The most damning figure in the Los Angeles Chargers' latest box score isn't Justin Herbert's 48.4 QBR. It's Ladd McConkey's target count. One. On a day Herbert dropped back 37 times, the receiver who is supposed to be the offense's chain-mover got a single look. KeAndre Lambert-Smith got nine.
That distribution chart is the whole 0-5 story. Herbert went 22-of-37 for 204 yards, no touchdowns, one interception, four sacks, a 63.3 passer rating. Quentin Johnston's lone catch covered 57 yards, which means the Los Angeles Chargers generated nearly everything else in short increments to Charlie Kolar, Oronde Gadsden, Theo Wease Jr. and a Lambert-Smith who fumbled one away. This isn't a quarterback being asked to do too much. It's a quarterback being asked to do the wrong things well.
Which brings us to Greg Olsen. His argument, via Pro Football Network, is that Jim Harbaugh should put everything on Justin Herbert's back to snap the skid. I don't buy the framing. Thirty-seven attempts is already a back with everything on it. The Los Angeles Chargers aren't shielding Herbert from the game plan, they're drowning him in a flat one. Olsen is right that Herbert is the lever. He's arguing volume when the problem is geometry.
Pro Football Talk raised the hotter question: if the Los Angeles Chargers lose again today, is offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel out? Harbaugh's first two seasons in Los Angeles ended in the playoffs, which is why this start reads as a crisis instead of a rebuild. My read: McDaniel is the cheapest lever in the building and the wrong one to pull first. Check the run game. Omarion Hampton got seven carries for 18 yards, 2.6 a pop. Kimani Vidal got seven for 21, 3.0. Two backs splitting work at under three yards a carry is a blocking and commitment problem before it's a play-calling problem, and firing the coordinator doesn't fix a line.
Pro Football Network also reported the Los Angeles Chargers have refused to trade players despite the terrible start. That's the most coherent thing this organization has done all month. A front office that thinks it has a coaching problem sells. A front office that refuses to sell is telling you it believes the roster. You can hold both positions privately. Doing both publicly is trying to have it two ways, and it undercuts whichever coordinator gets walked out the door.
Cam Hart came away with an interception and Tarheeb Still racked up eight tackles, so the Los Angeles Chargers' defense is holding up its end of a bad bargain while the offense treats its best receiver as a decoy. That's the part nobody on the pregame shows is saying out loud. Olsen wants Herbert to carry the load. Herbert is already carrying it. He's carrying it to the wrong people.
My call: the Los Angeles Chargers get their first win today, and it happens because McConkey's target count climbs past one and the ball goes to him on the money downs instead of the committee. If the count stays at one, the Olsen segment gets louder and McDaniel's seat gets hotter, and neither will be the actual reason. Herbert's arm isn't the question. The question is who the Los Angeles Chargers think he's throwing to.
