By Brandon Simmons
Who is to Blame for the Chargers Woes?
While it is flu season or some, and many are battling different allergens, the Los Angeles Chargers have discovered an allergy to winning football games. Sunday, the Chargers lost to the Houston Texans, continuing their winless 2026 season. It was their highest point total given up this year with 44, but strangely enough, their 2nd most points scored this year with 22. That scoring started when Chargers wide receiver Quentin Johnson caught a 58 yard touchdown pass, ending a 37 drive touchdown drought. But the problems of the Chargers don’t stop there, as it’s plenty of blame to go around for the Chargers to be winless.
Let’s start with the obvious answer: offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel. The Chargers have been underwhelming on offense aside from the aforementioned drought. They rank near the bottom of all major offensive categories , including last in points scored, obviously not a surprise. However, one can attribute some of the injuries as a reason that the am is suffering. Key players for the Chargers – such as safety Derwin James and tackle Rashawn Slater – have each suffered significant injuries that have forced them to miss some time. With injuries piling up, you would expect the General Manager to make a few trades or go search for free agents to add some reinforcements, but that has not been the case.
The last person to really pin this on has to be head coach Jim Harbaugh. As long as he’s been a head coach, professional or collegiate, Harbaugh has never been intertwined in too much losing. He came into the league after winning a national title as head coach of the Michigan Wolverines, a very storied football program. Even on the professional level =, he led the San Francisco 49ers to a few conference championships, including a Super Bowl. The point of mildly breaking down is resume is that he knows what it takes to win, especially when yit comes to pulling the trigger on some changes. In 2011,a as 49ers head coach, he made the significant decision to move with QB Colin Kaepernick as his full time starter when QB Alex Smith was out with an injury. That led to a Super Bowl berth. In this case, e might have to up the trigger and et rid of McDaniel, whom he actually sought out to join his staff. The inability to get this team off the ground can certainly be a byproduct of the offensive inefficiency that this squad has experienced.
Trade Deadline Reactions
- Jacksonville Jaguars made 3 trades for their defense. They started the day Monday trading for Atlanta Falcons safety Jessie Bates III for a 2027 2nd round and 2028 5th round pick. Then the Jaguars followed that with acquiring New Orleans Saints defensive tackle Davon Godchaux for a conditional 2027 6th round pick. Their final move came with trading for Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Jordan Davis by sending a 2027 1st round pick and 2029 2nd round pick.
- The Baltimore Ravens acquired QB Jacoby Brissett and a 2027 5th round pick from the Arizona Cardinals in exchange for a 2027 4th round pick and 2028 7th round pick. This move comes in the wake of the wake of Ravens QB heading to IR with a thumb injury, with the hopes that Brissett can keep this team competitive.
- The Detroit Lions acquired safety Andre Cisco from the New York Jets for a 2028 5th round pick.
- The Minnesota Vikings began making calls for a quarterback after Monday night’s embarrassing offensive performance and ended up reuniting with Kirk Cousins. The Vikings acquired their former signal caller from the Las Vegas Raiders in exchange for a 2027 3rd round pick
- The Indianapolis Colts made another trade, sending wide receiver Kennan Allen to the San Francisco 49ers in exchange for a 6th round pick. The Colts also sent wide receiver Josh Downs and a 7th round pick to the Kansas City Chiefs for a 4th and 5th round pick.
- The Buffalo Bills traded for safety Amani Hooker from the Tennessee Titans, giving up a 2nd round pick in exchange for Hooker and a 5th round pick.
- The Los Angeles Chargers trade linebacker Daiyan Henley
The Kirk Cousins acquisition seemed to almost happen like clockwork. Cousins did appear in a few rumors heading into the deadline, especially with teams needing help at the QB spot, and he wasn’t looked at as a long term solution for the Las Vegas Raiders. Not to mention, he helped lead the Raiders to a start better than expected, so still playing at a decent level. The Vikings reuniting him with wide receiver Justin Jefferson should help this team tremendously and try to honor the strong they had, by becoming more competitive down the line.
The Jacksonville Jaguars and Chicago Bears made some Super Bowl -worthy moves at the deadline. Both teams have great offenses this season, and adding these pieces will only strengthen their run to the championship game. The Jaguars main issues is that they have to get past the Buffalo Bills, who knocked them out of the postseason last year. However, adding key pieces like Bates to your secondary and Davis on your defensive line will certainly put you in a position to compete for a title. Same with Chicago, as they’re already pretty much leading the NFC and the only thing standing in their way is them – as seen by the 4 turnover performance in Sunday night’s win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But their addition of Simmons, combined with Bears defensive end Montez Sweat, can shake the rhythm of a lot of QB’s.
The Indianapolis Colts not trading Jonathan Taylor is an interesting move. On one hand, the Colts have pushed a lot key pieces that they could have used to win, or be competitive with, for the rest of the year. All the Colts are left with is Taylor and QB Daniel Jones, who showed up in a few trade rumors. Their asking price for a 1st round pick, or a blockbuster package of 2nd, 3rd and 4th round picks, might be a little too steep for trade deadline purposes. On the other hand, perhaps you they’re playing the waiting game to see who wants to make that huge risk in the offseason. In all honesty, this might have been the best time to trade him. A 27-year-old running back can only draw so much interest, so you have to be reasonable about the haul you want to bring in. While some teams did their bids in, those same teams were also turned down. When the offseason arrives, this should be a trade that’s back on the table.
Shoutouts/Shutouts
Shout out to Houston Texans wide receiver Tank Dell. Sunday, in a win over the Los Angeles Chargers, the wide receiver put up 4 catches for 103 yards and a touchdown, both feats being his first since returning from a gruesome knee injury suffered a season and a half ago.
Shut out to the Indianapolis Colts anyway for fumbling the Jonathan Taylor trade. This was set to be one of the bigger stories of the trade deadline and it turned out to be a dud. Sure, teams need to make sure they’re getting the best deal possible but it seemed like they pushed too hard on the price.
Week 10 is here in the wake of the trade deadline so might see some new faces on your favorite team this week. The Green Bay Packers will host the Minnesota Vikings amd it could be the season debut of recently acquired QB Kirk Cousins, his first Vikings start since 2024. The game of the week could be the Cincinnati Bengals hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers. Both teams sit atop the AFC North and could walk away with control ofnthe division after this game. But until then…I’ll holla.
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