If the Chargers lose Sunday, Is it time to move on from Justin Herbert?

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — The page turns quickly in the NFL, but in Los Angeles it flips with a little more force.

The regular season is over. The playoffs are here. And on Sunday night in Foxborough, with Gillette Stadium serving as both stage and stress test, the Chargers will once again ask Justin Herbert to define his legacy under the brightest lights. The New England Patriots stand in the way, hosting the Chargers in an AFC Wild Card game that feels heavier than most opening-round matchups.

Because this isn’t just about advancing. It’s about answers.

Herbert enters Sunday still searching for his first career playoff win, now 0–2 in his postseason appearances. A loss would make it 0–3. And in a league—and a city—that measures quarterbacks by success in the playoffs, that number matters. Fair or not, it always has.

This is Los Angeles. Not San Diego.

The standards are different here. The pressure is constant. The expectations are relentless. This is the city of champions, a place where banners hang, parades are expected, and patience is short. Superstars don’t just perform here—they’re judged by what they win.

Jordon Kelly-The Sporting Tribune

Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert (10) runs the ball for a gain during a NFL game against the Houston Texans on December 027, 2025 at Sofi Stadium in Inglewood, CA.

That’s why, uncomfortable as it may sound, the conversation can no longer be dismissed outright: if Herbert loses again on Sunday, the Chargers at least have to think about the unthinkable—whether trading him is the bold move that finally changes the franchise’s trajectory.

Let’s be clear. Justin Herbert is one of the most talented quarterbacks in football. Arm strength, intelligence, toughness—he checks every box. He’s taken more hits than any quarterback in the league this season (129 of them) and kept getting up. He fractured his hand in Week 13, played through it, and now says it feels as good as it has in weeks. He’s respected in the locker room. He’s respected across the league.

But the NFL is not a talent contest. It’s a results business. And results in January are the currency that matters most.

Herbert’s playoff résumé is still defined by two painful chapters. The first came in the 2023 Wild Card round in Jacksonville, when the Chargers led 27–0 and somehow lost 31–30 in one of the largest playoff collapses in league history.

The second came just last January, a stunning 32–12 loss to the Texans in which Herbert threw a career-high four interceptions. It was, by his own admission, the worst game of his professional life—and one that “stayed with him.”

To Herbert’s credit, he responded. Under Jim Harbaugh’s second season at the helm, the Chargers adopted a more conservative, ball-security-focused approach. Herbert didn’t put up video-game numbers in 2025, but he led. He managed games. He earned a Pro Bowl nod and guided the Chargers to an 11–6 record and back into the postseason.

This team is better than last year’s. More physical. More disciplined. More aligned with its coach’s identity.

But Sunday is still about the quarterback.

Jordon Kelly-The Sporting Tribune

Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert (10) looks to throw the ball during a NFL game against the Philadelphia Eagles on. Monday December 08, 2025 at Sofi Stadium in Inglewood, CA.

Herbert said this week at The Bolt in El Segundo, “We treat every game like a playoff game.” He talked about experience being valuable, about respecting Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, about his hand improving after a week of rest in Denver. 

“He's a very talented player. Every time you check on the scores, he has a big game. So I got a lot of respect for him as a quarterback." Herbert said.

He took snaps under center in practice for the first time since the injury on Wednesday. By all accounts, he’s as ready as he’s been.

“Not taking hits on it last week was probably pretty helpful,” Herbert said.

The problem is that readiness has to show up where it hasn’t before.

The Rams offered Los Angeles a blueprint just a few years ago. They drafted Jared Goff No. 1 overall in 2016, made the playoffs, even reached a Super Bowl—and still decided it wasn’t enough. They traded Goff for Matthew Stafford, a veteran quarterback with scars of his own but a reputation for delivering in big moments. In his first season in L.A., Stafford delivered a Lombardi Trophy.

That banner hangs now. Proof that bold moves can pay off.

It’s impossible to talk about pressure in this city without thinking about Magic Johnson, with champagne still dripping literally 100 yards from SoFi Stadium at the Forum on Manchester and Prairie. Magic didn’t shrink under expectations. He embraced them. Five championships later, his legacy is secure.

That’s the standard here. Not talent. Not potential. Winning.

Now, to be clear, trading Herbert would be a nuclear option. It would be a worst-case scenario, not a preferred outcome. Quarterbacks like him don’t grow on trees. And the Chargers’ issues over the years have rarely been solely on No. 10.

Just look at the circumstances entering Sunday. The offensive line remains a concern. Jamaree Salyer’s hamstring looms large, and if he’s healthy enough to go, the projected line—Salyer, Zion Johnson, Bradley Bozeman, Mekhi Becton, Trey Pipkins—will be under immediate stress against a Patriots defense that knows how to attack protection schemes. Omarion Hampton is still limited. Injuries remain part of the equation.

But franchises don’t get infinite mulligans.

If Herbert goes into Foxborough and wins—plays poised, protects the ball, lifts the Chargers past their demons—this conversation quiets down. Maybe it disappears altogether. He becomes the quarterback who finally turned the corner.

If he doesn’t?

Then the Chargers have to ask themselves the hardest question in sports: not “Is he good?” but “Is he the one?”

For now, it’s all hypothetical. The game hasn’t been played. The season isn’t over. The Chargers still believe in their quarterback, and he believes in himself.

But Sunday night in New England isn’t just another playoff game. It’s a referendum.

And by the time the clock hits zero, the future of the Chargers—and Justin Herbert’s place in Los Angeles—may look very different than it does today.