Justin Herbert Benched? Chargers Are So Bad The Topic's Starting to Emerge

The Los Angeles Chargers have fallen to 0-7 after a poor performance against their cross-town rival, the Los Angeles Rams. With both teams falling short of their preseason expectations, it seemed that both teams were hungry for some sort of victory, with the Chargers looking for their first.

Obviously, the Chargers did not win the game, continuing the trend of embarrassing performances, even with the team coming off their bye week. A major cog in this embarrassment, seen throughout the entire season, has been what was seemingly the team's best player: QB Justin Herbert.

Herbert has been the team's starting QB since his rookie season in 2020. During this time, he has won Offensive Rookie of the Year, earned multiple Pro Bowl selections and has received MVP votes. It is obvious that the 2020 sixth overall selection has the talent and ability to be an NFL all-time great.

The issue is that the 2026 season has been a decline that we have never seen before. If you told the fanbase that the offense would be terrible prior to the season, the majority of fans would assume it would be everyone but Herbert's fault. I would be in the same boat as those fans.

But unfortunately, the 2026 season has been largely Herbert's fault. It is important to include the context of injuries and horrid coaching around him, but it has gotten to the point where Herbert is completely unable to overcome those issues as he has before.

This season has Herbert leading the league in interceptions, while being among the league low in passing yards and touchdowns for starters around the league. This week, against the Rams, Herbert threw for 257 yards, a season high. Unfortunately, this came with zero touchdowns and two interceptions, with both of those interceptions being indefensible. Thrown straight to a defender.

With this context and poor performance in Week 8, reporter Eric Williams asked a brutal question regarding the idea of benching Herbert for Jim Harbaugh after the game, and Harbaugh responded with "No." More context is seen below in Williams' tweet about the interaction.

I asked Jim Harbaugh if he considered benching Justin Herbert and he said “No.”

On continuing to let Mike McDaniel calling plays, Harbaugh said it’s a team effort, that most players in the locker room have never been in this position before and they will keep working. pic.twitter.com/9czq89eJYl
— Eric Williams (@edubnfl22) November 2, 2026

Okay, so Harbaugh says no to benching Herbert. That is the correct thing to do. The issue is that Herbert is now being placed in benching conversations, conversations that are now known to his head coach. This is not great territory to be in for anyone, let alone a guy who was once a 5,000-yard passer and is currently the face of the Chargers franchise.

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