LA Chargers: Comparing Anthony Lynn to the coaches before him

Norv Turner’s tenure with the Chargers:

• Record: 56-40
• Winning seasons: 3
• Playoff appearances: 3
• Playoff wins: 3

Norv Turner is easily the best coach of the bunch. Now, this is not to say that Turner is a fantastic head coach (this being his last head coaching job is indicative of that). However, Turner was better than people give him credit for and his success shows that.

Turner’s first three seasons with the Bolts were going really well. The Bolts won the AFC West all three years, winning 13 games, eight games and 11 games in those three seasons. They made it to the AFC Championship in 2007 (that is when Philip Rivers tore his ACL) and made it to the Divisional Round in 2008.

The worst record that the Chargers had with Turner at the helm was 7-9, which was his last season. Unfortunately, the latter years of Turner’s tenure were highlighted by poor roster-building by the front office, leading to some terrible offensive lines in front of Philip Rivers.

That poor roster-building led to a change at general manager that was accompanied by Turner’s firing. The Chargers were cleaning out and unfortunately then hired a terrible head coach.

The problem with Turner is that he took over for Marty Schottenheimer after he was infamously fired after a 14-2 season. Charger fans everywhere hated that move, making the relationship with Turner rocky from the start.

That changes how fans now view Turner, which is a shame because he was a pretty solid coach for the Bolts and accumulated the second-best winning percentage and second-most wins in franchise history.

I would not be surprised if we look back at Lynn’s tenure in the same breathe in a few years. However, it was obviously still time to move on and was the right move.