Best Of - Justin Herbert OUT OF EXCUSES, Caleb Williams' BIZARRE injury, NFL Week 3 Predictions | Nick Wright

Nick Wright (0:00)

Welcome to the best of the week for What's Wright? with Nick Wright. The best takes and moments from this week on the show. Enjoy.

All right, let's talk Chargers-Bills.

Demonza (0:12)

So, Herbert and the Chargers who are not contenders head to Josh Allen and the Bills who are contenders. So, if the Chargers go there and beat Buffalo by logic, are they then contenders?

Nick Wright (0:26)

So, listen, no, but I do. It would not, it would, they keep their season alive by beating them. They don't once again become contenders by beating them.

And by the way, given how shaky Buffalo's defenses looked, I think it's on the board the Chargers win. There's a lot of, it's certainly on the board the Bills are just a wagon offensively and roll them. Like that is definitely on the board. That's probably the most likely outcome. But a totally desperate 0-2 team against a writing, pardon the phrase, high on the hog 2-0 team that's hearing about how good they are. Where the 0-2 team does, and more on him in a moment, have a very talented quarterback.

And the 2-0 team has one clear deficiency, which is everyone scores 30 on them. That there is a recipe for, chargers go down and score, Bills have, you know, fumble luck or tipped pass go against them, all of a sudden 14-0 chargers, and they're playing from a position of strength the whole time. So I certainly think it's possible the chargers win. It would not be my pick, but because I think it's possible they win, the Bills minus the seven or seven and a half is not going to be a part of Nick's picks. But that's my take on the game. You got it right there. We'll do more on that game tomorrow during our pick show, brought to you by our friends at Polymarket. But I would like to, Demonsay, for one final time address. This will be our opening monologue. I am going to attempt to address what has become the most annoying internecine war amongst football media of who Justin Herbert actually is, who his supporters claim he is, and what his critics are saying he has shown us he is. So, we are going to do this very lawyerly. We are going to incorporate some history. You know, grab a cup of coffee, warm yourself up. This is probably going to be about 15 minutes, and it's how we're starting today's show. Because I don't want to, if they do lose to Monze, I'm done talking about the Chargers. I'm done arguing about them. We will see you next off season when once again, you're one of the trendiest picks to go to the Super Bowl. But Herbert has become a surprisingly polarizing figure. So I would like to break down how and why that happened and why those of us that care about what one has accomplished feel like we have the data on our side. And I am going to use someone who I really like, who is one of his most vocal supporters in the media, who used to work for The Ringer, and now is a colleague of mine at Fox Sports, Steven Ruiz, and his preseason quarterback Tears article as the jumping off point, because it is a perfect encapsulation as to what those of us who feel like Justin Herbert is totally mis-evaluated and mis-discussed in the media. It's a perfect encapsulation for how and why. So Ruiz wrote an article about his quarterback Tears. Awesome. Top tier are the elite quarterbacks. He puts Patrick, Josh, and Lamar as the only elite quarterbacks. No problem. Makes sense. They have won all of the last, I'm sorry, four of the last five MVPs. They didn't mean to leave Stafford out, but he's older. Got it. He then has a group of quarterbacks that includes Stafford, Drake May, seems maybe now premature, Dac, Joe Burrow, and Justin Herbert. And he puts them in the category of franchise carriers.

And this is what he writes. These quarterbacks are good enough to match the elite guys throw for throw, but there's at least one weakness in their game that keeps them out of the top tier. Okay. While it's not a guarantee that their teams will contend for a title, they will be in the playoff hunt as long as they're on the field. Noteworthy, given how this year has begun. There's only one quarterback in this group without a playoff win on his resume. That's Justin Herbert, of course. And then he writes what I consider the most galling part of this. Quarterbacks are ultimately judged by what they do in the postseason, but we're talking about a sample size of three games here. Herbert has played in 98 regular season games and has been damn good in them. More on the damn good part in a moment. He also checks every box laid out in the description of this tier. Herbert just dragged, and this part's important, a below average receiving corps and a historically inept offensive line to an 11-win season.