The Los Angeles Chargers suffered an embarrassing 63-21 beatdown against the Las Vegas Raiders in a game that ultimately issued the end of the Brandon Staley era. Staley first joined the Chargers in 2021, taking over a team with a young franchise quarterback in Justin Herbert and not much else. During his first year at the helm, Staley earned a reputation for being one of the more aggressive coaches in the league, consistently going for it on fourth downs at a time when such decisions weren’t nearly as popular as they are now. The 2021 Chargers finished with a 9-8 record and the future appeared to be bright.
Unfortunately, as the Brandon Staley Era continued, the team proceeded to get worse and worse. Staley’s aggressive tendencies took a major step backward in 2022, but the defense remained terrible. The coach’s outdated scheme turned the strong-armed Justin Herbert into one of the most conservative passers in the league, and the season ended after Staley’s defense blew a 27-0 playoff lead against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The front office decided to bring Staley back for one last spot in 2023, but that proved to be a mistake.
Despite entering the season with playoff hopes, the Chargers currently own a 5-9 record and are on a collision course with a top-10 draft pick. The low point of this abysmal season came on Thursday Night Football when the team gave up 63 points to an offense that didn’t score a single point just four days earlier. Performances like this get coaches fired, and when asked about his job security after the game, Brandon Staley tried to play down just how ugly a loss this was.
#Chargers HC Brandon Staley was asked if he thinks he should still be the coach: "Yes. I know what I've done here for 3 years."
"Games like this happen to every coach in the league. It's part of sports."
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) December 15, 2023
Brandon Staley Downplays Embarrassing Loss to the Raiders
It’s not surprising that Brandon Staley believes he’s the right man for the Chargers head coaching job. After all, you need confidence to succeed at the game’s highest level, and you’ll never see a coach or player ever publicly admit they’re not the right man for the job. What is surprising, however, is how Staley tries to defend himself. First off, the head coach used the past three years to defend himself, and that is not a very strong argument. Having a franchise quarterback like Justin Herbert on a rookie contract is the biggest competitive advantage in football, and Staley completely wasted that window. Even before this loss, the subpar result of Staley’s three seasons at the helm could justify a firing.
Brandon Staley then goes on to say that “games like this happen to every coach in the league”, which is simply not true. Do all great coaches lose games? Yes. Are some of those games blowout losses? Sure. Do teams ever give up 63 points to a rookie fifth-round quarterback four days after the offense failed to score a single point? Nope.
This looks especially bad when you remember this was Staley’s first game without Justin Herbert. Prior to this game, you could (incorrectly) make the argument that Herbert wasn’t playing up to his full potential and was partially responsible for the lackluster results.
After Thursday’s game, however, it’s clear to see that Herbert is the only reason this team was ever competitive. Without him, there is a case to be made that the Chargers are the worst team in football. Dean Spanos made the right call – Staley had to go if this team is ever to reach its ceiling.
Main Photo: Stephen Slyvanie – USA Today Sports
