{"id":83181,"date":"2025-08-14T21:53:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T21:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/83181\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T21:53:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T21:53:07","slug":"justin-herbert-will-start-at-qb-make-preseason-debut-saturday-vs-rams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/83181\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Herbert Will Start at QB, Make Preseason Debut Saturday vs. Rams"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are you ready for Justin Herbert’s<\/a> preseason debut?<\/p>\n

The Bolts quarterback will start Saturday’s preseason game against the Rams, Chargers Head Coach Jim Harbaugh said Thursday morning, which means Herbert is in line to make his first-ever preseason appearance.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to play starters on Saturday,” Harbaugh said.<\/p>\n

Harbaugh said Thursday that Herbert is expected to play “a series, could be two,” along with other offensive starters.<\/p>\n

Harbaugh added that defensive starters will play, too, with the exception of Derwin James, Jr. and Khalil Mack. Players who are working through something physically are also unlikely to play.<\/p>\n

“All the offensive starters are going to play,” Harbaugh said. “Defensively, same. I’m going to hold K-Mack and Derwin back.”<\/p>\n

He later added: “Our guys want to play. They want the first series of the season not to be the first series of the season.”<\/p>\n

Herbert was a 2020 first-round pick but the NFL didn’t have a preseason that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Herbert then didn’t dress for any exhibition games from 2021 to 2023, and didn’t play last season \u2014 Harbaugh’s first year in charge \u2014 because he was dealing with an injury to the plantar fascia in his right foot.<\/p>\n

But Herbert will be out there Saturday at SoFi Stadium where the Chargers will be the road team against the Rams. Kickoff between the Los Angeles teams<\/a> is at 4 p.m (PT).<\/p>\n

Trey Lance started the 2025 Hall of Fame Game before Taylor Heinicke got the starting nod last weekend against the Saints.<\/p>\n

Harbaugh said he expects both Lance and Heinicke to also play Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Are you ready for Justin Herbert’s preseason debut? The Bolts quarterback will start Saturday’s preseason game against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[19684,19685,57975,11978,11977,11979,14388,99],"class_list":["post-83181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-2025-training-camp","tag-2025-training-camp-news","tag-2025-pre-2-preview-editorial","tag-app-homepage","tag-homepage-cp","tag-homepage-headlines","tag-justin-herbert","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}