{"id":709468,"date":"2026-06-17T12:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T12:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/709468\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T12:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T12:04:11","slug":"3-observations-chargers-rookies-shine-on-day-1-of-minicamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/709468\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Observations: Chargers Rookies Shine on Day 1 of Minicamp"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day 1 of Chargers mandatory minicamp is in the books.<\/p>\n

The Bolts practiced for a little over an hour Tuesday at The Bolt as the intensity picked up a bit from recent Organized Team Activity (OTA) sessions.<\/p>\n

The Chargers will also hold minicamp practices on Wednesday and Thursday before getting a summer break before camp starts.<\/p>\n

Here are three observations from the first day of Chargers minicamp:<\/p>\n

1. Thompson, Smith highlight Day 1<\/p>\n

A pair of fourth-round rookies stole the show Tuesday at minicamp.<\/p>\n

The Chargers didn’t do much full-team work so the highlights came during a 7-on-7 portion of practice.<\/p>\n

Brenen Thompson<\/a> made the play of the day on offense as he made a contested catch in front of Elijah Molden down the field for an explosive gain.<\/p>\n

Thompson later hauled in a roughly 50-yard pass as he used his well-known speed (4.26 seconds in the 40-yard dash) to get behind the defense.<\/p>\n

Defensively, safety Genesis Smith<\/a> stepped up in the 7-on-7 drill when he intercepted Trey Lance on a throw to the left.<\/p>\n

The former Arizona standout, who had five interceptions in college, showed great instincts to step in front of the pass and secure the takeaway.<\/p>\n

Another notable play Tuesday came from running back Keaton Mitchell<\/a>, who hauled in a beautiful pass from Lance down the right sideline for a long gain.<\/p>\n

Tarheeb Still also notched a pass breakup when he denied Thompson a chance to make a catch over the middle.<\/p>\n

Finally, it was a solid day for second-year quarterback DJ Uiagalelei, who showed good zip on his passes, including a dart on the left sideline to KeAndre Lambert-Smith. The wide receiver made a toe-tap catch to secure a 15-plus yard gain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Day 1 of Chargers mandatory minicamp is in the books. The Bolts practiced for a little over an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[196206,11978,255493,241152,11977,11979,349,99],"class_list":["post-709468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-2026-offseason-editorial","tag-app-homepage","tag-brenen-thompson","tag-genesis-smith","tag-homepage-cp","tag-homepage-headlines","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}