Tag: Jim Harbaugh Chargers

Brock Bowers meets with Chargers, Jim Harbaugh: ‘It was cool to see him again, talk to him’

The Chargers have been linked to Georgia tight end Brock Bowers throughout the pre-draft process.

The Chargers have been linked to Georgia tight end Brock Bowers throughout the pre-draft process. The two parties finally met, as Bowers was interviewed by them on Wednesday at the NFL Scouting Combine.

“I met with the Chargers the other night, Bowers said, per Sports Illustrated’s Gilbert Manzano. Me and Coach Harbaugh talked about when we played them [Michigan] in 2021 when he was recruiting him. It was cool to see him again and talk to him.”

Bowers was recruited by various colleges, including by Harbaugh’s Wolverines when he graduated from Napa High School.

Bowers went on to have a polished career for the Bulldogs, finishing with 175 catches for 2,538 yards and 26 touchdowns and becoming the first two-time John Mackey Award winner.

With Gerald Everett set to be a free agent, the Bolts will be in the market for a bonafide starting tight end for offensive coordinator Greg Roman, who covets players at the position in his system.

Bowers is a mismatch for any defender in the passing game and he is a solid run blocker.

Bowers should be available when the Chargers are on the clock with the No. 5 overall selection, but he also might also if they were to trade back a few spots.

Jim Harbaugh would ‘love’ to have Austin Ekeler on Chargers in 2024

Austin Ekeler is slated to be a free agent.

Austin Ekeler is slated to be a free agent.

Jim Harbaugh, however, would like it if Ekeler remained in the blue and gold when he begins his tenure as Chargers head coach.

“If things go well, it’s going to be because of guys like Austin Ekeler and the players,” Harbaugh said, per Associated Press’ Rob Maaddi. “I like Austin Ekeler.”

Harbaugh is expected to emphasize the running game in Greg Roman’s offense, which the Bolts have struggled with in previous seasons.

“We’re going to have a huge emphasis on the run game, and we gotta block better up front. He’s a tremendous back and we’d love to have him on the team next year.”

Following a trade request this past offseason, Ekeler stayed in Los Angeles after $1.75 million in incentives were added to his contract.

Even though he surpassed 1,000 total yards on the year, Ekeler had a disappointing 2023 season. He suffered a high ankle sprain in the season opener, and he wasn’t as efficient on the ground and dealt with drops upon returning, finishing with the lowest scrimmage yards per touch of his career.

Coming off a down season, both as a player and as a team, Ekeler believes that Harbaugh is the guy to get them on the right track.

“I’ve heard great things about him. I’ve heard about he’s a culture-starter, which is exactly what that team needs,” Ekeler said.

“My message for Jim if I’m on that team or not on that team is to make sure we’re holding ourselves to a high standard and the culture is about holding ourselves accountable and holding other players accountable because I think that was lacking last year.”

Ekeler is not far removed from when he led the NFL with 38 touchdowns in 2021 and 2022. So he could still provide some juice to the offense.

Ekeler will keep his options open when deciding where to play in 2024. But one thing that is certain, whether or not he is on the Chargers next season, is that Harbaugh is going to do whatever it takes to establish an efficient ground game to take some pressure off Justin Herbert.

Chargers WR Quentin Johnston reflects on rookie season, eyes breakout sophomore campaign

Quentin Johnston is ready to put his rookie season behind him and put together a solid sophomore campaign.

Chargers wide receiver Quentin Johnston is coming off his rookie season. A season in which he finished with 38 catches for 417 yards and two touchdowns.

Johnston recently spoke with Chargers Wire’s Gavino Borquez to talk about the opportunity where he and two other first-year players are inviting cruisers to score an unforgettable vacation getaway as well as his rookie campaign and what to expect in Year 2.

CW: Can you tell us about your partnership with Pepsi Zero Sugar and Carnival Cruise Line?

QJ: I’m excited to be partnering with Pepsi Zero Sugar and Carnival Cruise to kick off my rookie season. We are giving first-time cruisers a chance to set sail.

