LA Chargers: 3 bold predictions for Justin Herbert in 2021
By Jason Reed
LA Chargers training camp is underway and the most popular player on the team for the fans to see in person is Justin Herbert. Charger fans were unable to see Herbert in person in 2020 unless they traveled and saw a road game that was allowing fans.
There were no fans in SoFi Stadium last year to see Herbert's record-setting rookie season. This year will be different.
There are several different schools of thought on Justin Herbert. There are those that are predicting a sophomore slump and those that are predicting him to be an MVP candidate. Some lie in the middle, but really, it seems to be as if pundits are one of the two extremes.
We definitely fall in the latter school of thought, which is evident from our 2021 bold predictions.
Three bold predictions for LA Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert in 2021:
1. He finishes just shy of 5,000 passing yards
Reaching 5,000 passing yards is no small feat. There have only been 12 5,000-yard seasons in NFL history (11/12 happening since 2008) by eight different quarterbacks. In just his second season in the league, Herbert is going to flirt with that number.
It is a bit lame to predict him to fall just short of 5,000 yards but he is still only in his second season and that is still an incredible feat. Two quarterbacks have passed for 5,000 yards in their second season (Patrick Mahomes and Dan Marino) and Herbert will likely finish third on the all-time list.
Herbert is getting some help, though. The NFL season is moving to 17 games, which is going to allow Herbert to flirt with the 5,000-yard passing mark.
Some fans may be expecting Herbert to improve substantially in terms of yards per game. While he will likely improve overall, the hope is that the running game can be better and the Chargers won't need Justin Herbert to throw for 300 yards per game just to win.
Herbert averaged 289.1 yards per game last season and I think he is going to finish right around the same average but more efficiently. An average of 285 passing yards per game puts him at 4,845 passing yards in the season, 155 short of reaching that 5,000 mark.