Los Angeles Chargers’ Justin Herbert hailed for special arm talent and mental progress by team-mate Austin Ekeler | NFL News

Justin Herbert has bolstered destructive arm talent with strides in his mental understanding of the NFL, says Los Angeles Chargers team-mate Austin Ekeler.

The third-year quarterback has etched his name on a seat at the table of the most accomplished young play-callers in the league since his arrival, igniting Chargers’ playoff contention with expansive aerial supremacy and outer pocket athleticism defiant of pre-Draft doubts, now seemingly stemming from the Oregon set-up around him opposed to the mutant himself under center.

Herbert enters Week Six having completed 133 of 200 passes for 1,478 yards (second in the league), 10 touchdowns (fifth most) and just two touchdowns with the fifth best passer rating in the league coming off Sunday’s win over the Cleveland Browns. All while nursing fractured rib cartilage sustained in Week Two’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.

“He’s definitely learning the game more as far as understanding how to play quarterback and manage the entire offense, but as far as his athletic skill and ability that’s at a spot where he’s trying to stay consistent,” Chargers running back Ekeler told Sky Sports.

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Herbert launches a huge 54-yard pass to Jalen Guyton for the Los Angeles Chargers against the Jacksonville Jaguars

“There’s the mental part of the game where I would say he’s made a leap, because now he’s in the same offense for the first time ever in his career, he’s never had the same offense back-to-back years and finally we have that.

“He’s only in year three which is crazy, it seems like he’s been around forever because of how much people talk about him. I was with Philip Rivers who was in year 17, that guy knew everything, he knew what defense we were facing before we even put on the film because he knew who the defensive coordinator was and knew what defense they were going to run.

“It takes time. For the mental part, that will come, as far as what he’s doing physically, he’s definitely giving us a chance to win games and it’s up to us to take advantage of him.”

Contrary to the cachet his ascent has warranted, a self-effacing anti rah-rah Herbert continues to advance unfazed by the carnival surrounding his talent. Ekeler jokes of a very different reaction were he central to the same calibre of clamour.

“He brushes it all off,” said Ekeler. “I couldn’t be the same! That’s his personality. He doesn’t want anything to do with it, if I had all that I’d be soaking it all up like ‘yes, let’s talk’, but obviously we’re all our own individual person.

“We all have different personalities and he doesn’t really like to go engage and do all that type of stuff. He will, but it’s got to be on his terms for sure and also he’s only in his third year so he’s still getting comfortable being in the NFL, understanding ‘what can I take on, what can I not’.

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Running back Austin Ekeler describes his role in the Los Angeles Chargers offense and whether or not he pushes for more involvement

“I’m sure as his career progresses he’ll be more accepting, but maybe not!

“I remember Philip Rivers, 17 years, this guy had no social media, he didn’t talk to media as much and he was just about his family life and the team.”

Generational throws have become the norm. Having re-entered the Chiefs game in visible pain, he had found the strength to deliver a 35-yard laser to DeAndre Carter on fourth-and-one amid an 11-play touchdown drive that brought the Chargers within three in the closing stages. And just 10 days later an enchanted NFL stood and watched as he crabbed right of the pocket on third-of-16 before pulling the trigger on a precision-perfect 54-yard bucket to Jaylen Guyton against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Guyton was the beneficiary of Herbert preposterousness last season when he latched onto a 59-yard touchdown strike that split a helpless Logan Ryan and Xavier McKinney against the New York Giants.

“He’s got the arm talent to put the ball where he wants to, which is something that not a lot of quarterbacks can,” Ekeler continued. “I’m talking deep levels of the field, 50 yards all the way down to intermediate to short range. We definitely have a special guy and I’m looking forward to being his backfield buddy for a few more years.

“Philip (Rivers) wasn’t launching that thing 50 yards down the field, if he was it took everything, whereas Herbert he can be off-balance and still sling that thing all the way downfield.

“Even some of these routes across the middle where he’s throwing it through defenders at practice, I’m like ‘man, guys let’s take a moment to watch this throw’ and it goes through the fingertips of all these defenders and wham right on the deep over.

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Los Angeles Chargers running back Austin Ekeler describes what head coach Brandon Staley brings to the team and how he manages his players

“There is some special talent when it comes to him making throws other quarterbacks probably aren’t going to be trying to make.”

Where Rivers amassed his own highlight reel-worthy collection of trash talking, Herbert is of a contrastingly-subtle demeanour. Though Ekeler admits he is beginning to witness the Chargers’ great hope grow into his voice as one of the most dominant men on the field, particularly should it come to alerting his running back to blitz pick-up assignments.

“For sure, I’ve seen it a little bit more absolutely,” said Ekeler. “That is definitely improvement there and will continue to come as he continues to understand the offense more.

“I remember Philip Rivers, he’d throw a ball in practice and run down to you like ‘I need you to get over so I can do this or that’, he’d come right over and tell you what he needed you to do.

“That just takes time, comfortability and knowing what you’re talking about.”

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Highlights of the Los Angeles Chargers and Cleveland Browns in Week Five of the NFL season

Ekeler tied Jonathan Taylor with a league-high 20 total touchdowns last season and finds himself with five in the last two games as the Chargers continue to fare without injured star receiver Keenan Allen. Mike Williams has asserted himself as an ever-present among Herbert’s trusted targets, while free agent addition Gerald Everett also appears to be carving out a key role in Joe Lombardi’s offense.

The contributions of the personnel at Herbert’s disposal will be defining when it comes to his development, insists Ekeler.

“I think the leap from him comes within the players around him,” he said. “I think he puts us in positions to win and now it’s up to us to take advantage of that and actually make things happen.

“He’s putting the ball in places where we have to make plays, but if we’re dropping them, if we’re inconsistent, if we’re not getting open then it’s on us. It’s on us as the team around him.

“The leap from him is going to be from his skill positions around him.”

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