Leading into the NFL Draft, a wild rumor began circulating that the Los Angeles Chargers could be shopping quarterback Justin Herbert. Could Jim Harbaugh, with the No. 5 overall pick in his pocket, actually draft his quarterback from Michigan, J.J. McCarthy?
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Though that was almost certainly never a thing, two teams still reportedly contacted the Chargers looking to make a deal. Those two teams — the Minnesota Vikings and New England Patriots — were two of the "quarterback desperate" teams entering the draft and on Thursday night, they each took a quarterback with the Patriots drafting Drake Maye at No.3 overall and the Vikings trading into the No. 10 spot to grab McCarthy.
In recent weeks, both the Patriots and Vikings reached out to the Chargers to see if they had any interest in trading QB Justin Herbert, per league sources. The answer was, very quickly, “a flat no.”
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 26, 2024
Not only do the Chargers love Herbert, but they also would have had to take on… pic.twitter.com/4ZqBFOfQzd
Chargers turned down trade requests for Justin Herbert
The Chargers ended up taking Joe Alt, an offensive tackle from Notre Dame, so it seems that in the end, all three teams should be happy. It shows that Harbaugh and general manager Joe Hortiz are committed to Herbert as the packages both of those teams could have offered would have likely been huge.
Of course, the massive cap hit the team would have incurred likely had a little bit to do with that decision as well and made it an easy rejection for the team's front office.
The Chargers passed on Malik Nabers and Rome Odunze in the first round in favor of Alt and now need to find a way to get their franchise quarterback some pass-catchers.
