The Los Angeles Chargers are doomed to squander Justin Herbert’s prime

Here we go again with the chargers. This franchise has another life-changing, mega-talented quarterback in its building, and management’s response is to squander his best days. The situation in Los Angeles seems to be heading towards this. Instead of showing Brandon Staley the door in favor of a HC If you don’t train like you’re playing Madden’s online franchise mode, the Chargers have chosen you changes in staff.

Sean Payton, who?

There had been rumors that if Staley’s crew crashed and burned again, Sean Payton might potentially take over the Chargers. Well, they made it into the postseason for the first time in his tenure, but they still failed epic and lost one 27 points second half lead on to the Jacksonville Jaguars Wpicture Cother Saturday.

Even after a 10-7 campaign in which the Chargers were No. 5 Seeds in the playoffs, Staley’s style and philosophy still leave a lot to be desired. Although he’s backed off a bit, Staley would much rather try fourth and whatever more times than any fan should be comfortable with. He played with players’ health, adjusting starters and playing them deep into a meaningless Week 18 game when they had nothing to gain or lose by the outcome. Due to Staley’s hubris, wide receiver Mike Williams was on the field when he didn’t need to and suffered a back injury that caused him to miss the playoff loss to Jacksonville. Despite all of this, Staley’s job is secure for now.

G/O Media may receive a commission

Up to $100 credit

Samsung backup

Reserve the next generation Samsung device
All you have to do is sign up with your email address and boom: credit your pre-order on a new Samsung device.

New city, same chargers

Another promising year ends in disappointment for Justin Herbert, who at this point feels destined to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor Philip rivers. The former Charger was always pretty good and even had years when he was great, but it was never quite enough. And the franchise never felt like it was willing to do anything to get the team over the hill.

These Rivers-led Chargers squads were good, but always just a step or two behind the Patriots, Steelers, and Colts in the AFC. The Ravens even sneaked into a year to win a Super Bowl during River’s tenure with the Chargers. In 14 years as a starter for San Diego/LA, the Rivers’ Chargers made it to an AFC title game. During that time, the Jets — of all franchises — played in consecutive AFC championship games.

It feels like Herbert is about to meet the same fate of coming close once or twice but never having enough support to close the deal. In his first three years, Herbert made the playoffs once and lost a game that the Chargers had in the bag. We can’t blame Staley for any of this, but his terrible decision-making for two years certainly plays a part. But if the owners really did care about winning, they would do anything to win Payton.

Staley’s style

Staley has a ceiling that his analytical/Madden-based coaching approach will force him to smash every time. The Chargers finished both years under Staley with a winning record, but they missed the playoffs last season, giving up an insurmountable lead in a W this timepicture Chard game. Sure, talent has to perform, but coaches have to put them in positions to be successful. Staley puts his players in unnecessarily difficult situations more often than he should. Whether it’s playing guys when they could rest or passing points via field goal attempts to go another quarter down.

What matters is cheap ownership. The Spanos family is known for being frugal by NFL standards. The mere fact that either of us thought the Chargers were seriously pursuing Payton was wishful thinking. Her last three coaching stints (Staley, Anthony Lynn and Mike McCoy) were all first-time head coaches. Some organizations are cursed and doomed to repeat past mistakes over and over again. That’s where the Chargers have always been. Barely good enough but never willing to do enough to become a real threat in the AFC.