Something that was probably lost to most amidst the disastrous Los Angeles Chargers 24-7 loss to the Denver Broncos – where star quarterback Justin Herbert went down and might be done for the year with a fractured finger – was Quentin Johnston making the biggest play of his career so far on a 57-yard catch. You could be fooled if you didn’t look at the numbers, but that was backup Easton Stick throwing an absolute dime as well, not Herbert. It brings up Johnston’s stock again after a rough few weeks, but also raises some questions. Specifically, questions about how the passing offense has been run all year, and about Johnston’s usage.
air it out, easton.
📺 | @nfloncbs pic.twitter.com/MIFyULanWG
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) December 10, 2023
Long Quentin Johnston Week 14 Catch Raises Questions About Chargers Offense
An Outstanding Throw and Catch
Let’s start with the play itself. Yes, this is a seemingly unimportant one on paper – the Chargers are down 17-0 in the fourth quarter and have lost their star quarterback. The season is effectively over for them. But this is one of the very best plays I have seen from the Chargers offense all year. This is a perfect throw from Easton Stick – if you showed me the highlight with no context and I didn’t look at his jersey number, I’d assume it was Herbert.
Stick has never been known for downfield passes like this – but he chucked an absolute bomb, expecting Johnston to outrun the defense and get the catch – the very sort of thing he had been drafted for. And he did. Johnston does catch this ball with his body as much as his hands, but it’s not unlike some of the catches Vincent Jackson and Malcom Floyd made back in the day. It’s bizarre that Johnston can make this catch and not the one that probably would’ve been a game-winner against the Packers, but this shows what he is capable of.
Where Has This Been?
One might wonder why a whole article is being centered around one play like this. But a single, burning question rose to mind when I was watching this highlight: Where has this been all year?
Yes, Johnston has been very inconsistent and has only shown occasional flashes. But he was drafted for his vertical threat ability and his after-the-catch ability. We saw the former on display there, and it makes one wonder why they haven’t tried post routes like that before with Johnston.
But there is also the question of: where has this been from the offense in general? We did not see many long-pass attempts like this from Herbert, even when their other primary vertical threat, Mike Williams, was healthy. We saw some of it in Week 3 against the Vikings, which was easily Herbert’s best game of the year (and possibly ever). And we saw it a couple of other isolated times. But that’s about it. Herbert likes to throw intermediate bullet passes best, it seems – or at least, that’s what the offense has been based around heavily in 2023. But those long 40-to-50-yard passes are just as important a part of his game, and we saw plenty of them in 2020 and 2021 (see here for the best example). But they seem to have become rarer since.
And it’s not like Johnston and Williams are the only options there. We’ve seen Jalen Guyton pull in those kinds of long vertical passes too. Derius Davis is fast enough that he could do that too, if his hands are good enough. At a certain point, the lack of attempts to stretch the field like this has to be put on the offensive play-caller (Kellen Moore) – or even possibly Herbert himself, though it is hard to imagine that he is avoiding these plays by choice.
Has Quentin Johnston Been Misused All This Time?
It was referenced earlier that Johnston’s primary talents are as a vertical threat or as an after-the-catch threat. And yet, most of the time, this is not how he has been used this year. He was scarcely used at all before Williams went down, and since then, he’s been used mostly in a similar fashion to Keenan Allen or Josh Palmer. That has not been working. The issue is that Johnston has a very different skill set from Allen’s. Johnston is not the greatest route-runner, and he definitely does not have the hands to bring in some of Herbert’s bullet passes. That is simply not the type of player he is.
When Johnston has actually been used according to his skillset, the results have been more promising. There was this short pass that he turned into a first down, against all odds. We saw him bring in the long pass from Stick. His lone touchdown of the season was a goal-line play where he basically used as a tight end and ended up wide open. But they have not given him as many chances with those sorts of plays.
Ideally, you’d be giving Johnston a few looks via a screen pass or short crossing route (preferably without Herbert throwing it 100 miles an hour in the case of the latter), and throwing more long post routes like the one Stick did. Unless it’s a bad throw, you’ll usually get either a catch or pass interference out of that kind of play. None of this excuses the drop against the Packers, which he should have caught with no problem. But he hasn’t been put in the ideal position to succeed for most of the season either.
In Conclusion
It’s not like the passing offense hasn’t been productive most of the time, but it does feel like some players’ talents are not being used adequately. Johnston has not been utilized according to his talents. Austin Ekeler hasn’t been targeted as much in the passing game, for some reason. Gerald Everett has barely been used at all in some games. And despite having some (on paper) capable players, there have not been as many attempts to throw the ball far down the field.
It may well be that said players like Johnston are not always getting separation, and the shakiness of the offensive line surely does not help matters either. But it would seem highly unlikely that weeks could go by without any openings downfield.
This is why the 57-yard long pass from Easton Stick to Quentin Johnston is more important than it looks. Because it shows an element of this offense that has been missing most of the year. This is hardly the biggest of the problems with the 2023 Chargers, but one has to wonder if stretching the field more could have made a difference in some games. At any rate, all of this does warrant a bit more scrutiny towards Kellen Moore than previously thought.
Main Photo: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
