Jim Harbaugh On Justin Herbert Update | LA Chargers

Jim Harbaugh On Justin Herbert Update | LA Chargers

any uh update for us on Justin? Uh is getting surgery uh this afternoon and we’ll have an update later today. I.e. Josh. Well, any uh any clarity on your end as far as timeline or anything like that or that’ll sort of figure it out after after the surgery? Um yeah, time as far as timeline. Uh he’s going to get surgery this afternoon and then we’ll have an update later this afternoon. You’ve talked about toughness a lot since ever since you got here. If it’s another I don’t think you would say rung on a ladder. Yeah. Yeah. When you think there’s not another rung that he could possibly go. Um you know he he finds it. It’s uh it’s impressive. Um I think back of u the you know the who the toughest you know the toughest of the tough that have played uh played the game of football played the quarterback position um there’s some you know Brett Favre uh you know guys um Bobby Douglas just just flashed Philip Rivers 20. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what are some other examples? I mean, I mean, Ronnie Lor. Yeah. I mean, it goes to show you that I mean, there’s I mean, everybody everybody who plays is I mean, the they’re all tough. Everybody’s tough, you know. There’s nobody that’s that’s that’s soft that plays football in the in the NFL. and and and what guys what they, you know, they what they play through. Uh and and then college football, high school football, just all of football. Uh you know, that’s it really it really teaches you to have a uh you know, a toughness, you know, thick skin like an armadillo, you know, um you know, a real a real high pain threshold, you know. I um yeah, Justin, you know, is elite at it, you know, in terms of a high pain threshold and just the u the ability whether you know it’s to play on one ankle. I mean, there’s a there’s a strength there. We saw that last year. play with one hand, play with play on, you know, one good ankle and 25 20% of on the other. Um, it’s uh, you know, it’s incredible. It’s just respect. I mean, I think, um, yeah, admiration, respect, and, uh, and I I think I can speak for, you know, everybody’s like that. I mean, everybody’s like that. He’s I mean he’s a almost an other other otherly world when it when it comes to that and there’s a there’s a huge respect for that that u that I have and I think everybody that plays the game who hasn’t or hasn’t played the game has for uh you know guys like that who have have that high pain threshold have the strength of 10 men however you however you want to say it but it’s yeah real respect he he wasn’t wasn’t exactly clear on like what what happened on the play. Watching it back, it looked like it might have just been hitting the helmet on the tackle. Did you get any clarity? Is that like how it happened? No, I I haven’t gotten any clarity on it, but I saw the same thing that you did. I I thought it was like hit hit the helmet. Had that had that happen before, you know, like uh just hit it in a certain way, you know, the offh hand hit the tackler’s helmet, which was, you know, everything was clean about the play. uh you know just just one of those things and then uh you know guys guys guys guys guys guys guys play guys he’s not the first to play through something like this but um but it’s uh yeah it’s just a I see what you’re doing you know that’s there’s a real respect there I think that was ready to go like any necessary I guess and another part it’s like with him like that just it takes it to another rugg. It’s like there’s never any like you know grimace or flinch or you know like you looked at it but that was pretty much got up you know took the ball hand threw it to the to the official you know and uh one look at it and then touch pretty pretty amazing. It’s a and a couple impossible throws after that, you know, like uh it’s amazing, you know, we uh incredible. So, you said yesterday that Trey was ready necessarily like goal line scenarios. Do you you anticipate actually doing that at some point like needing Trey to come into the game, players to be to run a sneak or to give a hand off? Yeah, all possibilities would be uh yeah, we’ll be we’ll be we’ll be we’ll be better prepared, you know, uh for those situations. I I uh you know, looking back and I don’t I don’t think we’ve gotten enough reps, you know, with uh with Trey in those in those situations, but we’ll get that that’ll be a point of emphasis um you know, this week. you know, where Justin takes he does he’s one of those quarterbacks that takes all the reps. He’s just uh he’s machine like that. And uh you know, we’re going to make sure that that uh you know, Trey’s getting more of those goal line reps. Um you know, those those situations under center and um you know, that’s need to do a better job of that. I need to do a better job of that. is Mario better chance to play in your mind this week than he did last week. So, um yeah, as you know, his um we opened his window and uh and we certainly wouldn’t have done that that 21day window if he if he wasn’t close and uh you know again uh he’s feel like he’s been been on track and uh let the week play out again. But uh no definitive statement, you know, to be made. You just you just don’t know. But uh for sure. So I don’t want to stand up here and say something I don’t know for sure, but go back to Justin and handing off. If the back is to his right, he’s using his left hand, right? That how much more difficult is that if your left hand isn’t you sympathize and adjust, you know, you you INA it uh and you know it just you’ve we’ve done it before. You know, guys have done that before. Uh he’s done it before. You know, hand off your right back back on your right, he’s coming right to left. I mean, you can even hand it off with your right hand, you know. It’s just you just get it’s like a card dealer, you know? you get you get good at uh improvising and adjusting. You do more flips instead of a straight into the belly. Yeah. Tosses. Yeah. Yeah. You just you can do you can do that for sure. But uh I mean you can also Yeah. Even if you’re going to your right, you can hand it off with your right instead of your left. And he’s he’s