The Los Angeles Chargers are not trading Justin Herbert. At least, that’s the obvious answer.
But the last week of NFL chaos has made a lot of obvious answers feel a little less sturdy, and that’s why Herbert’s name keeps surfacing anyway. The Chargers are far more likely to move Khalil Mack than their franchise quarterback, and from the outside it looks much more plausible that they would tear down the whole operation before sending Herbert elsewhere. That would mean head coach Jim Harbaugh, offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel and general manager Joe Hortiz, for starters.
Still, the league has just watched a major move happen after enough talk, enough calls and the right offer finally lined up. That’s the backdrop for the Herbert discussion now.
Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer addressed the idea this week and pointed to the Jeffery Simmons situation with the Tennessee Titans as a reminder that these things only become real when someone actually puts something meaningful on the table.
“It can’t hurt to make that phone call if you’re the Vikings,” Breer said. “Do I think Joe Hortiz is going to say ‘no way, we can’t trade a franchise quarterback,’ yeah, I think he’s going to say no way.”
That’s the whole tension here. Until a team makes a massive offer, it’s just noise. And teams are not exactly lining up to do that for Herbert.
Breer also pushed back on the idea that Herbert is the problem in Los Angeles.
“I will just say this about Justin Herbert. I don’t think a lot of what’s happened this year is on him. I think if you go back to last year and you talk to people around the league, a lot of people felt he was playing at an MVP level in a near-impossible situation…it reminds me of the way people talked about Matthew Stafford in Detroit.”
Chargers fans have heard the Matthew Stafford comparison before, and probably more than they’d like. But given how often the team has broken things down around Herbert and then failed to rebuild them properly, it’s not hard to see why the comparison keeps coming back.
Right now, the Chargers are still acting like Herbert is the centerpiece they need to keep in place and keep elite. The problem is that the roster-building around him went sideways this offseason, the offense has produced the worst play of Herbert’s career, and the team appears headed for yet another reset.
So even with Herbert’s no-trade clause, the question lingers: if a team like the Vikings were to put three or more first-round picks on the table, what would Los Angeles do? Would the Chargers follow the Titans’ lead with Simmons and make the deal, or would they hold firm?
That’s the bind for the Chargers. There isn’t an easy answer on trades, and there isn’t an easy answer on what comes next for Harbaugh and the rest of the staff either.
Standing pat carries real risk. Blowing it up again does too.
Either way, Herbert isn’t going away from the conversation anytime soon, even after the trade deadline passes, because the Chargers’ season already feels effectively over.
In Other News...
Chargers Collapse Just Put Their Trade Deadline Direction Under A Spotlight
The Chargers 0-7 start has pushed the front office into an uncomfortable spot, with a season that has gone sideways fast now forcing a hard look at the trade market. When a team falls this far behind, every veteran on the roster starts to look like a possible deadline chip, especially with other clubs around the league dealing with injuries and searching for help.
Khalil Mack has been the name most often tied to that conversation, while other players such as Keaton Mitchell, Daiyan Henley and Dalvin Tomlinson have also surfaced as possible assets. For a team trying to salvage value from a lost season, the next move is less about chasing a turnaround and more about deciding which pieces can still bring back something useful before the deadline passes. [Read more 🡒]
Chargers Fans Have Every Right To Be Furious About This Offense
Seven straight losses have left the Chargers with nowhere to hide, and the latest 24-9 defeat to the Rams only sharpened the focus on an offense that has gone nowhere fast. Under offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel, the unit has looked stuck in neutral, while Justin Herbert has had a season full of frustration as the defense under Chris OLeary has done more to keep games respectable than the offense has done to support it.
The bigger issue is that the Chargers are no longer just dealing with a bad stretch, but with the kind of offensive stagnation that raises questions about the direction of the whole operation. Harbaughs decision to stick with McDaniel through the bye week has only added to the scrutiny, because the losses keep piling up and the offense keeps offering the same empty answers. [Read more 🡒]
Chargers Have Hit A Breaking Point And Everyone Sees It
After Week 8, the Chargers are staring at a season that has gone from discouraging to downright alarming. Their loss to the Rams left Los Angeles at 0-7, and with the rest of the league sorting itself out, the Chargers have become the outlier no team wants to be, the only club still searching for its first win.
The latest league-wide power rankings reflect just how far things have slipped, especially when compared with teams like the Dolphins, who are still only 1-6 but have at least shown some fight under first-year coach Jeff Hafley. For the Chargers, the bigger issue is no longer a bad stretch or a few missed chances. It is the reality of where they stand now, and how little room there is left to turn it around. [Read more 🡒]