By Tim Peterson
(Inglewood) – The Chargers fired head coach Brandon Staley and General Manager Tom Telesco Friday morning after a 63-21 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders Thursday night at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
Giff Smith, the team’s outside linebackers coach has been named interim head coach and JoJo Wooden, the director of player personnel, will be the interim GM.
The Chargers were 22-24 overall under Staley, who was in his third season as head coach, and 5-9 this year after the rout by the Raiders Thursday night. The Chargers made the playoffs once during Staley’s run – in 2022 and that ended in a 31-30 Wild-Card loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars after the Chargers blew a 27-0 lead.
Staley was a defensive coordinator for the Rams before being hired by the Chargers as head coach in 2020, but the success he had with the Rams, never carried over to the Chargers. The defensive woes came to a head Thursday night in Las Vegas and Chargers Owner Dean Spanos made the move.
Spanos issued a statement on Twitter (X) which included “These decisions are never easy nor are they something I take lightly. We are clearly not where we expect to be, however, and we need a new vision. Our fans have stood strong through so many ups and downs and close games. They deserve more. Frankly they’ve earned more.
This was a long time coming ; I would have considered it after first year poor decisions culminated by calling timeout to allow Raiders to set up Play and get field goal thus losing playoff berth in 21. I would have been compelled by disastrous playoff loss to Jacksonville, blowing big lead . I would have been sickened by his obstinate failure to see how these issues were impacting the team in close games early this year when questioned in post gamers . The performance Thursday was among the most embarrassing I’ve seen in my decades of living and loving football
@Memories
Yup, thanks to Beltran refusing a running clock the OP West Co just kept scoring with plenty of time in the 2nd half. lol and everyone considered him a genius lol
This 63-21 wipeout reminds me of the 84-21 loss handed to La Serna by West Covina in the finals back in the day. Those were the days my friends.
This is the Spanos’ 40th season owning the Chargers…only 8 times have they finished with double-digit wins– The Rams have had double digit wins four times under McVay–and during this span they’ve had potentially four Hall of Fam Qbs… Fouts, Brees, Rivers, and Herbert…and that’s not even counting Stan Humphries who took them to the Super Bowl…Bobby Ross made three playoff appearances in five seasons, made a Super Bowl and got fired… Schottenheimer went 35-13 his last three years…including 14-2 in his last season…and they fired him… Staley had to go…and I guess Telesco (I liked him though)…but nothing’s going to change until the Spanos Family is fired.