This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/nfl by /u/SEND-MARS-ROVER-PICS on 2025-03-11 14:48:04+00:00.
OVERVIEW
With assistance from /u/Grand-Delver
Team: LA Chargers
Division: AFC West
Record: 11-6 (5th seed in the AFC)
- Wildcard round: @ HOU, L 12-32
Points for: 402 (11th)
Points against: 301 (1st)
Quick History
It’s one thing to be bad. It’s another thing to be known for being bad. And it’s another thing all together when your team’s name is permanently affixed to a special, maddening, worse type of bad. You see, this is a type of bad that is proceeded by hope. You can see the promised land just over the next hill. It is close enough to taste it. Yet, it vanishes when it is right in front of you. You are Tantalus, with your dreams just beyond your graps. You are fated to lose. You are the Chargers. And the thing you do best is called Chargering.
Over three seasons, the Tom Telesco/Brandon Staley Chargers sure did try for something different. But the Chargering remains, following the team after it’s relocation from San Diego in 2017. The 2021 season is best remembered for not playing for a draw and getting themselves knocked out of the play-offs by the Raiders in Week 18. The ‘22 season was almost respectable by comparison, going 10-7 and securing a Wild Card berth… until you complete one of the largest chokes in NFL history against the Jaguars, and sinking the whole franchise deeper into the abyss. Undeterred, the Chargers set upon writing (consigning) their names into history by going 5-12 in 2023. Previous big FA signing JC Jackson was traded for peanuts, first round WR Quentin Johnston had the rookie season from hell, All-Pro center Corey Linsley effectively retired mid-season from a heart condition, Joey Bosa was hurt again, QB Justin Herbert got pulverized and went on IR in week 14, and the brain-trust of Staley and Telesco were fired midseason after the entire team quit on the way to a 63-21 loss to the Raiders. The Aristocrats!
This off-season seemed to finally be too much for notoriously cheap team owner Dean Spanos. With a clean break from the previous coaching staff and front office, a new training facility opening up, and a roster that still on paper had a lot to offer prospective new coaches, Spanos seems to have finally done something he always hates doing: dipping into his own pocket and spending on a coach.
2023 Season & 2024 Off-Season
Jherbert, Jharbaugh, Jhortiz
Fresh off of his National Championship title with the Michigan Wolverines, Harbaugh was being looked to as a saviour by Chargers fans weeks before he even put pen to paper. The former San Diego Charger QB is seen across the league as a true football guy, a coach who has built college programs into heavyweight contenders, and brought the 49ers to the NFCCG in his first season as HC. Known for his preference for physical play, a winning-first culture, focussing on the trenches and running the damn ball, (and for being a bit strange), Harbaugh was a much needed tonic for a team that has a recent history of lacking grit and toughness. The Chargers were a team looking to reimagine itself both on and off the field, and they’ve picked Harbaugh to lead this.
This reimagining was sorely needed. Going 5-12 in 2023, the Staley Chargers crashed and burned with a season where nothing worked. The defense never got it’s act together under Staley, and the move from football terrorist Joe Lombardi to New Orleans Saints HC Kellen Moore did little to save the offense. There were no position groups on the team that you could really hang your hat on.
Joe Hortiz was hired as General Manager to turn this ailing roster around. A long-serving scout and director of the Baltimore Ravens, the hiring of Hortiz further aligns the Chargers with the East-coast team lead by Harbaugh’s older brother, John (yes, John is the older brother). The Ravens are considered to be one of the smarter teams in the league, so drawing on the Harbaugh x Harbaugh connection that exists makes all the sense in the world. The Chargers hire Ortiz with a hope that he can succeed where Telesco failed; namely, building a roster that has actual depth, successfully drafting outside of the first round, and taking advantage of training camp trades and comp picks to eek out every extra benefit for the LA Ravens Chargers.
Notable coaching changes:
- Greg Roman, OC: whelp, it’s not the strongest start. Former OC for Harbaugh’s 49ers, the Bills, and the Ravens, the very run-focussed Roman was brought in to give the Chargers their first effective run game in years (24th in rushing yards in 2023, 30th in 2022, last 1000-yard rusher was Melvin Gordon in 2017). However, Roman’s limitations in designing a modern passing offense are well known. The decision to pair Roman with a pocket-passing QB like Herbert is an interesting one. How will it bear out?
