Chargers News: Easton Stick Offers Interesting Insight Into Giff Smith Hire

Let's see how Smith performs in his debut as interim head coach Saturday.

New Los Angeles Chargers starting quarterback Easton Stick seems to already be a huge fan of new Los Angeles Chargers head coach Giff Smith, as the 6'1", 224-pound North Dakota State product relayed during a recent press conference, where he took pains to explain why he such a fan of the hire.

Kellen Moore, LA's offensive coordinator, was surprisingly passed over for the interim gig in favor of Smith, following the canning of now-former head coach Brandon Staley last week. There was no excusing the Bolts' 63-21 loss to the similarly-mediocre Las Vegas Raiders on Thursday, a reality Dean Spanos seemed to be acknowledging with the move.

s/o coach smith pic.twitter.com/jYWBtZIPRi

— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) December 19, 2023

"He's been here a long time," Smith said. "This place matters to him. People in the building know him, and they know him well, and they know he cares. And he's got a relationship -- he's done a really good job I think. Sometimes as a position coach, it's easy to kind of lock in on your group, and there's a reason to do that, but Giff is one of those people, he's got one of those personalities that has a relationship with everybody. That's going to serve him really well. Guys are looking forward to playing with him."

Smith had previously been the team's outside linebackers coach under Staley since the start of the 2022 season. Before that, he had been with the team from the San Diego days as its defensive line coach, starting in 2016.