Will anyone within the Chargers organization protect Justin Herbert from himself?
PITTSBURGH — For the second time in six weeks, Justin Herbert is wearing a running shoe.
And now that the Los Angeles Chargers are back home after more than a week away, we have to ask ourselves a question for this organization: Who is going to protect Herbert from himself?
Herbert re-aggravated his right ankle sprain in the third quarter of Sunday’s 20-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The final blow was a sack Herbert suffered on the second drive of the second half. Herbert was falling back from play action. Linebacker Elandon Roberts charged from Herbert’s right on a free rush. Roberts initially grabbed Herbert. Defensive lineman Cameron Heyward completed the sack from the left. Herbert’s already injured right ankle was awkwardly caught in the chaos.
Herbert could barely move. He managed to get a handoff into the gut of JK Dobbins on the ensuing second down. And that was the end of his day. Herbert was substituted for Taylor Heinicke and never returned.
Justin Herbert walks away and Taylor Heinicke has stepped in photo.twitter.com/maJClHgIo8
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) September 22, 2024
“I had a hard time walking on it, moving on it and pushing off of it,” Herbert said after the game.
It had been building to this moment. Left tackle Rashawn Slater suffered a left pectoral injury late in the first half. He went to the locker room and was fitted with a brace to try to make a return. Slater was there for the first drive of the second half. On his second snap, he was beaten on the outside by Steelers edge rusher Nick Herbig, who had a clean run on Herbert. Slater clearly had no power in his left arm. Herbig came home for the strip sack. Herbert missed an open Ladd McConkey on the next play.
Slater was cut from the team after that series.
Herbert admitted after the game that “a few knocks” aggravated the ankle. He also wore a running boot for most of training camp due to an injury to the plantar fascia in his right foot.
“I pushed myself to the limit,” Herbert said Sunday, “and I couldn’t do it anymore.”
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Should Herbert have participated at all?
The Chargers have been asked this question before. Once can be construed as an aberration. Twice is a trend.
Think back to Week 3 of 2022. The Chargers were blown out at home by the Jacksonville Jaguars. The week before, Herbert had broken his rib cartilage in an away loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. He fought through immense and noticeable pain to start and play against the Jags.
The game was a disaster. Slater and edge rusher Joey Bosa both suffered long-term injuries. (Coincidentally, both Slater and Bosa were injured in Sunday’s game; Bosa aggravated a hip problem on the game’s opening drive.) With 4:54 left in the fourth quarter, the Jaguars led 38-10. It was over. And yet, Herbert returned for the game’s final drive. He took multiple unnecessary hits.
“I just didn’t want to give up on my team,” Herbert said after that loss.
The Chargers couldn’t keep him off the field in that game, even when it was out of reach.
Nearly two years later, the Chargers have a new coach in Jim Harbaugh. Herbert is a $262.5 million franchise quarterback. Yet Herbert’s otherworldly toughness has led him to dangerous positions.
Against the Jaguars in 2022, Herbert prevented a disaster.
He didn’t do that on Sunday.
Only an MRI can now reveal how long he will be out and how much impact this aggravated injury will have on him for the remainder of this season.
Herbert expressed a familiar sentiment after the game: “My responsibility as quarterback is to give everything I can to this team, to my teammates.”
together. photo.twitter.com/gU8pnaDPqD
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) September 22, 2024
Sometimes giving it your all also means knowing when to take a week off.
Who in this organization will take the necessary long-term vision and 10,000-foot perspective?
“I’ve been in that position before,” said Harbaugh, who played 14 seasons as an NFL quarterback. “With the Warriors, you give them the opportunity. And that’s what I wanted to do.”
Harbaugh did take Herbert out of the game. At that point, Herbert couldn’t walk. The damage was done. Too little, too late.
It was too little, too late when the Chargers pulled Justin Herbert from Sunday’s game. (Barry Reeger / Imagn Images)
“My plan was the first sign of any flaw, and then he came out of the game,” Harbaugh said.
He added: “It was never his decision to play today or to stay.”
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Harbaugh said Herbert “moved a lot better” during the Chargers’ walk-through on Saturday, and that influenced his decision to start Herbert against the Steelers.
Herbert said he “really put his ankle to the test” during Saturday’s walk and that he “felt comfortable going there.”
But the reality is, he wasn’t moving well in warmups. He took a couple of under-center snaps and struggled to move laterally as he evaded quarterbacks coach Shane Day. On a throw early in the second period, he hit Quentin Johnston on a comeback route down the right sideline, toward the far side of the field. Herbert completed the pass, but he didn’t swing his right ankle, his plant leg. The ball only got there because of Herbert’s tremendous arm strength.
The signs were there.
Tony Romo talks about how Justin Herbert’s injury will impact the Chargers’ offense against the Steelers today photo.twitter.com/GYzAOIl55w
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) September 22, 2024
“He felt like he could protect himself,” Harbaugh said. “He was in a position where he could play the position effectively.”
Herbert was effective in the first half, completing 12 of 16 passes for 125 yards and a touchdown. But when Slater injured his pectoral muscle, the protection fell apart. The Chargers moved Trey Pipkins III from right guard to left tackle, a position he hasn’t played in a game since 2021. They tried Jamaree Salyer at left tackle for one snap late in the first half. He was immediately beaten by Steelers edge rusher Alex Highsmith. Pipkins replaced Salyer at left tackle on the next play, and Salyer moved inside to right guard. Harbaugh stuck with that configuration up front for the second half after Slater left the game.
The Chargers gave up three sacks on their final two drives after Heinicke replaced Herbert. Rookie right tackle Joe Alt, who was injured on the final offensive play of the game, allowed one of those sacks to Steelers edge rusher TJ Watt.
“It was just a lot of moving parts,” Pipkins said. “We just had to be able to roll with the flow and do what we had to do, no matter the conditions.”
Heinicke completed two passes for 24 yards.
“I wish we gave him a little more time to operate there,” Harbaugh said.
The defense kept the Chargers in the game. But the unit was on the field for more than 20 minutes in the second half. The dam finally broke with a 55-yard touchdown to Calvin Austin III that put the Steelers up by 10.
Late in the third quarter, after Herbert left the game, the Chargers were assessed three penalties for a Steelers go-ahead field goal drive. Two of them were personal fouls on third downs — unnecessary roughness on safety Derwin James Jr. and roughness on the passer by Khalil Mack.
“We just didn’t make enough plays on defense,” James said. “The drives just bloodied us today.”
The Chargers play the Chiefs next week at SoFi Stadium.
They haven’t beaten Kansas City at home since 2013. That game was played in San Diego.
The buildup should focus on Herbert and the new-look Chargers trying to make a statement against Patrick Mahomes. On the Chargers trying to balance the scales of what has been a lopsided rivalry for over a decade.
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Instead, it will be Herbert’s ankle.
About an injury that could have been prevented.
Herbert will always, always try to play, to persevere no matter what is wrong with him. That is his nature.
The job of the organization is to protect its greatest asset. To look at the situation, you do a cost-benefit analysis and make the right decision: Miss one game in week 3 to potentially have a healthier Herbert for the rest of a long season.
The Chargers didn’t have anyone to make the right decision in the final moments of that Jaguars game. And apparently, they don’t have anyone to make that right decision in 2024, either.
Who will protect Herbert from himself?
(Top photo: Brandon Sloter/Getty Images)
