Nick Wright isn’t buying the Justin Herbert hype, and he made that clear on The Dan Patrick Show earlier this week.
For years, the Chargers have been one of the league’s favorite offseason stories. The same cycle keeps repeating: plenty of excitement, plenty of talk, and not much to show for it once the games actually start. That pattern has followed Herbert ever since the Chargers drafted him in 2020, even after he flashed immediately as a rookie and won Offensive Player of the Year honors.
The arrival of Jim Harbaugh in 2024 was supposed to change the script. It was viewed as a major move, and to this point the Chargers have at least reached the playoffs in both of Harbaugh’s seasons.
But the shine has worn off fast when it matters most. Herbert has been rough in both of his postseason appearances under Harbaugh - first in the 2024 wild card loss to the Texans in Houston, where he threw more interceptions in that game than he did all season, and then again earlier this year against the Patriots in Foxboro, when the Chargers were bounced once more.
This offseason brought another wave of optimism, this time with Mike McDaniel joining as offensive coordinator and a fresh round of Chargers buzz following. But Week 1 didn’t back up any of it.
The Chargers looked bad. Really bad.
Wright, never one to hide his Chiefs bias, went straight at Herbert with a line that was as blunt as it was brutal:
"[Herbert]'s arguably the worst quarterback of the last quarter century in the NFL. And every year I have to hear about how this is the year and then, and how every year this Chargers team is different. And then the games are actually played and all the people who picked the Chargers to win the division, said Herbert could be an MVP candidate, said they're a sneaky Super Bowl contender are like, 'Actually the team's not good'."
That’s the kind of shot Chiefs fans will happily cheer, and even if the sample size is tiny, Week 1 did nothing to quiet the noise around the Chargers. With one game in the books for the 2026 season, Herbert and company already looked out of sorts, and the hype machine that followed them into the year suddenly looks a lot less convincing.
There’s still a long way to go, but the bar for Herbert has clearly moved. It’s no longer enough to talk about talent or playoff appearances.
He needs a real result - a playoff win, a major award, something that changes the conversation. Until that happens, his name shouldn’t be mentioned in the same breath as Patrick Mahomes.
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