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As Justin Herbert mends and Chiefs game looms, Taylor Heinicke wins over the Chargers
Taylor Heinicke is not supposed to be in the spotlight like this. The backup quarterback stood in front of his locker that was full of freshly laundered sweatshirts and spoke to reporters as concerns about starter Justin Herbert’s ankle loomed. After the gaggle dispersed, Heinicke returned to his main task.
He sat down and pulled a tablet onto his lap. Game film already was on the screen.
Even in a state of uncertainty with Herbert’s ankle injury, the Chargers quarterback room remains calm, anchored by the backups whose jobs are to stay in the shadows while still being prepared to take center stage.
Heinicke and Easton Stick are under no delusions that they can sling the ball like Herbert, but the quarterback trio’s skill sets overlap in one key area.
“The most important thing in that room,” Herbert said, “is everyone wants to win.”
The star quarterback still could play Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs (1:25 p.m.) at SoFi Stadium, where the Chargers (2-1) are hoping to end a five-game losing streak to their AFC West rival.
Herbert played last week against the Pittsburgh Steelers with almost no practice time and still finished with 125 passing yards and one touchdown before reinjuring his ankle in the third quarter. As he limped toward the sideline, falling to the ground near trainers once he got off the field, Heinicke calmly trotted on. Unfazed, the NFL journeyman called it “same as usual throughout my career.”
Since going undrafted in 2015 after a record-setting career at Old Dominion, Heinicke primarily has been a backup during a seven-team NFL tour. He became a national name in 2020 when he went from finishing his college degree while on his sister’s couch to leading Washington in a playoff game.
After the sound of fans chanting his name faded, however, Heinicke was in Atlanta this offseason hoping to provide whatever help he could to starter Kirk Cousins and first-round draft pick Michael Penix Jr. Hours after making the initial 53-man roster, Heinicke was traded to the Chargers and accepting another assignment.
“Ultimately, me and Taylor are here to support Justin, and that’s our main role,” said Stick, who started four games last season, “and then being able to be prepared and go out there and execute when we’re called upon.”
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Although Stick lost his No. 2 position after a shaky preseason that prompted the trade for Heinicke, there hasn’t been any friction in the quarterback room, he said. The former North Dakota State star has learned from Herbert’s and Heinicke’s experiences gained from more than 100 games. The teamwork of the group is “like you wouldn’t believe,” offensive coordinator Greg Roman said.
After Heinicke entered against the Steelers, the quarterbacks remained in constant communication over what they were seeing on the field and from the sideline tablets. Heinicke completed both of his passes for 24 yards, including an 18-yard strike over the middle to Ladd McConkey on third and two during the fourth quarter.
“Taylor’s a baller,” running back J.K. Dobbins said.
Accustomed to learning playbooks quickly, Heinicke had to work overtime after joining the Chargers on Aug. 28. Not knowing when the team might need him, Heinicke buried his head in the playbook to learn a system he said was the most complex he’s learned. But as with Herbert, who majored in general science at Oregon, Heinicke comes ready to learn. He studied engineering at Old Dominion before switching his major to mathematics.
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Reading a Roman play call that’s so long that it requires quarterbacks to wear wristbands doesn’t seem that difficult after Heinicke has untangled differential equations.
“That’s what, in my opinion, has allowed Taylor to stay in the league this long because he’s so cerebral,” former Old Dominion coach Bobby Wilder said. “He can still function at a fairly high level without that insane amount of work.”
With starters getting almost all the reps during practice each week, backups have to subsist mostly on scout team reps and film study. Only the most cerebral quarterbacks — or those with extreme athleticism — can be prepared to play in a game without any practice the way backups must be, Wilder said. Otherwise playing with an unfamiliar set of receivers “looks like a really bad fire drill.”
After three weeks learning the offense, Heinicke said developing chemistry with teammates is “the next step.” He already is mimicking communication habits from Herbert while calling and changing plays at the line of scrimmage.
“You wouldn’t think it’d be that big of a difference,” center Bradley Bozeman said, “but for us, it’s huge.”
But there are things about Herbert that Heinicke can’t copy. The 6-foot-6 Herbert can zip the ball 80 yards in the air. The 6-1, 210-pound Heinicke simply can’t. He and Stick play to their strengths on the field by using their checkdowns and extending plays with their legs.
Still Old Dominion’s career leader in almost every major passing category, Heinicke has shown how effective a well-prepared game plan can be.
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“He’s not what you spit out of a computer and say ‘here’s my perfect NFL quarterback,’” Wilder said. “He’s not Justin Herbert. He’s not the size, he’s not the arm strength, he’s not that guy. What he is is a very elite backup due to his team mentality — all I want to do is help my team — and his proven ability to go in a game and win.”
Both backup quarterbacks were winners in college. Stick is the winningest Football Championship Subdivision quarterback in history with a 49-3 record as a starter at North Dakota State, with four FCS national championships. Heinicke went 31-14, helping Old Dominion — which was then just two years old as a football program — break into the Colonial Athletic Assn. and move into Conference USA by his senior year.
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Heinicke didn’t expect Herbert to know him when he joined the team, but Herbert remembered his new teammate from 2021 when Heinicke, then with Washington, entered a game against the Chargers. Heinicke recalls that game as the moment his career turned for the better and he got to show his mettle as a starter for most of the season.
Never far from that starting opportunity again, Heinicke isn’t concerned about showing what he can do if Herbert sits.
“I don’t feel the pressure to prove [something] to other teams,” Heinicke said. “I feel the pressure of going to win.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
