The Los Angeles Chargers have their backs up against the wall after dropping their first two games of the season. As a result, star quarterback Justin Herbert is starting to face difficult questions about the direction of the team heading into a difficult Week 3 matchup against the Buffalo Bills. Going into the 2026 season, most pundits expected for the early portion of the Chargers season to serve as an opportunity for the team to emerge as obvious contenders in the AFC.
Instead, the Chargers dropped back-to-back games to start the season to a pair of teams in the Arizona Cardinals and the Las Vegas Raiders that each won just three games a season ago. The Chargers offense has clearly struggled heavily to adjust to the new offense put into place by new offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel, scoring just 14 points in each of their losses to start the year. More news: Packers Spitball Moving TE Tucker Kraft to New Position Amid Injuries Perhaps even more worrying is that Herbert and the Chargers now have questions surrounding the vocal leadership within the Chargers locker room.
On Wednesday, Herbert was asked by ESPN NFL beat reporter Kris Rhim whether he believed he needs to take a bigger role as a vocal leader within the locker room. According to Rhim, Herbert cut him off mid-question and made it clear that he feels that there is no lack of vocal leadership within the locker room. "So I'm going to stop you right there and say that it's very present," said Herbert.
"We've got great leadership on this team. I trust those guys in that locker room. And so I don't think anyone is panicked or worried because that's not going to be the sentiment.
It's moving on to the next play and understand that we're close, we've made mistakes, how do we fix it?“ More news: Vikings Could Lose Another Running Back for Week 3 Matchup Clearly, Herbert finds this slow start as something that his team can and will recover from. Unfortunately for Chargers fans, things will not get much easier for the team on paper after dropping their two first games of the season against teams that they were favored to beat by most. Moving forward, five of the Chargers' next six games on their scheduling including their Week 3 game against the Buffalo Bills will be against playoff teams from a year ago.
And the lone opponent in this stretch that did not make the postseason is the Kansas City Chiefs, who are looking like the old Chiefs after a 2-0 start to the year. Things can certainly go south in a hurry for the Chargers if Herbert and company can not get on the same page offensively. So it will be interesting to see if the confidence Herbert clearly showed in this conversation with Kris Rhim shows up on the field against the Bills on Sunday.
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