Stephen A. Smith's Brandon Staley take peddles senseless Chargers myth

The LA Chargers rallied late in the season to make the playoffs as the top-seeded wild-card team in the AFC. The defense played at an elite level down the stretch and the team weathered one of the longest injury lists in the entire league. Despite all of that, there are still discussions around Brandon Staley's job.

Staley was not very popular among the fanbase at the halfway point of the season and many felt he was not maximizing the talent on the roster. He certainly made questionable decisions worth critiquing (including his decision to play the starters in Week 18) but he earned the right to fall back into fans' good graces by getting the team to the playoffs.

None of this seems to matter as discussions around Staley's job security are still omnipresent. ESPN's Jeremy Fowler and Dan Graziano explored potential head-coach openings, circling Mike McCarthy and Brandon Staley as two coaches that could be fired if the Wild Card Round goes sideways.

Then we got this beauty from Stephen A. Smith (so take it with a grain of salt):

With all of this conversation around Brandon Staley's job security, we had to give a call to the Chargers Mythbusters (ourselves) to get to the bottom of this. And we have an answer.

The Chargers are not firing Brandon Staley regardless of what happens against the Jaguars.

Brandon Staley is not getting fired. Period. There is nothing that can realistically happen in this game to get him fired. Not after he led one of the most injured teams in the entire sport to a playoff berth.

Even when things were going poorly for the Chargers it never seemed like Staley would actually be fired. Rumors around the Sean Payton sweepstakes all but confirmed that back in November but Chargers fans didn't listen. They were still blinded by Payton.

As an organization, the Chargers do not fire coaches this early into their tenure. It just does not happen. Dean Spanos is not one to fire a head coach before his contract is up so he can continue paying him while the team employs someone else. Staley would have had to gone 4-13 with no injuries to make a move that drastic.

The only way the team would have moved on from Staley so quickly was for someone like Payton. And do you really think the team would have traded draft picks (likely a first), paid him a massive salary AND given him roster control? That goes against everything Spanos has ever done as the owner.

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The Chargers were not going to fire Staley to hire some first-time head coach and they definitely are not doing that now that the team made the playoffs. Joe Lombardi? Maybe. Brandon Staley? Not a chance.