There is a certain tension in praising a quarterback just before facing him, and Will Anderson Jr. did not hide from it. On Wednesday, the Texans edge rusher called Justin Herbert a player Houston still has to respect, even with the Chargers in a difficult stretch and the NFL’s only winless record hanging over Los Angeles.
Anderson’s point was not complicated. Herbert remains dangerous because of the full package: size, arm strength, mobility and the ability to create plays even when the rest of the offense is struggling. “He’s still a really great quarterback in this league,” Anderson said, adding that Houston knows what to expect from him but that Herbert is “playing out of his mind.”
That is what made the comments notable. The Chargers have not looked like a functional offense for long stretches, and Herbert has been trying to produce in a system that does not appear to match the team’s strengths. The result is a quarterback who still flashes elite traits while working through one of the roughest stretches of his pro career. He can still stress a defense, but the burden on him has become heavier because the structure around him is not helping enough.
Herbert’s film has not matched the results
The concern for Los Angeles is that the numbers and the eye test are pulling in different directions. The Chargers were 5-10 in the broader context of Herbert’s recent struggles, and their offense was ranked 28th, 26th and 31st in key areas that reflect how little consistency they have found. That is not just a bad spell; it is a profile that explains why Herbert has been forced to play in so many obvious passing situations.
There is also recent evidence that opposing defenses are taking advantage. During the Rams’ 24-9 win over the Chargers, Quentin Lake intercepted Herbert midway through the first quarter, and the Rams picked him off twice overall. Lake’s description was blunt — “He was throwing deli meat out there” — and he later joked that Herbert was “seeing ghosts.” That kind of disruption does not happen by accident. It happens when a quarterback is under pressure, the timing is off and the offense gives him too little margin for error.
Still, Anderson’s praise should not be mistaken for politeness. It was a real acknowledgment that Herbert remains the kind of quarterback who can tilt a game if Houston gets careless. “You talk about a big guy that has a big arm that can run around, that can throw the ball deep, makes a lot of plays with his legs,” Anderson said. “He’s still a very respectable player in this league and we have a ton of respect for them.”
That respect matters because it shows how Houston is approaching Week 9: not as a chance to dismiss Herbert, but as a chance to test whether his talent can overcome the Chargers’ dysfunction. The larger problem for Los Angeles is that Herbert may be right to believe he can still beat teams with talent alone, but the current setup keeps asking him to do too much. As the Texans and Chargers head into Week 9, the quarterback remains the most important player on the field — and the most obvious reminder that a great arm cannot fix every structural flaw around it.
