The Chargers had one of the most disappointing debut performances and it left head coach Jim Harbaugh with some second thoughts about how the team prepared for the start of the regular season.
Harbaugh played the team’s starters for brief stretches in the team’s second and third preseason games. During a Monday press conference, he said that Sunday’s 26-14 home loss to the Cardinals made him think that may not have been enough time.
“We made some preseason type of mistakes,” Harbaugh said. “Now in retrospect, I wish we’d played our guys a little bit more in the preseason and given them those reps.”
The Chargers can’t change course now, which means they’ll have to make improvements on the fly as they try to rebound from a poor start to the year.
Chargers Clips
The Chargers have an injury concern with one of their key offensive players.
Via multiple reporters, head coach Jim Harbaugh said in his Monday press conference that McConkey is day-to-day with a rib injury.
McConkey took a hard, legal hit from Cardinals linebacker Mack Wilson to break up a pass late in the third quarter. He went down after the hit and did not return. to the game.
Though he didn’t get a target in the fourth quarter, McConkey led the team with 82 yards on five receptions with a touchdown.
A second-round pick in 2024, McConkey had 66 receptions for 789 yards with six TDs in 16 games last season.
Additionally, Harbaugh noted Elijah Molden (hamstring) is day-to-day while KeAndre Lambert-Smith (hamstring) will miss time.
While Raiders tight end Brock Bowers underwent a knee procedure last week, there appears to be a real possibility that he could play in Week 2.
Head coach Klint Kubiak told reporters on Monday that Bowers is characterized as day-to-day.
Via Sam Warren of TheAthletic.com, Kubiak added that Bowers is “working his tail off to get back out on the field,” and that it’s “really important to him to play as soon as possible.”
“We’re gonna be smart with him,” Kubiak said, “but if he’s ready to play, he’s gonna play.”
The Raiders defeated the Dolphins 27-13 to open the season on Sunday. Ashton Jeanty was the club’s leading receiver with six receptions for 45 yards with two TDs. That’s in addition to his 102 yards on 23 carries.
Tight end Michael Mayer was next on the list with six receptions for 32 yards.
Additionally, Kubiak said cornerback Darien Porter is day-to-day after suffering a foot injury during Sunday’s victory.
The Raiders will be on the road to face the division-rival Chargers in Week 2.
Jim Harbaugh attacks the day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind. Perhaps, in some situations, he should take a proverbial chill pill.
The relentless hype regarding quarterback Justin Herbert needs to stop. It’s too much. It’s over the top. And it puts too much pressure on Herbert.
Harbaugh’s latest comments were downright cartoonish.
“Allow me to call my shot, like Babe Ruth pointing his bat over to centerfield: Justin Herbert, when it’s all said and done, when his career comes to an end, I predict he will be known as the greatest, best ever to play the position of quarterback. When it’s all said and done, and his career is finished, we’re going to look back and say, ‘Yep, that’s the best that ever did it.’”
So if that doesn’t happen, whose fault is it? Harbaugh’s? Herbert’s? Someone else’s?
Yes, Harbaugh hopes to speak his prediction into existence. But the prediction needs to be plausible.
What has Herbert done in six NFL seasons to justify the suggestion that he’ll be remembered as better than Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Peyton Manning, Joe Montana, Terry Bradshaw?
Herbert’s 209 passing yards on Sunday made him the fourth fastest to 25,000. That’s good. Losing to the Cardinals is not.
And he hasn’t won a playoff game in six seasons with the Chargers.
So if the thing keeping Herbert from the GOAT farm isn’t Herbert himself, it must be the Chargers. Maybe that’s the answer. Maybe he needs to play elsewhere. And maybe, if he believes he has the ability to be an all-time great and his current employer is holding him back from that, he’ll eventually decide he wants to play for another team.
Herbert is one of the better quarterbacks currently in football. He’s not the best. And he’s got a long way to go to be a Hall of Famer, much less the “greatest, best ever to play the position of quarterback.”
Harbaugh is free to believe otherwise. In turn, everyone else is free to believe he’s wrong. Caught in the middle is Herbert, whom Harbaugh is doing no favors by making unrealistic proclamations that serve only to put more pressure on Herbert to perform at a higher level than he has.
Sunday night saw John Harbaugh win his first game as the head coach of the Giants, but it wasn’t a great day for the whole Harbaugh family.
Jim Harbaugh’s Chargers came into Week 1 as the biggest favorite in the league, but anyone who backed them at home over the Cardinals went home a little poorer. The Cardinals never trailed and shut the Chargers out in the fourth quarter of a 26-14 win that left Harbaugh to say that “quite a few things” went wrong for his team.
“Some uncharacteristic things happened. Give them credit for making them happen,” Harbaugh said at his press conference. “I would call it sloppy at times. Too sloppy. That’s something we need to get fixed.”
