“Dire Straits” - Rich on the 0-4 Chargers & If Big Changes Could be Coming in L.A.

The Chargers went to Seattle believing their season turned around this week. Four quarters later they were 0-4, and Rich had a two-word diagnosis: dire straits.

It started with a tease. Justin Herbert threw an interception right away, and Rich pictured the week of buildup that preceded it. Jim Harbaugh knows Mike Macdonald "inside and out" from their days together at Michigan, where Macdonald was his defensive coordinator, and the message all week had to be some version of "We are world beaters. We're going to start turning it around right now." Then the pick. Sam Darnold handed it right back, and the Chargers took a 3-0 lead anyway.

That was as good as it got. Seattle got rolling, and Herbert could not be protected. "He's being thrown around like a ragdoll," Rich said.

The supporting cast did not help. With Ladd McConkey out, Rich ran through what was left: Tre Harris, Quentin Johnston, Keaton Mitchell and Omarion Hampton, behind an offensive line that was "supposed to keep this guy protected, and blow open the holes for the run game, and it just doesn't materialize. Again." Then the defense started turning the ball over, and the Chargers found themselves buried under an avalanche they only stopped late enough to make a game of it.

Now the schedule offers no mercy. Denver comes to town next, then a trip to Kansas City, then the bye, then the Rams. Rich's read is that the Chargers have to beat two division opponents, one home and one away, that were arguably their two best opponents coming into the season. The verdict from the table was blunt: "Got to be 2 and 4 heading into the bye week. Have to, have to, have to." And beyond that sits Houston, which Rich called the Chargers' "bugaboo" over the last two years, before a visit to Baltimore.

Then came the questions about the coaching staff. Harbaugh hired Mike McDaniel to run the offense, and he has already been asked whether McDaniel's job is in jeopardy. His answer: "His job is not in jeopardy. He's a skilled coach and we're going to keep growing."

The natural follow-up is whether that question eventually gets turned around on Harbaugh himself. Rich was quick to say he has not heard anything. And his larger point was about perspective. "One clunker of a season from Jim Harbaugh is something they'll countenance," he said. "Do we need to remind them of what it was like before he showed up?"

Rich acknowledged the counterarguments. The Chargers have not won a playoff game, and Harbaugh was supposed to turn Herbert into "the greatest quarterback in the history of the planet." But he pushed back on the idea that the McDaniel hire was a mistake from the start. Nobody, he argued, thought it was a bad move at the time. McDaniel was a run game coordinator for Kyle Shanahan, and his Miami schemes looked like "a perfect marriage" with this offensive line and Harbaugh's run-first mindset. Now the all-22 crowd says McDaniel is running the same system he ran for Tua and it does not fit Herbert. Rich trusts that Harbaugh and his staff are smart enough to know if that is the case.

So how much runway does the staff get? "The year," Rich said. Pressed with the idea that a 3-14 finish would mean nobody comes back, he did not buy the premise. "I don't think they're going to be 3 and 14. I think they're way more talented than that. The schedule isn't helping as they're trying to figure stuff out." He just cannot picture the Spanos family deciding that one awful year with Harbaugh is enough to bounce him.

Rich did float one idea for the future: the Chargers might not be a bad spot for Jeremiah Smith. Told they could use him right now, he agreed, then added the obvious caveat. "So could everybody else in the NFL."