LA Chargers: Four takeaways from Hard Knocks episode 2

4. Justin Herbert’s development

Justin Herbert was once again featured in Tuesday’s episode, but it was in a more interesting context than previously. Last week, fans seemed to be jazzed up about Herbert throwing “nice balls” into nets. While it was a very nice drill for Herbert, it was a simply a drill and I didn’t really think much of it personally.

This week got more into the development of Herbert as an NFL quarterback, particularly as a communicator. At Oregon, Herbert didn’t have to communicate a lot at the line of scrimmage. The NFL presents a lot of different plays, sets, audibles, and trickery that the college game simply doesn’t.

Both Lynn and Bryan Bulaga taught Herbert about NFL cadences. During walkthroughs, Herbert tipped a play to the defense due to his inexperience with snap cadences.  Lynn talked specifically about using the correct tone to be able to communicate to your offense while being able to keep the defense on its heels.

https://twitter.com/TylerHerrick/status/1295938180265385984

This is one of the reasons that Taylor is the starter for now. Bulaga pointed out the quickness and calmness of Taylor’s cadence. Obviously, this all comes with experience and isn’t really a negative in Herbert’s game to this point. It’s just something he has to learn.

There were positives for Herbert, as he is developing some nice connections with his receivers. We saw some footage of him connecting with Keenan Allen. Allen also talked up some of Herbert’s best attributes this week. It finally feels like Herbert’s starting to unlock his big arm, which he never quite did in college.

Let me know what you guys liked on Hard Knocks this week in the comments below! And thanks to Sean McVay for the apology regarding being shirtless in the first episode.