The Los Angeles Chargers, with another back-breaking loss at the hands of the Seattle Seahawks, are now officially 0-4. For all intents and purposes, their playoff hopes are officially dead.
Even if they're able to rattle off a pair of wins before their bye, the best record they can exit their difficult stretch of games with between now and Week 10 is 5-4. Given the way they've played so far, that doesn't even feel close to realistic. Only one team in NFL history has ever made the playoffs after starting the season with four consecutive losses—the 1992 San Diego Chargers. That team won 11 of their final 12 regular season games. Los Angeles almost certainly doesn't have that sort of run just sitting in their back pocket.
Of course, there are questions lingering about this coaching staff and front office. Could we see a firing at some point this season? Is Los Angeles simply wasting time waiting for Mike McDaniel's offensive scheme to simply click into place?
As of now, it feels like that's a question, at least when it comes to Jim Harbaugh and Joe Hortiz, that won't be answered until the offseason. So in the meantime, where do the Chargers go from here? What will make the next 13 games truly worth watching?
The Chargers need to capitalize on their trade assets and maximize the development of their young players over the rest of the season
Let's be clear on one thing. This is not a rebuilding team.
This is Year 3 of Harbaugh/Hortiz era, and after churning out back-to-back 11-win seasons in their first two years at the helm, expectations were justifiably high for 2026. To already have shifted our sights to next season is obviously a major disappointment.
But if the Chargers have truly already been essentially eliminated from playoff contention, the rest of this season should be treated as (sort of) a rebuilding and re-constructing effort.
I'm still not convinced this team winds up with a top-four pick in the draft. We saw a glimpse of how Justin Herbert can still carry this team on his back in the second half of yesterday's game, and he'll find a way to carve out some wins for the Chargers before the end of the season. But moving on from tradeable assets like Khalil Mack should be a non-negotiable. Mack returned to Los Angeles this season for a chance to compete for a championship, but that has already been taken away from him. Unless he insists on playing out his career with the Chargers, a mid-round pick should be ample compensation for granting him that wish.
On the other side of the ball, Los Angeles' future plans absolutely should not involve McDaniel unless we see a miraculous turnaround by the end of the season, so there's not much point in hoping for development from Herbert in his West Coast-style scheme. What this team can hope for, though, is continued development from its young pieces.
Akheem Mesidor looks like a true third pass-rushing option alongside Mack and Tuli Tuipulotu, and he'll be tasked with taking on the secondary role when Mack is ultimately done with the organization. If he can continue to impact games on a week-to-week basis, that's a promising sign. Genesis Smith has also looked like a promising option at safety, and Tre' Harris has begun to emerge as a viable receiving option as well. Continued advancements from those players won't necessarily salvage Los Angeles' season, but they could provide some silver linings to an otherwise lost campaign.
On a broader scale, we've seen some major improvements from Chris O'Leary as a defensive play caller over these first few weeks. He's figured out how to dial up some of the effective pressure packages that characterized Jesse Minter's time with the team, and he's held his own despite injuries and a lack of depth in the secondary. Even if McDaniel is gone, the Chargers need to identify their defensive coordinator of the future with Minter out of the picture. The more O'Leary learns in this campaign, the more suited he'll be for that role.
For most Chargers fans, it's also a matter of watching Herbert get his spark back. He's looked downtrodden and defeated all season, but we saw a glimpse of that fire and competitive spirit in the second half against Seattle. The only way this season gets worse for the Chargers is if we see him ultimately quit on this team.
At the end of the day, these certainly aren't the storylines we were hoping would take the forefront before Los Angeles even reaches its bye. But this is the reality we're left with after an 0-4 start, and it's time to start thinking about where the Chargers' season can go if a playoff berth is truly off the table.
Add us as a preferred source on Google