49ers may go from hiring one horrible Chargers head coach to another
By Jason Reed
The San Francisco 49ers just lost in Super Bowl LVIII and have already seen two prominent coaching changes since. San Francisco fired defensive coordinator Steve Wilks and allowed former LA Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn to leave the staff to go coach for the Washington Commanders.
Lynn's role as assistant head coach and run game specialist will not be as imperative to replace as Wilks' as the defensive coordinator. With almost every other team filling out its staff, the 49ers being so late to the defensive coordinator market does reduce the number of qualified candidates.
Thus, the 49ers may end up hiring someone who nobody thought would actually get a defensive coordinator job in 2024: Brandon Staley. According to Pro Football Talks' Mike Florio, there is belief throughout the league that Staley could be hired by the 49ers.
"We’ll see how it plays out. For now, however, we’re keeping an eye on Staley, because some people in league circles believe it eventually will be him."
49ers may hire another awful Chargers head coach in Brandon Staley
The more things change, the more they stay the same. It is quite fitting that just one day after it was reported that Lynn was leaving San Francisco his replacement has now been connected to the very same team he left.
Both Lynn and Staley were bad as the Chargers head coach but for various reasons. Lynn had no feel of the game as a head coach and could not build off his one successful season. Staley, ironically, could not put together a good defense and noticeably saw his locker room give up on him in real-time against the Las Vegas Raiders.
It is unclear to see why the 49ers would trust Staley to pilot the defense next season. Perhaps the team is selling itself on the one great season Staley had with the Rams and is completely ignoring the three awful defensive seasons with the Chargers. Because if the 49ers were paying attention, they would know not to hire Staley as the DC.
Lynn's departure could very well be a telling sign that Staley might actually be coming to the staff. Lynn didn't take that big of a job promotion, so it very well could have been a mutual decision by both him and the team. If San Francisco was serious about hiring Staley then they would probably inform Lynn so he didn't have to potentially work with the coach who replaced him.
Going from one bad Chargers head coach to another would be quite the feat by the 49ers. Maybe the team needs to call up Mike McCoy to try and lure him out of Jacksonville.