Tom Krasovic: Winless Chargers' self-evaluation must go all the way to the top

Tom Krasovic, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Oct 20, 2026

Published in Football

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SAN DIEGO — “We’re going to look at everything,” Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh said Sunday when asked if he might relieve offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel of his play-calling duties.

It’s study week as well for owner Dean Spanos and president of football operations John Spanos as they ponder why their 10th year in L.A. and third season with the highly paid Harbaugh has begun so poorly.

L.A. has lost all six of its games and amassed the league’s second-worst point differential.

A little advice to the Spanoses:

Give thought to why it is that in the third season of your club’s past four head-coach cycles, a winning program has come a cropper.

Under prior L.A. coaches Brandon Staley, Anthony Lynn and the final San Diego Chargers head coach, Mike McCoy, the team began with two winning seasons that each also produced one playoff trip.

Then in the third year, as if a powerful gravity intervened, each program fell off by five to seven victories.

Many football coaches view the third year as especially revealing.

One is Andy Reid, who has gone to six Super Bowls and won three Lombardi trophies.

“Normally, your third year, it fits,” Reid said a decade ago. “You kind of establish what you are or what direction you’re going.”

On the other hand, if the fit isn’t good, the new reality lands hard.

“It hits you in the head like it’s a baseball bat,” Reid said.

The smell of pine tar has returned to Chargers Land.

Despite the familiar whiff, the team’s braintrust must feel stunned by the 0-6 start.

Harbaugh brought to the franchise an impressive record of consistent success.

McCoy, Lynn and Staley new to head coaching when the Spanoses hired them. The well-traveled Harbaugh had won at a high rate for several years at each of his four head-coaching spots — three college programs and the San Francisco 49ers.

So it made sense that when L.A. general manager Joe Hortiz was asked two months ago if Harbaugh’s team would avoid the third-year blows that slammed his three predecessors, Hortiz insisted that Harbaugh’s track record exempted him from such speculation.

“This is Jim’s seventh year as an NFL head coach,” Hortiz noted, while standing at the University of San Diego’s Torero Stadium before a training-camp practice.

“I couldn’t put that (three-year plummet) together with the previous guys. It’s not apples to apples. It’s not apples to oranges.

“I wouldn’t call it apples to steaks.”

Harbaugh’s third seasons at previous stops had produced regular-season records of 11-1, 8-5, 12-4-1 and 8-5. Those efforts came with, in order, USD, Stanford, the 49ers and the University of Michigan.

In comparison to Harbaugh’s second year in those same programs, the third-year yields were these:

An identical record, an improvement of three victories, a half-game gain due to not having a tie and a three-game decline.

So, 0-6 is foreign ground for Harbaugh.

The Spanoses would no doubt agree that Harbaugh had earned much higher expectations.

After all, they signed him to a five-year, $75-million contract that ranks in the NFL’s top tier for yearly pay. The investment far exceeded what the owners had committed to Staley, Lynn and McCoy.

Harbaugh reached the Super Bowl in his second year with the 49ers and returned to the NFC title game in his third year.

His nine-year run with Michigan culminated in a 15-0 season that brought the club’s first undisputed national title in 75 years.

With L.A., he began with a two 11-6 seasons.

The 0-6 start should be prompting many questions within the franchise.

Among them:

How much can be blamed on the numerous injuries to standout players, notably star receiver Ladd McConkey and three above-average offensive linemen?

Why did the team look so ill-prepared at the season’s outset, losing as a heavy favorite in Weeks 1 and 2 opposite rookie head coaches?

Did Hortiz and Harbaugh err by not devoting more of the club’s considerable salary cap space to the offensive line and pass-catching group?

Given that McDaniel’s offenses with the Miami Dolphins produced explosive plays and yards after catch, but lacked strong offensive lines, did Harbaugh underestimate how much All-Pro receiver Tyreek Hill, an all-time great, tilted games toward Miami and RPO-adept QB Tua Tagovailoa?

Why has Justin Herbert, 28, struggled far more in McDaniel’s offense than he did in his first year under four other coordinators? And more than Tagovailoa struggled through his first six games under McDaniel?

Let’s keep this real.

The Spanoses must be part of the self-evaluation.

If they’re serious about winning a Super Bowl, they’ll take into account that their stewardship of the team goes back many fruitless years.

“What can I do better?” is a question that should apply to them — not just Harbaugh, his staff and the players.

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