he’s had finger. He’s had he’s had that before. Other quarterbacks have had that before. I mean, you it uh you know, it’s good to get to get some practice at it. And remember, I got now I got pictures of Steve Deberg with a cast, you know, and handing off that way. And I’m sure there’s been other other guys, but uh yeah, you’re as a quarterback when it comes to handing off, it’s I mean, you you get really good at it, you know? like a uh get ambidextrous with it. You get uh uh where you can do it with an off hand. Um like a card dealer. You get you get they’re very very good at things like that. Uh you guys sort of got into the pistol stuff as the game went on. Um were you able to do a lot of the under center stuff you had in the game plan from pistol or did you guys have to really like alter what you were calling as as as far as you really only playing a job pistol effort just um yeah that’s what we did we improvised and adjusted and you know many of the under center plays you can you can do in pistol okay does take you out of some there’s certain plays it takes you out of but uh other other plays you can take from the p pistol or the gun so the reaction stuff is probably a little bit tougher the center stuff. Yeah. Uh some things that that we weren’t weren’t good and even like on one hand uh we could we can you know we’ll we’ll just see you know where where the where the week takes us and and what we can do but th those things can be you can you can still do them. Yeah. How how did you feel like he played in those eight snacks that you got in there? Most mostly runs, but um just how did you feel like he operated? Uh calm, cool, collected, uh came in, held down the fourth. Uh you know, really uh you know, really did uh did a good job coming off of our own goal line. Um, and I thought he did really good. Uh, and moving us moving us down the field. And, um, even when Justin was, okay, he’s he’s ready to come back. And, um, okay. Justin said, “Okay, Trey, you know, if he keeps picking picking up first downs.” Uh, and then all of a sudden it was third and five and Justin just ran in and uh and then converted on a converted throw to Keenan on the on the boundary and uh and really never looked back. I thought he played uh he played a you know sensational rest of the game. Elite elite there in the second half. Um you know really good. Um another another rung on the ladder you know of esteem. That’s a that’s an esteem ladder. Those rungs represent, you know, steam goes up. The uh the way you guys were able to run it. Um some guys in the locker room talked about just the commitment to it. Um you know, even just looking at the numbers in terms of the percentages on Rush’s first first half were his highest the season. The game was highest the season. Um, how much of that was like an emphasis from you guys as a coaching staff like after what happened to Jacksonville coming out of the VI doing some scattered to really try and establish the running game but also allow the offensive lineman to come off the ball play downhill and kind of establish the physicality that maybe been up and down the last two weeks I Yeah, there was, you know, definitely a point of emphasis on it. Uh, and I would say it was um, you know, all all things paid dividends. They were all part of the all pieces of the puzzle schematically. Uh thought it was really good. I mean, there was a lot of variation. We probably ran 30 different types of runs in the game. Uh I thought that was really good. I thought it was really good. Uh you know, just as you said, you know, just the play, the physicality of the of the offensive line, each each guy across the front um graded out over 90%. Um, and you know, some guys had their best game. Zion, I thought, you know, another really good game by Zion. Uh, really maybe maybe Brad Boseman’s best. Uh, Mai Beckton, uh, some big key blocks. Trey Pipkins, two two really huge key blocks. Uh, Jamari Sawer, uh, was really good and really good against the, uh, in pass protection against the bull rush. Uh, just really played played really good. I think that was a big part of it. I think the uh you know just the you know the patience, the the pride, the um you know the commitment to to be better uh was a huge factor. Uh and also the the backs uh you know as as good as we’ve been of you know just being square in the hole, square downfield, um the yards after contact. Uh, I mean that leads to efficient plays in the run game, but then the yards after contact too. I thought uh you know some some stellar stellar plays by Kamani Vidal. Um the in the in the the swing pass uh where we picked up the first down. I mean that was that was huge. That was elite. Look at that one. Yeah, great. Uh there were some great camera angles on it and um you know the the delivering the blow, the uh two tacklers, you know, and then to come then bounce out of that uh you know, physicality of of uh you know, the next opportunity on the on the boundary. I mean, he would most guys would have been tackled a yard and a half, two yards short of that first down. uh and the leg strength and the drive uh to uh you know legitimately pick up that first down on the boundary. And then other other plays um you know when uh the third down conversion he he made when Trey was in there, you know, that was uh that was that was impressive. Jay Pat uh Jared Patterson, great to see him get his first touchdown. uh and the yards after contact that he created. Uh and then uh I mean you talk about tough physical play uh everybody who had the ball in their hand any time during the game uh was able to not turn it over. Uh no there’s a lot of hard hits and contested catches by the receivers. I mean, and uh I mean that was really impressive physicality of uh of catching that ball, completing that catch, taking the hit, contacts imminent uh and then getting yards after the catch. Keenan uh and uh and Quinton Johnson, you know, the touchdown. There was um you know, there was talk about physical all those things, all those things I think were were pieces of of the puzzle. the uh the fourth and one in the second quarter after the uh interception uh you guys ended up going with shotgun run to to Kamani. Um obviously understand