Practice in Photos: July 27

Jeremy Williams hauls in a pass near the right sideline Tuesday during individual drills.

Philip Rivers and the quarterbacks spent the first portion of practice flinging short throws to the young WRs.

In Quotes: Last Week of OTAs

About 45 players participated in the final week of OTAs last week, most of them rookies.

Here’s a look at what some of the Chargers’ draft picks, free agent rookies and young vets had to say and their evaluation of the offseason.

Ryan Mathews – ”I think I’m on top of my game and ready to go, but there’s still a lot of stuff I need to learn. This upcoming month, July, is really going to help me out. If I just stay on top of everything, just keep working out and keep getting better, I’ll come back in July and be ready.”

Cam Thomas — “It really doesn’t matter until you put the pads on. It’s more mental than it is physical right now. It’s just getting the plays and understanding the philosophy of the defense. When the pads come on, that’s when we’ll tell who’s a man and who’s not. If you don’t like being physical, you shouldn’t play the sport. And I like being physical.”

Jeremy Williams — “I’ve been making as many catches as I can, doing everything as fast as I can and working hard. I think overall my OTAs went well. I’m just going to go back, get a couple days of rest, hang out with the family and then I’m going to get back on my grind. I’ll make sure I stay in shape and get ready for camp to come here and light it up.”

Antwan Applewhite — “What we try to take from it is not so much physicalness, but just the mental aspect of it. Just getting our minds back on football, getting our legs in football shape. That’s basically what we take from it, so that’s what the fans should take from it. It’s just kind of a pre-camp type thing. That’s why they call it Mini Camp. It’s just to kind of get us back into shape and get our minds ready to play football again in September.”

Dante Hughes — “This is a good time for us because we get an opportunity to play. That’s what we get paid to do and that’s what we enjoy doing, but at the same time, before training camp you definitely need that down time. You can get your body back if you have a knick or you’re bruised up a little bit. You can get those issues taken care of so that they don’t linger into the season. Plus, a lot of these guys have families. When the season rolls around, you’re not going to have much opportunity to enjoy them, so it’s a good time for us to get family time in also.”

Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher