Who’s Most to Blame for the Chargers’ Disastrous 0-5 Start???

Rich really thought this was going to be the one for the Chargers. Instead, the Broncos won in Los Angeles, and the Chargers fell to 0-5.

"I thought this was it," Rich said on the show.

Kimani Vidal ripped off a run to put the Chargers ahead at one point. It didn't hold. And the question hanging over everything was the one Rich couldn't answer either. "I have no idea what's going on with Justin Herbert, man."

So who gets the blame? The internet had one candidate: Madison Beer, Herbert's fiancée, whose presence at training camp has become a talking point. Rich found the whole thing absurd. She's not in the huddle during seven-on-seven. If she's at camp during a break, so what?

"This whole thing about, oh gosh, athletes can't focus anymore if they're married or engaged to a highly successful popular wife, spouse, that's nuts," Rich said. "I show up here every day and I'm married to Suzy, and I'm the same." The studio also noted that Herbert's previous playoff losses came before the engagement, and that nobody sees Hailee Steinfeld on the field playing with Josh Allen's hair.

The more serious target is the offense. Rich said the people he trusts, the professionals he talks to, keep telling him the same thing: Mike McDaniel's timing system "ain't it for Justin." The studio boiled it down further. It's trying to run the Tua offense with Justin Herbert, and they're not the same quarterback.

Rich gave Jim Harbaugh credit for the attempt. Charger fans thought Harbaugh's offense was too predictable, so he brought in something more dynamic and exotic. "I think you got to commend the swing," Rich said. It just isn't working, and now the hard question is whether to throw it out and start again.

Harbaugh himself didn't seem to have an answer. Asked what message works for a team that's 0-5, he struggled. "I don't know what that message is," Harbaugh said. "It's just the players, just fight their hearts out, you know, give it everything they have. That's the only way."

"It's dicey for him right now," Rich said. Normally Harbaugh's way through is "Who's got it better than us?" Right now, Rich said, the answer is everybody but the Titans and the Dolphins.

Rich admitted he did not see this coming. In the spring, he had the Chargers second in his power rankings. Then they lost their first two at home to Arizona and Vegas, and everyone looked at the schedule and saw winless as a real possibility. The next stop doesn't help: at Kansas City, with Andy Reid coming off a bye. Reid is 22-5 off a bye, 9-4 with the Chiefs. After that come the Rams, the Texans, and a trip to Baltimore.

The radical idea of moving on from Herbert came up, too, with someone tossing out the possibility of three first-round picks. Rich shut it down. He said he talked it over with Daniel Jeremiah at NFL Network, and the notion of booting Herbert out of town is "nuts."

"He's so insanely talented," Rich said. He saw a couple of designed runs in this game and thought, there it is, more of that. "Like he's Josh Allen. Let's use that."

The studio also pointed to what Herbert was missing. Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt were out again. Ladd McConkey was out. Quentin Johnston was out. And the Chargers still almost beat the Broncos. Years one through four of Herbert's career were terrific, and the last two were playoff seasons, even if those ended badly.

Harbaugh's stated goal, Rich noted, is waking up every morning thinking about how to get Herbert into the Hall of Fame. "Well, this clearly isn't it," Rich said.

And yet, Rich isn't ready to write off the next one. "You know they could beat the Chiefs, right? Coming off a bye," he said. "They have the horses. They can do it. If they are healthy."