Justin Herbert's contract comes up in NFL playoff discussion after early exit

The Los Angeles Chargers didn’t hesitate to get Justin Herbert’s big-money contract extension done when they could and haven’t blinked about the decision since. 

Coming out of the team’s playoff loss, though, it is interesting to take a step back and analyze all angles of a franchise. 

One such angle? The fact the three biggest-money quarterbacks in the NFL bowed out of the process early, as of halfway through the divisional round. 

As pointed out by CBS Sports’ John Breech, the three highest-paid quarterbacks went 0-3 quickly: 

• Jordan Love ($55M per year)
• Jared Goff ($53M)
• Justin Herbert (52.5M)

The point is to show that massive quarterback money isn’t totally necessary to compete. Not everyone will stumble into a Jayden Daniels like the Washington Commanders did, of course, but the point stands. 

And one thing Chargers fans will notice about that list? Herbert’s contract is already looking pretty great. Overall, he’s nearly out of the top 10 in average annual value at the position already. 

Things will keep trending this way, too. Perhaps next year, when the Jim Harbaugh and Joe Hortiz build enters Year 2, it will be nearly impossible to put him on lists like this in the playoffs.