Following a historic loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, the Los Angeles Chargers fired head coach Brandon Staley and GM Tom Telesco, based on ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
“I need to thank Tom and Brandon for his or her onerous work, dedication, and professionalism, and need each them and their nice households nothing however the perfect,” Chargers proprietor Dean Spanos said in a statement. “These choices are by no means simple, nor are they one thing I take flippantly – particularly when you think about the variety of individuals they impression.
“We’re clearly not the place we anticipate to be, nonetheless, and we’d like new imaginative and prescient. Doing nothing within the title of continuity was not a threat I used to be prepared to take. Our followers have stood sturdy by so many ups and downs and shut video games. They deserve extra. Frankly, they’ve earned extra. Constructing and sustaining a championship-caliber program stays our final aim. And reimagining how we obtain that aim begins as we speak.”
Giff Smith and JoJo Wood have been named the interim head coach and GM, respectively.
Thursday night time’s loss to the Las Vegas Raiders is likely one of the most embarrassing defeats in latest reminiscence. The Chargers’ 63 factors allowed had been the most in franchise history, and their 42-point deficit was the franchise’s third-largest margin of defeat. So as to add insult to harm, the loss knocked Los Angeles’ playoff odds right down to lower than one %, according to the New York Occasions.
The sport capped off an abysmal stretch for the Chargers’ protection. In Staley’s three years as head coach, the Chargers protection by no means completed larger than nineteenth in defensive EPA/Play and twenty first in defensive DVOA. In 2023, Staley’s protection completed with the fifth-worst explosive passing charge allowed regardless of working a two-high scheme particularly designed to eradicate explosive passes.
It wasn’t for an absence of expertise acquisition, both. Staley had two All-Professional defensive skills in edge rusher Joey Bosa and security Derwin James. Telesco then tried his greatest so as to add marquee defensive expertise every season, bringing in linebacker Khalil Mack by way of commerce and cornerback J.C. Jackson on a five-year, $82 million contract. Jackson performed all of seven video games earlier than getting traded again to New England, whereas the serviceable 32-year-old edge rusher Mack is predicted to value the Chargers a cap hit of $38.5 million in 2024.
In Staley’s inaugural season, the Chargers missed the prospect at a playoff berth due to Staley’s clock mismanagement in a Week 18 sport in opposition to the Raiders. In 2022, Los Angeles blew the third-largest lead in NFL playoff historical past. The Chargers will now possible fail to make the playoffs as soon as once more.
The rookie contract window for Justin Herbert ends this season, together with his market-setting contract kicking in in 2024. According to OvertheCap, the Los Angeles Chargers presently sit $42.2 million over the 2024 cap threshold, the third-least projected cap area within the league.