The Trench Warfare Film Room featuring Chargers LT Rashawn Slater

Photo via Tyler Wise

For this week’s film room, I am taking a slight detour outside of the draft world into the NFL as Chargers All-Pro LT Rashawn Slater joins the show. Slater completed his rookie season in 2021 after taking a year off of football in 2020 to prepare for the draft with Duke Manyweather in Dallas, Texas. Slater was a first-round lock leading up to the draft due to outstanding footwork, body control, balance and refined technique.

Slater consistently showcased these and other traits as a rookie, earning Pro Bowl and Second-Team All-Pro honors after playing 100% of snaps in the 16/17 games he started (missed one game due to COVID-19).

For the film room I cut up 40+ plays from this past season, focusing in on Slater’s anchor, body control, use of hands and other key traits he used against the likes of Myles Garrett, Trey Hendrickson, Everson Griffen, Yannick Ngakoue and others. I bounced my observations off of Slater, uncovered more about his thought process and approach that led to one of the most complete rookie seasons we have seen from a tackle in recent memory.

Here are some other specific topics that we discussed:

• Why and how Slater’s ability to anchor down and halt the bull-rush is a foundational element for success in pass-protection.

• The art of timing the snap and mastering the first rule of pass-protection: getting out of your stance.

  • How Slater honed this skill from teammate Bryan Bulaga and Corey Linsley’s success doing it when they were playing for the Packers with David Bakhtiari.

• Video preview: Heavily utilizing leading with the outside hand in pass-protection and the keys to excel using that approach.

  • With specific examples against a variety of rushers, including former Raiders & current Colts DE Yannick Ngakoue.

• Video preview: How being ‘light on your hands’ matters and where Slater learned the term, “I don’t punch, I aggressively place my hands.”

• Slater learning to ‘find the hip’ of rushers from his dad (former NBA player) and why that is important to protect the corner.

• Former Vikings DE Everson Griffen’s mastery of ‘tempo’ as a rusher and why he is one of the most crafty and difficult players to face.

• When and how Slater favors mixing up pass sets to throw off the timing of an opponent.

  • Which players Slater has studied over the years to sharpen this skill.

• Analyzing several reps from Slater’s matchup against Myles Garrett, including marveling at his ability to bend the corner at 270+ pounds.