LOS ANGELES – Perhaps for the first time in their two seasons together, Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh and quarterback Justin Herbert both were furious.
In the second quarter of its Week 11 game against Pittsburgh Steelersoutside midfielder Alex Highsmith touched Herbert below the knees shortly after the ball left the quarterback's throwing hand. Herbert turned, arms outstretched, and barked at the nearest official. Not far away, on the sideline, Harbaugh was doing the same thing.
The Steelers pressured Herbert 12 times and sacked him five times in the Chargers' 25-10 win. Throughout the game, Herbert was more animated than he has been all season, at times yelling at the officials after hits he believed were illegal. The game marked a productive season for Herbert, who was contacted 149 times and pressured 196 times, both league highs, according to ESPN Research and NFL Next Gen Stats.
But Herbert's outburst was surprising because it broke character. Even before he entered the NFL in 2020, Herbert was known for his stoicism, but Harbaugh made it clear that calmness comes at a price. While other quarterbacks favor calls, Herbert's politeness combined with a 6-foot-6, 240-pound frame that absorbs hits differently than other quarterbacks makes him easy to overlook, Harbaugh said.
“I [complain] more than Justin,” Harbaugh said last season. “I mean, I'm a lesser person. I'm not ashamed to admit it. … His Hack-a-Shak“
But the numbers tell a different story. Herbert has two passing penalties this season, tied for second in the league. Dallas Cowboys defender Dak Prescott the first with four. Herbert has eight since he entered the league in 2020, making him fifth after Kirk CousinsPrescott, Josh Allen And Jared Goff. However, Harbaugh's point begs the question: Is there any correlation between disputes and punishments? And should Herbert argue anymore? Many quarterbacks say the answer is no in the short term, but they hope protecting their interests will influence future decisions.
“Arguing will get me nowhere,” Herbert said. “If I make a big deal about it, chances are they won’t call it back. The more I fight and the more I insist on it, I think they will get more and more chances not to declare it.”
Former NFL Quarterbacks Matt Ryan And Josh McKeownas well as current starters Tua Tagovailoa And Matthew Staffordthey say it's not a matter of shouting louder, but rather a delicate dance with officials between protecting themselves and maintaining trust. Herbert will try to stay upright against Philadelphia Eagles on Monday Night Football (8:15 ET, ESPN).
“You don't want to be the guy who cried wolf,” said Ryan, a former Atlanta Falcons the quarterback who has committed the most passing penalties since 2000, according to ESPN Research.
IN THE FOURTH quarter Los Angeles RamsWeek 5 game vs. San Francisco 49ersoutside midfielder Travis Gipson get past Rams tackle Alaric Jackson and stuck his hand into Stafford's mask, turning the quarterback's head as he hit the turf. It was a game that could easily have resulted in a foul play charge, but that didn't happen.
The Rams received a flag for defensive tackle on the snap, but it didn't seem to matter much to Stafford.
Stafford jumped up and ran to the nearest official. He screamed and pointed two fingers at his eyes, a not-so-subtle invitation to the official to open his eyes. Then he turned back, waved his arms and slammed his helmet. It was a spectacle befitting a Hollywood film, but the official hardly admitted it.
Stafford, who shares eight roughing penalties with Herbert since 2020, said theater like this is a way to plant the seed for the future. “If I see something, I just try to warn these guys,” he said.
Defensive backs around the league are regularly accused of flopping – exaggerating falls, flailing their arms – in the hope of being rewarded with a 15-yard gain. In Week 6, the reaction from Chargers players and the team's sideline seemed to suggest that they thought Miami's Tagovailoa was doing just that.
In the fourth quarter of that game, defensive tackle Tea sets pushed Tagovailoa to the ground after he released the ball. Tagovailoa rushed forward with his hands raised, followed by a flag for rough handling of a bystander. Tart was later fined $17,389.
“I don’t just fail,” Tagovailoa said. “If someone touches me, if I get hit and I fall, I will fall. And if I feel like I'm getting the ball and then there's a couple of seconds between when I get hit, then I say, 'Dude,' and look back at the ref.”
