ESPN NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky still isn’t convinced that Los Angeles Chargers QB Justin Herbert is having a bad season despite no shortage of evidence to the contrary, including the team’s 0-2 start.
Appearing on The Pat McAfee Show on Monday, Orlovsky dismissed the notion that Herbert is the main reason that the team is off to a bad start. He pointed out that the combination of wide receivers dropping passes and offensive linemen struggling on the interior is “atrocious” and that the team looks “remarkably unprepared.”
“Yesterday isn’t a Justin Herbert thing…” Herbert said. “There was 6 or 7 legit jaw dropping drops on that tape and their interior offensive line is absolutely atrocious right now… The Chargers look remarkably unprepared.”
Orlovsky doubled down on the take on X shortly afterwards:
“The Chargers being 0-2 is about way more than Herbert,” he wrote on Monday.
Not good enough?
Fans weren’t buying the excuse that Herbert isn’t to blame for the Chargers’ struggles. Some fans pointed out that every team has to deal with drops, while others believe that Orlovsky’s continued defense of Herbert is getting annoying:
“If he was paid as a journeyman qb, you could say that, but with his massive contract, that limits the teams ability to have other dynamic players. He needs to do much more,” one user wrote.
“Breaking news, QB has wide receivers drop passes!” wrote another. “Every QB in the league has receivers dropping passes. Last season Bo Nix’s guys left a LOT out there on the field. He still won 14 games. He also won a playoff game where his D gave up 30.”
“I get it you are gonna go down with your take but come on now man this is sad sad stuff,” a third wrote.
Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images.
Through two games this season Herbert is completing 59.3-percent of his passes for 401 yards and two touchdowns with three interceptions. It’s a small sample size but still on pace for the worst season of his career.
Worse still, the two losses have come against the Las Vegas Raiders and the Arizona Cardinals, the worst teams in the AFC and NFC last year.
The Chargers are currently in the bottom half of the league on both offense and defense and they haven’t even played the tough teams on their schedule yet. Their next seven games are against the Bills, Seahawks, Broncos, Chiefs, Rams, Texans and Ravens.
If Herbert doesn’t ball out soon, the Chargers could find themselves in a massive hole before mid-November.
