Jim Harbaugh's Hot Seat Status With Chargers Could Go Nuclear Soon

If the Chargers keep losing, there's nothing protecting Jim Harbaugh...right?

Jim Harbaugh | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

When the Los Angeles Chargers dropped a game to the Buffalo Bills in ugly fashion, we wrote that Jim Harbaugh’s tenure with the franchise probably expired. 

Harbaugh and the Chargers then turned around and lost ugly in Seattle to hit 0-4, showing that it was just a matter of time for the hot seat to really fire up and get to that point. 

Tack on Harbaugh’s ugly spat with a Chargers reporter this week, and things certainly seem headed that way. 

These things take time, clearly. But the implosion appears to be happening slowly right in front of the public. 

As such, hot seat analysis from all corners has really started to sour on Harbaugh’s time with the Chargers. 

Chargers’ Jim Harbaugh hot seat updated

Jim Harbaugh | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The case for Harbaugh is simple: He’s had plenty of success already and he can point to injuries as a major problem point that derailed this year. 

That’s the crux of many arguments for Harbaugh at this point. There’s clearly something wrong with how the Chargers’ front office even goes about adding talent. 

Christian D'Andrea of For The Win wrote that the real unforgivable thing is the complete collapse of Justin Herbert. 

“Harbaugh may be able to buy some grace by sacrificing McDaniel and pointing to the injuries that have kept his offense in neutral,” D'Andrea wrote. “What he may not be able to survive, however, is Herbert's sudden descent to a bottom-five starting quarterback.”

Sports Illustrated’s Conor Orr added, though, that an older version of Harbaugh might force the Chargers’ hand: “The Chargers will not fire a coach who won 11 games in each of his past two seasons unless vintage, owner-clashing 49ers-era Jim Harbaugh rears his head over the coming months. Given that there is no college head coaching job to escape to, my guess is that the operation will least appear more buttoned-up the closer we get to November and December.”

It’s all fair and doubly concerning: The crux of Harbaugh support right now seems to be that injuries derailed things and he’s, if nothing else, still being a nice guy. 

Problem is, at least to some degree, the Chargers front office is just following his vision for the club. And Harbaugh himself has openly admitted that his staff took the wrong approach to the summer work, which might explain why his team looks so unprepared. 

It’s safe to suggest that the Chargers would fire Harbaugh long before they move on from Herbert. But it’s a brutal spot to sit, as one of the biggest problems of the Herbert era is the never-ending coaching carousel. Ripping up the program isn’t ideal, either. 

But again, if the Chargers keep looking like the worst team in the NFL and the locker room isn’t responding, starting over is pretty much unavoidable. 

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