Will Anderson Jr. walked into Week 9 with a scouting report that sounded more like admiration than gamesmanship. On Wednesday, the Texans edge rusher said Justin Herbert was “playing out of his mind” ahead of Houston’s matchup with the Chargers, a striking line given how far the Los Angeles offense has fallen.
Anderson did not soften the praise. He called Herbert “still a really great quarterback in this league” and added that the Chargers quarterback is “a big guy that has a big arm that can run around, that can throw the ball deep, makes a lot of plays with his legs.” In the same breath, he said the Texans had “a ton of respect” for Los Angeles and that Herbert remains “a very respectable player in this league.”
The comments matter because this is not just any opponent. The Chargers were the NFL’s only winless team at the time, and Herbert’s numbers have reflected the slump. He had a 5-10 touchdown-to-interception ratio, while Los Angeles ranked 28th in offense in yards per game, 26th in passing yards per game and 31st in interception rate. That is the backdrop for Anderson’s praise, and it is why the remark lands as more than a routine pregame compliment.
There is also a sharper edge to it. Last week, Quentin Lake said on the St. Brown Podcast that Herbert was “throwing deli meat out there” and “seeing ghosts” after the Rams intercepted him twice in a 24-9 win over the Chargers. Lake had one of those picks midway through the first quarter, and Trent McDuffie had the other. Against that noise, Anderson’s tone was the opposite: a defender talking as if he expects a quarterback capable of changing a game at any moment, even if the recent results have not backed that up.
That is the part that makes the quote stand out inside Houston as much as it does outside it. Anderson may simply be giving an honest read on a quarterback he respects, or he may be doing what experienced players often do before a game: leaving no extra material behind. Either way, the Texans go into Week 9 with Herbert still at the center of the conversation, and with Los Angeles carrying the weight of a winless start into a matchup that can either validate Anderson’s respect or make it look premature.
