OL Masterminds' Duke Manyweather was a guest on the latest episode of “Chargers Weekly” to discuss the team's first-round selection (No. 13 overall) Rashawn Slater.
Manyweather has spent the last eight months preparing Slater for the NFL. Watch the full interview below and subscribe to the Chargers Podcast Network wherever you get your podcasts.
Here are a few highlights:
Why the Chargers are a Good Fit for Slater (4:33)
"We talk about the importance of leaning on veterans so much, and there's a lot of young guys unfortunately -- and this is one of the things that I explained to Rashawn: When you're getting drafted top five and sometimes the top 10, the teams in the rooms that you go to, they're depending on you right now and they're depending on you to be the guy. And a lot of times, those situations mean that there aren't established veterans in there to lean on. He's got a lot of experience on that starting offensive line.
Bryan Bulaga, he's one of the best right tackles in the league. Oday Aboushi has played a lot of football in a lot of different places and just [a] constant professional and a guy that is a hired gun every single year and just goes out there and does his job and does it with authority and with that grit that we talked about in the film room. The consistency of Corey Linsley, like we brought up into the film room as well, really kind of the brains on the O-line, so to speak, in terms of directing and pointing protections and things of that nature; has played a lot of football with arguably one of the best quarterbacks of our time. Matt Feiler, same thing, has played a lot of football at right tackle and at left guard with arguably one of the best quarterbacks of our time in Ben Roethlisberger.
"So, when you factor in somebody who is as serious, cerebral and just clear on who they are as Rashawn -- if you put them into an environment where they've got a strong veteran room -- I'm really excited about his development and also I think it's something special to be said that now you've got a second-year franchise quarterback who showed you who the heck he's going to be. Now you've got a franchise left tackle, they're going to grow and develop together, so that's going to be special for the Chargers."
Practicing Against Joey Bosa (11:18)
"I cannot reiterate this enough. Again, we thought he was going to go in the top 10. Going to number 13 to the Chargers is probably the best thing that will happen for his development and career because of all the things you just spoke about. Iron sharpening iron in the O-line room and then every day on the field going against Bosa. I think that is a highly underrated aspect of development, but think about all those resources that you have that are now going to allow you to flourish, alright?
"Confidence is the story we repeatedly tell ourselves, so you talked about how confident and that cool, calm and collectiveness that Rashawn has, and really what it is is that self-talk that reverts back to him doing the work. He's very confident in who he is. He's clear on who he is. He knows he's done the work and he knows that he's going to continue to do the work. So when we talk about that cool, calm and collectiveness, and you factor in that veteran room; and if you factor in one of the best rushers in the game right now, you got to be excited about the development curve that you're going to see Rashawn have. And again, that pick number 13 is going to prove to be a tremendous landing spot."
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