NFL 2016: Regular season grades for every team
By John Buhler
The San Diego Chargers had an interesting, but terrible season that swung from low to high to low. San Diego blew a few games early in the season where the Chargers had a 99.9 percent chance of winning late in the fourth quarter. Needing a win on Thursday Night Football against the Denver Broncos to keep his job, Mike McCoy and the Chargers came through to actually look decent mid-season.
For a brief three-week period, the Chargers looked like a potential playoff sleeper in the deep AFC West. San Diego then fell off a mountain and cratered horribly in the second half. The amount of injuries this team had to deal with was just insane. Losing six key starters for the year would wreck even the best-run teams’ seasons.
Attrition became too big of a burden for starting quarterback Philip Rivers to handle and the team began to collapse around him. If there is anything the Chargers can hang their hat on from this bad season, it is that some of the young players on this roster showed signs of promise. Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram definitely had their moments.
Overall, San Diego gave up in November and it showed. Did they quit on McCoy or did the notion of being relocated to Los Angeles crush the Chargers’ collective spirit. If the Chargers do go to Los Angeles, expect a rebrand, as the Chargers will be no more. It was a sad season to a sad story of the NFL in San Diego. RIP Chargers.