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It hit Jim Harbaugh like an unblocked rusher coming around the edge.
There’s nobody who can do what Justin Herbert does, Harbaugh said Thursday with wide eyes and arms open, so why coach anybody else as if they could?
The first-year Chargers head coach is taking drastic measures with his quarterback, leaning into Herbert’s one-of-a-kind talent by splitting the quarterback room to let Herbert continue on his superstar trajectory while allowing Easton Stick and newly acquired veteran Taylor Heinicke to grow in a separate, but competitive backup battle.
Harbaugh plans to separate the meetings and devise unique game plans to emphasize each quarterback’s strengths.
With Herbert in a stratosphere of his own, Harbaugh felt it was unfair to coach Stick and Heinicke — who was acquired in a trade with the Atlanta Falcons that became official Thursday — the same way he coaches his star.
“They can’t try to replicate Justin and what he does, from every way: the footwork he takes, the reads that makes, the throws that he attempts, he’s unreplicable,” Harbaugh said. “Anybody that’s in that same quarterback room with him, you’ve got to get out of your mind what he can and does do and concentrate on doing your game.”
Read more: Chargers shore up quarterback room via a trade with the Falcons
The unique setup came to Harbaugh in an epiphany this week after watching months of practices. Even when he coached Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick — two quarterbacks with opposing skill sets — in San Francisco, he didn’t do this. But he’s never had a quarterback like Herbert.
“Nobody else is 6-6, 240 pounds,” Harbaugh said, “can stand in the pocket with people draped on him and still throw a ball 40 yards down the field on a dime, as the young people call it.”
The situation will take more work for the coaches, Harbaugh acknowledged. The hope always will remain that the Chargers never need to deploy one of the emergency game plans tailored to Stick’s or…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/chargers-aim-change-offense-backups-011652743.html
Author : LA Times
Publish date : 2024-08-30 01:16:52
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