Justin Herbert opens up on facing Aaron Rodgers for first time in his career

Justin Herbert knows the Los Angeles Chargers have a big-time matchup against the Aaron Rodgers-led Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 10.

The Chargers are 6-3 and coming off of a gutsy 27-20 victory over the Tennessee Titans. Herbert had a big-time performance, posting three total touchdowns (two passing, one rushing) in addition to 57 rushing yards on a season-high nine attempts.

However, the Steelers are 5-3 and the AFC North leaders leading into their Sunday Night Football matchup against the Chargers. Furthermore, they’re coming off of their biggest win of the season, a 27-20 win over the Indianapolis Colts, who entered Week 9 with the AFC’s best record.

Herbert is well aware that this game could have major implications on the AFC playoff race moving forward.

“We’re playing the Steelers on Sunday night,” said Herbert in a one-on-one interview. “We know how good they are. It’s another conference game, another opportunity for us to go play Chargers football. But no one’s slowing down, no one’s feeling bad for us if we’ve got a few injuries. It’s up to us to be able to go capitalize and take advantage of every game that we get.”

The 27-year-old Herbert mentioned the 41-year-old Rodgers as one of the quarterbacks he looked up to while growing up. Unsurprisingly, he also mentioned Tom Brady and Peyton Manning as other quarterbacks he looked up to during his childhood. It’s no coincidence that those quarterbacks were the best in the game during the 2000s and for most of the 2010s.

“Sure, I’ve grown up watching so many of these quarterbacks,” said Herbert when asked if he looked up to Rodgers while growing up. “I think Aaron Rodgers was definitely one of the guys that has so much success in the NFL. I think another guy is like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning — those are guys that I grew up watching.”

He said one of Rodgers’ best traits is his ability to protect the football and limit turnovers. Rodgers is one of the current leaders in interception rate at just 1.4 percent, even better than Brady’s 1.8 percent.

Herbert said one of the key traits of Rodgers’ game he has tried to emulate is his ability to limit interceptions and turnovers. Herbert did an excellent job of that during his first season playing under head coach Jim Harbaugh last season with just three interceptions and a league-leading 0.6 percent interception rate last season.

“The way that Aaron Rodgers protected the football and limited his turnovers and just found ways to make big plays at the end of the game,” said Herbert of Rodgers. “He was showing up in intense, tight games, he was going to make a play. I think that’s the part of the quarterback game that you really try and emulate. There’s no surprise why he’s had so much success.”

Herbert and Rodgers’ matchup this week represents the first time that the two quarterbacks will match up against each other. The Chargers faced Rodgers’ New York Jets during the 2023 season, but that was during the year Rodgers was out due to an Achilles injury suffered in the season opener.

He says he had the opportunity to speak to the four-time MVP before that game, calling Rodgers a “nice” guy and reiterating how much respect he has for him.

“I think we spoke, we played the Jets a couple years ago and I think he was coming off of an injury, so he wasn’t playing,” said Herbert of speaking to Rodgers. “But I got to meet up with him before the game, just kind of talk about how he was liking New York, how everything was going on with his rehab. He was obviously a super nice guy, and I really enjoyed our conversation. I loved talking to him a little bit before, see him after the game. Just the amount of respect I have for him as a quarterback is really cool.”

Defeating the Steelers is pivotal if Los Angeles is to remain neck and neck with Denver in the divisional race. They’re currently a game behind the 7-2 Denver Broncos for the AFC West division lead. However, it’s worth noting that the Chargers defeated the Broncos in Week 3, which means they currently hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over Denver. They’ll face off against the Broncos in a rematch in the final week of the season in Week 18 that could ultimately decide the division.