“This Is a Lost Season” - Rich on What Changes Could be Coming to the 0-6 Chargers

Matt has been a Chargers fan for 32 years. He grew up in San Diego, lives in Texas now, and called the show on Monday with a simple message: the Chargers need to start over at the end of the season.

Top to bottom, he said. Management, possibly the head coach, and certainly whatever is happening with Mike McDaniel. "Nobody's more shocked than Charger fans because we had all these big expectations about Justin Herbert getting unlocked," Matt said. "And here we are. He's the most hit quarterback in the league."

Rich agreed that 0-6 is unacceptable. With one of the other winless teams on a bye and another just picking up its first win, the Chargers are the only winless team to lose again. Rich allowed that hosting Kansas City coming out of the Chiefs' bye was an assignment you could see coming. But the frustration is real.

Then Rich did something he hates doing. He talked about a job. Having been close to the league for a quarter century, he knows what a firing means: families move, kids get pulled out of school. "It's just awful," he said. But quoting Hyman Roth, this is the business we've chosen. "Bottom line is it's not working with Mike McDaniel. It just isn't."

Jim Harbaugh, for the first time, left a little daylight when asked about McDaniel still calling plays. "We're going to look at everything," Harbaugh said. "It starts with me." He said he sees the effort and the work in meetings and on the practice field, and the task is getting that to translate to the field.

Rich was straight about the excuses. The quarterback is still getting hit. Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt were both out a couple of weeks ago. Ladd McConkey got concussed and had to leave early after just coming back from an injury. "Short of a seance, what do you do?"

But the experiment of bringing in a new set of eyes, a completely different system from the one Harbaugh is used to running, and handing it to McDaniel just isn't working. If fans demand a change, Rich doesn't think it will be at head coach. He also doesn't think anyone is paying dead money to Harbaugh.

The bigger problem is talent and health. Who is Herbert supposed to throw to? The run game, in Rich's word, is dreadful. "Omarion Hampton should be a banger here," he said. "And he has yet to bang." Someone in the studio noted a lot of Keaton Mitchell, and that the receivers don't scare anybody. Rich's view was that the first order of business for this team was supposed to be dominating the line of scrimmage. Instead, it's all over the place.

The bye week gives the staff time to figure it out, but the schedule after it doesn't ease up. The Chargers host Houston, a team that has had their number. Then a trip to Baltimore, where Rich imagined Harbaugh wanting a win for his brother. Then the Jets and Patriots back to back, including a Sunday nighter Rich suspects will get flexed.

"I mean, this is a lost season," Rich said. At 0-6, the best the Chargers can do is rip off some wins and get as close to .500 as possible.

If they land in the top five, though, Rich has a name: Jeremiah Smith. He raved about a 50/50 ball Julian Sayin threw up to Smith, joking that 50/50 balls to Smith are more like 95/5. "That's what the Chargers need for Justin Herbert," Rich said. Someone noted mock drafts already have Smith going first overall to the Chargers.

Rich doesn't think the Dolphins would take Smith if they wound up with the top pick. He thinks they'd go for a quarterback. Which raised a harder question: are people just assuming Herbert has completely lost it? He keeps throwing it to the other team, and as Kurt Warner and Daniel Jeremiah explained on the show, he simply doesn't jive with the offense yet. It's not for lack of trying, Rich imagined.

The real question from the studio was whether there's appetite to give McDaniel the whole year, or whether he takes the fall during the bye. At 2-4, Rich said, maybe you give it the year. But the last time the Chargers were 0-6, the quarterback room was Ryan Leaf, Moses Moreno and the current head coach, Jim Harbaugh.

One thing Rich will not do, ever, is call for Harbaugh's job. "You're coming to the wrong place for that," he said. "It's just never going to happen. Ever."