The Chargers made two changes to the quarterback room this offseason. They drafted Justin Herbert in the first-round of this year’s draft, and followed that up with giving him a mentor by hiring Pep Hamilton to fulfill the duties as the team’s quarterbacks coach.
So what does Hamilton think of his new project? NFL Media’s Jim Trotter recently spoke with Hamilton to get an idea how Herbert is doing in (virtual) rookie minicamp thus far.
“I asked him [Hamilton], what did you learn about your quarterback about you didn’t know before? He said, ‘Look, we knew about his intelligence, we knew about his athletic gifts but what I didn’t know is how important football is to him.’
And he told me that with Justin, one of the things is he wants more. He wants to understand all the conceptual things behind a play design. He wants to know the why, as opposed to just the what. And Pep told me that’s important because you have to understand and see the big picture to succeed at the position,” Trotter said.
One of the things that Herbert struggled with in college was not seeing the entire field and being late to locate coverage. In Oregon’s system, he did benefit from pre-determined reads at times, but that will have to change at the next level.
To work on this, Hamilton has already given Herbert an assignment during the offseason training.
“What Hamilton told me is that he’s given Herbert an assignment. And he wants him to basically make a mental checklist of everything he goes through while watching NFL defenses.
Pep said, ‘when you see a little, you see a lot. When you see a lot, you don’t see anything’ and by that, what he means is that Herbert should be focusing on certain keys pre snap to know what a defense is going to do and what that coverage is going to be,” Trotter said.
Hamilton has worked with many NFL and some college quarterbacks, including Andrew Luck at Stanford and with the Colts. The Chargers are hopeful that he will help elevate Herbert’s game as he looks to be the long-term answer at the quarterback position.