CHARLOTTE, N.C. —
Justin Herbert’s lauded right arm launched deep touchdowns and threaded passes through tiny windows. Now it’s quietly handing the ball off. Onlookers wring their hands about Herbert’s seemingly diminished role in an offense that suddenly ranks second in rushing, but the Chargers nod patiently as their plan settles in.
“A running game,” Chargers quarterback coach Shane Day said, “is a quarterback’s best friend.”
Through two games, Herbert’s personal stats have been mostly forgettable. Keeping pace with his first four record-setting seasons in which he threw 2,422 times for 17,223 yards seemed impossible anyway.
The only number he’s concerned with is wins, and for the first time since 2012 the Chargershad two consecutive wins to start the season behind a potent rushing attack that Herbert is content to orchestrate quietly.
“My job as a quarterback is just to be a point guard,” Herbert said. “To get [my teammates] the ball, to get us in the right looks. … As long as I’m doing that, I’m doing my job.”
Offensive coordinator Greg Roman has used a punishing ground game at his NFL stops in San Francisco, Buffalo and Baltimore. The Ravens were ranked in the top three in the NFL in yards rushing per game in each of Roman’s four seasons, including a record-setting 3,296 yards rushing in 2019 when quarterback Lamar Jackson was named NFL most valuable player. Even with Herbert’s elite arm talent, few seemed surprised at Roman’s offensive plan for the Chargers.
Can you imagine Justin Herbert with a great running game?” Roman proposed after joining the Chargers.
The idea is only starting to take shape.
Herbert has maintained a high completion percentage (67.4%) through two games that is slightly better than his career average of 66.6%, but his yards per competition are lower than ever at a six-yard clip. Throwing for less than 200 yards in consecutive games for the first time in his career, Herbert has thrown only 46 passes during the first two games, the fewest for any two-game stretch.
But he still has three touchdown passes, surpassing the team’s two rushing touchdowns scored by J.K. Dobbins. While the running back was busy becoming the first Chargers player to rush for back-to-back 100-yard games to open a season, Herbert fired a pin-point pass to Quentin Johnston for a touchdown after the Panthers committed an extra safety in run support and left the second-year receiver in one-on-one coverage outside.
Amid the running game’s rise, Herbert’s throw “reminded everybody that he’s one of the best quarterbacks in the National Football League,” Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh said.
Our vision is we get the run game going,” Roman said, “and the complementary play-action pass and the ability to throw the ball down the field when we can, or just check it down with numbing repetition underneath. That’s what we’re chasing.”
Herbert isn’t the only quarterback taking a backseat to the running game. During the NFL’s first two weeks, 47.6% of all plays from scrimmage were runs. The percentage has been ticking up steadily in recent seasons. The year before Herbert was drafted, teams ran the ball 42.8% of the time. Last season, they carried it on 44.3% of plays.
