Jim Harbaugh describes his performance coach Ben Herbert as “the best I've ever seen him”

The Chargers have begun their offseason program, and the first phase of the program is largely the work of new player performance executive Ben Herbert.

Jim Harbaugh brought Herbert with him from Michigan, where Herbert was Harbaugh's strength coach, and gave him the cool new nickname because Harbaugh believes Herbert is an integral part of what the Chargers will do.

“Ben Herbert is huge in this first phaseHarbaugh said, via Chargers.com. “When I say base coaching, I say knowing where everyone is, where their baseline is, where they need to improve. Just here to get involved. One thing about Herb is you know he's going to be there every day and you know he's going to be ready to coach the guys and he has the energy.” “It's necessary to coach anyone out there. There's no one who combines state-of-the-art science with the strength of old-school discipline and conditioning coach like him. He's the best I've ever seen or been around as a player or as a coach.”

Herbert tells players his goal is to “make you harder to break” by strengthening the areas of the human body that are most stressed in football.

“We've been together for six years. We're like that in terms of philosophy, just doing anything and everything for the players,” Harbaugh said. “That's the overarching thing, the way we see it. They are good at football, and they make themselves the best version of themselves on and off the field. . . . We try to create this combination because you can train yourself to be better, stronger, leaner, more flexible, more lean, more muscle mass and less fat. We had a lot of similar ideas about football and the end result, and trying to get better at football.

Veteran veteran Hayden Hurst said after his first day of offseason work with the Chargers that he had never seen a strength coach do the kind of fundamental testing that Herbert did on day one, and that he was excited by Herbert's passion for helping players develop their bodies and avoid soft tissue injuries. A healthier Chargers team may be a better Chargers team under Harbaugh and Herbert.