EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) — New Los Angeles Chargers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel wanted to change Justin Herbert’s footwork, so he has taken the football out of his star quarterback’s hands for parts of the offseason program.
While it might seem counterintuitive, McDaniel believes Herbert can better focus on learning those adjustments when not throwing.
“To change it, and in one offseason, make it something that’s in the unconscious that you’re
not thinking about where you have to think about a lot of other things, you really have to take an intentional attack on it. So I think he understood the extreme measures,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel is teaching Herbert to lead with his non-dominant left foot, with the right-handed passer having put his right foot forward when first handling the football in each of his previous six seasons in the NFL.
McDaniel initially took notice of the off-foot technique as an assistant to Kyle Shanahan with Houston in 2007. Brett Favre had been using it throughout his Hall of Fame career, and Tom Brady adopted it for the 2007 season when he threw 50 touchdowns passes, setting a then single-season league record that has since been broken.
Shanahan, who was the Texans quarterbacks coach at the time, and McDaniel extensively studied the possible benefits in the approach before adopting it, including when they continued worked together in Washington and San Francisco. McDaniel also took it to Miami when he was the Dolphins head coach for four seasons until being fired in January, leading the left-handed Tua Tagovailoa to start with his right foot forward.
“You have your pros and cons for anything that you do from a technique perspective, but having the non-throwing-hand foot forward, there was some advantages that I kind of lean toward. By the time we got to Washington (in 2010), we started training quarterbacks that way,” McDaniel said.
With McDaniel installing a quicker passing game that emphasizes allowing receivers to accumulate yards after catch, the tweak in footwork is intended to maximize the timing Herbert needs to get the most out of those opportunities.
“I kind of look at it like you’re trying to find the margins where you can improve, and you have a quarterback of high achievement like Justin, who wants to make gains in this game. You find the most margin that you can improve upon, and identifying that, and it being shorter time throws and footwork, there’s a necessity to really focus on footwork from the ground up,” McDaniel said.
That meant asking Herbert to spend portions of organized team activities working with a large green exercise ball instead of a football. He also ceded throws in 7-on-7s and other periods to backups Trey Lance and DJ Uiagalelei, leaving Herbert to simulate drop-backs.
McDaniel’s aim was to put the emphasis on process rather than result.
“It’s as simple as where your focus is, and when you don’t watch a ball go, you don’t attribute any emotions toward, ‘Oh, that was a good throw. Oh, that was a bad throw.’ You only can really lean into one thing, and that’s the footwork that you’re doing. And if you make that the end-all, be-all — at the quarterback position, you have 900 things to think about — and in a short period of time, you can really master it to where you’re not thinking about it at all,” McDaniel said.
Herbert was receptive to the request to change his footwork, having spent his college career at Oregon operating in a neutral stance with his feet placed evenly.
As for the reduction in passing, Herbert accepted it, a minor surprise given his past insistence on getting lots of extra throws in before and after practices. Herbert said the new approach is as much about making sure his arm is fresh when the Chargers get to the stretch run of the season as mastering the new footwork.
“I’ve thrown a lot of footballs, and it’s May and June, and I didn’t think it was as necessary to throw as much now. I’m doing everything I can to get the footwork ready and get the offense down, and the throws, they’ll be there,” Herbert said.
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