{"id":228765,"date":"2025-04-18T12:00:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T16:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=228765"},"modified":"2025-04-17T22:29:53","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T02:29:53","slug":"infamous-former-first-round-pick-comments-on-the-chargers-and-his-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/04\/18\/infamous-former-first-round-pick-comments-on-the-chargers-and-his-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Infamous Former First Round Pick Comments On The Chargers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Chargers have become a factory for taking defensive backs from anywhere and everywhere and making them into serviceable starters. Whether it was the ability to take <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/02\/13\/ranking-the-best-chargers-best-rookies-from-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">two fifth-round rookies <\/a>and turn them into real NFL-caliber starters, or taking Tony Jefferson, who was coming out of retirement and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/08\/25\/tony-jefferson-comes-out-of-retirement-and-dominates-the-preseason\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">making him into a real contributor<\/a>, the Bolts have something special in their development\/scheme to create the most for their guys.<\/p>\n<p>One player that they took a chance on last season, due to a plethora of injuries stacking up, was the former first-round pick <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/A\/ApplEl00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Eli Apple<\/a>. Known as one of the most infamous defensive backs in recent memory, mainly due to his now old, <a href=\"https:\/\/readwrite.com\/eli-apple-says-goodbye-to-twitter-trolling\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&#8220;Twitter troll&#8221; mentality<\/a>. He exclusively told <a href=\"https:\/\/greatoffshoresportsbooks.com\/author\/kyle\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NFL Writer Kyle Odegard<\/a> that he is interested in re-signing with the Chargers.<\/p>\n<h2>Former First Round Pick Hints At Re-Signing With Chargers<\/h2>\n<p>The Chargers took Apple off the streets of NFL free agency and created an environment for the 29-year-old corner to have the best season of his long career. He ranked 14th in overall defensive grade out of eligible corners in PFF&#8217;s grading.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Eli Apple was elevated from the practice squad and had to fill in midgame due to CB injuries.<\/p>\n<p>Giving you this \ud83d\udc47 off the bench in your three coverage reps is awesome <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/krM1ipnaSr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/krM1ipnaSr<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tyler Schoon (@tylerjschoon) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tylerjschoon\/status\/1858720917377151179?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 19, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>With this career renaissance, the Chargers still opted to bring in other competitors, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/03\/10\/donte-jackson-signs-contract-chargers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Donte Jackson<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/S\/StJuBe00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Benjamin St-Juste<\/a>, to bring veteran presence to the young defensive back room spearheaded by Tarheeb Still and Cam Hart.<\/p>\n<p>However, Apple says that a reunion is still very possible, at least on his end. &#8220;Anything\u2019s possible. I&#8217;m not going to rule out anything. That would be nice. I know they made some moves at corner and brought in a couple other guys too, but, like I always say, \u2018You can never have enough corners.\u2019 I think anything&#8217;s possible. You never know.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Apple is right, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/03\/06\/defensive-depth-positions-the-chargers-target-on-day-3-2025-nfl-draft\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Chargers can never have enough corners<\/a>, especially after the reign of injuries they sustained last season at the position.<\/p>\n<h3>Eli Apple Comments On Chargers Young DBs<\/h3>\n<p>The former first-round pick, who is now a veteran DB, had plenty to say in regards to the Chargers young talent in the room. In Odegard&#8217;s interview, he says, \u201c&#8230;they really, really stepped up. And that was like from the moment I got there. They made their first start in that Denver game, and I watched, and I was like, \u2018Wow, they came into this league ready.\u2019 And you see that every day in practice&#8230;I\u2019m excited to see what their future holds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fans should be excited for the futures of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/10\/12\/injury-report-leads-to-two-chargers-rookies-likely-to-start\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Still and Hart<\/a>, especially coupled with the fact that former first round picks like Apple can see a bright future.<\/p>\n<h3>Justin Herbert&#8217;s Immense Talent Surprises Apple<\/h3>\n<p>Everyone wants to know the insight on their favorite quarterback; any tidbit of information they can gather is a valuable piece of content. Especially when it comes to the shy, not very social media present <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/H\/HerbJu00.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Justin Herbert<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Positive opinions from peers are always a strong start for helping the reputation of players like Herbert, who is always a point of conversation amongst NFL media members. To spread the word, Apple said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHerbert has the most impressive arm I&#8217;ve ever seen and been able to watch up close. The way the ball comes out of his hand is nothing short of amazing. Anytime we had a little break period, I would always find myself drifting towards the quarterbacks and receivers when they&#8217;re doing their routes on air, just so I can see it up close and be like, \u2018Damn. That&#8217;s how the ball comes out?\u2019 I gotta be this much faster on my breaks to get to those in-breakers and those out-breakers that he&#8217;s throwing. It was just incredible zip.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>High praise for a Herbert, especially coming from a former first round pick who has played with the likes of Drew Brees, Joe Burrow and Eli Manning.<\/p>\n<p>For more tidbits on Apple and other Chargers-related information, give <a href=\"https:\/\/readwrite.com\/eli-apple-exclusive-interview-chargers-giants-bengals\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Odegard&#8217;s full interview<\/a> a read.<\/p>\n<p>Main Image: Robert Hanashiro-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In an exclusive interview with Eli Apple, NFL Writer Kyle Odegard got plenty of Chargers-related news, including untold future implications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4709,"featured_media":228849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[32499,7642,1506,5579,1501,32658],"class_list":["post-228765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chargers","tag-cam-hart","tag-chargers-featured","tag-eli-apple","tag-justin-herbert","tag-los-angeles-chargers","tag-tarheeb-still"],"modified_by":"Drew Crabtree","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4709"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228765"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":228851,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228765\/revisions\/228851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}