COSTA MESA — The ball and the game were in Quentin Johnston’s hands. There were fewer than 30 seconds to play in the Chargers’ game against the Green Bay Packers last November at Lambeau Field, and Johnston had sprinted past the last defender and was in the clear along the sideline.
All that remained was for Johnston to catch Justin Herbert’s spiral, race into the end zone and celebrate the go-ahead touchdown with his teammates. The Chargers would have then needed only to stop the Packers over the final seconds to secure a come-from-behind victory thanks to Johnston’s catch and run.
One minor detail, though.
Johnston didn’t catch the football.
The Chargers didn’t win.
It was, in the final analysis, the play that defined Johnston’s rookie season after a stellar career at TCU that resulted in the Chargers’ selecting him in the first round (21st overall) in the 2023 draft. It was the play, in many ways, that defined the Chargers’ 2023 season, one of many missed opportunities.
“The one that sticks in my mind is the one versus Green Bay,” Johnston said Tuesday. “I just kind of eased up like I wasn’t sure instead of just keeping on my path, which I should have done. I would have had an easy catch. Just at the catch point, taking my eyes off and not looking it all the way in.”
Johnston snapped his fingers.
“Just a lack of focus all together,” he said.
Sanjay Lal, the Chargers’ new wide receivers coach, said he’s been determined not to look back but to look ahead during spring practices and meetings. He said he’s asked the Chargers’ receivers to live in the moment, learn Coach Jim Harbaugh’s new systems and forget what’s happened in the past.
The past is in the past.
Johnston admitted doing no such thing, however.
There was a method to his madness, as he explained to reporters.
“My coaches, my teammates, I owe far better, it was just straight-up unacceptable,” Johnston said of his drop against Green Bay, when Herbert scrambled to his left and lofted a flawless pass inside the Packers’ 30-yard line with only seconds to play in the game.
So, if Johnston didn’t necessarily feel like working out during the offseason or he wasn’t feeling “it” during recent practices, his mind drifted back to that game last season in Week 11 and he felt a surge of energy overtake him. If he needed extra motivation, he would call up the play and re-watch it again.
Instead of a gut punch, it served as a kick in the rear.
“It was like, ‘Let me go back and feel what I felt then,’” he said. “Pulled it up real quick and got mad at myself again.”
Focus, or a lack thereof, was responsible for Johnston’s many drops during his rookie season, especially the one against Green Bay. He caught 38 passes for 431 yards and two touchdowns in 17 games last season, figures that fell far short of expectations – his and the Chargers, too.
So, Lal and Harbaugh have stressed mastering the details during spring workouts, and that’s not likely to change when minicamp begins next week or when training camp starts in late July. Or, realistically, at any foreseeable point during their tenure together with the Chargers.
Run the route, catch the pass, run some more.
Simple, effective.
Lal studied Johnston for the 2023 draft while he was with the Seattle Seahawks, so he was familiar with Johnston and his skills. There are tweaks, adjustments, that can be made to allow him to improve. Lal isn’t willing to rehash what happened during Johnston’s rookie season. It is too much to ask.
“First thing is I don’t look back,” Lal said of his impressions of Johnston. “I wasn’t here, I wasn’t coaching him. I don’t know the circumstances, so it’s not fair to look back. Looking forward, he moves as well as any receiver I’ve seen, so the potential is very high. Very impressive. He’s got a lot of juice.
“He almost bounds when he runs.”
Of the notion that Johnston must improve his hands this coming season, Lal said, “‘Hands’ is a broad term. Why did you drop it? I’m not talking ‘Q’ but any receiver. Was it a concentration drop? Did you take your eyes off it? Were your hands too soft? Was your hand position wrong? All those things are factors.
“You can’t say, ‘Oh, he drops ‘X’ amount of balls. He can’t catch.’”
Now, it’s up to Johnston to prove he can catch in the clutch in 2024.
