As hard as it may be to believe, the first third of the 2026 NFL regular season is in the books, but perhaps even more unbelievably, the first third of the 2026 NFL regular season is in the books, and the Los Angeles Chargers still don't have a single victory, falling to 0-6 after taking a disheartening 22-6 defeat to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday afternoon at Arrowhead.
With the Tennessee Titans picking up their first win of the year on Sunday with a 26-20 victory over the Indianapolis Colts, the Bolts are now one of only two winless teams left in the league, the other being the Miami Dolphins, who literally couldn't lose in Week 6, as they were on their bye.
But the Dolphins were supposed to be dreadful. The same can't be said of the Chargers. I mean, when we looked at the Super Bowl 61 odds just ahead of Week 1, Miami ranked dead last among all AFC teams at +35000 and ranked 31st among all teams, with only the Arizona Cardinals getting worse odds at +50000. Los Angeles, meanwhile, was tied for sixth overall and sat in solo fourth in the conference at +1700.
So, to simply say this season has been a disappointment would be a massive understatement.
Now, this is nowhere near the worst start in franchise history, but this season does mark the first time the Chargers have gone 0-6 since the year 2000. And in an amazingly ironic twist, the starting quarterback for the Bolts when they lost that sixth game 26 years ago was none other than current head coach Jim Harbaugh.
Jim Harbaugh was the Chargers' starting QB the last time the team started 0-6
In 2000, Harbaugh was in his second season with the then-San Diego Chargers and his 14th overall, having spent seven years with the Chicago Bears, four with the Indianapolis Colts, and one with the Baltimore Ravens.
Signed by San Diego to back up Ryan Leaf, who was famously taken second overall in the 1998 draft behind Peyton Manning, Harbaugh ended up starting a dozen games during the 1999 campaign after Leaf suffered a shoulder injury during training camp, going 6-6.
With Leaf healthy to start the 2000 season, Harbaugh was relegated to the reserve role for which he was originally signed but actually started the year at QB3, also sitting behind Moses Moreno.
Leaf was benched after just two games following losses to the Oakland Raiders and New Orleans Saints. And making the move to Moreno didn't help much, as the Bolts took a 42-10 defeat to the Chiefs in Week 3, with Leaf ultimately coming on in relief. Leaf got the start in Week 4 against the Seattle Seahawks, but when he suffered a sprain wrist, Harbaugh was finally called upon to take his turn, completing eight of 14 passes for 67 yards with an interception in a 20-12 loss.
With Leaf on the shelf, Harbaugh got the start for San Diego in Week 5 against the defending Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams, and while he played well, connecting on 27 of 40 throws for 348 yards with two touchdowns and an interception, the Bolts took a 57-31 defeat, as "The Greatest Show on Turf" was simply unstoppable.
Harbaugh remained the starter the following week against the Denver Broncos, but he wasn't nearly as effective, completing just 18 of 43 passes for 237 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions to earn an abysmal 38.6 passer rating in a 21-7 defeat, which dropped the Chargers to 0-6.
For those who may not recall or are simply too young to even know what went down back then, things did not get better as the season progressed, as the Bolts ultimately dropped their first 11 games before picking up a victory against the Chiefs in Week 13, which turned out to be their only victory of the entire season, with that win going to Leaf.
Harbaugh ended up losing all five of his starts and ended his year having completed 60.9 percent of his passes for 1,416 yards with eight touchdowns against 10 interceptions. And those turned out to be the final snaps of his career. While he signed with the Detroit Lions ahead of the 2001 campaign, he was cut just ahead of the regular season, at which point he signed with the Carolina Panthers, for whom he dressed six games but never saw the field.
We won't speculate about the future too much at this point, but if the Chargers only end up one winning one game the way they did in 2000, one certainly has to wonder if Harbaugh would again find himself leaving town.
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