{"id":154983,"date":"2023-12-12T11:30:20","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T16:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=154983"},"modified":"2023-12-12T00:46:22","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T05:46:22","slug":"long-quentin-johnston-catch-in-week-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023\/12\/12\/long-quentin-johnston-catch-in-week-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Quentin Johnston Catch in Week 14 Raises Both Questions and Excitement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Something that was probably lost to most amidst the disastrous Los Angeles Chargers 24-7 loss to the Denver Broncos \u2013 where star quarterback Justin Herbert went down and might be done for the year with a fractured finger \u2013 was Quentin Johnston making the biggest play of his career so far on a 57-yard catch. You could be fooled if you didn\u2019t look at the numbers, but that was backup Easton Stick throwing an absolute dime as well, not Herbert. It brings up Johnston\u2019s 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\u2019s usage.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">air it out, easton. <\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcfa | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NFLonCBS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@nfloncbs<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MIFyULanWG\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/MIFyULanWG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/chargers\/status\/1733999769922728350?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 10, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Long Quentin Johnston Week 14 Catch Raises Questions About Chargers Offense<\/h2>\n<h3>An Outstanding Throw and Catch<\/h3>\n<p>Let\u2019s start with the play itself. Yes, this is a seemingly unimportant one on paper \u2013 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 \u2013 if you showed me the highlight with no context and I didn\u2019t look at his jersey number, I\u2019d assume it was Herbert.<\/p>\n<p>Stick has never been known for downfield passes like this \u2013 but he chucked an absolute bomb, expecting Johnston to outrun the defense and get the catch \u2013 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\u2019s not unlike some of the catches Vincent Jackson and Malcom Floyd made back in the day. It\u2019s bizarre that Johnston can make this catch and not the one that probably would\u2019ve been a game-winner against the Packers, but this shows what he is capable of.<\/p>\n<h3>Where Has This Been?<\/h3>\n<p>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: <i>Where has this been all year? <\/i><\/p>\n<p>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\u2019t tried post routes like that before with Johnston.<\/p>\n<p>But there is also the question of: where has this been from the offense <i>in general? <\/i>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\u2019s best game of the year (and possibly ever). And we saw it a couple of other isolated times. But that\u2019s about it. Herbert likes to throw intermediate bullet passes best, it seems \u2013 or at least, that\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>And it\u2019s not like Johnston and Williams are the only options there. We\u2019ve 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) \u2013 or even possibly Herbert himself, though it is hard to imagine that he is avoiding these plays by choice.<\/p>\n<h3>Has Quentin Johnston Been Misused All This Time?<\/h3>\n<p>It was referenced earlier that Johnston\u2019s 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. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023\/10\/19\/where-is-quentin-johnston\/\" target=\"_self\">He was scarcely used at all<\/a> before Williams went down, and since then, he\u2019s 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\u2019s. Johnston is not the greatest route-runner, and he definitely does not have the hands to bring in some of Herbert\u2019s bullet passes. That is simply not the type of player he is.<\/p>\n<p>When Johnston has actually been used according to his skillset, the results have been more promising. There was this <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NFL\/status\/1718804677817487733\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">short pass that he turned into a first down<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n<p>Ideally, you\u2019d 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\u2019s a bad throw, you\u2019ll 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\u2019t been put in the ideal position to succeed for most of the season either.<\/p>\n<h3>In Conclusion<\/h3>\n<p>It\u2019s not like the passing offense hasn\u2019t been productive most of the time, but it does feel like some players\u2019 talents are not being used adequately. Johnston has not been utilized according to his talents. Austin Ekeler hasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Quentin Johnston pulled in a 57-yard lob from Easton Stick on Sunday that raises questions about the offense in general and Johnston&#8217;s usage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2355,"featured_media":154985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[54,18],"tags":[7642,10088,7011,9758],"class_list":["post-154983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","category-chargers","tag-chargers-featured","tag-derius-davis","tag-jalen-guyton","tag-quentin-johnston"],"modified_by":"Will Noltie, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2355"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}