Saturday's Chargers' media availability produced some slight friction between head coach Jim Harbaugh and reporters when asked to provide injury updates.
First, ESPN's Kris Rhim asked about Rashawn Slater's status after leaving practice Friday. Slater was held out of practice Saturday and Harbaugh had this to say:
"So you're gonna see quite a bit of that. For probably the next couple of weeks, pretty much all of the starters were ramping up in a way where there's 46 days to the first regular season game. Then there's the backups, they're gonna get a little more volume. And the most volume is gonna go to the guys that are fighting for a spot to make the football team. We've got it tiered. Marco (Zucconi) and Ben Herbert are in charge running the show there. They're great at what they do and I've got full and complete confidence that we'll get our guys enough volume, but the right amount of volume. And we talked about it the other day, that glide theory is in full effect."
Obviously in that initial reply, Harbaugh did not mention Slater or an injury by name. So he was then asked to clarify if there was an injury or not:
"I don't know, I'm not going to categorize it, what it is and what it is not. You're gonna see quite a bit of that as we go through this first stage.
Daniel Popper of The Athletic then tried to gauge whether Slater's injury was the same degree of seriousness as some of the other Chargers (J.K. Dobbins, Khalil Mack, Josh Palmer, Hayden Hurst) that left practice early on a precautionary or previous injury rehabilitation basis:
"I'm not gonna categorize it. The exact words I used, that's what I'm saying. You're gonna see more of it, you're gonna see quite a bit of it from the staters."
Per Harbaugh, Slater told the staff, "hey, I got something here, I want to keep playing but I need to take a look at it." The Chargers' head coach says he then advised Slater to do some work in the weight room instead after leaving the field. This was out of an "abundance of caution".
Jim Harbaugh was also vague with other Chargers injuries
Harbaugh was then asked to clarify Gus Edwards' situation after suggesting that he had previous offseason surgery earlier in the week. When asked directly on Saturday if he had offseason surgery, Harbaugh replied with, "not that I'm aware of".
"He's working through it, he's working through something, that's exactly what I'll say. He's being released back into full go."
Tight Donald Parham was also "working through something", per Harbaugh.
Most NFL head coaches tend to be pretty short on injury details this early on in the offseason process. Still, a lack of clarity on Slater's injury isn't ideal. But Harbaugh saying he was held out with an "abundance of caution" suggests he could possibly be back sooner rather than later.
The answer on Edwards is a little more perplexing after saying previously that he did have offseason surgery. Perhaps there's a bit of distinguishing going on between a procedure vs. full-on surgery going on here, but it's hard to ascertain much directly from his quotes.
In the absence of Slater, the Chargers tried new offensive lines for the first team at camp. One grouping put Jamaree Salyer at left tackle for a lineup of Salyer-Zion Johnson-Bradley Bozeman-Trey Pipkins-Joe Alt.
Another lineup that the Chargers have worked with more often involved kicking Alt out to left tackle and putting Pipkins in his right tackle spot. Jamaree Salyer was then inserted at right guard in this formation for an offensive line of Alt-Johnson-Bozeman-Salyer-Pipkins.
The first Chargers' padded practice takes place at "The Bolt" tomorrow. We'll see if Slater returns to practice or if LA's training staff continues to be cautious. Edwards is still looking to participate in his first team drills of the offseason. He has participated in the individual position drills at camp but not 7 on 7s or 11 on 11s. At minicamp, he worked off to the side away from the team.