Justin Herbert will not be playing football again this season, thanks to reparative surgery on his broken finger, and so ends the last year of relative affordability before his massive contract extension tolls and begins hammering the Chargers’ salary cap. He will cost $19.3 million against the cap next season, a number that will nearly double in 2025 and then rapidly escalate from there.
What did Los Angeles get out of the most advantageous roster-building window in the sport? In four seasons: 31 wins, 32 losses and one playoff appearance that ended in the wild-card round.
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