Prescott, who leads the league with the most penalties this season (four), joked that he's probably at the top of the list of missed passes, too. However, even in his 10th season, he said he hasn't found a better way to draw flags.
“I'm usually angry, angry that he didn't call me, and their response usually isn't pleasant either,” Prescott said. “So I didn’t really understand the dialogue.”
Complaints about Herbert's treatment began last season. After Cleveland Browns After sacking him six times, Harbaugh used his weekly news conference to argue that his quarterback was treated unfairly. Harbaugh even compared Herbert to NBA great Shaquille O'Neal – he's too big to attract attention.
“Does it look like I'm complaining? May be? Yes, it’s possible,” Harbaugh said. “I think some of these calls he’s not getting when they should be called.”
A week after Herbert had an uncharacteristically heated exchange with officials this season in Pittsburgh, he took another big hit—this time from Jacksonville Jaguars defender B.J. Green IIwhich was flagged for landing due to its own weight. The Chargers' equalizing flag overturned the penalty, but the rough call drew the ire of the nation.
“How do you want them to play?” former outside linebacker JJ Watt later spoke on “The Pat McAfee Show” about the hit. “That tackle was the best textbook on tackles you can think of. It just pisses me off.”
The flag raised another question that only officials in Jacksonville could answer: Did Herbert's disappointment in Pittsburgh linger in officials' minds the following week, or was it just another reminder of how convoluted the roughing rule had become?
“To me, if they call it great, if we get those 15 yards, then we're moving forward,” Herbert said. “… But in the end, it was out of my control.”
NO PLAYER HAS was more successful at drawing draft flags than Ryan. Since ESPN Research began tracking flagging penalties on passers, Ryan has accumulated 26 penalties in 15 NFL seasons, ahead of Ryan Fitzpatrick (22) and Tom Brady (21).
“I got hit too hard,” joked Ryan, who said he was shocked to be number one on the list.
Look at any of Ryan is 26, and they look the same: he turns his head towards the official – sometimes even before he hits the ground – with his arms outstretched in disbelief.
Ryan attributes his production to the era in which he played (he has the seventh-most passing attempts in NFL history) as well as a 2009 rule change that emphasized low hits from quarterbacks. The change comes after Chiefs cornerback Bernard Pollard's hit to Patriots quarterback Brady's left knee in the 2008 opener led to a season-ending torn ACL and MCL for the NFL legend.
However, Ryan said there was a method to his response based on his authority. He is now an NFL analyst for CBS Sports and works alongside Gene Sterator, a former official who called many of his games. Thanks to Sterator, Ryan came to understand that when he chose to speak—or when he didn't—didn't really matter.
“In my opinion, it never hurts to ask, right?” Ryan said with a laugh. “I feel like we all felt like we could have gotten more. But at least I'm sitting on top of something.”
One of the more surprising names at the top of the list is McCown, a backup guard for most of his career who played for nine teams over 16 seasons. McCown ranks sixth in rough passes accepted since 2000 with 17, despite throwing nearly 6,000 fewer passes than Ryan.
“Usually I remember getting up and thinking, 'Man, you should call Drew Brees,' or 'You should call Tom Brady,'” McCown said, now Minnesota Vikings'Defensive coach. “I never felt like I was being called, but I think the facts say otherwise.”
McKeown said his relationship with officials was unusual because as an understudy he had time to talk to them on the sidelines, although he was frustrated that he could never influence any calls.
“I should probably apologize to a few officials,” he said with a laugh.
For all the frustration Herbert has shown in Pittsburgh and all the punishment he's endured this season, he remains convinced that controversy won't accomplish much. His outburst in Pittsburgh may have been an anomaly, but it appears Harbaugh and the Chargers wouldn't mind if he continued to lobby for himself.
“I let the umpires know when I thought it was a late shot,” Herbert said. “But it's part of the game and they have a job to do too.”
Sarah Barshop, Marcel Louis-Jacques and Todd Archer contributed to this report.
