As week 4 approaches in the NFL, you look around and there are quite a few surprising teams out there: the Packers, the whole AFC South, and the San Diego Chargers. The Chargers have the same amount of losses going into week 4 that they had going into last season’s divisional playoff game. It is safe to say that they are off to a rocky start to say the least.
Tomlinson has been completely shut down, the O-line looks disastrous, and the defense is just decent, rather than dominant. It gets you thinking, can a team with the same roster as last season really be this out of whack just one season later? That answer is: absolutely. They have a new head coach and two new coordinators, but the real person to blame in this debacle is the general manager, A.J. Smith.
He has been praised for building the Chargers into an AFC powerhouse, but how do you explain firing someone who loses in the playoffs to hiring a coach who loses in the regular season? Marty Schottenheimer has a career winning percentage of .613 in 21 seasons of coaching while Norv Turner’s coaching record was 49-59-1 in 7 seasons with the Redskins, and 9-23 in 2 seasons with the Oakland Raiders, with only 1 playoff appearance in 9 seasons of being a head coach. Other than A.J Smith and coach Schottenheimer having a rocky relationship, I just can not see how he can justify this move a season after finishing 14-2.
In this salary cap era it is almost impossible to have a stacked team of pro bowl players. Coaching, game planning, and bringing in the right players for the system are more important then ever. The game is a lot more strategical than in the past.
It was a complete bone-head move to cut ties with a coach whom the players loved, and went an outstanding 14-2, and hire someone who has had virtually no success as a head coach. The Chargers upcoming games are all tough division battles and if they don’t turn it around soon, they will be outside looking in come January.
-Paul Schackman
4 replies on “Not so Super Chargers”
I totally agree. I don’t care how much everybody makes fun of “Marty-ball”, or how many playoff games he chokes in. If you’re going to replace the guy who had your team at 14-2 the year before, you better be replacing him with someone that is of a higher caliber. The Chargers management did just the opposite.
The bigger failure of Smith is that he waited too long to pull the trigger, with all the quality candidates off the market.
The NFL ain’t moneyball where the GM can just pick the players, you have to find the right coaches and put them in a proper place. You hire Norv Turner to O coord, not head coach. You hire a Marc Trestman to QB coach, not O-coord.
The farther you go up the pyramid, the more you need the ability to be a leader of men. You still need to have the tactical nous and organizational skills, but leadership is way more important.
couldnt agree more with you paul. but what about his decision to let drew brees go in favor of philip rivers. Brees was the best QB in the NFC by far last season, imagine if he was the QB on that Chargers team last seaon. oooo. new england would have gone down in that playoff game. AJ Smith wants to brag about how he can cut corners not paying players, but it has taken away from the teams performance. this team will never be the greatest bc smith wants to play god and keep shuffling very important people like they dont matter. he wants the pressure to be on turner and the players now, but it is HE who should be on the chopping block
[…] that they’re back on track just yet. Let me preface this by saying that I agree 100% with Paul’s September post touching on how horrid the decision to send Marty Schottenheimer packing was. I’m also not at […]