The Los Angeles Chargers can always count on Justin Herbert to stay in the game.
Across his seven NFL seasons, he's missed significant time only once—when he suffered a season-ending hand injury in 2023. Apart from that, he's taken constant punishment from Los Angeles' lack of viable protection, and he's played through injury to stay available for this team.
But the fact of the matter is that, over the past couple seasons especially, he's had to. The Chargers simply haven't had a reliable backup quarterback that could step in and even keep them competitive for a couple of games in a row, let away sneak away with a win if Herbert were to go down.
Now, Los Angeles is faced with a bit of a conundrum. Their injury woes have become unsustainable, and entering Week 9, they have five more chances to return a player from the IR under the league's total allocation of designated return slots for each team. They currently have nine players on the injured reserve, and only one, Tyler Biadasz, is currently ruled out for the season.
That makes Trey Lance's return from the groin injury that sent him to the IR dicey at best. And as the Chargers are stuck with DJ Uiagalelei as their current backup, that also means they have no choice but to let Herbert continue to take punishment on a week-to-week basis.
Adding a true backup obviously wouldn't have been beneficial if he had suffered the same fate as Lance. But this brings us back to the problem in the first place—without a true backup for Herbert, the Chargers are left in a poor position no matter what they choose to do.
Justin Herbert shouldn't be benched—but it's unfair to leave your star quarterback in an endless cycle of punishment
There have been calls for the Chargers to bench Herbert and tank the rest of the season in pursuit of a top draft pick. I'll be the first to say—that's not happening.
The organization has put too much stock in Herbert, and in his acclimation to Mike McDaniel's scheme, to simply call the whole thing off. As rough as things have looked through eight weeks, forcing Herbert to sit for the remainder of the season certainly wouldn't sit well with either him or the fans.
But what if Herbert does need to miss time with injury?
It wouldn't come as a surprise in the least, given the continuous punishment he's taken due to the Chargers' lack of consistent protection. He was the most-sacked quarterback in the league last season, and although there's been slight improvement this year in that regard, he's still taken a total of 23 sacks on the season. It seems like every game he's getting rocked at some point in the matchup by a pass rusher.
Lance, as of now, is still a better backup option that Uiagalelei. He at least has starting experience at the NFL level, even if the results haven't been desirable.
But as of now, it's unclear if Los Angeles can afford to bring Lance back from the IR this season. David Njoku's return is impending, and it will be an absolute necessity to bring back pieces like Rashawn Slater, Derwin James Jr., Alec Ingold, and Trey Pipkins III, even just for considerations of depth, if they're healthy before the end of the season.
Uiagalelei can certainly command a tank. But the Chargers are now 0-7, and the pressure remains as high on Herbert as ever to remain in the game no matter what sort of punishment he takes or what sort of pain he's feeling.
To hang your star quarterback out to dry like that over the next 10 weeks, above all else, is a failure on the part of the organization. And Lance's questionable status only intensifies the spotlight on that fact.
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