EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — After the Los Angeles Chargers hired Mike McDaniel as offensive coordinator, McDaniel turned on film to watch every single pass of Justin Herbert‘s career.
That’s 3,438 pass attempts across six seasons for those, who like McDaniel, are counting at home.
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And the more the former Miami Dolphins head coach watched, the more he realized how well his offensive system fit Herbert.
Offensive play callers across the NFL differ in their beliefs on how to value the quick passing game against longer-developing plays that allow pass-catchers to get farther down field and thus more yards through the air.
But McDaniel arrives to Los Angeles with a firm and thoroughly developed belief that the quick passing game is the answer in today’s NFL.
His reasoning hits close to home for Herbert.
“The most stacked position in all of football is elite pass rushers,” McDaniel told Yahoo Sports after practice on Tuesday. “Regardless of how good your blockers are, if you just look at the simple numbers of height, weight, speed, the most athletic guys that exist are on the defense and big guys are on the defensive front.
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“So if you accept the fact that blockers have an inherent disadvantage, to me, beating the pass rush with the time of the play more often than not is where those beliefs come from.”
The concept might sound foreign to Chargers fans who have watched Herbert absorb hit after hit in his six pro seasons.
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Since the Chargers selected Herbert in the first round, sixth overall, of the 2020 NFL Draft, no quarterback has been sacked more than Herbert’s 225 times. No quarterback has been pressured more than Herbert’s 903 snaps. And no quarterback has received more registered hits than Herbert’s 381, per Pro Football Reference data.
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Part of that speaks to the Chargers’ heavy reliance on Herbert in the passing game, his 3,438 attempts ranking second only to Russell Wilson‘s 3,574. And part of that speaks to a rotating cast of offensive linemen, and most recently a highly battered cast of offensive linemen, leaving Herbert with shoddy-at-best protection.
“It was rough last year,” receivers coach Sanjay Lal told Yahoo Sports. “Justin just didn’t have time or he got moved off the spot almost every other play. So how do you have a functioning offense when it’s like that?”
Enter McDaniel, who prides himself on problem-solving for just such scenarios. A quick-release passing game will reduce the length of opportunities defenders have to crush Herbert, while McDaniel and staff’s belief in a more balanced run-pass attack should decrease the number of dropbacks Herbert will take.
Will it work? McDaniel points to his last two seasons coaching Tua Tagovailoa, who was hit just 26 times in 25 games (that’s 1.04 hits per game, compared to Herbert’s more than four). And he points to a trend he saw in Herbert’s 3,400-plus attempts that speak to a skill set that matches this system.
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“There was a commonality with the plays that he was successful with and on rhythm: plays that he was able to be decisive inside the pocket,” McDaniel said. “Whether he was plant throwing or he was taking a couple hitches in in the pocket, he was decisive. And I learned that he’s flat-out tougher than I would ever be.”
New Chargers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel (left) wants to get the ball out of QB Justin Herbert’s hands quicker this season. (Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports)
Herbert has thrived under pressure, but should he have to?
There’s an irony in the Chargers’ chase to reduce Herbert’s hits: Those same hits have earned his teammates and coaches’ respects.
“I had an old coach who said every time you’re out here, every game you play, every practice, every training camp, it’s like putting money in the bank,” head coach Jim Harbaugh told Yahoo Sports. “He put a lot of grit in the bank. Find a way to win. Put the team on your shoulder.
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“I mean, he’s the guardian of victory.”
With Herbert at the helm, the Chargers have won 11 games each of the last two seasons. Across his career, he’s completed 66.5% of pass attempts for 24,820 yards, 163 touchdowns and 58 interceptions. No one doubts Herbert’s big arm nor his production.
But McDaniel hopes he can take some of the pressure off Herbert — physically and psychologically.
McDaniel considers Herbert’s 2025 film, and two plays stand out.
Week 3, fourth quarter, 2:44 to play, down 20-13: Herbert fields the snap on second-and-6, Broncos defensive lineman Zach Allen barreling toward him quickly. No matter. Herbert climbs the pocket, escapes with a scramble to his left and throws on the run with outside linebacker Nik Bonitto in his face. Keenan Allen caught the 20-yard touchdown. With an extra point, the Chargers tied the game and ultimately went on to win.
Then there was Week 6 against the Dolphins, which McDaniel had the misfortune of experiencing from the opposing sideline. With 34 seconds left, down one point, Herbert stood tall while edge rusher Jaelan Phillips wrapped him up, Herbert firing a pass to receiver Ladd McConkey in space to set up McConkey for what would become a 42-yard pass on a game-winning field-goal drive.
Herbert’s play illustrates something McDaniel wants to avoid — pressure — and something McDaniel wants to promote: yards after the catch.
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“Ball out and as soon as we come out of our break, it’s in our hands,” Lal said of his receivers room. “The nervous system’s reaction’s to get your hands up, to squeeze the ball? That was a growth period early.
“We’re still not 100% on that, but we’re way better.”
Omarion Hampton: McDaniel offense ‘a lot faster-paced’
Through two weeks of training camp, McDaniel says proudly: Herbert “really hasn’t had to escape the pocket much.”
Instead, multiple target options materialize in Herbert’s view. Take the 7-on-7 touchdown Tuesday when Herbert hit tight end Charlie Kolar. McConkey was running an outbreaking route at the same time. Herbert had his choice.
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“He is able to see the defense and throw two different routes in the same timing,” McDaniel said. “Ultimately what that allows you to do is keep him from getting hit, make defenses have to be a little more aggressive to try to get to him, and then that gives all your matchups and your personnel an opportunity.”
But Chargers brass hopes the quarterback’s superhero antics can become the exception rather than the rule.
McDaniel’s background playing and coaching receiver, then coaching offensive line and then becoming Kyle Shanahan’s run game guru leaves him believing that, not only are quarterbacks best positioned to throw from a clean pocket when they release the ball quickly, but also receivers are most open when they first come out of their breaks.
McDaniel believes that a strong and oft-used run game make for a quarterback and offensive line’s best friend.
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“He’s a supreme talent,” McDaniel said of Herbert, but “known passing situations are the least favorable for offensive football.”
So instead, the Chargers are working on a running back-by-committee ground game to balance Herbert’s passing, while receivers are working to marry their release angles in the run game with their releases in the pass game to help disguise play calls. Herbert is encouraged to trust his anticipatory throws. Rhythm and timing will be the Chargers’ offensive bread and butter.
“It’s just a lot faster-paced and just something that we all enjoy, really,” second-year running back Omarion Hampton told Yahoo Sports. “It just opens up the [running] holes. If we’re throwing the ball fast, then they can’t do both, really.
“They can’t defend the pass and defend the run at the same time.”
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Or can defenses? The Chargers will begin to find out when they host the Arizona Cardinals in Week 1, with their gauntlet stretch beginning in Week 3 as they face the Buffalo Bills, Seattle Seahawks, Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs in four straight weeks.
From an office plastered with dozens of drawings courtesy his 5-year-old daughter Ayla, McDaniel will fashion creative game plans for each contest. Harbaugh’s betting they’ll send waves through the league.
“He’s already innovated a lot of things in football and brought so much to this game, but now we’re seeing it in real time,” Harbaugh said. “[We tell ourselves,] ‘That’s never been done. Can’t wait to do that.
“‘As soon as we do that, it’s going to get copied.'”
