When a team is as bad as the Los Angeles Chargers are, there are always going to be rumors surrounding their star players at the deadline.
We've seen that this year, with other fanbases putting out inquiries about players like Khalil Mack, Tuli Tuipulotu, Ladd McConkey, and Derwin James Jr. But even if Joe Hortiz ultimately decides to pull the cord on a trade or two between now and the deadline, he's always made clear that he wasn't interested in "giving up" on this season—which almost certainly meant that none of the cornerstones of this roster were being dealt.
What made anyone think, then, that Herbert might be available?
It was more than just fan speculation, moreover. It turns out that, before the Minnesota Vikings finalized a (rather ironic) trade for Kirk Cousins, they checked in on Herbert as a potential solution at quarterback. Per Jordan Schultz via X, those talks were immediately shut down by the Los Angeles decision-makers.
That doesn't come as a surprise, but it does send a resounding message to teams in the hunt for a quarterback. Barring a complete organizational teardown, the Chargers aren't moving on from Herbert any time soon.
Justin Herbert is too valuable for Los Angeles simply to move on—especially at mid-season
Of course, Herbert wasn't the only quarterback Minnesota checked in on apart from Cousins. According to Schultz, they also engaged in talks with the Indianapolis Colts (concerning Daniel Jones) and the New York Jets (concerning Geno Smith).
The Colts listened to talks but did not want to move Jones, and the Jets felt that Smith was too important to the structure of their team to move him at the trade deadline.
That's fair play by the Vikings. Last night, on Monday Night Football, their offense squandered another inspired performance by their defense, with Carson Wentz completing just eight of his 25 passing attempts for 81 yards en route to a 23-6 loss. This defense, though, is truly special. Brian Flores' blitz-heavy approach is working to perfection, putting constant pressure on opposing quarterbacks without fully sacrificing coverage in the middle of the field, and Minnesota has allowed the fewest passing yards in the NFL through nine weeks. Kyler Murray is out with a hamstring issue and does not have a definite date to return to the field.
With that defense, even a viable quarterback could quickly make this team a Super Bowl contender. There's no reason not to check in on Herbert's availability when you're in that sort of position.
But for Los Angeles, their decision to immediately shut down talks, while unsurprising, is relatively significant. The organization will need to undertake some major soul-searching this offseason in order to figure out how it crawls back from one of the worst seasons in franchise history. Firing Mike McDaniel would be the easy option, but how safe are the jobs of Jim Harbaugh and Joe Hortiz?
And if those pieces go, will it be time for a complete teardown? Is there any way for Herbert to recover from what's been one of the most dramatic dropoffs we've seen in recent NFL history?
These are questions we won't have answers to until next season at the earliest. But what's clear right now is that this organization is fully committed to turning this thing around with Herbert under center.
Even if you want to make the argument that Herbert, at his best, was only a top 8-12 quarterback in the league, it's not easy to replace a quarterback of that level of talent, even with top draft selections. The Chargers made their stance on that issue pretty clear here.
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