The Los Angeles Chargers can only lean on the “it’s still early September” excuse for so long before the panic starts leaking into the 0-3 reality. Before long, opposing front offices are going to start circling like vultures, looking to peck away at their best pieces.
The Justin Herbert trade rumors are only pouring gasoline on the fire. Even in a vacuum, the latest hypothetical sends Herbert packing to the New York Jets in a blockbuster deal—and surprisingly, the framework makes a loud enough argument to make you wonder if where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
“It’s absolutely on the board that the Jets have three Top 12 picks,” Nick Wright explains on his show What’s Wright? “Their own first-round pick. The Colts‘ first-round pick from the Sauce Gardner trade. And they get to pick Dallas’s first or Green Bay’s first, which Green Bay owes Dallas for Micah. Do I expect at least two of those three teams to be really bad?
“Yes. If this Chargers‘ year goes terrible, if the Jets call up the Chargers and say, ‘We will give you, not future picks, three picks you can use right now.’ And if you’re the Jets, you’re not like, ‘Hey, we’re not crippling our ability to compete with Herbert in the future because we’re not trading any future year’s draft picks.'”
Justin Herbert to Jets Makes Sense… For Chargers
On paper, it even makes sense for the Chargers to trade Herbert. They will need to, realistically, too, if Jim Harbaugh wants to continue holding onto Mike McDaniel. It’s still just three games in the season, so really too early to tell anything, but if the entire offense works under McDaniels’s schemes later in the season and Herbert is still not able to catch up, Harbaugh will have no choice but to trade him. At a time like that, the Jets will perhaps have the most irresistible offer. Two or three of their Top 12 picks.
Without Herbert, Harbaugh will undoubtedly go out shopping for their next franchise QB in the 2027 NFL Draft. Be it Arch Manning or Trinidad Chambliss, Harbaugh will have a shot at replacing Herbert with a rookie quarterback who actually understands and fits under McDaniel’s offense.
As for the Jets, bringing in Herbert would completely electrify their franchise, at least on paper. Despite his early struggles in 2026, there’s no doubt about Herbert’s tier-one arm talent. The Jets get a 28-year-old franchise quarterback who’s already proven he can throw for 4,000+ yards with minimal support, to play for them for at least the next six to ten years.
The Jets and Chargers can pull off the blockbuster trade, on just one condition.
The biggest caveat in the whole situation.
Justin Herbert Can Simply Say No
When the Chargers signed Justin Herbert to a five-year, $262.5 million contract extension in 2023, his contract gave Herbert one specific clause that prevents Los Angeles from disposing of him after a few bad games.
NFL Insider Tom Pelissero recently brought attention back to one particular clause of the contract that had somehow gotten lost in the trade noise: the no-trade clause.
Pelissero added that Herbert has a no-trade clause, meaning he could turn down any potential deal if Los Angeles wanted to trade him.
He also added that “The Chargers have no plans anytime soon to trade quarterback Justin Herbert” in the same line.
But that was when the Chargers were a two-loss team. They’re a three-loss team now, and if they fail to bring their first win of the season this weekend, they will become a four-loss team.
Jets Wild Trade Pitch Sends Chargers’ Justin Herbert to New York in Blockbuster Move