CW: How do fans enter for a chance to win the “Board a Rookie. Return a Pro.” Sweepstakes?

QJ: They can win the sweepstakes by visiting pepsirookiecruise.com.

CW: You’re now removed from your rookie season. Reflect on your first year in the pros.

QJ: Yeah, you know, everybody’s first season is kind of unexpected in a way just because this is the longest season. I thought my last college season was long just because we went to the playoffs and everything. But by the time that was over, we were still having NFL games, so a great learning experience with some great guys. Being on the field and then in the actual meeting room with Keenan. Guys like Mike. You know, day in and day out. It helped me elevate my game and just my mental knowledge of the game of football altogether.

CW: It seemed like you faced a lot of pressure, like most first-round picks do. But I believe expectations regarding rookies need to be tempered. What do you tell people that are that way? What are you looking to improve and what do you feel like you had a lot of success in your rookie season?

QJ: Just tell them once you’re drafted, you’re drafted. It doesn’t really matter where you get drafted you’re on the team and just be patient. I feel like a lot of rookies have different experiences and from my experience, it’s still football. But from college to the NFL, that’s a few levels up. Stuff like that takes time to get used to. I feel like, at this point, I have a full season under my belt. Starting to train with real professional guys day in and day out. Next season I feel like it will be more of my breakout season, and I’m very excited about it.

CW: Who would you say that you were the closest with and what was the best advice given?

QJ: Keenan Allen, for sure. On the field, you know he’s a great route runner. So just watching him come in and out of his breaks, especially starting camp. Just watching him and he’s doing it at a high level. He’d put me to the side and just start showing me how to tempo through certain routes and stuff like that. Off the field, stuff like film study, how to develop a routine when you’re away from the field so you can come back and refresh and have everything that you need to put your best foot forward the next day.

CW: How about former Chargers wide receiver coach Chris Beatty? He’s with the Bears now. He was your first positional coach in the NFL. What did you learn from him? What did he teach you? And what can you say about Chris?

QJ: Coach Beatty was a pretty good coach. He was my first NFL coach. That was a great experience with him. He’s been with a lot of teams and has coached a lot of good guys that I looked up to growing up. Guys like Tavon Austin. He would just tell me how those guys developed through the years and how I can develop, where he sees me at different points in the season. Hard coaching to set me up for this season coming up here, so I appreciate him for that.

CW: You’re having one of the most prestigious coaches in Jim Harbaugh coming in. I think people forget that you had a really good game against Michigan in the 2022 Fiesta Bowl, too. 6 catches, 163 yards and a touchdown. What can you say about Jim? What are you looking forward to?

QJ: Very, very excited to have him. He actually shot me a text a few days after he got the job, and then a day or two after that, we got on the phone and had a cool little conversation about everything. We did talk about that Michigan game when we played them. So that was that was a pretty fun conversation. He wasn’t too happy about that. But I’m excited for him coming off this success he’s been having and we’re going to do everything we can to make that translate for him and for us to the next level.

CW: What can fans expect from you in Year 2?

QJ: I have a full year under my belt. I will continue to listen and learn from the other guys in the wide receiver room. Continue to master my craft. So I can guarantee this will be my breakout season and I’m just going to have fun while I’m doing it.

Keenan Allen believes he will be with Chargers in 2024: ‘I don’t see myself going anywhere’

Keenan Allen believes that he will be staying in Los Angeles.

With the Chargers set to be over the league’s salary cap, they will have to do some wheeling and dealing with some of their players this offseason to clear up space, whether it’s extending, trading, restructuring or releasing them.

Among the current highest-paid players who could be dealt to open up salary cap space is wide receiver Keenan Allen, who has a cap hit of $34.7 million.

Allen, however, believes that he will remain in Los Angeles.

“Yeah. Absolutely,” Allen told NFL Media’s Cam Wolfe at the Pro Bowl Games when asked if he expected to be with the Chargers next season.

