Taylor Heinicke just isn’t purported to be within the highlight like this. The backup quarterback stood in entrance of his locker that was stuffed with freshly laundered sweatshirts and spoke to a bunch of reporters as issues about starter Justin Herbert’s ankle loomed. After the gaggle dispersed, Heinicke might return to his essential job.
Heinicke sat down and pulled a pill onto his lap. Sport movie was already on the display.
Even in a state of uncertainty with Herbert’s ankle harm, the Chargers quarterback room stays calm, anchored by the backups whose jobs are to remain within the shadows whereas nonetheless being ready to take heart stage.
Heinicke and Easton Stick are beneath no delusions that they’ll sling the ball like Herbert, however the quarterback trio’s skillsets overlap in a single key space.
“The most important thing in that room,” Herbert mentioned, “is everyone wants to win.”
Chargers quarterback Taylor Heinicke (8) got here off the bench to switch an injured Justin Herbert towards the Steelers.
(Matt Freed / Related Press)
The star quarterback nonetheless might play Sunday towards the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs (1:25 p.m. PDT) at SoFi Stadium, the place the Chargers (2-1) are hoping to finish a five-game shedding streak to their AFC West rival.
Herbert performed final week towards the Pittsburgh Steelers with nearly no apply time and nonetheless completed with 125 passing yards and one landing earlier than reinjuring his ankle within the third quarter.
As Herbert limped towards the sideline, falling to the bottom close to trainers as soon as he obtained off the sector, Heinicke calmly trotted on. Unfazed, the NFL journeyman referred to as it, “same as usual throughout my career.”
Since going undrafted in 2015 after a record-setting profession at Previous Dominion, Heinicke primarily has been a backup throughout a seven-team NFL tour. He grew to become a nationwide title in 2020 when he went from ending his faculty diploma whereas on his sister’s sofa to main Washington in a playoff sport.
After the sound of followers chanting his title light, nonetheless, Heinicke was in Atlanta this offseason hoping to offer no matter assist he might to starter Kirk Cousins and first-round draft decide Michael Penix Jr.
Hours after making the preliminary 53-man roster, Heinicke was traded to the Chargers and realized his project subsequent to Stick.
“Ultimately, me and Taylor are here to support Justin, and that’s our main role,” mentioned Stick, who began 4 video games for the Chargers final season, “and then being able to be prepared and go out there and execute when we’re called upon.”
Though Stick misplaced his No. 2 place after a shaky preseason that prompted the Chargers to commerce for Heinicke, there hasn’t been any friction within the quarterback room, he mentioned. The previous North Dakota State star has discovered from Herbert’s and Heinicke’s experiences gained from greater than 100 NFL video games performed.
Stick hopes he can present at the least one or two nuggets per week throughout conferences or video games. The teamwork of the group is “like you wouldn’t believe,” offensive coordinator Greg Roman mentioned.
After Heinicke entered the sport towards the Steelers, the quarterbacks remained in fixed communication over what they had been seeing on the sector and from the sideline tablets. Heinicke accomplished each of his move makes an attempt for twenty-four yards, together with an 18-yard strike over the center to Ladd McConkey on third-and-two in the course of the fourth quarter.
“Taylor’s a baller,” operating again J.Okay. Dobbins mentioned.
Accustomed to studying playbooks rapidly after hopscotching across the league, Heinicke needed to work extra time after becoming a member of the Chargers on Aug. 28. Not realizing when the group would possibly want him, Heinicke buried his head within the playbook to study a system he mentioned was probably the most complicated he’s ever discovered.
However as with Herbert, who majored usually science at Oregon, Heinicke comes able to study. He studied engineering at Previous Dominion earlier than switching his main to arithmetic.
Studying a Roman play name that’s so lengthy that it requires quarterbacks to put on wristbands doesn’t appear that troublesome after he’s untangled differential equations.
“That’s what, in my opinion, has allowed Taylor to stay in the league this long because he’s so cerebral,” mentioned former Previous Dominion coach Bobby Wilder. “He can still function at a fairly high level without that insane amount of work.”
With beginning quarterbacks getting nearly all of the reps throughout apply every week, backups must subsist totally on scout group reps and movie research.
Solely probably the most cerebral quarterbacks — or these with excessive athleticism — will be ready to play in a sport with none apply the way in which backups have to be, Wilder mentioned. In any other case taking part in with an unfamiliar set of receivers “looks like a really bad fire drill.”
After spending three stable weeks studying the offense, Heinicke mentioned growing chemistry together with his offensive teammates is “the next step in this process.” He already is mimicking communication habits from Herbert whereas calling and altering performs on the line of scrimmage.
Chargers quarterback Taylor Heinicke (8), who got here off the bench to switch the injured Justin Herbert towards the Steelers, fingers the ball off to operating again Gus Edwards.
(Matt Freed / Related Press)
“You wouldn’t think it’d be that big of a difference,” heart Bradley Bozeman mentioned, “but for us, it’s huge.”
However there are issues Heinicke can’t copy about Herbert. The 6-foot-6 Herbert can zip the ball 80 yards within the air. The 6-foot-1, 210-pound Heinicke, he admits, merely can’t. He and Stick play to their strengths on the sector by utilizing their checkdowns and increasing performs with their legs.
Nonetheless Previous Dominion’s all-time chief in nearly each main passing class, Heinicke has proven how efficient a well-prepared sport plan will be.
“He’s not what you spit out of a computer and say here’s my perfect NFL quarterback,” Wilder mentioned. “He’s not Justin Herbert. He’s not the size, he’s not the arm strength, he’s not that guy. What he is is a very elite backup due to his team mentality, all I want to do is help my team and his proven ability to go in a game and win.”
Each Chargers backup quarterbacks are confirmed winners.
Stick is the winningest Soccer Championship Subdivision quarterback in historical past with a 49-3 document as a starter at North Dakota State with 4 FCS nationwide championships.
Heinicke went 31-14, serving to Previous Dominion — which was then simply two years outdated as a soccer program — break into the Colonial Athletic Assn. and transfer into Convention USA by Heinicke’s senior 12 months.
Heinicke didn’t count on Herbert to know him when he joined the group in August, however Herbert remembered his new teammate from 2021 when Heinicke, then with the Washington Soccer Crew, entered a sport towards the Chargers.
Heinicke remembers that sport because the second his profession turned for the higher as he obtained to point out his mettle as a starter for a lot of the season.
By no means removed from that beginning alternative once more, Heinicke isn’t involved about displaying what he can do if Herbert sits.
“I don’t feel the pressure to prove [something] to other teams,” Heinicke mentioned. “I feel the pressure of going to win.”
