Los Angeles Chargers make their plans for backup QB job quite evident

Travis Wakeman

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Los Angeles Chargers make their plans for backup QB job quite evident image

One of the biggest questions that has sprung up in the preseason for the Los Angeles Chargers is who will be the team's No. 2 quarterback? While some will insist that it doesn't matter, there is a decent chance that Justin Herbert will be forced to fight through his plantar fascia injury all season. 

Easton Stick has been the team's backup quarterback for the past several seasons, but when pressed into action last year when Herbert suffered an injury to his index finger, he was far from impressive. This preseason has been more of the same. 

At one time, the Chargers had five quarterbacks on the roster. But after moving on from Casey Bauman and Max Duggan, the team has only Stick and Luis Perez behind Herbert. It was assumed that Stick and Perez would battle it out in the final preseason game on Saturday night against the Dallas Cowboys, but that doesn't seem to be the case. 

 

The plan for the Chargers is for Stick to play the entire game on Saturday night. Perez will be there only if something takes him off the field. That leads to some interesting conclusions for this team in the next couple of days. 

Chargers' No. 2 QB will either be Easton Stick, or someone not currently on the roster

The Chargers are going to allow Stick to go out and win the job on his own. If he can't do it, the team will likely make a trade for someone like Taylor Heinicke, Malik Willis or Tyler Huntley or wait for a player like Bailey Zappe to be cut. 

The next several days will be interesting for the Chargers, but it does appear that Perez has been eliminated from the competition. 

Stick will get one more chance to show his worth. In two preseason games, Stick is 13-of-26 passing for 116 yards with two interceptions and a lost fumble. By comparison, Perez has gone 18-of-32 for 139 yards with one lost fumble. 

Stick will have to be quite impressive against the Cowboys because there are some decent, experienced options out there that could be had for next to nothing. 

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Travis Wakeman

Travis Wakeman Photo

Travis Wakeman has been covering the NFL since 2012 when he started with Bleacher Report. After reporting about the Broncos there until 2016, he joined the FanSided network as a site expert covering the San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers while simultaneously covering the Broncos at Broncos Wire when that site launched. He then took over the Broncos site at FanSided in March 2020 and covered the team there until spring of 2024. A lifelong Broncos fan and fan of the game, Travis is filled with sometimes useless NFL knowledge, but it always serves him well in any trivia contest. You can follow him on Twitter/X @traviswakeman10.