The Los Angeles Chargers, thankfully, have an iron man of a quarterback in Justin Herbert. Through six seasons in the NFL, he's only missed six games. The only extended absence he's had was when he broke his finger on a sack near the end of the 2023 season. He even played through a broken hand in 2025, missing just a handful snaps after it was injured against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 13.
By all accounts, the Chargers have one of the most reliable quarterbacks in the NFL in terms of availability.
Therefore, Los Angeles' re-signing of Trey Lance to a one-year, $6.75 million deal on Saturday feels like a relatively minor move. After all, Lance saw action in just four games last season. Before his Week 17 start against the Denver Broncos, he had thrown just 13 pass attempts on the season.
From a certain perspective, Lance provides certainty. He knows the scheme, and he has the athletic abilities and the acumen to be used in certain limited scenarios.
But, if Herbert needs to miss time at any point in 2026, the Chargers have left themselves open to a potentially disastrous scenario. Lance cannot be trusted to keep Los Angeles afloat, especially not in an increasingly menacing AFC West.
Trey Lance is a fine option, but he isn't the ultra-reliable piece you'd want behind Herbert
Of course this is all dealing in hypotheticals. As outlined above, Herbert has hardly missed time whatsoever in his career.
But say he has to miss four games due to injury, and the Chargers need Lance to step in for him. Lance has shown promise as a backup, but it's mostly been in extremely limited opportunities. In his lone start last season, he completed just 20/44 passes for 136 yards. Los Angeles scored just three points in that game.
With the backup quarterback market as inflated as it is this offseason, perhaps their only option was to bring Lance back. But in an ideal world, it would undoubtedly be better to have a veteran quarterback behind Herbert in case of such a disastrous scenario.
There's also relatively little upside to developing Lance in a backup role outside of Joe Hortiz's much-loved compensatory pick formula. It's not as though he's going to surpass Herbert for the starting role.
The Lance signing, therefore, is a fine move. But Los Angeles has very little margin for error in their division with the way the Kansas City Chiefs have re-tooled and the turnaround the Las Vegas Raiders appear poised to make.
If Herbert needs to miss any time at all in 2026, the Chargers could quickly regret trusting Lance with backup duties.