Philip Rivers was a starter for the Chargers for a long time and that meant there wasn’t much running going on by the team’s quarterback while many teams were beginning to incorporate such wrinkles into their offenses.
Rivers is now in Indianapolis and Chargers rookie quarterback Justin Herbert brings a different skill set to the team. He led the Chargers in rushing with 66 yards in Sunday’s win against the Jaguars and his 31-yard run was the longest by any Chargers quarterback since 1988.
One of Herbert’s runs saw him lower his shoulder to run over Jaguars cornerback Tre Herndon late in the fourth quarter. It led to cheers from his teammates, but it wasn’t what head coach Anthony Lynn wants to see.
“He put his shoulders down and he ran over someone,” Lynn said, via Gilbert Manzano of the Los Angeles Daily News. “The sideline kind of erupted when he did that. That’s the way he leads sometimes. But in this league, I want you to slide. . . . I don’t want to put Justin in a situation where he may have to run the football too many times. I don’t like my quarterback getting hit.”
Given Herbert’s 347 passing yards and three touchdowns, Lynn’s desire to see Herbert remain healthy easy to understand and the start of Herbert’s career has not provided much reason to think that he’ll be running the ball too often. His nine attempts were as much as the previous two weeks combined and included three kneeldowns at the end of the game.