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• Thursday night sealed it, and now that the curtain has dropped on the Brandon Staley era, what’s next for a long-underachieving Chargers franchise should be clear.
This is not the time for an experiment or a roll of the dice. The Chargers have tried that and, again and again, come up short. This will be the 11th time in 14 seasons they’ve missed the playoffs. Over that time, they’ve hired three head coaches, and all three were first-timers, and each made the playoffs just once. So it’s time to do what the franchise did before that, in hiring Norv Turner and Marty Schottenheimer, and find a more experienced hand.
But more than just that, it’s time for the Chargers to swing for the fences, which means it’s time for the Spanos family to invest in getting it right. Maybe that means luring Jim Harbaugh, who played his final two NFL seasons as a Chargers quarterback, from Michigan. Maybe it means trying to entice Bill Belichick across the country. Maybe it means prying Dan Quinn from the Cowboys, as reluctant as Quinn’s been to bolt.
Whoever it is, the reason to get an experienced headliner is about a whole lot more than trying to be relevant in a sports market where relevance isn’t automatic for teams (though that’s a bonus).
It’s about the makeup of the roster. The Chargers need someone who’ll come in and be able to command a starry locker room, and quickly get the most out of it—because while the window for those players isn’t closing, it won’t be open forever. At the start of next season, Corey Linsley will be 33, Keenan Allen will be 32, Joey Bosa will be 29, Mike Williams will be 29 and Derwin James will be 28, and all five have significant injury history. Khalil Mack, who may or may not be back, will be 33. Austin Ekeler is turning 29 and is a free agent.
The Chargers need someone with skins on the wall to sort through big decisions on those players—decisions that only get trickier with Justin Herbert now off his rookie contract and onto a market-topping deal—and work to get the most from those who are sticking around in 2024. It’s on the Spanoses now to find a way to get the most out of what that core of players—a core that’s now gone five straight seasons without a playoff win—has left.
The franchise certainly hasn’t maximized that core yet. Going and getting a Harbaugh or a Belichick or a Quinn, at least as I see it, gives them the best chance at fixing that.
