but it's something that's going to resonate into the weekend
and Beyond you know, how teams are they're going to keep it
close to the vest,
they don't want to tip their hand, they don't want
the Jaguars, their next opponent to know with any certainty whether
they need to get ready for Justin Herbert or Chase Daniel,
let's let's have a listen and a look at what was said by
Brandon Stanley, the
coach the Chargers after the game to reporters on the The
Justin Herbert injury.
He's okay.
It was a tough game and you're not going to see a quarterback
in any level of football.
Play tougher and do more for their team and we'll their team
to give them a chance and him, there's nobody that can do what
he can do. Nobody,
he showed a lot of guts. He showed us
what he shows every day
that were never out of the fight
and he brought us back and give us a chance.
It was just a tough NFL game. And he took some big hits
and none of those big hits. Had any impact on him bringing his
team back. Like he always does.
Okay, look I pride myself on reading body language and
demeanor and the way words are delivered and the way that
the entire Persona is being projected to there's there
certain things and unless you are
a Hollywood level actor, you cannot hide to me Peter.
That's a guy who is still dealing with the early moments
of the realization that he may not have Justin Herbert for
a week or two or longer. That's how I read the overall body
language of Brandon Staley in that moment.
I don't know how to read his body language other than,
I don't know what's wrong right now.
And so I'm not going to sit here and predict that he might
be out for a while,
you know, at this point, I don't even know when he met
the Press. If he knew the results of whatever the x-rays were
because there were a couple of tweets last night, I stayed up
Mike to watch and to listen and to analyze
what Exactly happened.
Justin Herbert emerged from the locker room, according to
reporters about 15 minutes after the game, and went down
to the X-ray room at Arrowhead Stadium.
So, by the time, Brandon Staley had,
it was meeting the Press.
I sincerely doubt that he could have known
whatever. The problem is, maybe the x-rays
were inconclusive, maybe they showed.
Act ribs. I don't have any idea and I doubt that Brandon Staley
new. So I just think when I heard him,
I think he was trying to say,
I don't know what the story is. We'll see tomorrow when we get
back to LA and we do an MRI which I'm sure they're going to
do today
but I don't know, I didn't read a lot into it.
Well, I mean, when he starts off saying he's okay at a time
when he clearly doesn't know that he's okay. Yeah, there's
some wishful thinking there and obviously he's not going to
make
any disclosures until he absolutely positively has to,
for strategic reasons. But he just struck me as a guy who is
bracing for whatever may happen, including
the possibility that he's not going to have the best player on his
team by far
for a game or longer.
Can they beat the Jaguars with Chase? Daniel,
I think they probably can
We haven't seen enough of Chase Daniel during his
35-year NFL career to come to any firm conclusions about what
he could do if he's pressed into service. But you know,
we'll just say this is just going to be one of those things
that were tracking and we're watching and we're
understanding that the Chargers have no obligation to say
a word about this to anyone
until they issue their practice report next. Wednesday,
did he practice was he limited? What's the injury and whether
it's rib, whether its abdomen. Now, I saw a tweet. Last night
from one of the folks covering the Chargers that a team
spokesman said, Herbert would not be meeting with the media
because of a rib injury.
Now I doubt that that is a
specific inconclusive diagnosis, we assumed rib,
but who knows, who knows? It could be a muscle strain. It
could be an internal organ. I mean,
one of the first things I thought of frankly because
I work with the guy for days a week, well three during
the season
I've
explained Sims lost a spleen. Meaning it doesn't take much.
Te, Papa spleen.
Yeah, you know what? I was thinking Mike, when I you said
in a minute ago,
we're probably not going to know a lot about this until
next Wednesday. Now, look, maybe the Chargers will make
some sort of announcement about
what the medical tests reveal,
you know, last night in today, maybe they will,
but you're absolutely right. There are under no obligation
to say anything until next Wednesday. So
this could be like, six days of, or
you. Five days
of a gigantic mystery that. I think no one
is really going to know
or be able to get to the bottom of until then, but I will just
say one thing. Usually, when you have
torso injuries and you are doing the things that
a quarterback has to do,
and you saw the one play last night, we're just in, Herbert
was in so much. each pain
that he could have run for a first down,
he could have crawled for a first down
and he and he chose just to throw the ball away because
the thought of either sliding
you know to avoid contact or the thought of even a mild
tackle was so
uproariously, you know painful to him that he just
I got to get rid of the ball. I just can't do it. I can't take
anymore. So I don't think this is nothing.
I think this is definitely something but we'll see.
I agree with you but I looked at that grit that had him in
the game, all you gotta do is take a few more steps and slide but
he's feeling it there. You can see it. Yeah, wincing, he's
in notice yet pain.
So that, that I think is, is
when I saw that my son said, everything that just said
everything and it also, I We agree with Staley.
You know, look part of you as a coach. I'm sure
part of Brandon Staley wanted to say, hey Chase, Daniel get
in there. I can't I can't watch this. I just this is too
painful to watch
but he didn't and they ended up, you know, making the game
very closed throwing a touchdown after and all that.
But I just think that
what you have to do the torque you put on your
We're so when you're throwing a football and you're standing
it, I don't care how well padded he can, he's going to be
against Jacksonville.
I would be, I'd be worried about the next couple of weeks
for him, but we'll see and he still made some great throws.
Even really did that discomfort the throat of Joshua Palmer?
The touchdown pass that cut the game to three points. I mean,
the guy was incredible
when it came to throwing the football and and the simple
explanation is whatever he was doing to twist his body to
throw the football. Wasn't creating that discomfort. But
when he decided to run
that act of running and the promise of whatever was coming,
next, it just was something that he wasn't going to be able
to do, but look at that, throw. Good Lord.
So this is why he was still in the game. And Peter, let me ask
you this, I'm curious about this because
the NFL has made a big deal in recent years about having
the stadium blanketed with people who have the authority to stop
the game and order that players. Be removed for
full and complete concussion evaluation.