NFL GMs regretting not hiring Jim Harbaugh as Chargers surge

Chris Roling | Nov 18, 2024

Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

While the Los Angeles Chargers were putting a beatdown on the Cincinnati Bengals and eventually surviving a comeback bid to move things to 7-3, Jim Harbaugh regret was apparently sweeping the NFL. 

Sunday night, a primetime audience got a big dose of Harbaugh ball with a full-blown look at the NFL’s best defense and a revamped offense around Justin Herbert as it picked apart a supposed fellow AFC contender. 

Fox Sports’ Jordan Schultz shared an interesting nugget during the proceedings: “The amount of regret some teams have for not hiring Jim Harbaugh when they had the chance… It’s very real.”

Harbaugh was a big name on the coaching cycle and plenty of teams with vacancies even seemed to consider the idea, with the Atlanta Falcons announcing an interview with him. 

But Harbaugh landed with the Chargers, where, alongside new general manager Joe Hortiz, he’s completely turned around the program in Year 1 of a supposed “soft” rebuild. 

Funnily enough, Atlanta is tops in the NFC South at 6-5 with new head coach Raheem Morris. But other new head coaches like Jerod Mayo in New England, Dave Canales in Carolina and Brian Callahan in Tennessee are going through brutal grinds, to say the least. 

Of course, a name as big as Harbaugh’s basically has his pick of where he wants to go. And that was with elite quarterback Justin Herbert and an organization willing to do things his way. 

Turns out he made the right choice—and so did the Chargers.

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