Travis Burke

I don't want him o- on the field at guard, I don't want him on the field at tackle.

I'd rather see Travis Burke at tackle for sure.

And Coyote Awosika was playing way better than him, and the numbers show that.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So then he asked him, who's going to be – like, does that mean – Chris asked him, does that basically mean that Travis Burke or Trey Pipkin is going to be the swing tackle? And then he goes – he goes, oh – Guys, let me...

It's time.

It's time! And then so he asked him, oh, would Travis Berger or Pipkins? And then he's like, well, I can't give that much away.

I have a bonus one though for you, Dave, because if he's not, right, if he does have to leave that game, Buy yourself a tackle gets hurt.

It will be Travis Burke that trots out onto the field to replace them.

That I am going to buy, and I am very happy to be able to buy that because, man, that guy has been awesome.

He's been really fun to watch, but I think it's most likely Joe Alt going over to left, Travis Burke getting installed there at right tackle.

That, to me, I think is just the best combination of tackles to have on the football field.

Joe Alt, to me, is the best pure pass protector.

I love what I've seen from Travis Burke, but he is an absolute menace in the running game.

He just demolishes guys.

At 63, Jake Slaughter, offensive – well, he's going to play center, right, out of Florida? Brendan Thompson at 105, wide receiver out of Mississippi State.

And then at 117, Travis Burke, offensive tackle.

131, Genesis Smith, who I liked in the draft this year.

At 145, Nick Barrett, defensive tackle out of South Carolina.

I can promise you that much.

to talk about what's going on in this 2-2-2 contract and why he doesn't see it getting done at this point, why he thinks Travis Burke could be starting tomorrow at tackle for the Chargers, which was awesome to hear, and also Omarion Hampton to the moon, according to Daniel Popper, where we thought we were bullish on him, and then we had him say what he said today, and also Justin Herbert and what he should be able to do, specifically in the playoffs with Justin Herbert.

But here he is, Daniel Popper.

All right, guys, here he is, the special guest we've been promising you, and still not too big for the little guys now that he is the senior writer for The Athletic covering the NFL.

The crazy thing is you feel really good about center, even though you have the Tyler Bionis injury, but still we're here in 2026 looking at the guard situation.

And I'm wondering as I'm watching press conferences, what would Daniel Popper be saying right now if Jim Harbaugh is telling him that he's about to run a platoon at left guard with Coyote Awashika and Trey Pipkins? Because that is where we're at right now.

popping it is it's interesting because it's like you know you have mike mcdaniel saying hey he's not willing to fully say it but i have 74 is probably the number that sticks and then it's like five straight practices at trey pipkins at left guard and i've seen you know we've theorized hey well it does feel like you know maybe the travis burke success is them just trying to be like okay let's find somewhere else for trey pipkins right now because travis burke obviously looks like he could potentially be the swing tackle but like he could start tomorrow that's how big travis

burke is he could start i love travis burke

Brennan Thompson, the wide receiver out of Mississippi State.

Travis Burke, the large and talented offensive tackle out of Memphis.

And Genesis Smith, who we mentioned earlier.

Many times because we've been talking about his defensive backfield mates at Arizona at 131.

When he came out, he's added a little bit of mass, but not a lot.

So Brennan Thompson has tremendous potential in this offensive system.

I mentioned Travis Burke, raw but absolute animal athletically, and I think has not even come close to his ceiling.

For a team that needs tackle depth, they know they go through it every year, whether they want to or not.