The 2023 calendar year has officially come to a close and the 2023 NFL season has just one more week. For the LA Chargers, the final week of the season is a must-lose, as the team is leveraging itself for a better draft pick in April.
Just about everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong for the Chargers in 2023. After a promising 2022 season that saw the team make the playoffs, the 2023 calendar year could not have gone any worse.
While there are a lot of reasons why 2023 went so poorly, a lot of it can be boiled down to those who robbed the team blind. The Chargers simply did not get what was advertised out of several people, which ultimately led to this year's poor season.
Brandon Staley robbed the Chargers blind in 2023
The 2023 calendar year started with back-to-back horrible weeks. First, Mike Williams suffered a back injury that kept him out of the playoffs in a pointless Week 18 game that meant absolutely nothing for seeding. Then, the Chargers went on to blow a 27-0 lead against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC Wild Card Round.
Those two weeks alone should have been enough to convince the Chargers to move on from Brandon Staley. Instead, the blame was placed on the coordinators as Staley fired both Joe Lombardi and Renaldo Hill.
It didn't take a rocket scientist to see that Staley wasn't fit to be a head coach but he got another chance anyway. And as a result, the Chargers essentially had to throw away a season where the team never had a record above .500.
Staley didn't steal money with an expensive deal that didn't work, or he didn't steal a draft pick by being a bust. He outright stole the entire Chargers season by being a good talker and convincing the Chargers to bring him back for the 2023 season. For that, he is the biggest thief of all in 2023.