As the Chargers work their way through four weeks of OTAs, we’re seeing some exciting new players stand out and the team culture flourish. Everyone is hungry for kickoff and ready to seek redemption after the previous year’s heartbreaking ending. Over the course of the 2022 season, the Bolts had their struggles; from injuries to the offensive scheme, it wasn’t an easy road to the playoffs – and someone who saw less production because of this was quarterback Justin Herbert.
Since entering the league in 2020, Herbert has stood out among young quarterbacks; touting impressive stat lines, athleticism, and an elite pocket presence. In 2021, he remained one of the top 5 – and more often than not top 2 – quarterbacks in the league in nearly every possible stat. The expectation was that production would continue to increase, but with a rib injury, an injured roster, and a scheme that failed to highlight his best qualities – the production dropped. Yet through these highs and lows in his first 3 years, one thing has been consistent: his throwing mechanics.
For his first three seasons, Herbert’s throwing mechanics was that of a low-release side-arm variety. The side-arm throw is a mechanic that quarterbacks, like Patrick Mahomes use as a means of passing around a defensive player or as a tricky pass when scrambling to the right. We saw Herbert execute many of these passes in 2020 and 2021. Still, the mechanic continued to embed itself into his overall throwing motion in the 2022 season – which could have been a byproduct of his rib injury or just a general coaching strategy on Shane Day’s part. As we continue to watch Herbert in OTAs this summer, we can see a clear change in the way he passes the football. His release is higher, the arc of the pass is lifted, and thankfully the velocity is still of an elite caliber.
🔟 back at it pic.twitter.com/n6gy3Qorit
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) May 15, 2023
This is very good news for Chargers fans this coming season. With a healthy wide receiver corps to work with and an exciting new scheme from offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, the uptick in Herbert’s production should be highly noticeable. At 6-foot-6, Herbert stands tall behind his offensive line but struggled with batted balls because of his lower release and a more predictable offense in 2022. The high release should limit the amount of batted balls we see this coming season since the release point of his passes will come close to reaching eight feet above the ground – much too high for most defensive linemen to get a hand on. On top of this, Moore’s projected offensive scheme will allow Herbert to uncork deeper passes in a more complex playbook which will increase his yards per play as well as allow his new high release point to hit that 8-foot maximum as frequently as possible.
Almost every elite quarterback we see in the NFL ends up working on their mechanics, ultimately increasing their success likelihood and their stat line. We saw this happen when Josh Allen had the opportunity to focus on his mechanics with now Giants head coach Brian Daboll. Immediately after working on his mechanics, Allen was executing MVP-level seasons and leading his team to the playoffs year in and year out. Daboll continued this quarterback success by elevating the mechanics and production of Daniel Jones in 2022. This type of work bodes well for the future of Herbert and the team as a whole for seasons to come.
