Game Day: Chargers at Las Vegas Faiders - TNF / Post Game Reaction (Wk 15)

[Critty]

It's Thursday night football.
Bolt up.
Watch the unknowns and back ups show what they can do.
Happy Holidays!
1336143644.jpg

[Bolt-O]

Go Bolts...will be at game.

[Charge!]

It's Thursday night football.
Bolt up.
Watch the unknowns and back ups show what they can do.
Happy Holidays!
1336143644.jpg

This should be a very interesting game..... could be an ugly low scoring game where both teams struggle to do anytjhing, that is won by a strip sack or ST's..... or both teams might suddenly play inspired and could be a back and forth game....trading leads....

Hoping Spiller has 20 plus touches...... and QJ has 10 plus touches.... lets see what the kids have....
as well as henley and Woods......

[AFboltfan]

This feels like a preseason game.

[Charge!]

This feels like a preseason game.

kind of..... but maybe we will find out certain players should ha ve been starting or playing more than they have been..... the last 4 games will be good for next coach and GM to understand what we have and what is needed.....?

[charger1_sj]

kind of..... but maybe we will find out certain players should ha ve been starting or playing more than they have been..... the last 4 games will be good for next coach and GM to understand what we have and what is needed.....?

What we have: Justin Herbert
What we need: Everything else.

[Lone Bolt]

Truly torn...I want that draft position...but I couldnt be disappointed if some young players balled out...

Ill settle for prayer that all players avoid serious injury, and hope its an entertaining game.

[Formula 21]

Alright. I’m looking forward to seeing what Stick brings. It would be nice if he had a full set of receivers though. I expect Ekeler to be his best friend and our key to victory.

[Berserker76]

It's a win-win game. Always happy to beat the Raturds, but if we lose, better draft positioning. Go get 'em, Stick!

[Caslon]

Al Michaels has gotten the dullest games ever since he sold his soul to Amazon for a boatload of money.

[AK47]

It's a win-win game. Always happy to beat the Raturds, but if we lose, better draft positioning. Go get 'em, Stick!

Oh shit you're actually right. If we get into the top 5 in draft picks. It could entice competent GMs and HC's to join the Chargers.

[Formula 21]

from Popper


The Athletic has live coverage of Chargers vs. Raiders on Thursday Night Football

The last time Easton Stick started a non-exhibition football game was Jan. 5, 2019.

That afternoon in Frisco, Texas, Stick led North Dakota State to a second consecutive FCS national championship. The Bison beat Eastern Washington 38-24. Stick, then 23 years old, had five touchdowns. He threw for 198 yards and added 121 on the ground.

ADVERTISEMENT


Stick is 28 now. He is in his fifth NFL season. To be exact, 1,804 days have passed since Stick last started a meaningful football game. Nearly five years of waiting and working, working and waiting until his opportunity arrived. The Los Angeles Chargers drafted Stick in the fifth round in 2019. He sat under Philip Rivers and Tyrod Taylor and Justin Herbert and Chase Daniel. He did not even become the Chargers’ No. 2 quarterback until this year. A college star forced into the backdrop because of circumstance.

Thursday night on the road against the Las Vegas Raiders, Stick will make his first career NFL regular-season start.

“When they selected me five years ago, this is what you want as a kid,” Stick said this week. “An opportunity to go play.”

This Chargers season has bottomed out. They have virtually no chance of making the playoffs. Herbert fractured his right index finger and had season-ending surgery Tuesday.

GO DEEPER

Popper: Justin Herbert's season-ending injury sinks Chargers into a month of irrelevancy

For Stick, though, the rest of this season will be career-defining. He has four games to show the league what he is capable of as a quarterback at this level. If he plays well, he could earn a chance to compete for a starting job elsewhere in 2024. At a minimum, he could earn himself considerably more money.

Five years of toiling behind the scenes for four games.

“He works so hard in the offseason on his game to get to where he wants to be,” said Shane Day, who spent two seasons as Stick’s quarterbacks coach with the Chargers in 2021-22. “To not be able to actually use those skills in a real game, it kills him as a competitor. We all know that Easton is the ultimate competitor, and he hasn’t been able to play for (five) years in a meaningful role.

“To actually go out and play quarterback and show all the stuff he’s working on, it means everything to him.”

