It’s a bittersweet feeling for the Los Angeles Chargers. They were one of the three AFC West clubs to make the postseason following the NFL’s 2024 campaign. On one hand, it’s impossible to be in high spirits after an embarrassing 12-32 loss in the wildcard round of the playoffs. On the other hand, making it to the postseason in itself was truly a victory.
Despite Saturday’s ugly outing, the Chargers’ ’24 season was somewhat of a success story.
This season began what was a process for Los Angeles—or rather, began what should’ve been a process. Once Jim Harbaugh was crowned the next head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers last January, he wasted little time parting ways with major contributors Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, and Austin Ekeler.
Almost overnight, the Chargers went from having an abundance of veteran playmakers to being a team currently in the rebuilding phase. It was time to build from the ground up in Los Angeles.
But who could’ve guessed the ground floor included a trip to the postseason?
Rookies Joe Alt and Ladd McConkey were brought in as foundational pieces to build on, not as a means of immediately catapulting a now-rebuilding team into the NFL playoffs. Regardless, that’s exactly what happened during Harbaugh’s first year constructing his new team.
To be that far ahead of schedule is, in the end, an overwhelmingly positive thing.
That’s the good news. The bad news is, so are the Denver Broncos. More than that, the Kansas City Chiefs are already where both Los Angeles and Denver dream of being.
Los Angeles Chargers: Keeping up with the AFC West
Unfortunately, all of the above is happening in the same AFC West division that the Chargers reside in.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Tom Brady and the Las Vegas Raiders are heavily pursuing the top head coach candidate in this year’s cycle, Ben Johnson, and Johnson is plenty interested. Of course, even with Johnson, Sin City remains quite a few steps behind all three of their division rivals.
The Chargers have many concerns heading into the offseason and may need more than a good draft to fix them.
For starters, and arguably most importantly, running back J.K. Dobbins is becoming a free agent. Although quarterback Justin Herbert is the guy Harbaugh ultimately trusts to run his team’s offense, it isn’t at all a stretch to claim Dobbins was the driving force of Los Angeles’ offensive success in 2024.
In games where Dobbins had at least 50 rushing yards, the Chargers walked away victorious in all nine contests. Conversely, in the four games Dobbins failed to hit that mark, zero games were won. And while Los Angeles posted a 9-4 record with their first-year running back taking the field, they went 2-2 during the four-week stretch he was out with an injury.
For those who have followed Jim Harbaugh throughout the years, the hard-nosed running favoritism is no surprise. The 61-year-old believes games are won in the trenches, and that starts with ‘pounding the rock.’
Veterans Denzel Perryman and Khalil Mack are on the last year of their contract as well, as is center Bradley Bozeman. That’s half of the team’s captains this season—that’s a problem, to say the least.
There’s much for Harbaugh to take care of heading into Year 2. In the meantime, an 11-win season to start the process is truly a success.
*Top Photo: AP Photo/ David Zalubowski