The Los Angeles Chargers are hoping to put everything together this season and make a deep playoff run behind the talented arm of quarterback Justin Herbert. To make this sort of run, Herbert will likely need to hit the ground running this season, which explains why he wanted to play in the Chargers’ next preseason game.\
However, Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh vetoed the decision, electing to rest the franchise’s most prized asset.
“It was actually me going to him and saying, ‘Hey, would it be OK if I went in and played?’” Herbert said, according to the Chargers’ official website. “Because I think in years past, the plan was to rest.
But I wanted to go out there and feel the pass rush because in practice, as a quarterback, you don’t always get the true feeling of the pass rush. So, I thought it’d be helpful to go out there. He was understanding, and he worked together, talking through it.”
Herbert has actually never suited up for a preseason game. In the season after he was drafted, the NFL didn’t have a preseason due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Herbert didn’t suit up for a preseason game in the 2021, 2022, or 2023 seasons and was held out due to a plantar fascia injury in his right foot last year.
Herbert was healthy this year, but the Chargers elected not to send him out.
“I just thought it was something that can help,” he said. “I just thought this was something that could be good for me and good for the team.”
It’ll be interesting to see how Herbert looks in the early part of the season.