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The Chargers drafted cornerback Jason Verrett in the first round of the 2014 draft, but he wasn’t able to make much of an impression during his rookie year because of a shoulder injury that ended his season after six games.

Verrett returned to the lineup last year and turned in a much more memorable campaign that ended with a berth in the Pro Bowl to go with rosy projections of what he’ll do in the years to come. In addition to better health, Verrett credits his rebound to being able to “just focus on football” after preparing for the draft took up much of the previous offseason.

Those are the kinds of tips he’s shared with running back Melvin Gordon this offseason. Gordon was the Chargers’ first-round pick in 2015, but underwhelmed in his 14 appearances as a rookie thanks in part to a knee injury that required microfracture surgery in January. Verrett told Howard Balzer and Gil Brandt of Sirius XM NFL Radio that he’s spent time with Gordon and shared his own experience of how a disappointing rookie year can be followed by a better sophomore campaign.

“It started cool just because he was coming over my house, we were playing video games and we had time to be able to rap and just get the mindset going on how we want to approach this season,” Verrett said. “And I was just telling him things that I had to go through as far as with the injuries and then dealing with people speaking upon my durability and stuff like that, and how I had to handle that adversity part. So I was just trying to let him know that this is a bounce-back season for him. Throughout OTAs, he was getting his knee right and doing all those things that are going to be able to help our offense.”

Chargers offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt said last month that Gordon “definitely finished strong” in the offseason program and his knee isn’t expected to limit him come training camp. The Chargers will be hoping that remains the case in the regular season and that he travels a similar second-year path to the one Verrett took.