The LA Chargers made the move fans have been waiting for on Friday morning as the team officially parted ways with Brandon Staley and Tom Telesco. This came after an embarrassing loss to the Las Vegas Raiders on primetime where a backup quarterback scored 63 points on the Chargers.
It is officially a new era in Los Angeles as the organization will be on the hunt for a head coach who can actually win with an elite quarterback under center. This season is already lost, and fans are in for an exciting offseason.
But it didn't have to be this way. The season didn't have to be over with a month left to play. The Chargers could have perhaps saved the season if the organization would have made the head coaching change sooner. And worst of all, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter, the Chargers nearly made the change not once, but twice this season.
"I asked about the interims and I was told to stay tuned..
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) December 15, 2023
This organization debated making a head coaching change twice in season before this..
I thought it was going to happen after the loss to the Baltimore Ravens" ~ @AdamSchefter #PMSLive https://t.co/HvngUzVQex pic.twitter.com/MiMMrOWSlI
Chargers nearly fired Brandon Staley twice earlier this season
The Chargers firing Staley early in the year would not have guaranteed success, but now that we have seen what actually happened, it is not a hot take to say that things may have been better if the team made the change at head coach.
If Staley is fired after the Baltimore loss (the team was 4-7 at the time) then who knows how these last three weeks would have gone. The team probably would have still beaten the New England Patriots and might have had a better chance to beat the Denver Broncos.
The Chargers were very much still in the playoff hunt heading into last Sunday. Let's just say in a perfect world the Chargers were far more prepared under the interim coach and actually defeated the Broncos and Raiders. The team would currently be 7-7 and right in the thick of the playoff race.
At the very least, Justin Herbert probably wouldn't be hurt as he was hurt on a non-sensical fourth-down attempt by Staley against the Broncos. So there is that.
The real question is what would have happened if the Chargers made the move sooner. If we had to guess, we would assume Staley was on the hot seat after falling to 2-4 on the season. Two games agianst awful teams in the Chicago Bears and New York Jets likely saved his job.
But what if the team made the move then? The Chargers still would have won those games and it is hard to see the team doing much worse after that. At the very least, maybe the team would have won one of the one-score games, likely against the Green Bay Packers.
And then who knows what would have happened in the divisional games. There is a world where the Chargers actually pulled the plug early and could be as good as 8-6 this season. Unfortunately, that world only exists in our imaginations because the Chargers gave Staley every opportunity in the book and he continued to fail at every turn.