Easton Stick will soon begin work for another Chargers head coach. Brought in during Anthony Lynn‘s stay and retained throughout Brandon Staley‘s run, Stick will have a chance to remain as a Justin Herbert backup under Jim Harbaugh.
The Chargers reached an agreement to keep the North Dakota State alum Friday, per NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo. With an injury forcing Herbert to miss games for the first time, Stick received his first run of regular-season action last season. He will rejoin Herbert and 2023 seventh-rounder Max Duggan as Bolts QBs on the offseason roster.
It's interesting the Chargers will have each of their 2023 QBs back, with a new coaching staff and front-office leadership being in place. Stick has been with the team since 2019, beginning his career as a third-stringer during Philip Rivers‘ final Chargers campaign. Stick then resided as Los Angeles’ QB3 behind Herbert and Tyrod Taylor, before Chase Daniel came in as QB2 in 2021. Daniel was not brought back for 2023, moving Stick — North Dakota State’s QB between Carson Wentz and Trey Lance — up on the depth chart. A Herbert development made that promotion relevant.
Herbert’s finger surgery brought in Stick to start the Bolts’ final four games. The team went 0-4 in that span, with the talent gap between the team’s first- and second-stringers rather wide. Stick threw three TD passes to one INT but was on the other end of a 63-21 blowout, the final game of the Staley-Tom Telesco era. All three of Stick’s TD passes came in that Raiders romp, but the Chargers were within one score of their final three opponents.
It would not surprise to see Harbaugh and GM Joe Hortiz use a later-round pick to bring in competition for the backup job, and Duggan — who was at the controls when TCU downed Harbaugh’s Michigan squad in the 2022 CFP semifinal round — could factor in as well.
More must-reads: