Chargers News: Insider Believes Retaining This Personnel Piece Is “A Must”

Do you concur?

Your Los Angeles Chargers are poised to make some major revisions to their personnel both on the field, on the sidelines and in the front office.

One essential sideline contributor, however, should be retained, opines Joe Reedy of The Associated Press. Per Reedy, that contributor is special teams coordinator Ryan Ficken, who just wrapped up his second season in Los Angeles.

As Reedy notes, LA's special teams unit had languished among the dregs of the entire NFL, being ranked 31st (out of 32 teams, which Reedy calls "a raging dumpster fire") during both the 2020 and 2021 seasons in expert Rick Gosselin's much-vaunted list appraising all NFL special teams. With Ficken at the helm, the Bolts have risen to the 7th-ranked special teams unit during Ficken's first season with the club, and fifth this year.

A football fan weighed in on Reedy's thoughts about life pre-Ficken with some tasteful The Simpsons-channeling visuals on Twitter:

Life before Ryan Ficken pic.twitter.com/EUfYhz37O4

— Prefontaine (@Prefontaine_NM) January 17, 2024

Ficken, 43, first started honing his chops as a graduate assistant at UCLA under Karl Dorrell, from 2004-06.

He subsequently got his feet wet by serving in a variety of capacities with the Minnesota Vikings. He got started there as an assistant running backs coach, moved on to an assistant wide receivers coach gig, then an assistant special teams position under Marwan Maalouf, and finally assumed special teams coordinator duties outright in 2021, before joining the Chargers in 2022.