Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert is one of the toughest quarterbacks in the league, often thriving in the face of adversity. Despite breaking a bone in his non-throwing hand last season, he continued to play through the injury for more than a month and a half. The Chargers eventually made it to the Wild Card round, only to be eliminated at the same stage for the third time in Herbert’s six seasons with the franchise.
The postseason uncertainty continued to haunt the star quarterback despite finishing second in the AFC West. But this time, Herbert has a new coach leading the offense: Mike McDaniel. The offensive play-calling specialist is a match made in heaven for the Chargers, who have been desperately looking for a deep postseason run.
Justin Herbert Has a Major Problem to Tackle Under Mike McDaniel
One of the alarming stats from Herbert’s last six seasons shows he has taken a worse beating than any other quarterback since entering the league in 2020. Last year, he was on pace to get hit 625 times in his first six seasons in the league, a scary figure for a top-tier quarterback who has been phenomenal in terms of accuracy and throwing skills (Ranked No. 18 in PFN’s NFL QB Impact Rankings).
Unsurprisingly, he has now drawn comparisons to former Indianapolis Colts QB Andrew Luck, who followed a similar trajectory in the first six seasons of his career, taking nearly 580 hits.
“Outside of the playoff performance questions which have already been mentioned, the big focus for Los Angeles will be protecting their QB1,” Chargers analyst Alexander Insdorf claimed in his breakdown for the Bolt Beat on Saturday.
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“Herbert has been hit at rates in the NFL that rival Andrew Luck in his first six seasons. It’s up to the offensive line and McDaniel to keep Herbert clean throughout the year in order to play at a higher level down the stretch,” he added. “How Herbert adapts to less dropback in the offense and more quick game is also a question to be answered.”
As Insdorf likes to put it, the Chargers will have to fortify the offensive line, while Herbert needs to fix his biggest vulnerability of getting driven into the turf by defenders.
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That’s where McDaniel’s role becomes relevant. He is known for devising schemes with heavy pre-snap motion and creating wide-open windows for quarterbacks to throw the ball incredibly fast.
If Herbert can master his footwork in the pocket, half the problems are solved. The duo appears to have already taken the necessary steps, as McDaniel and Herbert were seen addressing the issues in the offseason OTAs.
