Some of what Brandon Staley’s doing to build a bond with his quarterback is pretty informal, stuff no one would think twice about. The new Chargers coach might send Justin Herbert a clip from practice late at night. He might text, asking for a shot of his scorecard, if he hears the 23-year-old phenom’s playing golf with the guys after practice. Other times, it’s been Staley sending a picture of his son Colin’s wearing a No. 10 jersey to school.
And, of course, they’ve done the requisite dinners, one-on-ones at the facility and all that.
You get these stories every spring, when a new coach gets hired and tied to a young, ascending quarterback, and Staley’s not the only one on the staff making this kind of effort. Offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and quarterbacks coach Shane Day are doing it, too. But there a little purpose here that’s notable—in that it’s part of a holistic approach the new Chargers coaches are taking to rearing Herbert as a pro. Yet …
“Justin Herbert doesn’t need to be ,” Staley said from his office Wednesday, as the Chargers wrapped their offseason program. “He’s a great young man. He’s got a lot on his plate both here and off the field. When you become an NFL quarterback of his caliber, there’s a lot, and he has a personal life, too. And what I’ve tried to just be for him is just somebody who he can trust and that he can talk about big things, to small things, stuff in the middle. And I think we’re getting there.
“I know that we’re just at the beginning, but he’s the right guy to be working with. He’s got such a great heart. It’s not just his talent; he’s got a great heart, and he’s got a great head on his shoulders. And I’m really excited to get to training camp and really start competing together.”
What’s really interesting? That holistic approach to how Staley’s trying to bring Herbert along seems borne of the fact that he a textbook hire.
The easy thing for the Chargers to do in January, and what most people fully expected them to do, was always going to be to hire a young offensive coach in the model of the one Staley just worked for in 2020, on the other side of Los Angeles, to try and maximize Herbert in short order. The team interviewed a number of guys who fit that mold. And instead of following the well-worn script, they hired a 38-year defensive coordinator.
Herbert, it turns out, is already benefiting from that.
We’ll explain how.
