As the regular season winds down, we’ve got a pretty good sense of what’s going to happen with all the coaching decisions. One of the only things still truly up in the air is the status of Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn. Apparently no decision has been made, and Ian Rapoport of NFL Network says that’ll be the case until Los Angeles brass gets together on Monday (Twitter video link).
To that end, Lynn is the “biggest wild card” of the coaching carousel, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com tweets. Fowler adds that people he’s talked to around the league believe it’s 50/50 as to whether Lynn gets brought back for a fifth season. There are apparently slight differences of opinion here, as Jay Glazer of FOX Sports said during a Sunday morning TV hit that he believes Lynn will likely be a goner after Monday’s meeting (Twitter video link).
Lynn went 9-7 his first year and then 12-4 the following season, winning a playoff game, but things collapsed quickly after that. The Chargers went just 5-11 last season and 7-9 in 2020, losing a mind-boggling amount of close games both times. It looked in the middle of the season like Lynn was a lame-duck as he made a series of in-game blunders and the Chargers stood at 3-9.
But the team rallied right after getting eliminated from playoff contention, winning four straight and potentially saving Lynn’s job in the process. Justin Herbert has been a revelation in his rookie season, but the coaching has often been questionable to put it kindly.
If the gig were to open up it would look very attractive on paper, as Herbert looks like a star in the making while there’s a ton of talent at the skill positions and on defense. All-Pro safety Derwin James missed the entire 2020 campaign but should be returning to play at an elite level in 2021. We’ll know more about Lynn’s fate tomorrow.
