Justin Herbert is staring at a rough kind of crossroads, and it comes with the Chargers already buried under an 0-5 start.
What was supposed to be a team building on back-to-back 11-6 seasons and two straight playoff trips under Jim Harbaugh has instead become one of the league’s early-season shocks for all the wrong reasons. Los Angeles has had chances to turn things around, too. The Chargers were in position late against Denver in Week 5 before slipping into a 23-17 loss, and they had a similar collapse two weeks earlier in Buffalo, where they fell 24-16.
Herbert has been tangled up in the mess. Through five games, he has completed 59.4% of his passes for 937 yards, five touchdowns and seven interceptions, with a passer rating of 70.2. Those are ugly numbers for a quarterback who once looked like the type of player who could carry a franchise for years.
That’s exactly why Rex Ryan didn’t hold back Sunday morning.
"Justin Herbert, when he came out, I said he was a generational talent," Ryan said. "He's big, strong, fast, smart, athletic, tough.
He's got it all, man. When I saw him in college, I was like, This is a can't-miss [guy] without question.'
When he was a rookie, he played his absolute tail off. I mean, the best rookie performance I had seen.
Outplayed Joe Burrow. I'm like, 'Oh my god, they're going to win so many championships.'
"He's gone downhill," Ryan added. "This doesn't even look like the same guy.
To me, let's go back to doing what he does. Go back to being a Jim Harbaugh football team, where we can recognize him, please."
Herbert’s early career made that criticism sting even more. In 2020, he burst into the league with 4,336 passing yards, 31 touchdowns and a 66.6% completion rate, good enough to win Offensive Rookie of the Year. He followed that with an even bigger 2021, piling up 5,014 yards and 38 touchdowns while completing 65.9% of his throws and earning his first Pro Bowl selection.
Since then, the production has trended the wrong way. Herbert threw 23 touchdowns across 17 games in 2024, and even with only three interceptions, the overall picture wasn’t nearly as sharp.
Last season, he had 26 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions, his third straight year under 4,000 passing yards. This season has started even worse, and he hasn’t given the Chargers the rushing element he provided last year, when he set a career high with 498 rushing yards.
The situation has only grown more uncomfortable around the offense. Harbaugh established the standard as soon as he arrived, but this season has been a grind, and Mike McDaniel was brought in as offensive coordinator to help spark something different. That hasn’t happened, and now uncertainty hangs over the whole operation.
Sunday’s matchup with the Chiefs carries real weight for Herbert, Harbaugh and McDaniel. A win would at least push the Chargers toward their Week 7 bye with something to hold onto.
Another loss would drop them to 0-6 and leave the playoff picture looking grim. For a quarterback once seen as one of the NFL’s brightest young stars, that would be about as harsh a turn as it gets.
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