Easton Stick in a Taysom Hill role makes no sense

Easton Stick has been within the heart of some conversations relating to his potential use within the 2021 LA Chargers‘ offense. Chase Daniel might be Justin Herbert‘s main backup, however some suppose that Stick might play an identical sort of position to Saints’ swiss military knife Taysom Hill.

Former New Orleans quarterbacks coach Joe Lombardi is now the Chargers’ offensive coordinator, so possibly there’s something behind the thought.

When he was drafted, the LA Chargers themselves stated that it was no less than a risk:

There are some key variations between Stick and Hill although. For one, Hill has been a utility participant/quarterback since highschool. The Saints have lined him up all around the discipline and he began at vast receiver in his varsity years.

Whereas one might argue that Stick was a “dual-threat” quarterback by way of school, he doesn’t have the expertise as a utility participant that Hill did coming into the NFL.

Hill can also be a extra bodily participant. 6’3″ 230 kilos could not appear a complete lot totally different from 6’1″ 215, however it’s when it comes to leverage and energy. Going off each of their 40 occasions, Hill can also be the quicker participant to make use of in designed runs. We’ve additionally seen Hill hit prime speeds of 20+ miles per hour within the NFL.

Let’s fake that Stick and Hill had been the identical sort of athletic specimen for a second. One of many key causes that the Saints used Hill as a lot as they did in Drew Brees’ remaining years was to protect Brees for the playoffs.

Brees was 39 when the Saints and Lombardi began utilizing Hill in an elevated method. His arm wasn’t what it was. If New Orleans might save Brees from throwing 5 or so snaps per recreation with some Hill performs, it added up by the tip of the season.

That was their calculus to no less than some extent. Justin Herbert simply turned 23 years previous and has one of many strongest arms within the recreation. Taking him off of the sphere for a set quantity of snaps per recreation is a ridiculous concept. The LA Chargers are clearly at their finest when Herbert is on the sphere.

I’m not towards designing some trick performs with Stick that the workforce makes use of on occasion. It simply doesn’t make sense to make use of him as an every-game fixture when Lombardi has among the finest younger quarterbacks within the league at his disposal. When Herbert is 38 and we begin to query his arm energy, maybe then it is going to be time to revisit this dialog.

Trying into Lombardi’s previous offers us some data for the way he’ll deal with the present quarterback room, however there’s no purpose to copy-paste each side of the Saints’ offense. Utilizing Hill because the Saints have is smart for them, but it surely doesn’t make sense for each different workforce. That is much less about Stick and extra about having a younger, gifted beginning quarterback.

Nobody is speaking about taking Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen off the sphere for a certain quantity of snaps each recreation. We shouldn’t be having that dialog with Justin Herbert both.