Harbaugh cited seven penalties, but there were also two turnovers, a blocked punt and the offense failing to convert multiple times on fourth downs. The offense was limited to 268 yards overall, which didn’t fit with the enthusiastic praise that Harbaugh lavished on quarterback Justin Herbert and offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel throughout the offseason.
That duo will have more chances to get things right, but the first look at this year’s Chargers looked a lot like the last glimpse of the 2025 version and that’s not where anyone with the team hoped to find themselves.
The Chargers were 9.5-point favorites against the Cardinals today in Los Angeles, the biggest betting line in the NFL for Week 1. No one thought this was a game Arizona would win.
But that’s why they play the games.
In a major upset that may force us to reassess what we thought we knew about both teams, the Cardinals went to Los Angeles and beat the Chargers 26-14.
First-year Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur deserves an enormous amount of credit for having his team ready to play, and Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh will face plenty of questions about why his team wasn’t. Harbaugh had previously been 6-0 in Week 1 in his NFL coaching career.
Cardinals quarterback Jacoby Brissett played well, completing 27 of 37 passes for 277 yards, with one touchdown and no interceptions. His favorite receiver was Trey McBride, who caught nine passes for 95 yards and a touchdown. The Cardinals surprisingly made Tyler Allgeier, not rookie Jeremiyah Love, their primary ball carrier.
Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert turned in a highly disappointing performance, completing 17 of 27 passes for 209 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. And the Chargers’ running game never got going. Also alarming for the Chargers is that wide receiver Ladd McConkey suffered a chest injury late in the game and went to the locker room.
The Cardinals also had a concerning injury when safety Kitan Crawford was carted off during the fourth quarter, but today was mostly great news in Arizona: This team looks better than anyone thought.
Jeremiyah Love was questionable to play in the season opener today after coming back from a high-ankle sprain. The rookie running back is playing and scored his first touchdown on the 11th play of the season.
Love ran in from 5 yards, giving the Cardinals a 7-0 lead after a 70-yard drive.
He has three carries for 8 yards.
Jacoby Brissett went 3-for-4 for 43 yards on the drive, including a 27-yarder to Trey McBride, and the quarterback also ran for 13 yards on two carries.
The Chargers now get their first shot with the ball.
The quarterback whom Jim Harbaugh believes will be remembered as the greatest of all time has a chance to join the all-time greats on Sunday.
With 180 passing yards, Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert will reach 25,000 yards for his career. It would make him the fourth-fastest quarterback in NFL history to get there, via NBC Sports research.
Herbert, if he does it, will have done it in 96 games. Patrick Mahomes got there in 83. Matthew Stafford crossed the 25K boundary in 90 games. And Dan Marino did it in 92.
It’ll take much more than statistical achievements to earn “GOAT” status for Herbert. His first career playoff win, for example, would be a useful starting point.
Before that can happen, the Chargers have to qualify for the playoffs again. In a very competitive division and a conference featuring multiple wild-card contenders, it won’t be easy. Between the Bills, Patriots, Bengals, Ravens, Steelers, Texans, Jaguars, Broncos, Chiefs, and Chargers, at least three will have their seasons end in Week 18.
When it comes to the first game of football season, Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh does indeed attack the day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.
Except for someone named “Potsy.”
Harbaugh has a 6-0 record in Week 1, from his four seasons in San Francisco and two in L.A. With a win on Sunday against the Cardinals, he’ll be 7-0 in Week 1.
And that will put him one more Week 1 win away from tying the all-time record. Via NBC Sports research, George “Potsy” Clark had a record of 8-0-2 in Week 1, from 1931 to 1940.
Clark’s run started with the Portsmouth Spartans, who became the Detroit Lions. In 1937 and 1938, he coached the Brooklyn Dodgers. In 1940, his last year as an NFL head coach, Clark returned to the Lions.
It would be a surprise if the Chargers don’t win today. They host the Cardinals (who have lost nine straight Week 1 games), and the home team is a 9.5-point favorite.
Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh believes he has the best quarterback in NFL history on his roster, even if he hasn’t proven it yet.
Harbaugh said on The White House with Michael Irvin that he believes by the time Justin Herbert retires from football, he will be recognized as the best quarterback the game has ever seen.
“Allow me to call my shot, like Babe Ruth pointing his bat over to centerfield: Justin Herbert, when it’s all said and done, when his career comes to an end, I predict he will be known as the greatest, best ever to play the position of quarterback,” Harbaugh said. “When it’s all said and done, and his career is finished, we’re going to look back and say, ‘Yep, that’s the best that ever did it.’”
Herbert is 28 years old and heading into his seventh NFL season, so if he’s going to live up to Harbaugh’s lofty expectations, he’s going to need to get started soon. Herbert is a good quarterback, but not a great one, and his list of career achievements is fairly meager: He’s never won a playoff game, never been a first-team All-Pro or league MVP, and never led the league in any major statistical category.
Herbert has never been the best quarterback in the NFL at any time, and certainly not the best of all time. Harbaugh is seeing something in Herbert’s potential that Herbert hasn’t shown on the field.
