Bolts Hold Successful 1st Day of Rookie Minicamp

And while it was Day 1, it wasn’t as if Harbaugh made the rookies do a full-on scrimmage right away.

There’s an acclimation period that Harbaugh wants to go by, as the majority of Friday’s practice featured individual drills and techniques.

“I don’t believe in bringing guys off of airplanes from all over the country and going 11-on-11,” Harbaugh said. “What you’re allowed to do is not the level I want to go to with these guys.

“It’s more of like a plane for me taking off of a runway. It starts at a dead stop and then it builds speed, builds speed, builds speed and then it’s going so fast it has to lift off into the air,” Harbaugh added. “I call that the glide theory, and that’s what we were doing today. Getting the guys acclimated.”

The Chargers will also hold rookie minicamp practices Saturday and Sunday before the rookies mix in with the veterans on Monday for the first time.

Harbaugh also used a different analogy — one on brand for Southern California — when describing how he wants these three days to go.

“Think of it this way, we got the veterans who have been going for about five weeks now, I look at this as my job of, we have rookies that are coming on to the 405 [freeway],” Harbaugh said. “The traffic is moving fast and here come these new players and I have Friday, Saturday, Sunday to get them to understand the system, to learn the plays so they won’t slow down the veterans when they merge on Monday.”

McConkey said Friday that he tried to slow things down in his mind during his first practice in powder blue.

“At the end of the day, football is football. It’s a new place, new uniform, new people, new team and all that,” McConkey said. “But I still have to go out there and run routes, catch the ball and block.”

He later added: “I want to get in a routine, get in a rhythm and get going. Now we’re here and kind of getting into that process now.”

So far, so good for the dozens of rookies…