Following the Bolts can drive you nuts

The Chargers' laydown in Vegas made it easy to clean house, but the coach was more culpable than the GM.

Brandon Staley

Winning in the NFL, with salary cap handcuffs and with rampant injury, might be the most difficult thing in sports. It is also not as difficult as the Chargers make it look.

On Thursday the Chargers broke their pattern of losing last-minute games. They lost, 63-20, at Las Vegas, to a team that scored zero the previous week. It was like a Southeastern Conference game on Sept. 10 against a hyphenate institution, and, shortly after the rooster crowed on Friday morning, coach Brandon Staley and general manager Tom Telesco were fired.

The Chargers, a team that annually wins the off-season and goes to training camp with visions of Super Bowls, are 5-8. They have played one Super Bowl in their existence and were viable for about five minutes before the 49ers took over and won, 49-26.

Staley had the job for almost three years and was 24-24 with one playoff appearance, the unpardonable loss at Jacksonville last season after the Chargers held a 27-0 lead. In his first year the Chargers needed only to tie the Raiders in the regular season finale to get themselves (and the Raiders) into the postseason, but Staley called a strange timeout late in the game, and then the defense — his defense, since that was his specialty when the Chargers hired him from the Rams — went supine and allowed Las Vegas to win with a field goal.

Staley became the national spokesman for the wild-hair fourth-down play, in which he ordered the Chargers to go for it regardless of field position. Occasionally it worked. Often it didn’t but the Chargers won anyway. Now most teams do the same thing, which might be Staley’s sole legacy. But it added to the impression that the Chargers were the NFL’s self-driving car.

The Chargers’ disinterest in playing the Thursday game, which was the only game that night and was nationally streamed, was the end for Staley, as was the year-long defensive collapse. Again it was an indictment of the “coaching tree” theory, which means that if you worked for Sean McVay you were equipped, through microchip, with all his traits and leadership abilities.

And that falls on Telesco and president Dean Spanos. But Telesco, near the end of his 11th year as the personnel boss, is harder to fault than Staley.

Telesco took Justin Herbert, who has thrown more touchdowns than anyone else in his draft class. He took Keenan Allen in the third round, and Allen has more catches than anyone in his draft class except DeAndre Hopkins and more TDs than anyone except Hopkins and Travis Kelce.

He took Joey Bosa with the No. 3 pick, which was the right call even though Bosa hasn’t been healthy enough to dominate, and he took Derwin James with the No. 17 pick, which seemed like a massive coup until this season, when he ranks 81st among safeties (Pro Football Focus). And Telesco’s scouting department signed free agent Austin Ekeler from Western Colorado, and Ekeler has become one of the best undrafted backs of all time, with 107 catches and 915 rushing yards last season.

Telesco picked tackle Rashawn Slater at No. 13, and Slater was second-team All-Pro as a rookie. He picked Mike Williams at No. 7 and, yeah, he could have taken Patrick Mahomes, but Williams has had two 1,000-yard receiving seasons and once led the league in yards per catch.

If it’s really gospel that the Chargers have a bulked-up roster, then Telesco is the man responsible for that.

So why haven’t they won?

It’s hard to overestimate the fact that the Chargers have no true home games, at least in terms of positive reinforcement. That is no one’s fault but their own, since they moved to Los Angeles uninvited and with no constituency, just as the Rams, at the same time, moved back. Neutrality is the goal for the Chargers at SoFi Stadium, and they seldom get that. There isn’t as much pressure when no one around you cares, but there isn’t as much incentive either.

Injuries have been particularly cruel. Ekeler, Allen and Williams played one game together this season and have been healthy for only 26 games overall. The offensive line struggled when Slater was out last year. It has missed center Corey Linsley for much of this year. Herbert has played with fractured cartilage in his rib cage and with bad fingers on his left hand, although the broken finger on his throwing hand has shelved him for the season.

And Telesco traded for Khalil Mack, who leads the NFL in sacks, and has been adventurous in free agent pursuits. Corey Hayward was a brilliant acquisition at cornerback, for a while. J.C. Jackson was such a disaster that Telesco reportedly apologized to the other defensive backs. Thomas Davis was past his peak, as was Linval Joseph. Bryan Bulaga had injury problems. Trai Turner was released after he played nine games. With the big-ticket lineup, depth suffered.

Staff churn was a problem, too. Herbert has had three offensive coordinators in four years. This year’s guy is Kellen Moore, who was Dallas’ offensive boss but left as head coach Mike McCarthy decided he wanted to call the plays. Much of pro football’s intelligentsia predicted the columns of AT&T Stadium would buckle with the defection of such a play-calling Mozart. The results, in both Dallas and L.A., suggest otherwise. The Chargers can’t or won’t run, and Herbert wears a “Hit Me” sign on his jersey.

Victory has a hundred fathers. So does defeat. There certainly is a “here we go again” quality to every Chargers’ season. Yonghoe Koo was a symbol of “Chargering” when he was L.A.’s kicker, and he has now won eight games in the final minute for Atlanta over the past three years, even though “Falconing” is also a thing. The offense falters when the defense shines and vice versa, the definition of discordant football when winning teams play in complementary fashion.

The NFL’s front offices are stacked with anonymous candidates for general manager jobs. Two of the most interesting are Ray Agnew, who was once a prime mover in the Rams’ front office and is now with the Lions, and Thomas Dimitroff, who assembled the Atlanta roster that once held a 25-point lead in a Super Bowl with Dan Quinn as the head coach and Kyle Shanahan as the offensive coordinator.

If the Chargers were to hire Agnew, the name of Lions’ offensive coordinator Ben Johnson would be bouncing around, and the same would apply to Quinn, the current defensive coordinator in Dallas, if L.A. hired Dimitroff. But it’s all speculation now. What usually happens is that the new coach bears no resemblance to the former coach. If that’s true, the Chargers’ guy will be experienced, thick-skinned, inspirational and open to the possibility of occasional punting. A skepticism of ghosts is also a prerequisite.