the thought process to go there, but just as far as the play call, was there any facet of that where you guys were in you’re forced to be in shotgun and maybe in a different scenario you would have been under center there, gone with an under center run, a sneak and that kind of impacted the play call there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean we we we uh we definitely left that the first half of the game. Um you know, those those those two plays that uh where we didn’t get points, that was that was one of them. And uh yeah, that’s that was hindsight, we would had a we would had a different different play called there. um either using uh Trey Center um or um we could have gone with with Conchk, you know. Uh yeah, we’ we’d have liked to head that back and our guys overcame it as as a sneak. Yeah, could have. There’s a couple other options we could have could have gone with. Yeah, I mean astute to bring that up and that’s uh it’s true. We should have um yeah, more so Greg’s talked about it like going back to the game when Joe got injured, you know, week four and week nine, you’re trying to adjust on the fly. You got certain plays in the game plan. Yeah, we were kicking ourselves right after that. Like, yeah, there’s a couple better options we could have gone with, but there certainly like the the injury was a factor in there trying to sort of sort through who’s going to be in there under center, who want to go under center, is it Trey? Yeah. trying to make decisions on the fly and deal with it like an unexpected situation. Yeah. Yeah. We could have been better. Could have been a lot better. I mean, no excuse. We we had a right after we’re like should have should have, you know. Um, so you guys practice uh conf. Yeah. And like why was he the choice for that? That’s where where we we’ve done it in games. In his career, but never with any other tight ends. Uh there’ll be other options and and you know, all options are open. But yeah, as far as guilty is charged. We didn’t we could have had a better play there. As far as far as like Tuli’s um production this year, like how how much do you credit like his growth to being in a room with you last year with Joey and Koo, but just being with Koo and the best mentorship relationship they have. Um, I’m just really impressed with our the entire edge group. Um, you know, Tuli uh I mean there’s a I’m sure there’s what you’re saying. I mean it’s just the fabulous player. I mean, his relentless motor, uh, you know, his um, I mean, stands out the most. Uh, K Mack, I mean, again, I mean, he had one of his best games. Graded out 100%. I mean, uh, stat line, really good against the run and the pass. Bud Dupri was really good, really good against the run. And, uh, Adaf, his best games are coming, too. I thought he was really good against the run. It’s a, it’s a formidable edge group. Um, and they all bring a little something different, you know, uh, in the in the style of play that I think it makes it very hard on uh on uh on tackles on opposing linemen. You know, there’s a there’s a there’s a different look coming with each guy. Getting Tony back in the rotation, getting him back on the field. Obviously, he had the interception. I thought he was impactful in in other areas like even when he was rotating down into the run fit. What was the thought process of coming out of the bind getting him back in the rotation? What do you think of the performance overall? Yeah, we just felt it’d be really good to get him back in there. Um, you know, just the physicality he brings, the just in the right spot. Um, three tackles as well. Um, and a great interception. I mean, he came out of that he came out of the post. I mean, he was he was uh he was moving. And a great PBU by uh by uh by DJ to to create that. There was uh he’s savvy got the knack you know for the game and uh good good physical presence and um you know RJ played I think he had 19 plays and played very well. Uh Derwin uh another great game by by Derwin. Elijah Molden. Uh, you know, really good game as well. You guys played a quite a bit a cover zero in the game. Jesse was sort of dialing up some some pressure was the most cover zero you’ve played since since you got here. Was that a oneoff game situation or was that something you guys also kind of put your heads together in the buy and and said, you know, maybe trying to be a little bit more aggressive from a perspective? Yeah, I mean, stopping the run was was a big emphasis. Uh I I thought our team did a great job that in that area. Um don’t know the the total what was it? Uh 38 yards and 15. Yeah. Um really good in short yardage, good on the really good in the fourth down stops. Uh really good on third down. Um it was uh yeah was that was an emphasis this this next stretch of games I have forgot to ask. Um with like four teams that were in the playoffs last year all five are fine for seating or play contention. Like do you look at that at all? like how do you prepare the team any differently or do are you are you aware of that or is it how do you approach the stretch? Yeah, just approach it with the um you know it’s the nature of the business this uh this past game against the Raiders that was the biggest game of the year. Uh this game against the Philadelphia Eagles is the is the biggest game of the year. I I had one more for you. Who was the swing guard yesterday? Who’s gonna like if if somebody would had to go in that left or right guard, who would that have been? Uh yeah, Trevor Penny. Okay. He was tackle and guard. Okay. And uh and we were uh Bobby Hart was was right tackle and right guard. Right. Right tackle and right guard. Yeah, that’s how Trevor was left tackle, left guard. Okay. And Trevor was our was our sixth offensive lineman. Yes. playing him in the in the heavy packages.

LA Chargers Head Coach Jim Harbaugh speaks to the media at his press conference during Week 14 of the 2025 NFL season. He provides an update on quarterback Justin Herbert & running back Omarion Hampton and discusses the performances of wide receiver Tre’ Harris, offensive tackle Jamaree Salyer, & more during the Bolts’ Week 13 victory vs the Las Vegas Raiders.

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