Even after hearing Jim Harbaugh speak during Chargers training camp, edge rusher Khalil Mack still can’t figure out what his new coach’s mind is like. When Harbaugh speaks, Mack has no idea what he’s going to hear.

“You never know what he’s going to say when he’s standing in front of the whole group of people in the team room,” Mack said, looking down to hide his smile.

Rookie linebacker Junior Colson played under Harbaugh the past three years at the University of Michigan, and he can’t predict what metaphor Harbaugh would use to convey a particular idea.

“He still surprises you sometimes,” Colson said.

That also goes for press conferences, where Harbaugh’s stream-of-thought monologues and unusual word choices often have reporters glancing at each other in amusement.

Last week, Harbaugh explained the importance of players on the practice squad being ready to play, in case they are suddenly added to the active roster.

“They have to stay cool,” he said, comparing players to beer mugs.

When Harbaugh was later asked about his development as a coach, he described himself as someone who is open to change. To illustrate his point, he used an analogy of a mall entrance.

“Generally, it’s just the open door, that’s the one I look for,” he said. “It’s like going to the mall and sometimes they have that row of doors and several of them are closed, but one is open. I don’t try the door that’s closed. I walk through that open door.”

It was strange.

It was strange.

It was Harbaugh.

“I absolutely don’t know what to expect,” Mack said.

Jim Harbaugh’s words often bring a smile to Chargers edge rusher Khalil Mack.

(Kyusung Gong / Associated Press)

But Harbaugh’s unpredictability as a speaker is offset by his consistency as a coach, which is why his players respect him as much as they like him.

“Everything is understood,” Mack said. “Everything is said for everyone and everyone is on the same page. So you go through the day knowing what you’re going to get, especially from top to bottom. The expectation is the expectation.”

The Chargers are a completely different team as they play their season opener against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday at SoFi Stadium.

“The leadership comes from Coach Harbaugh,” said Mack, an eight-time Pro Bowl selection.

Trainings are more focused. Exercises have clear goals. Players are more focused.

According to Colson, Harbaugh is not the same coach he was when he won a national championship with Michigan.

“You have to coach differently in certain areas because you have older guys now,” Colson said.

But Colson added: “At his core, he’s still the same person.”

That person is competitive. That person is driven. That person sounded like the eccentric uncle of Clayton Kershaw, the famously self-motivated Dodgers left-hander.

When asked last week if he was satisfied with backup quarterback Easton Stick’s preseason progress, Harbaugh replied, “Satisfied? That’s just a word I would never use in any way, shape, or form in connection with football. From now on, that word is just a … I almost never use … that’s a word to be ashamed of. That would be in the bottom five as far as football words go. It wouldn’t even be in the top five. It would be in the bottom five.”

Why?

“Comfortable would go with satisfied,” Harbaugh said. “It just doesn’t speak to me in football. The other words are better. Engaged. That’s a great word. Execution. That’s a top five word. Settlement. Those are real football words to me. Satisfied, bottom five.”

Players sound like they’ve embraced Harbaugh’s mindset. They sound like they believe they’re going to win, and why not? Harbaugh has won everywhere he’s coached, including his previous NFL stint with the San Francisco 49ers.

Harbaugh’s personality is palpable in every corner of the Chargers’ new training complex in El Segundo, so much so that the fatalism that once dominated the franchise has disappeared overnight.

This is no small thing. The Chargers have been defined by their history of Chargering, and overcoming that history has been the goal of each of Harbaugh’s predecessors. The previous coach, Brandon Staley, even went so far as to talk to his players about the franchise’s past failures.

This isn’t to say the Chargers are instant Super Bowl contenders, as the 49ers were when Harbaugh took over as coach. But the questions about the Chargers aren’t so much whether they’ll succeed, but when they’ll succeed. Winning at some point in the relatively near future feels like a safe bet.

And what Harbaugh says next is a whole other story.