Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert still needs to prove he’s elite

Jim Harbaugh has already called it one of the greatest players to have ever played his position.

Justin Herbert’s national perception is not as charitable. The consensus is that Herbert does not belong to the next level of the NFL alongside Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen or Joe Burrow.

If anything, Herbert could be considered closer to Jared Goff or Brock Purdy than Mahomes or Jackson.

So overwhelming as his athletic gifts are, as many breathtaking passes as finished, Herbert has still not won an eliminatory match for the loaders.

However, his coach has more ambitions than a lonely victory in the playoffs for him.

“The Super Bowl,” said Harbaugh. “This is what we are looking for, the Super Bowl. This is our goal. We are going to do it or die by trying.”

From the outside, such a jump is quite possible.

The charges were 11-6 and qualified for the playoffs last year in the first season of Harbaugh as a coach. The last time he trained in the NFL, with the 49ers of San Francisco, he reached the Super Bowl in 2nd year.

Harbaugh won each of his previous coach stops, inspiring confidence around the charges that it is a matter of time until he reproduces these results with them.

But if Harbaugh winner resembles an inevitability, the re -emergence of the curse of the charges does the same. The history of the organization is that of kissing things, and so far in the battle between the two unstoppable and opposite forces, the curse has the upper hand.

The charges have already taken the most busy blows because they signed Rashawn Slater to an extension that made him the best paid offensive player in the history of the NFL, only to make him undergo a knee injury from the end of the season a few days later.

Slater was part of the foundation that Harbaugh created last year, and the team had to be built around its two plated, with Slater on the left side and the old recovery choice n ° 5 Joe Alt on the right. The Slater square in the left tackle will be taken by Alt. Trey Pipkins III will start right.

Even with Slater, there were questions on the offensive line, in particular on the question of whether enough to deal with the gaps inside. The charges had a sixth round choice on goalkeeper Branson Taylor, but cut him off from their list of 53 men. Taylor was signed in the training team.

Harbaugh maintained his optimistic behavior of a brand when he was asked how the line had met following the Slater injury.

“I think well,” he said. “The first five at the moment are defined. They have done very well in practice and I feel good about it.”

The charges adopt an approach by the committee both in the cornerback and the end tight, which indicates a lack of high -end talents at each position. The defensive coordinator Jesse Minter will probably rotate the players on the defensive line, but it is an area in which the loaders have real horses, in particular Khalil Mack, Tuli Tuipulotu, Teaver Tart and Jamaree Caldwell.

The holes on the list, associated with a division loaded in the AFC West and a more difficult calendar than last year, could very well make the chargeers take a step back this season. Progress is not always linear.

Just or not, the blame for this will finally fall on Herbert, who is now in his sixth season of the NFL.

The quarter of the Chargers Justin Herbert speaks to journalists after the first day of the training camp in July.

(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

Harbaugh and managing director Joe Hortiz did what they could to improve the weapons around him. They used their first round choice on a balloon carrier at Omarion Hampton in Northern Caroline and signed Najee Harris, who recently returned from an eye injury that put him away for the majority of the camp.

The charges found a jewel last year in the receiver Ladd McConkey, but they continued to add to their receiver room by writing thirty in the second round and Keandre Lambert-Smith in the fifth. Harris and Lambert-Smith had promising moments in pre-season. The team also brought back one of Herbert’s favorite targets at Keenan Allen, 33, who spent last season with the Chicago Bears.

The team lost the two games in the playoff series to which he played with Herbert as a quarterrier, but Herbert was not solely responsible for the results. The failure of former coach Brandon Staley to develop a coherent racing game was the main reason why the charges destroyed a 27 -point lead to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the third season of Herbert. The inability of the charges to protect Herbert was a major factor in his four passes intercepted in a defeat against Houston’s Texans last season.

So legitimate the apology, the big book shows that Herbert has won no victory in the playoffs. His post-season record is what defines him and that will not change. How the loaders end this season will continue to determine how Herbert is seen.