{"id":460118,"date":"2025-12-20T13:45:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T13:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/460118\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T13:45:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T13:45:14","slug":"veteran-leadership-at-forefront-of-chargers-late-season-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/460118\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran leadership at forefront of Chargers’ late-season surge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Denzel Perryman<\/a> quickly listed name after name as he dove deep into his mental roster of the 2015 Chargers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Manti Te\u02bbo, Melvin Ingram, Kavell Conner and Donald Butler took Perryman under their wing, the Chargers linebacker said. The 11-year veteran said he relied on older teammates when he entered the NFL as they helped him adjust to the schedule and regimen of professional football.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was a young guy,\u201d Perryman said, \u201cmy head was all over the place \u2014 just trying to get the gist of the NFL. They taught me how to be where my mind is.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the Chargers (10-4) entering the final stretch of the season and on the cusp of clinching a playoff berth heading into Sunday\u2019s game against the Dallas Cowboys (6-7-1), veterans have played an important role in the team winning six of its last seven games.<\/p>\n

A win over the Cowboys coupled with either a loss or tie by the Houston Texans on Sunday afternoon or an Indianapolis Colts loss or tie on Monday night would secure a playoff berth for the Chargers.<\/p>\n

Perryman, who recorded a season-best nine tackles in the Chargers\u2019 win over the Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> last week, credits Philip Rivers<\/a> and the rest of the Chargers\u2019 veterans for showing him \u201chow to be a pro\u201d a decade ago. Now he\u2019s passing along those lessons to younger players in a transfer of generational knowledge across the Chargers\u2019 locker room.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I came in as a young guy, I thought this happens every year,\u201d safety Derwin James Jr.<\/a> said of winning, starting his career on a 12-4 Chargers team in 2018. \u201cRemember the standard. Remember, whatever we\u2019re doing now, to uphold the standard, so that way, when guys change, coaches change, anything changes, the standard remains.\u201d<\/p>\n

Running off the field at Arrowhead Stadium, third-year safety Daiyan Henley<\/a> charged at a celebrating Tony Jefferson<\/a>, a veteran mentor at his position who was waiting for teammates after being ejected for an illegal hit on Chiefs wide receiver Tyquan Thornton.<\/p>\n

After the game Jefferson and Henley hopped around like schoolchildren on the playground. That\u2019s the atmosphere the veterans want to create, Jefferson said, one in which younger players in the secondary can turn to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re here for,\u201d Jefferson said. \u201cFor them to watch us and follow, follow our lead, and see how we do our thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the veteran stars that are making a difference. Marcus Williams<\/a>, a 29-year-old safety with 109 games of NFL experience, replaced Jefferson against the Chiefs after being elevated from the practice squad. The 2017 second-round pick played almost every snap in Jefferson\u2019s place, collecting four tackles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat just starts with the culture coach [Jim<\/a>] Harbaugh<\/a> creates,\u201d defensive coordinator Jesse Minter said. \u201cIt\u2019s really a 70-man roster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harbaugh highlighted defensive lineman\/fullback Scott Matlock<\/a>\u2019s blocking technique \u2014 a ba-boop, ba-boop, as Harbaugh put it and mimed with his arms \u2014 on designed runs as an example of a veteran bolstering an offensive line trying to overcome the absence of Joe Alt<\/a> and Rashawn Slater<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Harbaugh said his father, Jack, taught Matlock the ba-boop, ba-boop blocking technique during an August practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s severely underrated as an athlete,\u201d quarterback Justin Herbert<\/a> said of the 6-foot-4, 296-pound Matlock, who also catches passes in the flat as a fullback.<\/p>\n

With three games left in the regular season, Jefferson said the focus is on replicating the postseason-like efforts they gave in consecutive wins over the Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was good that they were able to get a taste of that,\u201d Jefferson said of his younger teammates playing against last season\u2019s Super Bowl teams, \u201cbecause these games down the stretch are really what\u2019s to come in the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denzel Perryman quickly listed name after name as he dove deep into his mental roster of the 2015…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":460119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[210136,210137,210139,1582,276,7151,60745,210141,210135,58008,2961,210140,224,5337,1232,121513,10235,1404,2030,210138],"class_list":{"0":"post-460118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-11-year-veteran","9":"tag-ba-boop","10":"tag-blocking-technique","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-california","13":"tag-chargers","14":"tag-denzel-perryman","15":"tag-forefront","16":"tag-game-jefferson","17":"tag-harbaugh","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-late-season-surge","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-nfl","23":"tag-playoff-berth","24":"tag-standard","25":"tag-sunday","26":"tag-win","27":"tag-young-guy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115752201507858948","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}