PITTSBURGH — For the second time in six weeks, Justin Herbert is in a walking boot.
And as the Los Angeles Chargers return home after more than a week on the road, something must be asked of this organization: Who is going to protect Herbert from himself?
Herbert aggravated his right high ankle sprain in the third quarter of Sunday’s 20-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The final blow was a sack Herbert took on the second drive of the second half. Herbert dropped back off play action. Linebacker Elandon Roberts surged off Herbert’s right side on a free rush. Roberts wrapped up Herbert initially. Defensive lineman Cameron Heyward finished the sack from the left. Herbert’s already injured right ankle was caught awkwardly in the mayhem.
Herbert could barely move. He managed to stick a handoff into J.K. Dobbins’ belly on the ensuing second down. And that was the end of his day. Herbert was pulled for Taylor Heinicke and did not return.
Justin Herbert is walking off and Taylor Heinicke has stepped in pic.twitter.com/maJClHgIo8
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) September 22, 2024
“I had a tough time walking on it, moving on it, 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 got fitted with a brace to try to make a return. Slater was out there for the first drive of the second half. On his second snap, he was beaten to the outside by Steelers edge rusher Nick Herbig, who had a clean run at Herbert. Slater very clearly had no power in his left arm. Herbig got home for the strip-sack. Herbert missed an open Ladd McConkey on the next play.
Slater was pulled after that series.
Herbert admitted after the game that “a couple hits” led to the ankle aggravation. He was also in a walking boot for most of training camp because of a plantar fascia injury in his right foot.
“I pushed myself,” Herbert said Sunday, “and I couldn’t go anymore.”
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Should Herbert have even been in the game?
The Chargers have faced this question before. One time can be explained as an aberration. Two times is a trend.
Think back to Week 3 of 2022. The Chargers were blown out by the Jacksonville Jaguars at home. The previous week, Herbert had fractured his rib cartilage in a road 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 sustained long-term injuries. (By coincidence, both Slater and Bosa were injured in Sunday’s game; Bosa aggravated a hip issue on the opening play of the game). With 4:54 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Jaguars led 38-10. It was over. And yet Herbert returned for the final drive of the game. He took multiple unnecessary hits.
“I just didn’t want to quit on my team,” Herbert said after that loss.
The Chargers could not keep him off the field in that game, even when it was out of reach.
Almost two years later to the day, the Chargers have a new coach in Jim Harbaugh. Herbert is a $262.5 million franchise quarterback. Still, Herbert’s otherworldly toughness is leading him into dangerous positions.
Against the Jaguars in 2022, Herbert avoided catastrophe.
On Sunday, he did not.
Now only an MRI can reveal how much time he is going to miss and how much this worsened injury will impact him for the remainder of this season.
Herbert offered a familiar sentiment after the game: “My responsibility as a quarterback is to give everything I can to this team, to my teammates.”
together. pic.twitter.com/gU8pnaDPqD
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) September 22, 2024
Sometimes, giving everything means knowing when to take a week off.
Who in this organization is going to take the necessary long-term, 10,000-foot view?
“I’ve been in that position before,” said Harbaugh, who played 14 seasons as an NFL quarterback. “With warriors, you give them the shot. And that’s what I wanted to do.”
Harbaugh did remove Herbert from the game. At that point, though, Herbert could not walk. The damage had been done. Too little, too late.
It was too little, too late by the time the Chargers removed Justin Herbert from Sunday’s game. (Barry Reeger / Imagn Images)
“My plan was the first sign of any limp, then he was coming out of the game,” Harbaugh said.
He added: “It wasn’t ever going to be his decision to play today or to stay in.”
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Harbaugh said Herbert “was able to move around much better” during the Chargers’ Saturday walk-through, and that influenced his decision to start Herbert against the Steelers.
Herbert said he “really kind of tested” the ankle during the Saturday walk-through and “felt comfortable going out there.”
But the reality is he was not moving well in warmups. He took a few under center snaps and was struggling to move laterally while evading quarterbacks coach Shane Day. On a throw early in the second, he hit Quentin Johnston on a comeback route to the right sideline, into the far side of the field. Herbert completed the pass, but he did not drive off his right ankle, his plant leg. The ball only got there because of Herbert’s prodigious arm strength.
The signs were there.
Tony Romo talks about how Justin Herbert’s injury will impact the Chargers’ offense against the Steelers today pic.twitter.com/GYzAOIl55w
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) September 22, 2024
“Felt like he could protect himself,” Harbaugh said. “He was in a position to be able to effectively play the position.”
Herbert was effective in the first half. He completed 12 of 16 passes for 125 yards and a touchdown. But once Slater injured his pec, the protection unraveled. The Chargers moved Trey Pipkins III from right guard to left tackle, a position he has not played in a game since 2021. They tried Jamaree Salyer at left tackle for one snap late in the first half. He was beaten immediately 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 T.J. Watt.
“It was just a lot of moving pieces,” Pipkins said. “We just got to be able to roll with the punches and do what we need to do whatever the circumstances are.”
Heinicke completed two passes for 24 yards.
“I wish we were giving him a little bit more time there to operate,” 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 eventually broke on a 55-yard touchdown to Calvin Austin III that put the Steelers ahead by 10.
Late in the third quarter, after Herbert left the game, the Chargers were called for three penalties on a Steelers go-ahead field goal drive. Two of them were personal fouls on third downs — an unnecessary roughness on safety Derwin James Jr. and a roughing the passer on Khalil Mack.
“We just didn’t make enough plays on defense,” James said. “The drives were just bleeding us a lot today.”
The Chargers face the Chiefs next week at SoFi Stadium.
They have not beaten Kansas City at home since 2013. That game was played in San Diego.
The buildup should be centered around Herbert and the new-look Chargers trying to make a statement against Patrick Mahomes. About the Chargers trying to even the scales of what has been a lopsided rivalry for over a decade.
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Instead, it will be about Herbert’s ankle.
About an injury that was avoidable.
Herbert is always, always going to try to play, to push through whatever is ailing him. It is his very nature.
The organization’s job is to protect its greatest asset. To look at the situation, do the cost-benefit analysis and make the right decision: One game missed in Week 3 to potentially have a healthier Herbert for the rest of a long season.
The Chargers did not have anyone to make the right decision in the waning moments of that Jaguars game. And they do not, apparently, have anyone to make that right decision in 2024, either.
Who is going to protect Herbert from himself?
(Top photo: Brandon Sloter / Getty Images)