Offensive Rookie of the Year Justin Herbert sails into his offseason, preparing to run a new offense in his second NFL season. At some point during the coming months, the L.A. Chargers signal-caller will reach out to Drew Brees to pick the 42-year-old's brain about new offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi's scheme.
"Drew is definitely one of those guys I plan to reach out to," Herbert said, via the L.A. Times. "He's been able to do it all."
Lombardi spent 12 seasons in New Orleans, 10 of those as Brees' QB coach, so the veteran signal-caller would have unique insight into what Herbert should expect from his new offensive coordinator.
Brees has yet to announce whether he'll retire following his 20th NFL season. Herbert noted that the former Chargers QB isn't the only veteran he'll try to pick the brain of as he enters his first full NFL offseason.
"I'm going to try not to bother them too much," he said. "I've got a bunch of questions about how to watch film, how to prepare for defenses. There are things that I can always get better at.
"These guys have had so much success. If I didn't ask them, that's on me. It's an opportunity for me to learn from them. I'll definitely be reaching out. I've talked to a couple of them already."
Upon taking the Chargers offensive coordinator role, Lombardi said that he would try to take the pieces of last year's success and meld them with his experience in Sean Payton's offense.
"I think we're going to take a little bit of that," Herbert noted of what he expects to be brought over from the Saints offense. "They're also going to bring in some of their stuff that has been able to work. I think it's kind of a mix-and-match. But a lot of the stuff that we were able to do last year, I think that will carry over."
The Chargers offense wasn't the issue last season, nor the reason Anthony Lynn was fired, so it will be interesting to see what sort of tweaks Lombardi brings. In his first stint as an OC, the grandson of Vince Lombardi crashed and burned in Detroit. In his second opportunity, he'll coach the OROY. Hopefully, Lombardi learned from what didn't work in his rigid scheme with the Lions and will be more malleable with a young star like Herbert.