Justin Herbert healthy, but key Chargers weapon out for Week 1
The Los Angeles Chargers have received good news ahead of their season opener against the Las Vegas Raiders. Quarterback Justin Herbert, who was slowed by a foot injury early in training camp, is considered healthy and is expected to be in the lineup.
Herbert is clearly the key player for the Chargers and new head coach Jim Harbaugh is counting on him for a big season. The strong-armed quarterback missed four games last season, and the team was unable to compete in the final games of the season without him. The Chargers had a disastrous 5-12 season in 2023 and finished in last place in the AFC West.
Herbert appears to have recovered from the foot injury that saw him in a protective boot earlier in the summer.
The plantar fascia injury is one that has been known to linger for many football players, but Herbert says he is close to 100 percent with the game against the Raiders at hand.
“It was just one of those things that I went in; it was getting a little sore, and I talked to [the training staff] about it,” Herbert said, per Kris Rihm of ESPN. “I think over the past couple weeks of being out, I did my best to pick up as much as I could in meetings, be out there in walk-throughs and do everything I could to not miss a rep. It’s definitely tough.”
Herbert has delivered prolific numbers for the Chargers
Mandatory Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images
Even with the injury last season, Herbert still delivered a big season for the struggling team. Herbert completed 297 of 456 passes for 3,134 yards with 20 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. Herbert was able to accomplish that kind of production with the dynamic Keenan Allen in the lineup along with Austin Ekeler and Josh Palmer.
However, Allen is now with the Chicago Bears, and veteran Mike Williams is no longer with the Chargers either. D.J. Chark, Ladd McConkey, Quentin Johnston and Palmer are expected to be Herbert’s top targets this year. However, he won’t have Chark in the season opener because he has been ruled out with a hip injury.
Herbert won the Rookie of the Year Award in 2020 for the Chargers and he has had dominant statistical seasons throughout his first four years in the league.
He completed 396 of 595 passes for 4,336 yards with a 31-10 TD-interception ratio in his rookie season.
He followed that with another eye-opening season in 2021 when he threw for 5,014 yards with a 38-15 TD-interception ratio and he completed 477 of 699 passes for 4,739 yards with 25 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 2022.
Harbaugh is trying to change the mentality surrounding the team, but he knows that Justin Herbert needs to be be healthy and productive for the Chargers to become playoff contenders in the AFC West.
The post Justin Herbert healthy, but key Chargers weapon out for Week 1 appeared first on ClutchPoints.
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