The Los Angeles Chargers look good on paper. Again. Back-to-back 11-win seasons under Jim Harbaugh, a franchise quarterback in Justin Herbert and what should be a dominant offensive line if Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt stay healthy. On the surface, this team has everything a contender needs.
But the postseason has been a different story. The Chargers got bounced as a Wild Card team by the Texans and then the Patriots. Two straight years of early exits. And the pattern is starting to look less like bad luck and more like a flaw that won’t fix itself.
Herbert has the tools. Now he needs the wins.
There’s no arguing with Justin Herbert’s talent. At 6-foot-6 and 236 pounds, he can see over defenses, shake off tacklers and throw into windows most quarterbacks can’t even find. Last season he completed 340 of 512 passes for 3,727 yards with 26 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. In 2024 he was even sharper: a 23-3 touchdown-to-interception ratio with a 65.9 percent completion rate.
But regular-season numbers only matter so much when January rolls around. Herbert has yet to win a playoff game. Some of that is on the offensive line and the run game. Some of it is on him. Confidence has been an issue for this team in big moments, and Herbert is the guy who has to fix that. It’s not just about making throws. It’s about making everyone around him believe they’re going to win.
Harbaugh’s play-calling problem
The bigger concern might be Harbaugh himself. The Chargers have a tendency to get predictable in crucial situations. When a team runs the ball on 75 percent of second-and-short downs, defensive coordinators start cheating. They load the box. They sell out. And the offense stalls.
That’s where Harbaugh’s stubbornness becomes a problem. Some coaches, like Bears head coach Ben Johnson, keep defenses guessing. Harbaugh has a history of sticking with what works — until it stops working in the playoffs.
The Chargers hired former Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel as their new offensive coordinator, and that’s a sign they might be ready to change. McDaniel understands modern analytics and knows how to attack defenses in unconventional ways. If Harbaugh lets McDaniel open up the playbook and calls a more balanced game, the offense becomes harder to stop. If he doesn’t, the same problems will show up again.
This is the flaw that could sink everything. The Chargers have the talent. They have the quarterback. But if Harbaugh can’t adjust in the postseason, none of that will matter.
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