0-4 and Out of Answers: Why Sports Illustrated Says the Chargers Should Explore Trading Justin Herbert

LOS ANGELES — Let’s be clear about what this is and what it isn’t. No one has reported that the Los Angeles Chargers are shopping Justin Herbert. No trade demand exists. What exists is a column — from Sports Illustrated NFL writer Gilberto Manzano — arguing that an 0-4 team with a broken offense should at least consider the unthinkable. “I can’t believe it has come to this point, but it’s time the 0-4 Chargers explore every option for how to best rebuild this team, including the possibility of trading [Justin] Herbert,” Manzano wrote. It is a columnist’s argument. It is also, given the numbers, not a crazy one to make.

Herbert has spent the better part of seven seasons in Los Angeles, and more often than not he has looked like the franchise quarterback the Chargers drafted in 2020. This season, he has looked like anything but. The Chargers are 0-4, the offense is in shambles, the top two offensive tackles could miss time, and the 28-year-old quarterback is on pace for career lows across the board.

The columnThe argument

Manzano’s case starts with Week 4: 19-of-31 for 189 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions in a 30-23 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. That line was not an outlier; it was the season in miniature. Herbert has thrown for 816 yards (21st in the NFL), four touchdowns (tied for 22nd), six interceptions (tied for 27th) and a QBR of 28.0 (29th), per ChargersWire. He is averaging 204 passing yards per game — well below his career norm.

The larger context is bleak. The offense was supposed to elevate Herbert, making life easier for the pass catchers, the line and the backs. Instead, ChargersWire argues, offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel’s complex scheme has done more harm than good — especially for the quarterback. The Chargers can’t catch a break, and as ChargersWire put it, they could be competing for a top-five draft pick instead of a playoff spot. “The Chargers appear to be going nowhere this season, and if that continues, the conversation about moving on from Herbert will only get louder,” the site wrote.

Again: this is punditry, not reporting. Manzano is urging the Chargers to “explore every option,” and trading Herbert is the most explosive item on that list. No front office has said any of this. But the fact that a respected national writer is even typing the sentence tells you how far the season has fallen in four weeks.

The collapseWhy it’s happening

Start with the injuries, because they are not Herbert’s fault. Top offensive tackles Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt both exited the Seahawks loss and could miss time, along with safety Derwin James Jr. Losing both bookends in the same game would wreck any offense; for one built around timing, it was catastrophic.

But the advanced numbers say Herbert’s problems go deeper than the protection. For The Win’s Week 4 quarterback autopsy found something startling: Herbert is being blitzed less than ever in his career — yet pressured at an all-time high. The Seahawks sent extra rushers on just one in five dropbacks and still generated pressure 55 percent of the time, a season high, while sacking him four times.

His own accuracy has cratered. Pro Football Reference pegs his on-target throw rate at 49 percent. He has yet to have a game with more touchdown passes than interceptions. After completing 43 percent of his deep throws last season, he is down to 27 percent through four weeks. In Week 4 he posted -9.8 expected points added — 10.4 points worse than his 2025 per-game average — with a -3.1 percent completion percentage over expected. As FTW put it: these are the numbers of a player set to vacate his spot to a future franchise quarterback, not one getting paid $52.5 million per year.

The scheme fit is part of the story. McDaniel’s offense leans on quicker throws and timing routes — concepts built for Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle in Miami — but Herbert is now defaulting to Quentin Johnston and Tre Harris with Ladd McConkey injured. And the head coach is not insulated from the fallout: FTW notes that the Jim Harbaugh era has produced a 22-18 record, zero playoff wins the last two seasons, and a minuscule chance of returning to January football.

Around the leagueNot just Herbert

Herbert is not the only star quarterback drowning. FTW’s “gross QB ranks” — which measure Week 4 EPA against each passer’s 2025 baseline — slotted Herbert fifth-worst of the week, but the names around him are bigger: Jalen Hurts was fourth, with a -13.5 Week 4 EPA and a -23.4 mark on the season, fifth-worst in the NFL.

Hurts, per FTW, is slogging through the worst season of his career: a sub-60 percent completion rate, a play-action rate down to a career-low 17.4 percent (from 30.1 in his All-Pro 2022 season), and an offense adjusting to a new coordinator in Sean Mannion, the departure of A.J. Brown, and a hamstring injury to Saquon Barkley. The full Week 4 list runs from Malik Willis at No. 1 through Jacoby Brissett and Daniel Jones — a reminder that quarterback play across the league has been, to borrow FTW’s framing, gross.

That context cuts two ways for the Chargers. Yes, Herbert is not alone in struggling. But he is the one with the $52.5 million salary, the 0-4 record, and the national columnist suggesting his team consider moving on.

The bottom lineWhat’s real, what’s not

What’s real: the Chargers are 0-4, Herbert is having the worst season of his career by every available measure, both starting tackles are hurt, and the offense looks broken at a schematic level. What’s not real — yet — is any indication the Chargers are actually considering trading him. Manzano’s column is an argument about what the team should explore, not a report about what it is exploring.

But columns like this don’t appear in a vacuum. They appear when a season has gone so wrong that the unthinkable becomes printable. If the Chargers keep losing, the conversation Manzano started will only get louder — and at some point, “explore every option” stops being a columnist’s provocation and starts being a front office’s job description.

For more on how it got here, read the Seahawks-Chargers Week 4 recap and this week’s NFL power rankings.