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The Los Angeles Chargers, who were 11-6 in 2024 and finished second in the division with a 4-2 mark, released the player who ranks second in franchise history in sacks. Joey Bosa, who had declared he wanted to be a Charger for life, racked up 72 sacks after he was selected as the No. 3 pick over-all by the franchise in the 2016 NFL Draft. That total includes 5 last season when he started 14 games - five more games than any of the previous three years. He also had 252 solo tackles and 91 assist, 17 forced fumbles and 4 recovered fumbles.
General Manager: Joe Hortiz (2024)
Head Coach: Jim Harbaugh (2024)
Offensive Coordinator: Greg Roman (2024)
Defensive Coordinator: Jesse Minter (2024)
2024 Record: 11-6 regular season, 11-7 over-all (4-2 AFC West, 2nd place)
Odds to win 2025 Super Bowl: +2900, No. 11 of all 32 teams
When Jim Harbaugh took over as head coach, Bosa expected his days to be numbered, But he was retained and, unfortunately, dealt with sciatic nerve pain that often limited his number of plays on the field. Still, he managed to hurry the quarterback 6 times in the playoff loss to the Texans, and had a sack.
The Chargers would have had to sustain a $36.5 million salary cap hit to keep him.
Leslie O'Neal (1986-1995) remains the teams career leader in sacks with 105.5 and his career ended 30 years ago.
They finished the 2024 season ranked 11th in total defense, 7th in pass defense and 14th in run defense. Because of their success in 2024, the Chargers first 2025 NFL Draft Pick comes at the 22 selection over-all.
A look at the LA Chargers defensive stats reveal that Harbaugh's squad was blessed with several strong defensive players, including Daiyan Henley who's 142 tackles outpaced the number two guy on the team, Derwin James, by 49. Tui Tuipolutu led the unit in sacks with 8.5 and QB hurries with 17, while Tarheeb Still had 10 passes defended and 4 picks.
On offense, Justin Herbert was ranked No. 4 by PFF on the list of highest graded quarterbacks, only behind Lamar Jackson (Ravens), Joe Burrow (Bengals) and Josh Allen (Bills). Herbert threw for 3,890 yards with 23 touchdowns against just 3 interceptions in the regular season to rank 8th-all-time in TD-INT ratio in NFL history. But he imploded in the playoff loss to the Texans, tossing 4 picks while throwing just 1 touchdown pass.
In fact, offense was the weaker side of the ball as that unit posted rankings of 20th over-all, 19th passing and 17th rushing. While not awful, those stats are not likely to be representative of a team that could challenge for the Super Bowl.
The Chargers are a franchise that is still looking to recapture its glory days AFL years when they won that league's 1963 title and competed for it four other times. Since their merger, they have just one Super Bowl appearance and that was 30 years ago when they fell to the San Francisco 49ers in XXIX (29).
With the team just making its switch to Harbaugh as head coach this past season, the coordinators and front office head are also 2nd-year tenants in their positions. General Manager Joe Hortiz had spent his career with Jim's brother John, in the Ravens' organization in scouting and player personnel. Offensive Coordinator Greg Roman also came from John's staff where he served since 2017, including OC from 2019-2022 when he resigned and was replaced by Todd Monken. Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter was with the Ravens from 2017-2020 before leaving for Vanderbilt to be the DC in 2021, and Michigan as the DC under Jim for 2022 and the 2023 national championship team.