Justin Herbert’s poor play this season has been the talk of the town as the Los Angeles Chargers recorded their fifth defeat. Over the last few weeks, Herbert has tallied seven interceptions and 17 sacks, scoring only one touchdown in each game. While the NFL community slammed Herbert for his poor performance, Dan Patrick had a different opinion.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
“I love that you back your quarterback, but let’s back him with reality,” Dan Patrick said on his show. “And that was nowhere near reality. But I do think Justin Herbert can still be a great quarterback.
“It felt like front office malpractice that they didn’t, you know, he needs weapons. So, get him weapons. I don’t know how involved they were with trying to get AJ Brown or throw out DJ Moore. Any of these guys who would have been available. Or Tyreek Hill. But you can’t go in with that kind of inexperience there. I understand it. But I can’t move on from Justin Herbert. Not yet.”
Herbert looks nothing like the quarterback he was only a year ago. Last season, he threw for 3,727 yards and 26 touchdowns. But this year, apart from Ladd McConkey, there’s no reliable target for Herbert to throw to. The Chargers parted ways with Keenan Allen, and they were going ahead with a young receiving room.
Now, the Chargers lack some serious talent at the position, with McConkey, Tre’ Harris, and Brenen Thompson all down with injuries. The Chargers had worked out former Super Bowl Champion JuJu Smith-Schuster and Luke Grimm recently, and signed the latter to their practice squad.
More importantly, the Chargers failed to bolster their offensive line all offseason, and were one of the quietest teams in free agency. Their flashiest signing of the year was lineman Tyler Biadasz, who is unfortunately out for the season. Pro Bowler Joe Alt is also expected to be out for quite some time. That has led to Herbert working overtime.
Last season, the quarterback was the third-most sacked in the league. Five weeks into the 2026 season, he has alarmingly gone up a place.
Left guard Kayode Awosika is out with a fibula injury and Trey Pipkins III is on the injured/reserve list. Tackle Rashawn Slater is also on IR. Reserve guard Trevor Penning will likely not play in the next game as he suffered a concussion.
That will likely leave the Chargers with an offensive line that only has one veteran in Cole Strange, as projected by the Los Angeles Times’ Joaquin Ruiz. Along with Strange, his companions will likely be rookies Logan Taylor, Jake Slaughter, Jacob Spomer, and Travis Burke.
All this is happening under Mike McDaniel’s stint as offensive coordinator, who is clearly on the hot seat going 0-5 in the season.
“If it continues to go this way [swapping offensive coordinators every year], there’s three options,” Tucker said. “It would be give him another chance with another offensive coordinator, which by the way, this is Herbert’s fifth offensive coordinator in seven years. Or maybe Harbaugh’s gone. Or maybe they move on from Herbert.”
But Herbert, even though his stats keep getting worse, has promised to get better. After taking in a game-ending sack in a failed Hail Mary attempt against the Broncos, Herbert noted that the team has to “do whatever” they can to “win football games.” He acknowledged that the Chargers are lacking on the scoring front and claimed that they “got to do that better.”
Even though the Chargers are potentially out of playoff contention, and Herbert’s troubles are far from over, the franchise is backing their quarterback.
“Let me be very clear about this,” a team source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter. “We have never even discussed that idea. The sentence ‘Should we trade Justin Herbert?’ has never once been uttered in our organization, nor will it be.”
Can the Chargers still turn the season around and hope for Herbert to find his mojo? Time is running out.