EL SEGUNDO — Outside linebacker Tuli Tuipulotu was the only member of the Chargers who didn’t practice as training camp opened Wednesday, working off to the side with an athletic trainer. Coach Jim Harbaugh said beforehand, “I think so,” when asked if Tuipulotu would practice.
However, Tuipulotu is awaiting a contract extension from the Chargers. His four-season rookie contract runs through the end of the 2026 season. He reported on time Tuesday with the other Chargers veterans, but he did not stop to speak with reporters.
Pro Bowl safety Derwin James Jr. said he knows exactly what Tuipulotu is going through, having had his own “hold-in” during training camp in 2022 while awaiting an extension that would, at the time, make him the highest-paid safety in NFL history with a four-year, $76.532-million deal.
“It’s just the process of it,” said James, who received a new three-year extension worth $75.6 million in May. “The team loves him. We love Tuli. I knew the team loved me, too, when I had the same similar situation, but sometimes that stuff takes longer to iron out. But, man, everyone knows we love Tuli here.
“It’ll get worked out. He loves the team. It’ll work itself out. Mine got worked out. I was confident in it. I can’t wait to have him out there. It’s just part of the business.”
Tuipulotu, 23, had a team-leading 13 sacks last season, topping his career best of 8.5 sacks set during the 2024 season, and was selected for the Pro Bowl for the first time. The former USC star became a full-time starter last season after veteran edge rusher Joey Bosa signed last year with the Buffalo Bills.
HERBERT’S PROPOSAL
Quarterback Justin Herbert admitted he was nervous, far more so than before his first NFL start during his rookie season in 2020. Then again, he had days, weeks and months to think about proposing marriage to pop singer girlfriend Madison Beer.
He had only seconds to prepare for his first start after a last-minute injury to Tyrod Taylor before a Sept. 20, 2020, game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
“I thought about it for a while,” Herbert confessed one day after announcing their engagement on Instagram with a simple note that read “Meet my fiance.” Herbert and Beer met last year on the set of a video she was shooting. They were later seen together at Lakers and Dodgers games.
Harbaugh happily gave Herbert permission to miss several spring practices so he could join Beer during her concert tour. Harbaugh laughed at the time when asked for his reaction to Herbert’s absence during optional practices, saying he told Herbert, “Do you need a ride to the airport?”
Harbaugh said Wednesday the news of Herbert’s engagement was “awesome.”
ALT, SLATER PRACTICE
Pro Bowl tackles Joe Alt and Rashawn Slater practiced at full speed with their teammates. Or as full speed as the Chargers went on the opening day of training camp, with Harbaugh saying everyone on the roster was merely starting to ramp up their activities.
Alt suffered a season-ending ankle injury during the Chargers’ victory Nov. 2 over the Tennessee Titans and participated in their spring practices. Slater sat out all of last season after he injured his knee during a routine drill during training camp last Aug. 7. He, too, was on the field for spring workouts.
“It’s like a plane, you know, just starting on a runway,” Harbaugh said. “It’s going to get moving and it’s going to start going so fast, it’s just going to take off and we fly. But, yeah, there’s a ramp up. I’m just going to keep using that word. Ramp up. I think of it as a glide theory that we move into.”
HARBAUGH’S HOLIDAY
One stop on Harbaugh’s five-week break from football was soccer’s World Cup, an eye-opening and heart-pounding experience for early-round games at SoFi Stadium, and not only because of the sight of grass instead of artificial turf on the floor of the Chargers’ Inglewood home.
Asked what he learned from his World Cup experience, Harbaugh smiled and said, “I like soccer a lot. It was really, really cool. Incredible to watch, learned a lot about the game and the competition and everything and, I mean, the fan bases. You know, it was a lot of magic.”
Another stop was a missionary trip to Peru to assist in building homes, donating clothes and working with a food bank for the needy, a repeat trip after his first visit after departing as coach at the University of San Diego for Stanford in 2007. His command of Spanish is still a work in progress, though.
“So, I went there and mostly brought my University of San Diego T-shirts and sweatshirts and clothes, so everybody thought I was Diego, so I’m Diego now,” Harbaugh said, laughing. “It’s been wonderful just to see something build and grow, where schools were built, a surgical center, legal services for people who can’t afford it. So many good things.”