Justin Herbert thrives in high stakes games for Los Angeles Chargers

Tyler Schoon

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Justin Herbert thrives in high stakes games for Los Angeles Chargers image

Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert is wrongly scrutinized by a small vocal minority for being a career loser. Fans, analysts, and media members with two minutes of spare time and a search engine know the record does not reflect the player.

Another statistic just popped up, this time focusing on "high stakes" games and quarterback Expected Points Added (EPA) per Dropback since 2018. The sample was pulled from playoff games and late-season intraconference games. 

The number one quarterback, no surprise, was Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. The second quarterback? Herbert.

The top five quarterbacks in EPA/Dropback were Mahomes, Herbert, Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, and Dak Prescott. The bottom five were Tua Tagovailoa, Ben Roethlisberger, Andy Dalton, Sam Darnold, and Kyler Murray.

If Chargers fans look a little closer, they'll see another familiar name at seventh-best EPA/Dropback since 2018: Philip Rivers. 

Herbert will continue to be dragged through online discourse for a clickbait narrative not rooted in any relevant statistics. Feel free to show them this graph next time. 

Tyler Schoon

Tyler Schoon Photo

Tyler Schoon began covering the Chargers in 2017 as a contributor at Bolt Beat before moving to the Site Expert role in 2019. In 2020, he co-founded the Guilty As Charged Podcast, which regularly live streams and uploads to YouTube and audio platforms and was featured weekly during the 2023 NFL season on the Chargers’ team channels.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Cell and Developmental Biology from CSUF and a Master of Arts in Teaching from UCI. Tyler is a science teacher and resides in Orange County with his wife and their dog Galadriel.