LA Chargers who will thrive under Brandon Staley: Justin Herbert
A lot of the talk that I saw from both NFL fans and analysts was that the team needed to hire an offensive mind like Brian Daboll to continue Justin Herbert‘s development. While Staley had been a defensive coach during his four years in the league, it’s a bit misleading to call him defensive-minded.
In his playing career at Dayton, Staley started at quarterback for 21 games in two seasons. He actually entered defensive coaching from the point of view of a former quarterback. In his press conference on Thursday, Staley said that he wanted to give Herbert, “a dual education”.
The ability to teach Herbert how to read defenses through the lens a former quarterback is not something other coaching candidates could provide in the same way.
Staley on Herbert: "I do consider myself an offensive coach. My defensive thinking has been shaped by them. My vision fits Justin and features his style of play. Creating a system for Justin and creating it to his skill set." #Chargers
— Joe Reedy (@joereedy) January 21, 2021
Staley also mentioned wanting to put stress on not just opposing offenses, but his own. The more looks that Herbert gets in practice, the more he’ll be ready each Sunday.
Sometimes in his rookie campaign, Herbert did become a little bit too locked in on a specific target or didn’t take an extra second to see the other side of the field. Staley will want to break those tendencies, but keep the overwhelmingly positive ones in place.
We’ll eventually find out whether Staley was the right coach to pair with Herbert down the road. For the time being though, his vision gives Herbert a decent chance to excel in his second year.