Quarterback Justin Herbert’s rookie season made it clear that the Chargers will be building around him for years to come and head coach Brandon Staley became a key part of that construction process when he was hired to replace Anthony Lynn in January.
Staley’s background is as a defensive coach and he’s been consistent this offseason about wanting to see Herbert have complete ownership of the offense in Los Angeles. Staley sees his role in that process as helping Herbert “identify defenses and how people play and what their rules are” ahead of his second season.
The coach does not want that process to be a simple one for the quarterback because he knows it has to be difficult to be effective.
“I don’t want to make it easy for Justin; I want to make it right for him,” Staley said, via Jourdan Rodrigue of TheAthletic.com. “And so on the front end, I’ll say, ‘Hey, man, we’re going to challenge you. We’re going to push you.’ Because ultimately, I know that for us to be as good as we can be, [he] has to be the one running the show for us. And [him] just knowing that, as his head coach, I have his back and we’re going to work through it during the week together and hopefully I can give him that full perspective where he can become a complete player.”
Staley’s been around the NFL long enough to know that his job security is going to be tied directly to how well his quarterback plays, so his Herbert-centric approach to running the offense is a necessary one. Based on Herbert’s rookie season, it looks like a wise one as well.