When fans watch the Los Angeles Chargers take on the Buffalo Bills on Saturday night at SoFi Stadium, there will be no Brandon Staley sighting on the sideline.
Giff Smith is handling the head coaching reigns for this game — and the next two after the Bills. That’s why. And it’s time to look back at why there’s no more Staley.
A Dive Into What Happened to Brandon Staley
Staley was fired on Dec. 15, which was the morning after the Chargers’ embarrassing 63-21 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders and their worst loss of the season.
That Thursday Night Football 42-point embarrassment dropped the Bolts to 5-9 overall. And that performance became the final straw for the Chargers’ front office.
Staley and the Chargers fell on the losing end of some heartbreaking losses. Their first two games watched the Bolts lose late leads against the Miami Dolphins and Tennessee Titans. Los Angeles also couldn’t close out games against the Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers (lost a fourth-quarter lead there), and the shootout loss to the Detroit Lions.
However, the Chargers’ play got sloppier in the final two games of the Staley era.
The Denver Broncos rolled into Inglewood and dominated the Chargers 24-7. Four days after that loss, the Raiders ran up the score at Allegiant Stadium … and helped run Staley out of his office.
Was Staley in Over His Head?
By firing Staley, the Chargers parted ways with a head coach who had an even 24-24 record with one playoff appearance.
He even inherited a 2023 Chargers team that came with lofty expectations after their run to the postseason. But on Staley’s end, one now infamous press conference in Green Bay signaled his incoming departure.
Staley got infuriated with a Chargers beat reporter when he was asked about an apparent disconnect between his confidence level and the team he was fielding.
“I know we give ourselves a chance to win every single week with the game plans that we have,” Staley said in a testy manner.
Then came the fiery ultimatum: “You can stop asking me that question.”
Staley came off as someone who was not wavering from his belief in his coaching and the system he installed. But the losses piled up … and the 63-point Raiders’ outburst was the final straw.
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As Daniel Popper of The Athletic discovered on Dec. 15, one team source described the dismissed head coach as someone who became in over his head.
“He’s a good, smart f—ing coach,” that team source said to Popper, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Too smart for his good sometimes.”
One More Loss Points to Staley’s Falling Out
One more Chargers insider, Kris Rhim of ESPN, wrote that the disconnect between Staley and the Bolt players began with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
That was the night that witnessed the Jags erasing the Chargers’ 27-point lead to eliminate LA from the playoffs. There was one scene, however, that points to where the friction between Staley and the Chargers began.
Staley was seen engaging in a screaming match with linebackers coach Michael Wilhoite, which became described as a clash of decision making.
“Staley believed Wilhoite’s group had made an error on a big Jacksonville play. Wilhoite countered that Staley had made a ‘dumbass play call’ and that the linebackers had done their job, according to team sources who witnessed the sideline exchange,” Rhim wrote.
But the tensions spilled over once Staley entered the locker room after the collapse.
“When Staley entered the locker room — facing a grieving team in disbelief — he told them, in part, ‘games like this happen in the NFL.’ The message annoyed some players, especially those who had played on other teams and experienced postseason success. To some, it felt like Staley was shifting ownership of the collapse of the squad — and himself — as a regular occurrence, team sources said,” Rhim wrote.
Staley was then blessed with an abundance of talent featuring Pro Bowlers at the three most important skill positions on offense, then having other Pro Bowl talents at all three levels of the defense ahead of 2023. But the Chargers now find themselves searching for the franchise’s 16th head coach.
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