Herbert headlines PFF’s top 3 players on the Chargers

You want a challenge, try this one out.

The Chargers have spared no expense this offseason in acquiring talent to fuel what should be their best shot at a Super Bowl since those teams in the late 2000s. The new talent was also added to a group that already had its’ fair share of superstars, so you could say the level of elite talent on this roster is getting quite palpable.

In a new article posted at Pro Football Focus by Ben Linsey, the NFL analyst went about highlighting the best three players on each team in the NFL. For some teams, the task was quite easy. For others, the objective became much more difficult if the team either had a plethora of stars, or almost none at all. In the case of the Chargers, the task was arguably the most difficult for Linsey as he had to wade his way through a litany of worthy players.

At the end of the day, Linsey settled on the trio of quarterback Justin Herbert (duh) and edge rushers Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack.

“The Chargers are one of the most difficult teams in the NFL to do this exercise for because they’ve amassed a lot of star power over the last few years,” said Linsey. “Leaving off Derwin James, Rashawn Slater, Corey Linsley, J.C. Jackson and Keenan Allen feels wrong.”

“However, Herbert was PFF’s fourth-highest graded quarterback in just his second season, navigating the tricky balance of avoiding negatives while also having the ability to make plays that most other quarterbacks in the league can’t. In addition, Bosa and Mack form the league’s top edge duo. Both were top-five players at the position entering 2022 in PFF’s latest edge defender rankings.”

Herbert ended the 2021 season with an overall grade of 90.1, just nearly clearing the threshold to finish a bonafide elite number. Bosa was his usual solid self, posting an 85.6 overall grade in his first year playing from a two-point stance for the majority of his snaps.

Lastly, Mack missed a career high 11 games this past season, his first campaign where he missed more than three contests, en route to posting a 73.0 overall grade. That’s by far his worst grade of his career, but he’s also just two years removed from posting a 92.3 overall grade in 2020. That was tied for his career high and history tells us that it’s more likely he’s closer to that level of player in 2022 than he is the one we saw for just seven weeks in 2021.

A task like this makes me curious to hear what you all think. Is this the best trio that Linsey could have picked? Who would you swap out? Who would you replace them with? I want to hear all of your thoughts so let me know in the comments below.