National Football League

The secret behind Los Angeles Chargers QB Justin Herbert’s success

Updated Oct. 29, 2021 5:57 p.m. ET

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By Martin Rogers
FOX Sports Columnist

Once Justin Herbert got his head around the fact that success in the National Football League, for him at least, meant wanting to do well but accepting that he might not, things got a whole lot easier.

The Los Angeles Chargers quarterback is off to an impressive start, both in this season and in his NFL career. He is already being talked about as an MVP candidate after leading the Chargers to a 4-2 record with the toughest part of the schedule behind them.

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Herbert arrived with high hopes upon being drafted No. 6 in 2020, but a lot of QBs see the buzz around them fizzle into something more realistic, and sometimes into nothing, with breathtaking suddenness.

Ahead of his latest challenge, hosting the New England Patriots and finding himself countering the coaching wiles of Bill Belichick this Sunday, Herbert spoke to me about the factors that have helped him assimilate into the league’s most complex position.

"You are going to make mistakes," Herbert told me via telephone. "Adversity is going to happen. It is all about how you’re going to bounce back from it. Whether you throw an interception, an incompletion or a touchdown, it is always about the next play, to show your guys you are coming back from it and you are the steady leader of the team.

"That’s one of the things I’ve had to learn the past year. If you throw a pick you’ve got to have good body language when you walk off the field. Hold your head up and attack the next drive with the same amount of importance."

The QB position is in a weird spot. In some ways, it has rarely been younger, with a bunch of guys in their early to mid-20s trying to make their mark. However, five playoff teams last season had starters that were 37 or older and the winner of it all, Tom Brady, has been a star so long it is getting tough to keep count.

The disparity has made it somewhat difficult to identify the ideal attributes to help a team, with the likes of Kyler Murray and Lamar Jackson offering a vastly different skillset to veterans such as Brady and Aaron Rodgers.

To Herbert, it’s actually not so complicated.

"You watch as much as you can, and you look at the guys who have been able to do it for so long," Herbert said. "Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Matt Stafford, those guys have had so much success over the past decade or so you have to see what they’ve been able to do.

"But at the same time, Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson have done really special things the last couple of years. All their games are different, but the underlying thing is the same — protecting the ball, being smart with the ball, taking advantage of the shots. It is all about watching that and picking out what you can."

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This weekend will be a slightly unusual experience for Herbert in that the rival QB will be a man younger (by six months) and with less NFL experience than himself. Mac Jones was the fifth signal-caller selected this year, behind Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Trey Lance and Justin Fields, and has had moments both good and bad. Collectively, this year’s newbies have won only seven games as starters, with Jones accounting for three of those.

But Herbert believes that the incoming quarterbacks are not necessarily getting due credit for the steps of improvement they have already taken.

"I think they’ve done a great job so far," he added. "The NFL is an awfully tough league and those guys have been playing like experienced guys, making throws, going through the reads and making progressions like vets. They’ve handled all the pressure and everything that comes with the NFL."

Herbert has certainly gotten the attention of Belichick, who rarely speaks in as much depth about anything as he did when quizzed this week about the 23-year-old.

"He’s outstanding," Belichick said of Herbert. "Everything you’re looking for. He’s very athletic, good arm, a lot of poise. A number of big plays, all the passes, all the throws. He’s as good a quarterback as I’ve seen come out there in quite a while, especially as it fits the pro game. I don’t think you’re going to find too many better than him. I think he’s going to be one of the top quarterbacks in the league for a long time."

The next batch of games will be interesting for the Chargers and will likely determine what kind of threat they can pose this season. The Patriots clash will be followed by a visit to the Philadelphia Eagles, then home games against the Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh Steelers. With the Kansas City Chiefs struggling desperately in the AFC West, opportunity beckons.

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Coming off the bye week, Herbert feels primed to go out and establish the Chargers as the favorite to win the division and perhaps make a splash in the playoffs. His interview with me was courtesy of his partnership with Team Milk, and he extolled the virtues of milk as a vital source of nutrition for elite athletes.

"These games coming up are going to be very challenging," Herbert said. "We have to put every bit of importance into this next one we are playing, the Patriots. They are incredibly well-coached, they’ve got some really special guys on defense.

"I feel like we’ve played a lot of good football and we have to look at the truth — we are 4-2 and that’s a good position. This was a good week to get our legs back and have a rest, but we’ve got to attack now. It is time to get back to work."

Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider Newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.

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