NFL Expert Casts Doubt on Los Angeles Chargers 2024 Win Total In Jim Harbaugh’s First Year

The Los Angeles Chargers brought Jim Harbaugh in expecting his Midas’ Touch to turn a 5-12 football team into a playoff team in one offseason. This optimism survived the loss of the team’s top offensive weapons and a patchwork defense. Now with the preseason quickly, some of the shine has come off with the biggest news, Justin Herbert’s plantar fasciitis, being overshadowed by Harbaugh’s NCAA troubles.

Reality sets in for every team at this time of year, which has ridden high on draft picks, new coaches, and exciting free-agent additions, as injuries arise and expectations come to earth on players and staff. It is the needed cold shower.

Are The Los Angeles Chargers Overhyped?

The latest to throw cold water on the Chargers’ high hopes is Brad Gagnon of Bleacher Report. His new piece “Bandwagon or Bust: Buying and Selling NFL’s Most Hyped Teams” shows the Harbaugh effect improving the Chargers from 2023, but not to a playoff team and not even a winning team.

“While they’re too talented to lose double-digit games again” writes Gagnon, “it may take time for quarterback Justin Herbert—who now has a foot injury—to adjust to yet another new offense after a disappointing 2023 campaign. Keep in mind the Chargers underwent major changes pretty much everywhere on that side of the ball, while a defense that ranked 26th in DVOA and isn’t clearly better on paper shouldn’t be expected to do much heavy lifting. Throw in that they’re in a division with the Chiefs and in the stronger of the two conferences, and it’s not looking promising.”

Over his last two stops (Michigan Wolverines and San Francisco 49ers) Harbaugh has successfully turned a losing team into a winner in one season. But previously at Stanford, it took him three seasons to flip that team into the W positive column and four seasons to make them nationally ranked in the top 10.

The point is, that Harbaugh may move the needle in the right direction in 2024, but at the end of the day, the talent on the field is what will turn the Chargers into a playoff team. They had to excise a broad swath of talent to get financially in the black from a salary cap perspective. There is talent there, but it takes more than a handful of players to make the playoffs. The Chargers will need to get more sound across 53 players to be in contention.

But to counter Mr. Gagnon’s final point about their schedule, while he is correct about the Chiefs and the AFC being strong, the Chargers face the 2nd easiest schedule in the NFL , including four divisional games against the Denver Broncos and the Las Vegas Raiders. Their win totals are set at 5.5 and 6.5 respectively.

More must-reads:

• Michigan Wolverines Give NCAA “Middle Finger,” Chargers Jim Harbaugh To Be Honorary Captain In Season Opener
• Chargers Preseason Game To Offer 1st Look At Promising New Quarterback