The Los Angeles Chargers ran out of tight ends, so they went and got the one with the most familiar last name. Patrick Herbert, younger brother of quarterback Justin Herbert, was elevated from the practice squad to the active roster for Sunday’s game at Buffalo.
One correction worth making, because it has been reported loosely in a few places: this was a standard gameday elevation, not a permanent signing to the 53-man roster. Practice squad players can be elevated three times a season before a team has to sign them outright.
The injuries that created the opening
Los Angeles did not do this for the storyline. David Njoku landed on injured reserve with a fibula injury, and Charlie Kolar was out with a left forearm problem. That left rookie-season holdover Oronde Gadsden II as the only healthy tight end on the roster heading into Week 3.
The Chargers also signed Hayden Rucci off Jacksonville’s practice squad during the week. When a team is pulling tight ends from two different practice squads inside of seven days, the room is in real trouble.
Gadsden is the one who actually matters here. He put up 664 receiving yards and three touchdowns as a rookie and was already going to see his role grow. Patrick Herbert is a different kind of player, 6-foot-5 and 255 pounds, valued for blocking rather than route running.
Who Patrick Herbert actually is
He is 25, three years younger than Justin, and he spent six seasons at Oregon from 2019 through 2024. The production was modest, 31 catches for 388 yards and four touchdowns across his whole college career, with injuries eating most of it.
He went undrafted in 2025, signed with Jacksonville, spent the season on the Jaguars’ practice squad without appearing in a game, and joined the Chargers’ practice squad earlier this month after a preseason with Jacksonville.
The detail that makes the whole thing better: the brothers overlapped at Oregon in 2019, when Justin was leading the Ducks to a 12-2 season and a Rose Bowl win and Patrick was a true freshman who got into two games. Justin never completed a pass to him in college.
How Sunday went
Not well, for either Herbert. Buffalo beat the Chargers 24-16 at Highmark Stadium to drop Los Angeles to 0-3, and Patrick did not record a reception. He is a blocking tight end pressed into duty by necessity, so that is not a surprise, and the pass from one brother to the other will have to wait.
The larger problem is that 0-3 start. Los Angeles has now lost three straight to open a season it entered with real expectations, and the tight end room being held together by practice squad call-ups is a symptom rather than the disease.
Still, this is a good story and it deserves to be told as one. A kid who caught 31 passes in six college seasons and went undrafted just got a helmet in an NFL game his brother started at quarterback. Whatever happens with the Chargers’ season, that Sunday belongs to the Herbert family.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.