The art of drawing flags: Which QBs get the most, and does Justin Herbert need to argue more?

LOS ANGELES — Perhaps for the first time in their two seasons together, Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh and quarterback Justin Herbert were both enraged.

In the second quarter of their Week 11 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, outside linebacker Alex Highsmith made contact below Herbert’s knees shortly after the ball left the quarterback’s throwing hand. Herbert spun around, arms outstretched and barked at the nearest official. Not far away on the sideline, Harbaugh was doing the same.

The Steelers pressured Herbert 12 times and sacked him five times in the Chargers’ 25-10 win. Throughout the game, Herbert was more animated than he had been all season, at times yelling toward officials after hits that he believed were illegal. The game reflected a season of hits for Herbert, who has been contacted 149 times and pressured 196 times, both league highs, according to ESPN Research and NFL Next Gen Stats.

Hack-a-Shaq.»

But the numbers tell a different story. Herbert has two accepted roughing the passer penalties this season, tied for second in the league. Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott is first with four. Herbert has eight since he entered the league in 2020, which is tied for fifth behind Kirk Cousins, Prescott, Josh Allen and Jared Goff. Still, Harbaugh’s point begs the question: Is there any correlation between arguing and penalties? And should Herbert be arguing more? Many quarterbacks say that the answer is no in the short term but that they hope advocating for themselves will influence future calls.

«Arguing isn’t going to get me anywhere,» Herbert said. «If I make a big deal out of it, odds are they’re not going to call it. The more I fight and the more I push for it, I think they’re going to get more and more likely to not call it.»

Former NFL quarterbacks Matt Ryan and Josh McCown, as well as current starters Tua Tagovailoa and Matthew Stafford, say it isn’t as simple as yelling louder but rather a delicate dance with officials between protecting oneself and preserving credibility. Herbert will look to stay upright against the Philadelphia Eagles on «Monday Night Football» (8:15 ET, ESPN).

«You don’t want to be the guy who cried wolf,» said Ryan, the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback, who has the most accepted roughing the passer penalties since 2000, according to ESPN Research.

Complaints about the way Herbert is officiated began last season. After the Cleveland Browns sacked him six times, Harbaugh used his weekly news conference to argue that his quarterback wasn’t being officiated fairly. Harbaugh even compared Herbert to NBA great Shaquille O’Neal — too big to draw calls.

«Does it sound like I’m complaining? Maybe? I could be,» Harbaugh said. «I think he doesn’t get some of those calls when they should be called.»

A week after Herbert’s uncharacteristically heated exchange with officials this season in Pittsburgh, he took another big hit — this time from Jacksonville Jaguars defensive lineman BJ Green II, who was flagged for landing with his body weight. An offsetting Chargers flag wiped out the penalty, but the roughing call drew some national ire.

«How do you want them to play?» former outside linebacker J.J. Watt later said on «The Pat McAfee Show» in reference to the hit. «That tackle was as textbook of a tackle as you can make. It just pisses me off.»

The flag raised another question that only the officials in Jacksonville could answer: Did Herbert’s frustration in Pittsburgh lodge in officials’ minds the following week, or was it just another reminder of how muddled the roughing rule has become?

«For me, if they call it great, if we get that 15 yards, then we’re moving forward,» Herbert said. «… But at the end of the day, it’s out of my control.»

«I usually remember getting up and thinking, ‘Man, you’d give Drew Brees that call,’ or, ‘You’d give Tom Brady that call,'» said McCown, now the Minnesota Vikings’ quarterbacks coach. «I never felt like I got the calls, but I guess the evidence would say otherwise.»

McCown said his relationship with officials was unusual because, as a backup, he had time to actually talk with them on the sideline even though he was disappointed that he could never influence any calls.

«I probably owe a few officials an apology,» he said with a laugh.

For all the frustration Herbert showed in Pittsburgh — and all the punishment he has absorbed this season — he remains convinced that arguing accomplishes little. His outburst in Pittsburgh might have been an anomaly, but it seems that Harbaugh and the Chargers wouldn’t mind if he kept lobbying for himself.

«I’ve let the refs know when I thought there was a late hit,» Herbert said. «But it’s part of the game and they’ve got a job, too.»

Sarah Barshop, Marcel Louis-Jacques and Todd Archer contributed to this report.

Tomado de https://www.espn.com/