Justin Herbert suffered a fracture in his left hand last week. He toughed it out and finished the game before undergoing surgery the next day. "A plate and a few screws," according to Herbert. Because the injury is to his non-throwing hand, he and the staff have conveyed nothing but confidence about his availability this week. Per NFL Network's Mike Garafolo, "Optimism for Justin Herbert all week from the #Chargers."
However, the Chargers play the Eagles on Monday night. If Herbert is inactive, fantasy managers will be left in a bind. First, let's look at the facts.
Through the first few weeks of this season, Justin Herbert looked like one of fantasy football's best values. He entered Week 4 as the per-game QB6. Then Joe Alt went down. Herbert struggled over the next few weeks. He rebounded before Alt's return and then maintained momentum with his tackle back. Since Alt suffered another injury, this one season-ending, Herbert's production has waned again. In the five games where Joe Alt has played at least 40 percent of the snaps, Herbert averaged 23.5 fantasy points per game. In the eight games without Alt, that number falls to 14.5. That is the difference between being the per-game QB1 and the QB27.
The protection from Herbert's offensive line this year has been awful. Herbert's 127 pressures are tied with Cameron Ward for the most in the league, and his 59 hits are second only to Patrick Mahomes II' 60.
In addition to the injury, recent lack of production, and offensive line woes, this matchup against the Eagles is not favorable. They have allowed 2.4 points fewer to quarterbacks than the average defense this year, fourth-best among all defenses.
Herbert projects as our QB20 this week, pushing him outside of the streaming discussion in most leagues. If you are rostering Herbert this week, you have two options.
1. Find a different quarterback
Here are some quarterbacks we have ranked ahead of Herbert (QB20) and their roster availability on Sleeper:
- QB7 - Jayden Daniels (26%)
- QB10 - Jacoby Brissett (47%)
- QB14 - Trevor Lawrence (46%)
- QB15 - C.J. Stroud (41%)
- QB16 - Jordan Love (16%)
- QB17 - Tyrod Taylor (83%)
- QB19 - Sam Darnold (40%)
We recommend saving yourself the headache and rostering one of these guys. As our Jason Wood succinctly said, "He's QB20 in our consensus right now and shouldn't be in most lineups, playing or not. The Eagles are the third-toughest defense against opposing QBs. And Herbert is QB27 since Alt was lost for the season. Combine that with his injury, and it would be a desperate manager who should be considering him outside of Superflex." Sigmund Bloom has even lower expectations, saying, "He's a desperation play. Down there with like Shedeur Sanders and cold-weather Tua Tagovailoa."
But if you have a lean in this game that you think we are missing, here is the second option.
