Justin Herbert is not someone who wears his emotions on his sleeve. In fact, the LA Chargers' signal-caller has been rather reserved thus far in his NFL career and it wasn't until Jim Harbaugh came to town that he started to show some emotion.
Leading with emotion is common in the NFL and it has been great to see Herbert lean into that side of quarterbacking. However, not every emotion is a good one and Herbert is not hiding his emotions as well as he might have in the past.
During Sunday's loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in which Herbert was not allowed a chance to get comfortable due to bad blocking and poor communication, the star quarterback was seen on the television broadcast slamming his helmet into the bench on the sideline.
Herbert has never shown this side of himself to Chargers fans and quite frankly, his reaction to Sunday's contest is very telling.
Justin Herbert's outburst says the quiet part out loud about his Chargers teammates
Herbert is never going to go to the media and say even the smallest negative thing about one of his teammates. The star quarterback will never even be seen showing up his teammates as that simply is not the type of leader he has been in the NFL.
That being said, this is about as close as Herbert will get to criticizing his teammates in the public light. And quite frankly, knowing Herbert, he is likely regretful that the TV cameras caught this as it is pretty revealing about how he felt on Sunday.
Herbert just didn't have time to do anything on Sunday and a human can only take so much punishment before they snap. Whether it was the instant pressure off the defensive line or the countless droppable passes, Herbert once again played a game in which he got little help.
Unfortunately for the star quarterback, this has been the story of his career. While things are better under Jim Harbaugh, this franchise still has not done enough consistently to support Herbert.
This year the main problem is a lack of weapons that can create separation in the passing game. When Joe Alt and Rashawn Slater are playing this problem is easier to overcome. When Herbert essentially has a practice squad offensive line in front of him, well, it is not pretty.
The Chargers need this kind of emotion from Herbert and just because he was frustrated on Sunday doesn't mean the Chargers are having trouble in paradise. Everyone on the Chargers needs to be held accountable for bad play, and this uncharacteristic moment from Herbert will ensure that happens.