Late tonight I saw the announcement by Dean Spanos that Norv Turner and GM A.J. Smith was released. Smith was a little surprising to me. Although a lot of fans disliked Smith, he was widely considered a good judge of football talent. During his tenure over the last 10 seasons, Smith brought 15 players to San Diego that made the Pro Bowl, the most in the NFL over that time. The problem with Smith was his hard line stance on contract negotiations. His tough tactics led to hold outs by TE Antonio Gates, WR Vincent Jackson, and LT Marcus McNeill. In the end, all three signed, but likely left those players a little bitter. My personal big grip with Smith is that he never put together a solid offensive line...never put obtaining an O-lineman as a priority even though the line was in shambles seemingly every season.
As for Turner, his time in San Diego was already in jeopardy before notching a 7-9 record this season. It may have been his only losing season as coach of the Chargers, but under his guidance the Chargers have underachieved (with the exception of his 1st when SD went to the AFC Championship game and lost to the Pats).
So who's up next?
According to the Chargers official website, they are not releasing names of possible candidates because some of them are still employed by NFL teams participating in the playoffs. Hmmm, that makes a short list of possibilities. I'm assuming that the Head Coaches of the playoff teams are returning to their respective clubs next season. The Chargers website also mentioned that Spanos brought in a team to help with the hiring process. One member of that team is former Packer GM Ron Wolf. I hope that doesn't influence them into hiring Packers' DC Dom Capers because he sucked as a Head Coach....ditto for Jack Del Rio (Broncos' DC), Mike Nolan (Falcons' DC), Jim Haslett (Redskins' DC), Wade Phillips (Texans' DC), and Josh McDaniels (Pats' OC).
The one other coordinator that has previous head coaching experience is Cam Cameron, who was HC for the Dolphins for one season (2007). The Dolphins went 1-15 that year. That doesn't look good on the resume, but Cameron has done well as OC for the Ravens over the last five seasons and he was OC for the Chargers from 2002-06. That makes him familiar territory for Spanos. I would rather the Chargers go after someone new. As I said in my last post, the Chargers need an attitude adjustment and familiarity won't get them there.
My hope is that they go after Bruce Arians, OC for the Colts, who did an excellent job with them when Chuck Pagano had to leave when diagnosed with leukemia. Arians will get a HC job next year and will likely get to pick where he wants to go. Along with San Diego, Chicago, Buffalo, Kansas City, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Arizona are hiring. The most talent probably is in Chicago, with SD a close 2nd, but where would you rather live?
Seems like this was a long time coming for the Chargers or more for the fans. Seems like fans of the Chargers haven't wanted change for sometime now. Of course most fans do unless you're winning the Super Bowl each year. It seems like this team has to do better. With Phillip Rivers it seemed to me as though they should have been of the top 5 AFC teams each year. As Yaj pointed out the loss of key free agents hurt quite a bit. I'm looking forward to seeing San Diego do more than underachieve and can't wait to see who they pick as coach and GM moving forward.
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