For a decade Tom Telesco presided over the LA Chargers as the general manager and in that decade mediocrity ensued. The Chargers made the playoffs just three times in Telesco's tenure (one of which was his first season) and won a grand total of two playoff games.
After a historic loss to the Las Vegas Raiders on Thursday Night Football, the Spanos family had seen enough and fired Telesco along with head coach Brandon Staley.
Now, more than a month later the Chargers and Raiders find themselves in a potential bidding war for Jim Harbaugh. Both teams need to hire a head coach and a general manager and the Raiders seem intent on hiring a GM that will please Harbaugh. At least that is what it seemed like until it was reported that Telesco would be interviewing for the Raiders' GM job.
Source: Former #Chargers GM Tom Telesco, who presided over one of the most talented rosters for about a decade, will interview for the vacant #Raiders GM job.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 9, 2024
Raiders hilariously interview former Chargers GM Tom Telesco
It is safe to say that every single Chargers fan reading this wants the Raiders to hire Telesco as the GM. It is nothing against Telesco personally, he seems like a great guy, but Chargers fans saw firsthand just how mid a team can be with Telesco calling the shots.
Of course, Raiders fans will sell themselves on the delusion that the Chargers had a very talented roster if Telesco actually gets hired. That is the point that Ian Rapoport alludes to in the tweet above and it could not be farther from the truth.
There is this idea that the Chargers have been loaded with talent but that simply is not true. Over Telesco's tenure, the Chargers ranked 23rd in All-Pros and 24th in Pro Bowlers. One of the four All-Pros (Eric Weddle) and four of the 17 Pro Bowlers were on the Chargers before Telesco was.
Some pro-Telesco people may blame the coaching staff. Well, who hired the coaches? Some may blame bad injury luck. Well, who took the players who ended up getting hurt and also wasn't able to build quality depth behind those players?
Telesco is naturally going to seem like an intriguing candidate because he is the guy who drafted Justin Herbert. While that is great on his resume, it is not something that he should be getting loads of credit for. It was clear then and it is forgotten now that the Chargers were going to take whichever quarterback the Miami Dolphins didn't take with the fifth-overall pick.
If the Dolphins had been smart enough to draft Herbert then Tua Tagovailoa would have been a Charger and Telesco probably would have been out of a job two years ago. It isn't like Telesco traded up and made some excellent pick where he realized Herbert was the best QB in the draft. He took the third QB on the board, and quite frankly, got lucky.
But hey, if the Raiders want to sell themselves on that then who are we to stop them? If anything, we should be singing Telesco's praises that way he can stay in the AFC West.