Stick had to grind, mentally and physically, to get to this place in his career. He was inactive for all 16 games as a rookie. He played just two offensive snaps in 2020 and was inactive for nine of 16 games. He was inactive for 16 of 17 games in both 2021 and 2022.

ADVERTISEMENT


Stick won 49 games in college. When he got to the pros, his game day experiences most often amounted to donning street clothes and wearing a headset. Most Sundays, Stick’s pregame workouts were as close as he got to playing time.

For the past five years, preseason games and pregame warmups have been the bulk of Easton Stick’s work. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea / USA Today)

He played in the preseason, though there were even bumps along that road. The 2020 preseason was canceled because of COVID-19. Stick attempted just one in-game pass over two years from 2019 to 2021, preseason and regular season combined. He played in training camp and practice. In 2019, he even worked with the defense in practice at safety when the Chargers were dealing with injuries at the position. This year, Stick has been running the scout team offense, which attempts to resemble the opposition during the week of practice.

Stick still found ways to contribute, and not just in the film room with Herbert. Day recalled having regular conversations with Stick on the sideline during games in 2021 and 2022. After a series, Day would go over film cutups with Herbert. Then Day would debrief with Stick, who oftentimes had suggestions.

“Hey, don’t forget about this play,” Stick would say.

“Hey, remember that play we were talking about on Wednesday?” Stick would say.

Day said he would relay Stick’s recommendations to offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi, who called plays from the booth.

“The talks and collaborations about what the defense was doing in the game, and remembering the game plan and helping me as a coach apply that,” Day said.

And yet Stick had only so many opportunities to develop his game between the preseason and practices. He had to carve out his own time.

Most quarterbacks take a break from throwing after the season in January and February to recover. Not Stick. He returned to the Chargers’ facility immediately and began working outside.

ADVERTISEMENT


His primary goal was improving his arm strength. Stick acknowledged this week that he was “probably a little bit behind” in that area when he got to the league.

“I didn’t grow up with a quarterback coach,” Stick said. “At North Dakota State, we ran the football a ton. We were involved in the quarterback run game. … I’ve put a lot of work in.”

That work came during those offseasons when virtually everyone else was getting away from football. Stick, instead, was digging in deeper.

He worked on his mechanics. He drilled his motion over and over to create more force on his transfer and hone his accuracy.

“He’s a gym rat,” coach Brandon Staley said.

His arm strength has dramatically improved as a result, which he put on full display in the second half Sunday when he connected with rookie receiver Quentin Johnston on a 57-yard completion.



Stick maintained that work ethic during the season. According to Day, when practices were over, Stick stayed on the field for extra work with some of the backup receivers and tight ends, making every single throw that Herbert did in practice.

“He worked really hard to make sure that when his opportunity came, he was ready for it,” Day said.

Stick was always a smart player. It was a big reason he got drafted in 2019.

“His film study and all that stuff is first class, as good as I’ve been around,” said Day, who is now a senior offensive assistant with the Houston Texans coaching rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud.

Stick has even developed that part of his game. He always could operate pre-snap. Over his two seasons in L.A., Day saw Stick grow in his ability to read and react post-snap, a key part of playing quarterback in the league. And that has continued this season.

ADVERTISEMENT


“Post-snap, he can see the field, which is important,” Staley said this week. “There are a lot of people that can see the game before the snap, but once the ball is snapped, how do you play? He has good instincts.”

Easton Stick’s athleticism is one of his calling cards that earned him a shot in the NFL. (Robert Hanashiro / USA Today)

Stick has combined this arm strength and processing development with the traits that made him a draft pick in 2019, primarily his athleticism and ability to create plays off-schedule, as a runner and thrower.

“The mental and physical reaction part of it, he was able to kind of do both of those things at the same time,” Day said.

Finally, Stick will have a chance to gauge how far he has come — through 1,804 days of work and development, of hours after practice and on the field in January when everyone else was on vacation.

Of sweat and determination and time unseen to those on the outside.

“That’s what he loves,” Day said. “He loves to compete.”

His moment has arrived.

“I know I’ve improved,” Stick said. “I think that is what it is. I know it out here. We spend a lot of time out here. Obviously, it’s different. You’re going out there and it counts. It matters. It means a lot to a lot of people. So I’m excited for that.”