Uncut: The Chargers' 0-6 Nightmare & Jim Harbaugh's Disconnect

The Los Angeles Chargers mercifully are on their bye week, 0-6 for the first time in 26 years. So what is wrong with the Bolts, and can they fix it? Joining us now, Mike Sandoz, senior NFL writer with The Athletic. Mike, who deserves the most blame for this Charger debacle? It's probably the head coach, just because he's responsible for the hiring of the offensive coordinator, typically. And that really seems to be where there is a disconnect. I think Jim Harbaugh is a good coach. I think Mike McDaniel is a pretty good offensive coordinator. I think Justin Herbert is a pretty good quarterback. But that trio, that combination, just has not worked. And I think that's pretty inexcusable. Even though there's other factors, obviously the injuries are one of them, it's still been worse than anybody could have expected. And I think the head coach has to bear the brunt of that. Well, offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel was considered the score of the offseason. the genius who could now open his playbook because he had the quarterback that could do it all and yet it obviously is not working so what is at the core of the dysfunction between these two well one thing i think i think we do have to ask ourselves okay have we overrated herbert a little bit just based on his physical ability i think he's been good uh but is there is there something uh missing there and then uh i think with mike mcdaniel one of the criticisms this is more just talking to coaches who've played uh you know played the chargers did he come in expecting to do too much too soon because his offense at its best has a lot of movement a lot of things going on and it seems to me that maybe even in this day and age when you're not practicing much as much as you used to and you don't have pre-season games and the like did he come out in week one trying to be you know a finished product with this group and it's been too much too soon and they just haven't been able to handle it. So that is a theory, but I think typically it takes way more than one thing to get to 0-6, right? The quarterback can blow one game with terrible play in the second half or something, but to go 0-6 is really a hard thing to do. The league is built up to have parity. So I think you have to look at top of the organization, okay? Did they do enough? They're the 31st ranked team in spending this year did they do enough in the offseason right uh they went cheaper at some positions where you maybe could have pushed a little bit harder so you start there and then you say okay the head coach Jim Harbaugh is not somebody who can take control of the scheme he's not a scheming coach he's more of a leadership coach so his who he hires as his coordinators is of paramount importance he has to get that right it doesn't look like he did McDaniel deserves some some blame for that and then when we already talked about Herbert who has all the talent in the world but clearly bears some responsibility for this too with some of the decisions that he's made. Herbert has now played in exactly 101 games in his career so if you look side by side with him against let's say the greatest of all time Tom Brady at 101 games Herbert's got more passing yards more passing touchdowns he's got fewer interceptions he's got a better passer rating but of course the big difference is Herbert's still looking for his first playoff win and at that point in his career tom brady had three super bowl rings on his fingers so how do we interpret these numbers well there's a couple ways to go one is that uh it's gotten easier and easier to pass the ball now so a lot of people have better stats than they would have had 20 some years ago 25 years ago i guess you know that'd be what 2000 to roughly uh 2006 maybe would be about his first 100 games for brady uh somewhere in there and uh look it was a lot tougher sledding it was harder to pass the ball the offenses were still largely two wide receivers not three you had two running backs on the field and then i think critically the big difference is that uh you know those teams uh that Tom Brady had were stacked on defense and special teams they were really great it was a lot easier to win the games and so you needed Tom Brady to be good but you needed him to just kind of you know win some of the close ones they were so good as a team overall and i think the Chargers organizationally have had Justin Herbert and Philip Rivers, for the last 20 years, they haven't won a division title since 2009. And a lot of that has had to do with the fact that their defense and special teams have been so bad. Now this year, the offense is worse of all those things, and so now you've got no chance. Justin Herbert has been sacked more in his career than almost everybody in the history of the game. Third most sacks per season, Justin Herbert. But a lot of people say he kind of brings it on himself. Tries to play the hero at times, right? Hangs onto the ball longer, looking for the big play. Tries to eke out some yards. So should we give him a little slack, cut him some slack? Obviously his offensive line right now this season, I mean, last week they started all rookies on that offensive line. So what is your take on that? So I do think obviously they've had major line issues that's affected them, but I think also the quarterbacks have to get the ball out. And I think this season, one of the questions that's being raised in talking to coaches around the league and people who've played them is, you know, is he suited for this, you know, get the ball out quick offense? Does he process the game fast enough? Because he seems to be certainly a tick slower than those, you know, those top quarterbacks that are just kind of in charge of everything and nothing's too fast for them. The game goes, the game is slowed down for them. It feels like the game hasn't slowed down for him sufficiently, and now you have a new offense, which could be, you know, playing a role in that. But I think the quarterbacks control a lot of how much they're sacked. I'll give you a great example. Houston Texans, when they were an expansion team, David Carr took more sacks than anybody. And the minute they switched from that shot, they didn't have a sack problem. They didn't suddenly get a way better line, right? I mean, the quarterback was having a lot to do with that. Let's get it back now to his head coach, Jim Harbaugh, because it's almost bizarre at times, the comments Jim Harbaugh makes about his quarterback saying that he's going to go down one day as the greatest quarterback that ever lived despite what we've seen from the results does he almost hurt his quarterback does it putting him on a pedestal these massive expectations what are your thoughts on the relationship there i think that one's way over the top we all we know that Jim Harbaugh is everybody's biggest cheerleader and he wants to attack every day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind and we kind of chuckle about it but i think in this type of a situation where the quarterback's got enough you know has not lived up to expectations in the win column and in the playoffs famously to say that uh it's impossible that it would come true there's no way that he could do that right at this stage of his career there's no way he can be the greatest quarterback of all time it's just not going to happen so i think it's damaging i think it's hurting uh making it making the expectations even worse All right, Mike, let's wrap it up on this note. Let's say for a day you are Dean Spanos or you are Joe Ortiz and you needed to do something right now to do what is best for this franchise. What would your next move be right now, this week, this bye week? I'd consider making a trade. I think you need to get everyone's attention and show them that we're still in this thing and don't lose hope and we've got help on the way. We're doing everything we can because you've got so much into this year. You've won 11 games each of the last two years. You think you've got a lot of the players. Obviously, injuries are a factor. But go get yourself a front-line receiver or just something that tells the locker room, don't throw in the towel, guys. We got you. Now, are you trading Justin Herbert? When you said, I'd make a trade, the first thing that came to mind was you're trading number 10. No, no. I'm saying trade something to acquire something. I'm saying I don't think you're doing that. I don't think you're doing it. I don't think in week six, after week 16, we're giving up on Justin Herbert. I think we're trying to find ways to make this thing work. And then the other option would be to make a change of coordinator. Now, I don't know what they're paying the coordinator, how long this contract is. There's a lot of things that go into making those types of decisions that may not even be up to the head coach in the end. So that could be easier said than done, but I think that would be another move you could make. I just think anytime you add a frontline player, you get people's attention. If they were, let's just say they were to trade for Quenton Nelson, the all-pro guard of Indy. You know, he's got no contract after this year. The Colts just fired their GM. Wouldn't that be like, okay, right? You'd have an identity up front, and then those tackles come back, and then we're ready to go. All right. Hey, Mike, appreciate the knowledge. Thanks for stopping by. Thank you. All right. He's Mike Sandoz, senior NFL writer for The Athletic. I'm Kyle Kraska.