Amid Friday night’s Chargers 27–21 win over the Chiefs, a pair of sequences stood out with proper context. This is Greg Roman and Jim Harbaugh on the headsets after all, a pair of coaches so obsessed with the concoction of a punishing run game that Roman’s former team, the Ravens, increased Lamar Jackson’s pass attempts per season by more than 25% upon his ouster and it felt like we were introduced to an entirely different player.
And as much as Jim Harbaugh rhapsodized about connecting with Herbert a year ago upon taking the job, making a show of whacking his pads and bubble wrapping him for a one-day Hall of Fame ceremony, he seemed intent on surrounding Herbert with a similar, more sensible and condensed workload that maximized fewer attempts. (Indeed, Herbert’s attempts and yards per game dropped dramatically during Harbaugh’s first season, though his Adjusted Yards Gained per Pass Attempt average finished at an all-time high.) The Chargers finished the 2024 season as a top 11 team in rushing attempts for the first time since Herbert’s rookie year in ‘20, when he was coached by a former running back, Anthony Lynn. Only Jared Goff and Sam Darnold threw for a larger percentage of their total yards on dropbacks coming off play action.
But against the defending division and conference champions in the season opener, ahead by two points in the fourth quarter, Harbaugh and Roman threw the ball on first and second down. Then, after a stuffed carry, for five straight plays after that. This was the preamble to Herbert’s third passing touchdown of the night, a second of which went to the seemingly broken Quentin Johnston.
We can excuse the moment or simply pass it off by saying that Harbaugh’s hand-selected running back Omarion Hampton, a first round pick and further indication that Herbert was going to be used as more of a classic show car—only in certain amenable situations and never at full speed—just wasn’t very effective. A combination of Hampton and one carry from former Steelers running back Najee Harris yielded a little more than three yards per carry. However, it’s just as important to point out that these were not necessarily amenable passing conditions either. Steve Spagnuolo is one of the best situational blitzers in the NFL. Herbert was sacked three times and hit another four times.
On the touchdown throw to Johnston, Herbert was almost in a backpedal, as if trying to escape a kitchen fire. Harris was barely hanging on to a free rusher.
What we all loved about Herbert’s first 300-plus yard and three-plus touchdown game in almost two years (almost three years specifically against Kansas City, and in his first win over Kansas City after seven straight losses) was that it conjured the same feeling that, when uninhibited, when surrounded by more sure-handed receivers (the Chargers only dropped two balls on Friday and, according to PFF, lost just 27 potential passing yards to drops), when momentarily broken out of the play-action heavy box, he can still be the quarterback we love to imagine he may or may not be. The quarterback who would play games like this once every so often, but not quite enough to summon that absolutism granted to some of his contemporaries. An actual and not just imagined foil to better players in his own division.
Which is why it was almost poetic to see it juxtaposed against Patrick Mahomes who may have played a better game, dotting his performance with more individual plays we’re going to remember despite losing his best remaining wide receiver to a shoulder check from tight end Travis Kelce at the beginning of the game and despite his offense looking totally scattershot pre-snap for most of the game. They were as much contemporaries, though, as we’ve seen in a long time.
And that brings us to the second sequence. Mahomes brought Kansas City back to within six points, having perfectly preserved timeouts backstopped with a two-minute warning deep in the fourth quarter. Herbert threw complete on first down to force a timeout. After a run, he threw again and was sacked for a loss of five yards, draining another timeout. With former quarterback Kurt Warner in the booth begging Roman to run the football on third-and-14 and simply give Mahomes the ball back without any timeouts, the Chargers threw again. Despite his offensive tackle getting beat off the snap by Chris Jones, Herbert immediately caught an edge and ran 19 yards, the last bit of it on a backslide that looked like he hit a soaped-up tarp from Home Depot (likely an apt description of any playing surface the NFL ships these teams off to for international games, if we’re being honest).
This may not be the future. This may not be the norm. But it’s good to know that this Herbert still exists and wasn’t just a creation of our wildest imagination.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Justin Herbert Can Still Be the Quarterback People Love to Imagine He’ll Be.