By admin 
As the Los Angeles Chargers desperately seek some way to rebound after their 0-3 start this season, many critics are blaming quarterback Justin Herbert for the team’s poor play.
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The two-time Pro Bowler has never looked more uncomfortable or unproductive. Through three games, he has completed 59.1% of his passing attempts and has thrown more interceptions (four) than touchdown passes (three). Overall, he has 627 passing yards and a 73.4 passer rating.
Yes, Herbert needs to play better. That was head coach Jim Harbaugh’s straight-up message to him following the Chargers’ 24-16 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. But one stat reveals that his poor play and numbers aren’t entirely his fault and are perhaps also symptomatic of a team-wide problem.
Herbert’s teammates deserve some blame for his poor numbers
According to Next Gen Stats, Herbert leads the NFL in passing yards this season that have been lost due to dropped passes with 99.
A deeper look at the numbers illustrates how bad L.A.’s receivers have been at converting passes into receptions. The team has a catch rate of 60.5%, which is very poor. Its success rate, which is the percentage of drives that end in a score, is 23.5%, which is next-to-last in the league. A success rate of about 40% or above generally indicates that a team’s offense is, at the very least, decent.
One man stands out as the main culprit
While Ladd McConkey, the Chargers’ main wide receiver threat, has an excellent 80% catch rate this year, wideout Quentin Johnston is the man most responsible for their poor catch rate as a team. Johnston’s catch rate to start this season is an embarrassing 35.3%.
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Throughout his young career, his catch rate has always been low, and in 2024, he had seven dropped passes. He already has two dropped passes this season.
Perhaps neither of his drops so far this year has been more costly than the one he had in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game. With just over five minutes to go, the Bolts were down 17-13 and facing a third-down-and-10 on their own 45-yard line, and Johnston bobbled a pass that would’ve given them a first down.
Had he caught that pass, they would’ve kept their hopes for a comeback win alive. Instead, L.A. turned the ball over on downs on its next snap when a passing attempt to running back Kimani Vidal failed.
New offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel’s scheme simply isn’t working right now, and while Herbert needs to do what he can to fix it, there isn’t much he can do about his receivers dropping passes and not getting separation. There also isn’t a lot he can do about the team’s pass protection, which has, at times, left something to be desired.
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This story was originally published September 29, 2026 at 8:45 PM.