The Chargers hired Kellen Moore this offseason to be their offensive coordinator and help further quarterback Justin Herbert’s development.
Herbert has played himself into being one of the league’s top young quarterbacks in his first three seasons. So Moore doesn’t want to completely reinvent the wheel when it comes to the offensive system.
“He’s just really detailed, really diligent with his work,” Moore said in his Monday press conference. “He really has just been awesome to kind of collaborate and make sure, as we go through this process, that we don’t lose anything as we go through a transition.
“I think that’s one big part of this thing, is that there’s been a lot of success. Justin has had a lot of success his first few years. We want to make sure we build off of that and not start from scratch.”
Moore had been Dallas’ offensive coordinator for four seasons, with Dallas twice finishing with the league’s top total offense. The Cowboys also finished No. 6, No. 1, and No. 4 in points in the three seasons quarterback Dak Prescott finished the season healthy.
Herbert has been sidelined so far in the offseason program after surgery on his non-throwing shoulder. But he is expected to be fully cleared sooner than later. And Moore doesn’t seem to see it as a big deal as the club gets into Phase II of the offseason program.
“Really, to be honest, most years I think there’s always a handful of guys that are going through this process. It just kind of happens a lot of times,” Moore said. “OTAs, a lot of guys are going through cleanups and a couple of different things to go through in an offseason. This happens.
“I think you get as much as you can in the classroom, the walkthroughs, all of the different components to that thing. Obviously, there will be some field work that Justin may not be able to be a part of — as much as he would want to, we would all want to, but we’ll catch up with it. We have plenty of time through the training camp and all of that.”
Herbert, who is in line for a contract extension at some point this offseason, completed 68.2 percent of his passes for 4,739 yards with 25 touchdowns and 10 interceptions last season. But his yards per attempt sat at a career-low of 6.8. That number should go up significantly with Moore calling the offensive plays in 2023.