Los Angeles Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn ensured there was no doubt about who will helm his offense in Week 3 — “If [Tyrod Taylor] is 100 percent ready to go, he’s our starter,” he said in the Week 2 postgame press conference.
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As such, there will be no quarterback competition this week in Los Angeles. While first-round pick Justin Herbert was impressive enough in his debut to take the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs to overtime in an emergency start, it wasn’t enough to usurp the incumbent — but it should’ve been.
There are different schools of thought on how to best develop a young quarterback. Most people would agree that the more quality reps, the better. “Quality” is the key word there. There are a number of reasons why a team wouldn’t start a rookie first-round pick. The main ones, however, can be boiled down to these three:
- The rookie isn’t yet comfortable with the offense/speed of the NFL or is changing mechanics
- The offensive line isn't good enough to protect the rookie or will make him lose confidence
- The current starter is far better on a possible playoff/Super Bowl team
Nos. 1 and 2 are scary when developing young quarterbacks — and we’ll get to them later — because instead of having the reps being learning moments, they could easily lead to bad habits. The first two reasons aren’t Lynn's line of thinking for keeping Herbert on the sideline, however. It sounds like the head coach firmly believes in No. 3.
In his press conference Monday, Lynn said, “There’s a lot we didn’t get done with Justin on the field yesterday. He’s a backup for a reason.” My response to that would be that there’s also a reason why Taylor has been a backup each of the past two seasons, as well.
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