LA Chargers: Rookie report card heading into bye week

Let’s check-in on the LA Chargers’ rookies as they head into their first-ever NFL bye week.

The LA Chargers have had a fairly disappointing first five weeks of the season as the team is 1-4 heading into the bye but could easily be as good as 4-1 with a few small changes to the losses that they endured.

But don’t we say that every year?

The Chargers have an unexpected bye week in Week 6 as the schedule got shuffled around due to several delayed games because of positive coronavirus cases, none of which had to do with the Chargers.

This unexpected bye gives the team to rest up and get healthy, something that is much-needed. Hopefully, we see a better team out of the bye than the one that headed into it, included the rookies. Here is the report card.

Justin Herbert: A+

2020 stats: 97/141 (68.8%), 1,195 yards, 9 TD, 3 INT, 107.1 passer rating, 1 rushing TD

Justin Herbert has not just been great, he has been fantastic. Personally, I did not expect to see Herbert at all this season and when he was forced into starting Week 2 he proved that he was ready for the job and was the right guy for the job.

The situation with Tyrod Taylor is absolutely terrible and it is impossible to feel for the guy, but Herbert took his chance and ran with it.

Herbert has the third-most passing yards through his first four career starts and has made plays that Philip Rivers could never dream of. Some naysayers will point out the mistakes he has made, some large and some small, as reasons why the Chargers are losing these games.

But in reality, there is no way that the Chargers would have even been in the position that they were in, especially against the Buccaneers and Saints. We saw how the offense looked in Week 1 without Herbert. He is this offense.

You can tell with a quarterback is going to be a project in the NFL. Herbert is not a project. The Chargers found the face of their franchise for the next decade and every fan should be extremely grateful for that.