{"id":159852,"date":"2024-01-25T10:30:01","date_gmt":"2024-01-25T15:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=159852"},"modified":"2024-01-24T23:02:31","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T04:02:31","slug":"what-the-jim-harbaugh-hire-means-for-the-chargers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/01\/25\/what-the-jim-harbaugh-hire-means-for-the-chargers\/","title":{"rendered":"What the Jim Harbaugh Hire Means for the Chargers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Chargers have hired Jim Harbaugh to be their new head coach, bringing him back to the NFL for the first time since leaving the San Francisco 49ers after the 2014 season. While Harbaugh coming back to the NFL is big news in of itself, the Chargers hiring him is a big deal \u2013 because it breaks precedent for the team in a big way.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">ladies and gentlemen, we got him.<\/p>\n<p>we\u2019ve agreed to terms with Jim Harbaugh to be our head coach \u00bb <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cM4NZTOqKE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/cM4NZTOqKE<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/PTauQDWDVb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/PTauQDWDVb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/chargers\/status\/1750325130918851039?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 25, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Jim Harbaugh Hire Signals Culture Change for Los Angeles Chargers<\/h2>\n<h3>Changing Course<\/h3>\n<p>When Dean Spanos <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2023\/12\/15\/los-angeles-chargers-fire-brandon-staley-tom-telesco\/\" target=\"_self\">fired Brandon Staley and Tom Telesco<\/a> after the historic Raiders loss,<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/chargers\/status\/1735708433004089666\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> he said,<\/a> \u201cBuilding and maintaining a championship caliber program remains our ultimate goal. And reimagining how we achieve that goal begins today.\u201d The problem was, recent history did not bode well for Spanos\u2019s words, because he had repeatedly gone for the lesser-known or cheaper name in hiring head coaches rather than trying to go for the best candidates available (ex: going for Brandon Staley when Brian Daboll was available). Basically, it\u2019s not a good sign when Norv Turner has had the most playoff success of any coach for the Chargers in the 21<sup>st<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n<p>And yet, with the hiring of the hottest and most experienced name on the head coaching market, Spanos is actually backing up his words and taking things seriously. The question is: why? What changed? One can only speculate, but it\u2019s quite possible that the pressure of being on a bigger stage and getting more scrutiny after failure got to him.<\/p>\n<h3>What Harbaugh Will Bring to the Chargers<\/h3>\n<p>As stated earlier, Harbaugh was the hottest coach on the market this offseason. He joined the 49ers as head coach in 2011, and immediately turned the franchise around after a nearly decade-long playoff drought. Over the next three seasons, the team had a record of 36-11-1, with three straight NFC Championship appearances and one Super Bowl appearance. They went 8-8 in 2014 and then owner Jed York inexplicably fired Harbaugh.<\/p>\n<p>That was with the help of a good running game and strong defense, but it was also without a top-tier quarterback. In that time period, they had Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick \u2013 who were both good, but not elite by any means. Now imagine what he could do with a top-tier quarterback like Justin Herbert. Given the soft rebuild that they\u2019re going to be in, it may take another year or so for the team to get fully back on track \u2013 and a lot will also depend on who the new general manager is, which is still pending as of this writing. But based on his history and experience (and we haven\u2019t even gotten into his college profile), if someone is going to turn the Chargers around, he\u2019s definitely one of the better bets they could make.<\/p>\n<h3>Potential Staffing<\/h3>\n<p>Now that the Chargers have their new head coach, now the speculation (aside from who the GM will be) is what Harbaugh\u2019s staff will look like. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/chargers\/status\/1750325130918851039\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reporter Aaron Wilson<\/a>, sources suggest that it could include his defensive coordinator from Michigan \u2013 Jesse Minter \u2013 as well as Greg Roman for offensive coordinator. That name has raised a few eyebrows, as he had become unpopular during his time with the Baltimore Ravens.<\/p>\n<p>However, in fairness, he was Harbaugh\u2019s offensive coordinator with the 49ers. Also in fairness, kind of like Harbaugh, he hasn\u2019t worked with a quarterback like Harbaugh. Lamar Jackson, Tyrod Taylor (during his Bills OC tenure), Kaepernick \u2013 all more run-heavy quarterbacks, hence some of the more run-heavy offenses Roman has utilized. Some may wonder how Roman will fit with a Herbert-led offense, but Harbaugh should probably be given some benefit of the doubt. Kellen Moore staying on is still a possibility too, since they blocked other teams from interviewing him.<\/p>\n<p>Jim Harbaugh\u2019s son, Jay Harbaugh, was also named as a possible special teams coordinator. Given that Ryan Ficken has turned the special teams around very well since he took over, it would probably be better if Ficken would stick around. Granted, it\u2019s not like Jay has zero experience \u2013 he\u2019s been in the same position at Michigan for two years. But the special teams is one of the few things that fans would universally agree has worked well as of late, so one would think they\u2019d want to avoid changing a good thing.<\/p>\n<h3>In Conclusion<\/h3>\n<p>Jim Harbaugh getting hired is some of the best news that Chargers fans have had in a little while \u2013 and bodes quite well for the Chargers\u2019 future. As said earlier, the results may not be obvious right away \u2013 but history has shown that hiring a Harbaugh \u2013 either one \u2013 to turn your franchise around produces some quite good results. If the 49ers \u2013 and Ravens, for that matter \u2013 are any indication, then better days are indeed ahead for the Chargers.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: Melanie Maxwell \/ USA TODAY NETWORK<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Chargers are hiring Jim Harbaugh as their new head coach, and breaking a streak of hiring lesser-known or cheaper candidates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2355,"featured_media":159853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[54,18],"tags":[7642,1346,1652],"class_list":["post-159852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","category-chargers","tag-chargers-featured","tag-dean-spanos","tag-jim-harbaugh"],"modified_by":"Will Noltie, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2355"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}