Elevator ordeal could be first obstacle of trying season for 2024 Chargers

The Chargers hit their first obstacle of the 2024 season.

On Friday, players and people traveling with the team became stuck in an elevator at a Dallas-area hotel ahead of the team's Week 3 preseason game against the Cowboys.

"At approximately 7:30 p.m. CT Friday evening, several players and members of the Chargers traveling party were stranded in an inoperable elevator at the team hotel," the Chargers said in a statement.

"Dallas Fire-Rescue responded to the incident and subsequently assisted everyone from the elevator, one-by-one, through its ceiling panel and into an adjacent elevator."

That incident may be the first impediment in what could be a trying season for the Chargers.

Like that elevator, the team was inoperable in 2023, going 5-12 and regressing from a playoff berth the season before.

Former head coach Brandon Staley was fired following a ghastly 63-21 loss to the Raiders, and Los Angeles hired Jim Harbaugh just in time for him to avoid a four-year NCAA suspension for violating COVID-19 recruiting rules.

The 2023 college football national champion at Michigan, who has a 44-19-1 career NFL record after four seasons with the 49ers (2011-14), has his work cut out for him in his first season with the Chargers.

During the offseason, Los Angeles moved on from its top offensive playmakers, running back Austin Ekeler and wide receivers Keenan Allen and Mike Williams.

In ESPN fantasy football analyst Mike Clay's 2024 NFL projection guide , he ranks the Chargers running backs unit 29th and wide receiver unit 31st.

The cupboard is bare on offense other than quarterback Justin Herbert.

Harbaugh has won everywhere he's coached, but he should hit plenty of unexpected snags on his way to bringing the Chargers to the top.

Friday night may have been a dress rehearsal for what's to come.