“I don’t see myself going anywhere,” he added.

Allen is coming off the best season of his career before suffering a heel injury that kept him sidelined for the final four games of the season.

In 13 games, he set the Chargers’ single-season record for receptions with 108 and amassed 1,243 yards, the second-most in his career. Allen also had seven touchdowns.

Jim Harbaugh was introduced as the Chargers’ new head coach on Thursday, and he mentioned Allen when asked about the players that attracted him.

“He’s been watching for a long time, and we actually played against each other: Stanford-Cal,” Allen said about Harbaugh. “He just wants me to continue to be a leader. Continue to be who I am. And he’s going to do his job.”

Coming off a 5-12 season, Allen knows better days are ahead for the Bolts.

“We’re going to continue to compete,” Allen said. “Do what we do and put some better results out there.”

Takeaways from Chargers HC Jim Harbaugh’s introductory presser

The Chargers introduced Jim Harbaugh as their new head coach on Thursday. Here are the top takeaways from Harbaugh’s presser.

The Los Angeles Chargers introduced Jim Harbaugh as their new head coach on Thursday.

Here are my top takeaways from Harbaugh’s presser:

Chargers HC Jim Harbaugh on coming to NFL: ‘There’s no Lombardi Trophy in college football’

Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh revealed why he left his former coaching job at Michigan.

In a recent interview with CBS Sports, Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh revealed why he left his former coaching job at Michigan and decided to make the move to the NFL. 

“I love Michigan, but I love the NFL too,” Harbaugh said. “There’s no Lombardi Trophy in college football.”

After going undefeated and winning the National Championship over Washington, Harbaugh had the perfect college season. There was really nothing more he could do.

However, he did have some unfinished business in the NFL.

Harbaugh believes his best chance of achieving his next goal, winning the Super Bowl, will be with the Chargers. 

“There’s nowhere better to do it than with the Los Angeles Chargers,” he explained. 

Harbaugh revealed that he has met some of the Chargers talent, including quarterback Justin Herbert, safety Derwin James and wide receiver Keenan Allen.

“I was a little starstruck,” Harbaugh said when talking about meeting Herbert. 

As Chargers fans eagerly wait for next season, Harbaugh has already begun changing the culture in Los Angeles. 

“We work together, we win together and it’s worth it,” Harbaugh said. “The sacrifice, the pressure, all of it–why would somebody put themselves through that? Because the rewards are just so darn good.”

Harbaugh will officially be introduced on Thursday at 1 pm PT at YouTube Theater at SoFi Stadium, where he will have his first press conference as the Chargers head coach.

Report: Jesse Minter to follow Jim Harbaugh to Chargers

The Chargers will have a new defensive coordinator.

According to NFL Media’s Tom Pelissero, Michigan defensive coordinator Jesse Minter will follow new Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh to Los Angeles.

Minter has been Michigan’s defensive coordinator for the last two seasons following Mike Macdonald’s departure to Baltimore. In 2023, the Wolverines ranked first in the country in total defense. Michigan’s defense was sixth in opponent points allowed in 2022 before finishing first this season. The stingy, smothering UM defense allowed 10.4 points per game in 2023.

Regarding coverage, Minter runs a variation of the aforementioned 2021 Macdonald’s 3-4, 4-2-5 Michigan scheme with similar doses of Cover 3 and Cover 1. However, he has also publicly spoken about the differences between dealing with college and pro offenses at length.

Pelissero added that Greg Roman and Jay Harbaugh are expected to join the Chargers’ staff in “some capacity.” Roman has been rumored to return to the league as LA’s offensive coordinator with Harbaugh. He was Associate Head Coach with Harbaugh at Stanford before becoming his offensive coordinator with San Francisco. He was last employed by the Ravens in 2022 before resigning from his position.

Another possibility for Roman, if someone else was hired for offensive coordinator, would be to take a run game coordinator role with the Chargers. He’s also had experience coaching the offensive line and tight end groups during his lengthy career.

