SAN DIEGO — Rookie right tackle D.J. Fluker, the team’s first-round pick, is getting some work at right guard. Fluker, like any rookie, is being challenged in absorbing a new system and terminology. Coach Mike McCoy said there is no cause for alarm regarding Fluker and that different combinations are being tried.
King Dunlap, who was penciled in to be the starter at left tackle before the team signed Max Starks, is also working at right tackle. Jeromey Clary, the team’s starter at right tackle last year, has been shifted inside and is running with the first team at right guard. But McCoy has nothing but praise for Fluker.
“(He) works extremely hard in doing everything the way you ask him to do it,” McCoy said.
–Inside linebacker Manti Te’o said the knowledge the players possess, and not necessarily the quickness, is the biggest difference from the college game to the NFL.
“Everything is about technique,” the former Notre Dame standout said. “The speed, there are guys that are faster, but for the most part the speed isn’t the biggest difference. It’s how everybody is just technically sound, and for young guys, you’ve just got to learn that you can’t just run off blocks and you can’t just run through a hole. You’ve got to use techniques when you do the simple things. It’s those guys who are great at this game that have mastered those little things.”
–Quarterback Philip Rivers is a big fan of running back Danny Woodhead; Woodhead came over as a free agent this offseason from the Patriots. In Woodhead, the Chargers have a versatile back in the mode of a Darren Sproles.
“I don’t like to compare players,” Rivers said. “But he is super dynamic.”