Greg Roman visited Justin Herbert in offseason to help unlock Chargers QB's potential

Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert almost looked like a different player in his team’s Week 1 win over the Kansas City Chiefs. 

Some of it was Herbert putting some sheer swagger into his play while going blow-for-blow with Patrick Mahomes. He’s fully healthy, too, which helps. So too does an improved cast of weapons around him thanks to what appears to finally be a functional program and overall organization. 

But it’s the running when things open up that really put Herbert on a new level in Week 1. 

It turns out that offensive coordinator Greg Roman flew to Oregon to meet with Herbert over the offseason and specifically brought a cut-up of other quarterbacks extending and/or making plays with their feet. 

“Last year, when he got his feet involved, great things happened,” Roman told Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer. “We scored a lot of points and won those games—Denver, Cincinnati. And showing a lot of cutups of it, and just talking through it: Oh, look at what Josh Allen just did, look at what Mahomes just did. It’s making him aware. It’s not a mandate. It’s as we continue to just be the winningest group we can be on offense, that’s something that we just need to get more out of him.”

Nagging injuries limited what Herbert could do in the pocket last year, let alone as a runner outright, or otherwise, onlookers might’ve seen this year in Year 1 of Roman and Greg Harbaugh. 

Alas, it’s here now and indeed, it appears Roman was certainly on the right track to unlocking the next level of Herbert’s game. It’s not as simple as defenses just accounting for his running ability, either, not with an upgraded cast of weapons at the skill positions.