Welcome, Chargers, to the Big Show With Jim Harbaugh

While other NFL teams are jostling for unproven first-time head-coaching candidates with relatively short track records as play-callers, L.A. went out and got the real deal.

Outside of the normal Thalia and Melpomene coaching carousel pattern of a team hiring the exact opposite of their last head coach, there seems to be one underlying trend of the 2023–24 cycle: making up for past mistakes.

In Las Vegas, Raiders owner Mark Davis kept the popular interim head coach, Antonio Pierce, after failing to keep his last popular interim coach, Rich Bisaccia. And the Los Angeles Chargers, a team that eschewed a superstar head coach who had interest in the job last offseason, have rolled out the red carpet for Jim Harbaugh as their new head coach, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer reported Wednesday.

If Harbaugh and the Chargers sound familiar, that’s because we’ve been talking about it for some time. Whether the depiction of the Chargers as a franchise preparing to operate on the competitive and financial fringes is accurate, the belief was that the Spanos family wanted to bring a bazooka to this year’s carousel knife fight. While other teams are jostling for unproven first-time head-coaching candidates with relatively short track records as play-callers (or, uh, Bill Belichick?), the Chargers want the real deal: a championship-caliber coach from the offensive side of the ball with a history of winning big games and developing great quarterbacks.

With Harbaugh, the Chargers may still be able to capitalize on this roster’s late window :: Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports

Welcome, Chargers, to the Big Show.

I wonder how much ownership’s decision to stick with Brandon Staley in 2023 instead of trading for Sean Payton gnaws at them now. Payton was clearly interested in the job last year and lived just a short distance away from the Chargers’ practice facility. When he was asked about his ideal job in media interviews, Payton described a situation almost identical to the one available in Los Angeles. He was the coaching equivalent of John Mayer’s “Something Like Olivia,” a ballad professing love for someone who is already in a relationship, or at least someone like that person.

But the team had a great affinity for and loyalty to Staley. And Staley, despite cutting his teeth on the defensive side of the ball, agreed to bring in a new offensive coordinator, Kellen Moore, and brainstorm a new vision accentuating Justin Herbert’s rare arm talent. The plan was fascinating. A boatload of injuries, some bad bounces and some abhorrent secondary play derailed the team’s season.

That’s how we arrived here. The Chargers have been waiting to stake their claim to Los Angeles for a few years now and have had little success. One could argue their most famous fan may not even be a Chargers fan. Harbaugh provides an instantaneous relevance, a major draw and guarantees a training camp full of at-capacity media tents (as if reporters need a reason to travel to Los Angeles in late summer).

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Harbaugh also provides a bit of an unspoken mea culpa to a fan base that understood something better than ownership: Last season was the most attractive the Chargers were ever going to be from a coaching standpoint. All of their best offensive weapons could still reasonably be considered in their athletic prime, albeit late athletic prime. Same for most of their best defensive players. Before the cracks in the facade were clearly shown, resulting not only in the firing of Staley but also the firing of general manager Tom Telesco (now GM of the Raiders), Los Angeles was viewed as a kind of golden goose. It was a job in which a coach could win now, win big and look incredible in the process when juxtaposed against the club’s recent past.

With Harbaugh, Los Angeles may still be able to capitalize on this roster’s late window. His knowledge of the incoming draft class should also be considered a huge advantage. So, too, will a Harbaugh fully disentangled from the complications of the college football lifestyle, which involved so many ancillary tasks that took away from what he does best: preparing a team to win games.

Harbaugh played quarterback for the Chargers during the 1999 and 2000 seasons :: Peter Brouillet/USA TODAY Sports

While it’s too early to declare this cycle’s winner, Los Angeles certainly checks a major box. Getting the notoriously reclusive and unpredictable Harbaugh is not easy. Until his name is on paper, there is always a chance he could vanish. In talking to people in the coaching industry throughout the process, bringing up Harbaugh often elicited a laugh, or a shrug from most. Basically, who knows with that guy?

Well, now we know. Harbaugh is back in the NFL. He tops off a division in which three of the four head coaches have been to the Super Bowl, and the fourth has won one as a player. The Chargers may have already been a year into this plan, but it’s better late than never.