Per the same Wilson report, Jay Harbaugh could be brought on as special teams coordinator. However, the Chargers did block Ryan Ficken from interviewing with other teams. It wouldn’t surprise me if LA tried to keep Ficken as special teams coordinator while giving Harbaugh another role on the staff. At Michigan, he’s also been a position coach for the running backs, safeties, and tight ends in various seasons, in addition to special teams responsibilities.

The “some capacity” in Pelissero’s report certainly does lend itself to the idea that the Chargers are still working through the main coaches’ exact titles on the staff outside Minter.

Chargers coaching staff tracker: Who will Jim Harbaugh hire?

Here are the latest updates in the Chargers’ coach staff hires.

The Chargers hired Jim Harbaugh to a five-year deal to be their new head coach.

Los Angeles’ next thing to do will be to hire a new general manager, but Harbaugh will fill out the coordinator and assistant roles on staff soon after.

As of now, there are some reports that Harbaugh could bring some members of the Michigan staff, including defensive coordinator Jesse Minter and special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh. But nothing has been confirmed yet.

We will keep you up to date with the latest news in the coaching hires along Harbaugh’s staff, but nothing is official until the team announces it as such.

Here are the latest updates on the Bolts’ coaching staff hires:

Spanos family makes franchise-altering decision in hiring Jim Harbaugh

This is more than a rebuild by the Spanos family. This is a franchise-altering moment.

The Spanos family saw the 63-21 loss to the Raiders in December. The Spanos family heard all the slander about their organization and at the end of the conversation, the finger usually always pointed back to them. But unlike previous years, the Spanos family wasn’t idle and instead, were aggressive in their search for the next Chargers head coach. They hired Jim Harbaugh on Wednesday and it’s easily the best decision they’ve ever made. 

The Spanos family has owned the Chargers since 1984 when Alex Spanos bought a majority stake of the team. Not including interims, the Spanos family has hired 11 coaches that, suffice to say, never quite worked out. 

Well, there was Marty Schottenheimer, who led the Chargers to a 14-2 record and the No. 1 seed in the AFC in 2006, but the Spanos family fired him after the team was upset by Tom Brady and the Patriots. A big mistake for a coach who led the Bolts to their best record in franchise history. 

Unfortunately, there were a myriad of mistakes that followed the firing of Schottenheimer. You don’t get the reputation for being a humdrum franchise without making some big mistakes. 

In the last 11 seasons in which Dean Spanos and their son John Spanos have been at the helm of the organization, the Chargers have never reached an AFC title game or brought a playoff game to Los Angeles. 

The Chargers have had Drew Brees, Philip Rivers and Justin Herbert as their quarterback. But they haven’t been able to make a Super Bowl. A shocking fact. 

When the Spanos family hired Brandon Staley in 2021, they missed out on Super-Bowl-winning coach Sean Payton. He was reportedly interested in coaching Herbert but Payton was expensive. 

The hiring of Harbaugh was an uncharacteristic choice for the Spanos family but it speaks volumes. It says that they want their franchise to be taken seriously. And it says that Dean meant what he said in “building and maintaining a championship-caliber program.” 

Dean is notorious for being one of the worst owners in the NFL. He’s been called cheap for his unwillingness to pay coaches. He’s been accused of nepotism by hiring his son John as president of football operations. 

Now, the Spanos family not only listened to their fanbase but, in many ways, made a decision that has already changed the reputation of the franchise. 

In a statement from John on Wednesday, he said, “Nobody has built a team more successfully, and repeatedly, in recent history than Jim Harbaugh. His former players swear by him, and his opponents swear at him. Jim is one of one.”

This is more than a rebuild by the Spanos family. This is a franchise-altering moment. I suppose it was lucky number 12 for the Spanos family.

Social media reacts to Chargers hiring Jim Harbaugh as head coach

Here’s how social media reacted to the big news.

The Chargers hired Jim Harbaugh as their new head coach on Wednesday. 

Here’s how social media reacted to the big news: