ESPN’s Kris Rhim asked Jim Harbaugh on Monday why Justin Herbert has to play like a superhero for the Chargers to have a chance, and then pressed on why Herbert remains one of the most pressured and most-hit quarterbacks in football.
Harbaugh’s answer: “Yeah, that just sounds more like an insult than it does a question, but if that’s the way you look at it.”
The Chargers are 0-4. The question was fair.
What Harbaugh said after that
He defended his quarterback without engaging the premise. “I’ve never seen him flinch. I’ve never seen him rattled,” Harbaugh said. When Rhim followed up, Harbaugh closed it down: “I think I answered your question. I can answer it the same way.” He added that the team improves one thing at a time.
Herbert is having the worst statistical season of his career. He took hard hits on Sunday and kept playing, and no formal injury designation has been reported. The reporting Harbaugh objected to is a description of what has happened to Herbert on the field for four weeks.
Deflecting the question is the tell
Harbaugh has two 11-win seasons on his resume in Los Angeles. He is not a coach whose competence is in doubt. That is exactly why the pass-protection question needed an answer rather than a lecture on tone.
A head coach at 0-4 has two options when asked about his quarterback getting hit. He can explain what the staff is doing to fix it, or he can make the exchange about the reporter. Harbaugh picked the second one, and the pressure numbers are unchanged either way.
Sportsnaut’s Week 5 hot-seat list, published Tuesday, ranks Harbaugh fourth, specifically citing his combative posture with the media despite those two prior 11-win seasons.
The Chargers are not an 0-4 roster
That is the part that should worry Los Angeles. This is not a team in year one of a rebuild. Herbert is a top-tier quarterback. Khalil Mack, 35, a nine-time Pro Bowler with three sacks, five tackles for loss and five quarterback hits in four games, has turned up on trade-block lists as the most likely veteran to move before the November 10 deadline.
When your best pass rusher is the likeliest name to be dealt and your coach is calling questions insults in October, the season has a direction.
Harbaugh earns the benefit of the doubt, but not forever
He has rebuilt programs. He took Michigan to a title and the Chargers to the playoffs quickly. Nobody serious thinks he has forgotten how to coach after four games.
The issue is narrower than that. Justin Herbert is getting hit more than almost any quarterback in the league, and that has been true across multiple seasons and multiple coaching staffs in Los Angeles. Somebody should be able to explain it without calling the question an insult.
Harbaugh had the chance on Monday and chose not to. The Chargers play on, 0-4, with their quarterback taking the hits.
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.