Chargers OC Mike McDaniel is hard at work with rebuilding the offense from the ground up. As the Chargers OC told us earlier this offseason, he's been locked in on every single little detail he can pick up. McDaniel said that he watched every single Justin Herbert pass play of his six year career when he was first hired by the team in January.
"He's had a lot of success statistically if you look at his time to throw and he's had a ton of success under 2.4 [seconds] and really long plays that are super long play extensions," McDaniel said back in early May. "In those successful 2.4 plays, how do you do things where you can delegitimize any sort of pass rush based upon the timing of which you get the ball out? I've challenged him in some stuff he's already been successful with in those shorter throws. Changed his footwork and asked him to do things based on looking on every pass he's had that he's never done."
Rhythm and footwork are two of the key concepts McDaniel is drilling into his quarterback as well as the rest of the offense.
Justin Herbert will need to make some major process changes under Mike McDaniel's Chargers offense
Herbert didn't throw at OTAs on Tuesday as he took a different approach relative to previous years. Instead, he was spotted with a green weighted ball at practice as he worked on different motions. He was asked about the change in approach at media availability yesterday:
"Yeah, it was just an opportunity to rest today and to work on my footwork, something that we talked about yesterday," Herbert clarified. "And probably maybe once a week something just to do."
Herbert said that he used a water ball to practice his footwork without actually needing to throw a football. In regards to getting the ball out quickly and creating explosive plays down the field, the quarterback's mechanics and timing do need to be at a different level than in former OC Greg Roman's drop back offense. Herbert had this to say on the new footwork and mechanics:
"It's different. Mechanically it's a little different. Timing, making sure you're timed up with the routes," Herbert explained. "Basically it's just understanding how he wants the drops time up with the routes.
"We really emphasized the first couple of weeks just getting the ball out as quickly as possible," Herbert said. "Almost getting it to a point where the receivers haven't looked back for it yet. That just allows them to catch the ball with maximum ability to turn upfield. Have time before a defender gets to them."
McDaniel also wasn't bluffing when he said he watched every single Herbert passing play. Herbert told the media that McDaniel showed him hundreds of plays in one of their first meetings:
"I think one of the first couple of meetings I had with him, he put together a few hundred play clip presentation," Herbert said. "When we talked about exactly what he wanted to see from the offense. He'd throw in some of our clips where we could've done things better. And then teams he's had executing those plays. And so it was a well put together presentation that I really saw the vision. Meant a lot to me."
Herbert mentioned something McDaniel spoke about in his presser from a few weeks ago on the quick game neutralizing the pass rush. With LA's QB consistently being amongst the most pressured and hit quarterbacks in the league every season, it's clear that reducing those totals should be an emphasis for this offense.
All in all, Tuesday's press conference made it clear that Herbert is indeed bought into the vision of McDaniel's offense.
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