NFL execs love what they're seeing from Chargers' Joe Hortiz, Jim Harbaugh

The Los Angeles Chargers have started to grab some serious national attention for the way general manager Joe Hortiz and head coach Jim Harbaugh have rebuilt the program around franchise quarterback Justin Herbert.

It’s an internal thing, too, and not just national media.

Case in point, anonymous NFL executives recently had nothing but good things to say about Harbaugh and Hortiz when talking with The Athletic’s Jeff Howe.

“They’re starting to stack players,” an executive told Howe. “They’ve had two really good drafts. They’re on the uptick. They’re trying to protect (quarterback Justin Herbert) and complement him with the run game.”

Howe’s project, by the way, focused on the NFL teams with the best front offices. New territory for the Chargers, to say the least.

Chargers fans had some cautious optimism that this was on the way, simply based on what they saw last year.

Hortiz was a careful tone-setter for the Baltimore Ravens for a long time and applied many of his usual roster-building habits to the Chargers. But the organization could only overhaul so much of the roster in one single offseason, with key nagging injuries to Herbert and very lacking positional groups, such as wideout, limiting the Year 1 results.

And by “limiting,” we still mean reaching the playoffs in the ultra-competitive AFC, anyway.

Now? The Chargers have commanded attention by rattling off three straight AFC West wins to start the season, meaning all the praise has certainly been earned.

Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh and general manager Joe Hortiz — Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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