Jim Harbaugh and the Chargers made their priorities clear after clinching a playoff spot last week.
The Chargers are choosing health over wild-card seeding heading into Sunday’s regular season finale against the Broncos.
Speaking with reporters on Monday, Harbaugh announced star quarterback Justin Herbert would sit out against Bo Nix and the Broncos. Sunday’s game is set to kickoff at 1 p.m. PT from Mile High Stadium in Denver, CO.
Trey Lance will start for the Chargers and DJ Uiagalelei will be elevated from the practice squad to the backup role. While the game means little for the Los Angeles, the Broncos can lock up the AFC’s No. 1 seed with a win.
“Health and winning. That’s it,” Harbaugh said. “There’s no way to predict. We’re going on the road, first round. All potential teams would be good, and we’ll get ourselves ready for that.”
Herbert suffered a fracture in his non-throwing left hand during the Chargers’ Week 13 game on Nov. 30 against the Raiders.
He underwent surgery and returned to play eight days later against the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles. He has yet to miss a game since the injury, wearing a protective cast and glove on his left hand.
Despite many analysts believing Herbert should be mentioned in the MVP conversation — not a true contender — missing Sunday’s game would be the smartest option for Los Angeles. The Chargers signal-caller has been battered all season behind a makeshift offensive line.
Los Angeles entered the season with arguably the best tackle duo in the NFL in Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt. But Slater suffered a torn patella tendon before the season started and missed the whole year. Alt moved to the left side and filled in admirably, but suffered a season-ending right high-ankle sprain on Sunday, Nov. 2 against Tennessee.
However, Herbert isn’t expected to be the only starter to miss Sunday’s showdown. Harbaugh also mentioned that other starters “with the most bruises” won’t play as well.
For the Chargers, the game against Denver could’ve been huge if Los Angeles handled business against the Texans this past Saturday. Instead, they suffered a 20-16 defeat.
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A win over the Texans would’ve set up a regular season finale where the winner of the Chargers-Broncos game would’ve won the AFC West title and presumably the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs.
Now there’s very little to gain from a victory for Harbaugh and the Chargers, who are making it clear that they’d rather enter the postseason healthy than battle for wild card seeding.
Presuming the Bills (vs. NY Jets) and Patriots (vs. Miami) both win on Sunday as expected, Los Angeles will travel east to face the Patriots in the opening round of the playoffs.
