The next stage of the Chargers' offseason is officially locked in. Chargers rookies will report to training camp on July 23rd while veterans will be joining them on July 28th. Specific dates of practices that are available to the public will be revealed later.
A previously annonunced 49ers joint practice is also scheduled for August 18th. Niners coach Kyle Shanahan announced there would be a Chargers-49ers joint practice earlier this offseason.
This is a bit of a change compared to last offseason for the team. As a result of playing in the Hall of Fame Game vs. Detroit last year, the Chargers started training camp on July 16th. This year, Los Angeles is more in line with when the rest of the league starts camp.
Back to the usual training camp schedule for the Chargers (with some changes).
In addition to players reporting a little later than they had to last offseason, Chargers HC Jim Harbaugh is planning for some other training camp changes to take effect this season. At the podium last week, Harbaugh said he wants to start practices at 10AM from now on due to sleep and injury studies from UCLA Health.
Another goal for the team was to decrease potential UV radiation impacts on the players from practicing later in the day. In previous iterations of training camp, the team held staggered practices depending on the date. For example, if a practice started at 10AM on the first day, they'd move back the start time of the next practice by an hour or two. That seemingly will not be happening this year if Harbaugh sticks to what he said at the podium.
Another interesting factor to watch here is the negotiations with EDGE Tuli Tuipulotu. As a result of camp starting earlier last year, the Chargers didn't have a deal ironed our with LT Rashawn Slater before camp. This led to him unofficially holding in until he'd get his extension about two weeks later. Given that the Chargers have 12 more days to negotiate with Tuipulotu this year before training camp relative to Slater, maybe they can avoid a hold-in scenario. At his press conference last week, Tuipulotu did not rule out the possibility of a hold-in if a contract extension was not in place.
With players having more than a month off from the end of June minicamp, the Chargers should be able to hit the ground running in July. Hopefully, an extended break allows for a little extra physicality in camp practices to decide some of the team's key position battles.
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