Chargers ruthlessly targeted their own former first-round pick to steamroll Cowboys

Justin Herbert, Chargers fans and everybody but the Cowboys seemed to know what was coming.

Denny Medley-Imagn Images

Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers did it again. 

Again, being simply walking into a game with the plan of spamming the ball at and around Kenneth Murray, the team's first-round pick in 2020. 

This time, Herbert and the Chargers did it in Week 16 against the Dallas Cowboys, a 34-17 thumping in which Justin Herbert went 23-of-29 with 300 yards and two scores while rushing for another 42 yards and a score on the ground. 

Along the way, the Chargers dialed up Murray’s number consistently en route to a 7-of-11 mark on third downs with 452 total yards and north of 34 minutes of possession. They chunked up 7.3 yards per play. 

Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Murray and all Chargers fans watching surely had some deja vu. It’s a wonder the Cowboys didn’t know better, really. 

RELATED: Chargers are the bullies this time with NFL playoffs looming

Last year in Week 10 during Murray’s lone season with the Tennessee Titans, the Chargers did something similar while Herbert threw and ran for a score and the ground game found solid traction in a 27-17 win. 

Sunday in Dallas, the game plan was apparent to former Chargers players:

80% of the chargers offensive play calling today has been to target Kenneth Murray. It’s working.

— Breiden Fehoko (@BreidenFehoko) December 21, 2025

And anyone watching the game who even recalled the connection, really: 

Herbert owns Kenneth Murray every time, no matter the team he is on lmfao pic.twitter.com/EXquGFRlu4

— cenacharger (@cenacharger) December 22, 2025

One doesn’t need to look far into the comments beneath the highlights to find jokes about the Chargers having enough experience doing this in practice in Los Angeles for three years, either. 

The Chargers and Murray just never meshed. They moved up to get him in the 2020 draft and he had a brief PFWA All-Rookie Team week, then had injuries derail in the 2021 season. By April of 2023, the Chargers had already gone out of their way to decline his fifth-year option. 

RELATED: Justin Herbert has to overcome losing a starting offensive lineman, again

Murray went on to sign a two-year deal with the Titans and even earned a team captain badge, playing 14 games there before getting traded alongside a seventh-round pick to Dallas in exchange for a sixth-rounder. 

Given how things have gone in Dallas for a brutal-looking defense, there’s always an outside chance the Chargers see Murray on a new team yet again in 2026. 

Rest assured Herbert and Co. will have that on the mind once the schedule finally gets released.

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