- Jesse Minter, DC: following Harbaugh from Michigan, Minter is a very interesting hire. Previously an assistant coach with the Ravens, Minter has actually been present during much of the development of the new in-vogue defensive scheme run by Mike McDonald in Baltimore and then Seattle. Minter was McDonald’s successor as DC at Michigan. The Michigan-Baltimore scheme Minter brings to LA is built on modularity. In this scheme, defenses are able to access a number of defensive plays from the same pre-snap look, while greatly reducing the number of individual plays (and the verbiage that follows this) that can bog down defenders in more complex schemes. taking over from the infamously complex defense Staley preferred, this is an exciting hire.
- Ben Herbert, Strength & Conditioning: Harbaugh’s tone-setter in Michigan joins him in El Segundo. The Chargers are a snake-bitten franchise, with a long proud history of accidentally breaking it’s players. Herbert’s purpose is two-fold. firstly, his job is to make players “harder to break”. Harbaugh places a lot of trust in Herbert’s expertise as in S&C to help achieve the rugged, physical vision Harbaugh has for his teams. Secondly, and most importantly, Herbert is credited with being the one who builds the culture. Having a second Herbert around can only be a good thing.
Ryan Ficken stays as STC. The Chargers ST units are, incredibly, quite respectable, so this isn’t too surprising. Ficken seems to prefer punting high with long hang-time rather than pure distance. Cameron “The Kicker” Dicker is one of the most dependable kickers, short and at distance. Why rock the boat?
FREE AGENCY & TRADES
Between recent acquisitions and resigning/restructuring veterans, the Chargers were tight against the cap. The biggest predraft off-season situation for the Chargers was who of the four big-contract veterans would stay: WRs Keenan Allen and Mike Williams, and EDGEs Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa. As the cap situation stood, two of those four vets could be retained, and purely off of performance. Allen and Mack would have probably been most fans’ picks. However, willingness to take a pay-cut was the main deciding factor, with Mack and Bosa resigned, Williams released, and Allen traded to the Chicago Bears for a fourth round pick. Offensive personnel like Austin Ekeler, Jalen Guyton and Gerald Everett were allowed walk, while Austin Johnson, Kenneth Murray Jr. and Michael Davis were released on defense. This left Hortiz and co. with just enough cap room to go bargain hunting and bring some new faces into a lowly roster. Also shout-out to Corey Linsley, who was a great servant to the Chargers before being forced into retirement by a heart condition. Hope you’re kicking back and enjoying post-league life!
Notable Out:
- Keenan Allen, WR (tr)
- Mike Williams, WR
- Austin Ekeler, RB
- Corey Linsley, C (ret)
- Austin Johnson, DT
- Michael Davis, CB
- Kenneth Murray Jr., LB
Limited to tier 2/3 guys on shorter deals, the Chargers set out to start building a Harbaugh team. The most obvious place where this is seen is in the TE room, with blocking TE Will Dissly being given a 3-year, $10m-gauranteed deal to help elevate the running game beyond it’s previous meagre showings . All other FAs are signed to 1- or 2-year deals. Hayden Hurst was also added to the TE room, hopefully adding a reliable blocker and pass catcher that Roman knows (Hortiz was also involved in his drafting to the Ravens). Former Ravens Bradley Bozeman ©, Gus Edwards (RB), and formerly very injured JK Dobbins (RB) are all signed to align with this goal as well. Greg Roman is handed players he’s familiar with, almost certainly with the aim of recreating the success the Ravens had on the ground (sans a true rushing QB).
On defense, Alohi Gilma (S) was resigned by the Chargers to pair with Derwin James, while Poona Ford (DT), a returning SD Charger Denzel Perryman (LB) and Kristian Fulton (CB) were signed to one-year deals. Bud Dupree (EDGE) was added to fill out an EDGE room that on paper looked… actually quite good? These are all respectable players who have shown quality at different points… They aren’t exactly the '86 Bears, but you do what you can with what you got. Elijah Molden (S) was acquired from the Titans in August for a 7th rounder and reunited with Teair Tart (DT), a former Titan signed off the street in late August. Fulton was also a Titan. I don’t know if this really means anything. In any case, it’s down to…
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