The LA Chargers have dealt with a lot of adversity this season and despite all the bumps in the road and having a tough schedule, the Bolts have rallied to a 5-3 record. While the numbers under the hood might not be impressive, all that matters is that the team has fought hard enough to be in a spot to make a playoff run.
Los Angeles has arguably its hardest back-to-back games coming up as they play two potential Super Bowl teams in the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs. Splitting those two games would be a massive win for the team, especially with the schedule that follows.
The Bolts' schedule does ease up a tad towards the end with some opponents (like the LA Rams) not being as daunting as before the season. With all this in mind, double-digit wins are definitely in the equation for the Chargers.
Double-digit wins are now even more likely with a future Chargers opponent becoming an even easier matchup on Monday. Prior to the season, the Indianapolis Colts looked like one of the toughest matchups of the year on primetime the day after Christmas. Now, they have no quarterback, no offensive coordinator and no head coach.
Frank Reich is out as the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/8Rat1EvNBk
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 7, 2022
This is not going to be a situation like the Las Vegas Raiders last year where the interim head coach takes over and rallies the troops to a playoff berth. While anything can happen on any given Sunday, this just made the Colts a much easier team to play on December 26.
The Indianapolis Colts will likely be more concerned with draft position by the time they play the LA Chargers.
Frank Reich is a good coach. It is going to be very hard for the Colts to find someone who is definitively better than him and they certainly are not going to do that with an interim head coach this season. This is not an Urban Meyer situation where the team gets better simply by Reich not being there.
Indianapolis is currently 3-5-1 and this move is essentially Jim Irsay waving the white flag on the season. After years of quarterback roulette that has gotten progressively worse, Irsay is likely punting on this season to finally get a quarterback in the 2023 NFL Draft.
The Colts are dead-last in DVOA this season, so expect the losses to start piling up. With there being so much parity in the NFL, the Colts can absolutely find themselves in the top five of the 2023 NFL Draft. They just need to pile up the losses as the year goes on to do so.
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The LA Chargers must avoid overlooking the Colts, as that is exactly what happened last year against the Houston Texans, but this should be a fairly easy matchup late in the season.