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Analyst Names Three Teams That Should Try To Trade for Chargers QB Justin Herbert
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- Analyst Names Three Teams That Should Try To Trade for Chargers QB Justin Herbert
After suffering their seventh loss in as many games this season, the Los Angeles Chargers are increasingly heading in the direction of making major changes. Those changes may not begin to be made prior to the NFL's Nov. 10 trade deadline, but it looks more and more likely with each week that they will have to clean house.
Many feel that offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel will be fired, if not soon, then at least in January. A number of starters and rotation players may not be on the roster by the time training camp starts next summer, and if many people had their way, that would only be the tip of the iceberg.
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More and more people are calling for Los Angeles to trade quarterback Justin Herbert, who is playing by far the worst football of his pro career. Ben Solak of ESPN named three teams that he feels should try to trade for Herbert.
Three teams Solak feels could use Herbert
Solak wrote that Herbert is "clearly broken" and outlined why.
"His sense of when to extend plays and when to check down — broken," Solak wrote. "His sense of which tight windows to try and which to avoid — broken. His trust in his receivers and his feel in the pocket — broken.
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"… This is most evident in Herbert's interceptions. Even if you doubted Herbert for every snap of his career — who thought the film-watching cult was wrong for believing in this playoff-choking hypothetical of a quarterback — you have to admit that he has never looked like this. Herbert is throwing blithely into unmoving defenders with the blind certainty of a QB3 undrafted free agent forced into NFL action. I have never seen, or can I remember, a quarterback start for six seasons … and then produce plays this perplexingly poor.
"This moment is the absolute valley of Herbert's value in the league. He has never been playing worse; his status as a good-to-elite starting quarterback in the upcoming seasons has never been in greater jeopardy."
Herbert has completed 61.8% of his passing attempts and leads the NFL with 10 interceptions while having thrown only five touchdown passes this season. As much as people feel he was chronically underachieving during the previous two or three years, he's playing well beneath that level right now — and that's putting it lightly.
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He already had his share of detractors coming into this season. But Solak feels the Minnesota Vikings, New York Jets and Cleveland Browns should kick the tires on a Herbert trade — despite what the detractors have always said.
"I would ask the lifelong Herbert detractors this question, then: Would they feel better about the Vikings this season with Kyler Murray under center or Herbert and two fewer first-round picks? The answer is very obvious to me. Murray is struggling to hit all of the throws Kevin O'Connell expects of him in this offense. We know that Herbert, for as badly as he has played this season, has a much greater capacity than Murray for accessing the middle of the field and hitting receivers in tight windows on crossing patterns."
Minnesota is 6-1 right now, but its offense isn't much better than the Chargers' offense. It ranks 27th in scoring, 29th in total yards and 31st in passing yards. Murray, who made the Pro Bowl in 2020 and 2021, isn't quite playing at the level he was at prior to tearing his ACL in 2022.
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"What about the Jets? Would the Lifelong Herbert Detractors (LHD henceforth) prefer to roll the dice on another top-10 pick at quarterback for the Jets … or trade some of those future picks to the Chargers and commit to Herbert as the franchise quarterback? The mystery box of draft picks can become anything, of course. And they could become a big-bodied, big-armed quarterback with a history of productive NFL play!"
While Jets QB Geno Smith isn't playing badly, he is 36 years of age and isn't exactly a long-term solution. He's in the final year of his contract, and the Jets haven't had a true franchise quarterback since Joe Namath, who played his last season with them 50 years ago.
"How about the Browns? The LHD, no matter how fervent, must admit that Herbert would be the best Browns quarterback since … Bernie Kosar in the '90s? The point here is that, for as far as Herbert's stock has fallen this season, the steepness and suddenness of the decline smells fishy. Either this is an unprecedented collapse of what was, at least, a good starting quarterback in his prime or a blip on the radar of an otherwise solid NFL career. Isn't this the moment to take a chance?"
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However, right now, there seems to be a better chance of In-N-Out Burger going out of business than there is of the Chargers trading Herbert any time soon. In fact, multiple reports in recent days have indicated that the team is refusing to engage in any trade talks with other teams.
That stance is shocking, given the number of other players it has who are prime trade candidates and could bring in some solid draft capital it could use to pull off an infusion of young talent.
More on the Los Angeles Chargers
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This story was originally published by Athlon on Nov 4, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL section. Add Athlon as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
