Chargers linebacker Drue Tranquill was this week's guest on “Chargers Weekly” to discuss his new video interview series "Hear Me Out," entering his second season in the NFL and more.
"Hear Me Out" looks towards "unveiling the heart and mind of people within the Black community." Tranquill's first guest was Cowboys Pro Bowl linebacker and former Notre Dame All-American Jaylon Smith. "Hear Me Out" is available on several platforms, including Tranquill's Instagram page.
A few highlights from the conversation with Tranquill are below.
Entering his second year with the Chargers (14:17)
"I consider myself fortunate to be able to play [last season] with guys like Thomas Davis and Denzel [Perryman]; guys who I think combined had a total of like 22 or 23 years of experience. And so it was nice to be in a locker room and specifically a room of linebackers who had that experience, and I was able to draw from and learn from. In year one, I was just coming in trying to take the same mindset I took into Notre Dame in terms of I knew probably early on I'd have an opportunity on special teams and an opportunity to compete and make my presence known and just try to take advantage of those opportunities.
"And I think certainly as the year went on, I got more reps on defense and like you said, the game started to slow down a little bit. But, I'll be honest, too: You've got in college some teams trying to run 80, 90, 100 plays a game and it can get exhausting. And so, the speed of the game – actually like the pace of the game – is actually slower in the NFL in my opinion. But the time between the ball is snapped and when the play is dead is a lot faster."
Playing alongside rookie LB Kenneth Murray (16:17)
"I'm a little bit disappointed we didn't have meetings and stuff in person this year because I was really looking forward to getting to know him and spend some more time with him, but hopefully here in the next few weeks we can kind of connect a little bit more. It's tough via Zoom when you just have a limited amount of time to get to know him. But, the way our head coach, and I trust our head coach and he speaks very, very highly of him. You can just watch the highlight clips, the guy's a beast. And so, I'm excited to see him get on the field and make plays for us, for sure."
Take a look back at the month-by-month progress of SoFi Stadium from May 2019 - September 2020.
All photos by Mark Holtzman - West Coast Aerial Photography, Inc.
On SoFi Stadium (17:06)
"It's an engineering phenomena. In studying engineering in school, it was just super interesting to me the different mechanics of how just the audio's going to work, how the stadium's deeper underground than any stadium that's been built. And so, it's a super unique design where it's kind if open to air flow. It's got this unique covering over it. … Just all these different unique components, a massive jumbotron. So, it's going to be super cool to play [in]."
