Los Angeles Chargers offensive coordinator Kellen Moore Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The one big change new Chargers OC is making for Justin Herbert

By Adam Gretz | Last updated 7/2/23

New Los Angeles Chargers offensive coordinator Kellen Moore is inheriting an offense that already has one of the game's most talented young quarterbacks in Justin Herbert.

Even though Herbert is pretty close to being a finished product, Moore is still looking to make one change to his game that could make him an even more dangerous passer.

He wants Herbert to be more aggressive and take more shots downfield.

Via NFL.com:

"Justin's such a smart decision maker," Moore said on The Season with Peter Schrager podcast. "It allows you to really call it in an aggressive manner. He does such a great job. We always say, aggressively take what they give us. Like if they give us these shots, they give us something vertical, we got these skill players that we feel really really good about. Just take them. Just go for it. And if not, take the completion. Take the checkdown. … I think the mentality of that has been the way we've been kind of training this entire offseason, and certainly, I think we've got the guys to be able to execute those things."

One of the big criticisms of the Chargers' offense this past season was that it was far too conservative for the skill that it had, especially as it related to Herbert.

He averaged just 7.2 yards of depth per target, a number that placed him near the bottom of the NFL's quarterbacks.

For somebody with his talent and arm, that is far too safe.

Especially when he had so much success when he did throw deep.

Overall Herbert's passer rating (93.2) and QBR (58.2) were both the lowest of his three-year career.

Moore is hoping that some more aggressiveness downfield can help reverse that trend. It makes sense not only because of Herbert's talent but also because the Chargers have an extremely deep wide receiver corps that they added to this offseason with the selection of Quentin Johnson in the first round. He joins a group that already has Mike Williams and Keenan Allen, while Austin Ekeler is still there as the team's running back.

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