There’s plenty of blame to go around for the Los Angeles Chargers.
Joe Hortiz deserves most of it for a bad streak of roster-building that has left coaches and coordinators with a lacking roster.
That won’t stop calls for Jim Harbaugh’s job, though, nor will it take the pressure off offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel for authoring perhaps the worst stretch of Justin Herbert’s career.
But make no mistake, Herbert himself is under the microscope, too. At some point, the blame has to go his way, whether onlookers like it or not.
What some won’t like hearing, though, is NFL coaches and others making odd-seeming Brock Purdy comparisons for Herbert in the wake of his recent struggles.
Justin Herbert criticism growing
Anyone with a passing familiarity of the Chargers knows how much the organization has failed him over the years.
The Chargers constantly throwing new coordinators at him, not giving him quality non-Keenan Allen weapons and the refusal to admit that interior offensive line is important and worth a premium are just some of the factors at work here.
But Herbert’s been so poor, even compared to last year, that some are questioning whether he can even run McDaniel’s scheme.
Some NFL coaches told The Athletic’s Mike Sando that McDaniel’s scheme is overly complex and it just might not be a fit.
"There are a lot of formations and motions that he's gonna present to you," one NFL coach told Sando. "I don't know if that's easy to operate for those guys or not.”
Now, things are looping back to Tua Tagovailoa comparisons and even bringing up a name like Brock Purdy.
"In Miami, when they were rolling, it was because of the explosive skill they had, and a phenomenal system," another coach told Sando. "San Francisco rolls because of Brock Purdy. I just don't know if Herbert can handle that system. That is my take, and then couple that with their line being the worst we've seen."
It’s easy to scoff at these things. But one doesn't have to look far to find chatter around the Chargers about "simplifying" things over the bye. And it was at least worth a raise of the eyebrow over the summer when McDaniel started tweaking Herbert’s footwork and stuff.
The fact the Chargers aren’t firing McDaniel or announcing any changes at all during the bye hints that they believe this is a long-term fix that will be worth it.
We’ll see if that’s true, but the last thing anyone expected was Herbert getting thrown back into Tagovailoa comparisons.
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