Justin Herbert

Justin Herbert has his team positioned to grab one of seven playoff berths, as soon as Monday night. When Philip Rivers played, there were six playoff ...

A former Chargers quarterback, he’s fared well in all of his coaching jobs, beginning at the University of San Diego (.828 win rate over three years), followed by Stanford (.580 over four years, with three top-12 postseason rankings), the 49ers (.625 in four years, three playoffs teams, one NFC champion) and Michigan (.755 in eight years, a No. But he didn’t exactly land in the lap of a blue-chip franchise. 4 seeds played in the recent Super Bowl, and a fifth seed, the Bucs, won the previous Super Bowl. Of course, it was much worse for Fouts, who by the end of many seasons, moved liked he was encased in plaster. Herbert, 24, brings his own special tools to the job. Until the Raiders’ Derek Carr matched that streak this year, Rivers was the only player since 1991 to have multiple interceptions returned for touchdowns in five straight seasons, per The Associated Press. He’ll need a lot more help to rebound. Showing durability that couldn’t have been forecast, he is one of only four franchise quarterbacks to be available to his team for every start since Week 1 of the 2020 season. When the protection routinely crumbled around Rivers, who was nurtured early in his career by reliable blocking and strong ground games, his fundamentals took an inevitable hit, too. And because of the larger playoff field, “load management” becomes easier for contenders not vying for the precious No. That’s the NFL’s ticket. Nor can we know if the franchise’s longtime top boss, Dean Spanos, has improved at his job.