New teammates. New team headquarters.
Joey Bosa couldn’t be happier after three days of the Chargers’ training camp.
Get this, he admitted that he’s even excited to attend meetings now.
Apparently, Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh has instilled a new attitude in an old veteran. Harbaugh’s track record while leading the University of Michigan to a 15-0 record and the national championship last season and taking the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl after the 2012 season has earned him a great deal of respect from Bosa, 29, who is entering his ninth NFL season, all with the Chargers.
“When you get a guy like Coach Harbaugh, who has been there and won at a bunch of places, he’s not testing it out for the first time,” Bosa said Friday. “He has a strategy that he knows that works. It’s easy to buy in when you have a guy like that. Wherever he’s been he’s been really successful.
“So, to have a guy who comes in and lays the plan out for you, there’s no guessing. It feels nice.”
But there’s more to it than mere wins and losses, as far as Bosa is concerned.
Harbaugh has an unmistakably goofy side to his coaching style. He has a big personality and unique ways of expressing himself. After the first day of camp, he described Day 1 as “like being born.” He also said it was “like the first day of school, homecoming and Christmas Day all wrapped into one.”
It seems almost everyone has a funny first impression story about Harbaugh.
For instance, after one spring practice, newly acquired veteran linebacker Denzel Perryman said Harbaugh reminded him of comedic actor Will Ferrell, explaining it like this, “The way that he talks. His analogies and everything, but they really remind me of Will Ferrell.
“It’s just funny to me. It’s funny, but I know he means well.”
Bosa revealed that defensive lineman Scott Matlock has been keeping track of some of Harbaugh’s funnier one-liners on and off the field. Matlock refers to them as “LOL moments,” shorthand for laughing out loud. Bosa chuckled but declined to use the word “crazy” to describe Harbaugh’s many metaphors.
“I just think he has an interesting perspective on a lot of things,” Bosa said. “We’ll see how it plays out down the road, but I’m really loving how everything is going so far. The staff is just great. I’m actually looking forward to going to meetings and hearing what Coach Harbaugh has to say.
“It’s always something interesting with him. So, yeah, it’s been a great start.”
In addition to having a coach with Harbaugh’s sparkling resume, Bosa also is encouraged by the play of his fellow edge rushers. He will be paired with Khalil Mack for the third consecutive season and the second with emerging standout Tuli Tuipulotu as one backup. Grizzled veteran Bud Dupree will be another.
Tuipulotu was the Chargers’ second-round draft pick in 2023.
Dupree signed as a free agent during this past offseason.
“If me and Khalil weren’t here, we’d have Bud and Tuli as starters,” Bosa said. “We’re pretty much playing with four starters. I think we have a stacked room. We all complement each other really well. I think Bud is a different rusher than I am. I’m a different rusher than Khalil is. So, we can all pick each other’s brains and learn from each other. Bud’s been doing it for 10 years already. Obviously, he’s learned a lot in that time. I think he’s a huge addition to the team.”
Depth at the edge rusher position has been critical for the Chargers in the past two seasons, when Bosa was limited to nine games in 2023 because of injuries that included a sprained right foot suffered in Week 10 and to five games because of a groin injury that required surgery in 2022.
Bosa isn’t one to dwell on the past, though.
“Obviously, it’s been tough,” he said. “Tough for the team. Tough for me going through some of these injuries, especially the last two years with the groin (two years ago) and last year with a million little things that kind of added up. It’s really stressful, but you could really look at it as a positive mileage-wise, where I didn’t take too big of a beating over the last two years.”
