The biggest LA Chargers storyline as the 2023 calendar year comes to a close revolves around a coach who is currently preparing his team for the College Football Playoffs. With a head coaching vacancy to fill, Jim Harbaugh has become fans' dream candidate and the focal point of all talk around the Bolts.
Harbaugh and his camp are certainly doing a good job of stirring up the conversation. Reporting around Harbaugh has sent a very obvious message to the Chargers that the team is going to have to pay big money and that has not slowed down the speculation in the slightest.
The conversation continued on Tuesday with NFL reporter Dianna Russini's appearance on 'The Herd with Colin Cowherd'. In her appearance, Russini made it very clear that Harbaugh wants to return to the NFL, and laid out the positives of the Chargers' job opening.
Chargers job is the best job. End of story. Plus he can help choose the GM. pic.twitter.com/dRqRhm1jcN
— Herbert is Tier 1 (down, but not out⚡️) (@SunnySideUp211) December 27, 2023
Jim Harbaugh's desire to coach the Chargers may be a very real thing
NFL insiders like Russini don't just go on network television and spew information that is not backed by truth. With all of the other smoke around this Harbaugh situation, fans should 100% believe Russini and assume that Harbaugh does indeed want to jump to the NFL.
Or, at the very least, that is what Harbaugh wants the narrative to be. There could be a bit of media manipulation by Harbaugh's camp to up his going price, causing Michigan to increase any potential offers. But with NFL speculation in previous years with Harbaugh, it is safe to say where there is smoke, there is fire.
Some of the shortcomings with the Chargers job that Russini mentioned are not as bad as they seem, either. The Chargers are in a bad cap situation for next season but the team can easily get under the cap with a few key roster cuts. As long as the Chargers can have a good draft they can replace the few players that will have to be cut.
And from there, the long-term future of the Chargers looks fine. According to Over The Cap, the Chargers rank 19th in total spending for the 2025 season. It may not be extreme cap space, but the Chargers are not in cap purgatory like some make it seem.
But at the end of the day, Chargers fans can sleep easy knowing that there is legitimate interest from Harbaugh to make the leap back to the NFL. Chargers fans should be ready for more twists and turns as this Harbaugh saga continues.