Chargers News: How Jim Harbaugh's Final Year As A Player Shaped His Coaching Approach

It was not an ideal way to go out.

Your Los Angeles Chargers' most exciting hire in eons might be the best active NFL head coach (by record) because of his previous stint with the Chargers. And not in a good way.

Per Daniel Popper of The Athletic, Harbaugh's final season as an NFL quarterback was marked by major positional uncertainty, amid larger team turmoil with the then-San Diego Chargers.

First, the club started off with 1998 No. 2 overall draft pick Ryan Leaf as its QB1. Leaf was expected at the time to be just as big a phenom as the guy who was taken No. 1 in that draft (look it up).  

Leaf was terrible in some close losses, and after two weeks was bench in favor of Moses Moreno, who promptly got hurt during his first start. Former third-stringer Harbaugh was next elevated to a starting role ahead of Leaf, where he would remain for six contests all told that season. Leaf replaced him for the final five contests of the year. The Bolts went 1-15.

“It challenged everything (Harbaugh) believes in,” 2000-era quarterbacks coach Mike Johnson said of the 2000 season. “It challenged the way he believes in how you should handle coaches, how you should handle players, everything. Jim Harbaugh has probably never gone 1-15 in anything.”

And he certainly hasn't since.

Harbaugh served as a reserve on the Carolina Panthers the next season, but he saw no action for that club.

Following a two-year stint as the Oakland Raiders' quarterbacks coach, he accepted a gig as the head coach for the University of San Diego, and he was officially off to the races. He posted a 29-6 overall record in three seasons with the Toreros, and took over the Stanford Cardinal. Following a rocky first two seasons, he led the club to two bowl appearances in 2009 and '10. In four overall seasons, he went 29-21.

With the San Francisco 49ers, he went 44-19-1 and made the playoffs in three of four years, including one Super Bowl loss. He then led his alma matter Michigan Wolverines to an 86-25 overall record, culminating in a College Football Playoff National Championship victory this past winter.