2024 Los Angeles Chargers Season Preview, Offseason Analysis, and Win Total Prediction

The Brandon Staley era in Los Angeles looked promising, yet similar to many of his fourth down attempts, it failed, miserably. As a result, the Chargers made wholesale changes from the field to the front office in an effort to finally bring success to this franchise.

Enter new head coach Jim Harbaugh, a man that has won everywhere that he has coached, and the man that Chargers fans hope can bring stability at head coach that this organization hasn’t seen in almost 20 years.

I am going to cover the Chargers busy offseason and look at their season outlook as well as their win total, which as of this writing sits at 8.5.

Odds are courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook.

The Chargers offense has been completely renovated with Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, and Austin Ekeler all gone to free agency leaving Justin Herbert to pick up the pieces and start fresh.

Replacing Ekeler in the backfield are former Baltimore Ravens tailbacks J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards. Edwards is coming off of the best season of his career, while Dobbins is looking to play a full season for the first time since the 2020 campaign.

The depth at receiver is a problem for the Chargers; Joshua Palmer figures to be the number one option for Herbert, which is a major step up after spending three seasons being the third option. Quentin Johnston hopes to improve from his rough rookie season where he struggled immensely with dropped passes.

Rookie draft picks Ladd McConkey and Brenden Rice should have plenty of opportunities to earn playing time. Free agent acquisition DJ Chark Jr. is the only receiver on the depth chart with a 1,000-yard season in his career, yet he currently isn’t projected to be in the starting lineup.

While Herbert will spend most of the season trying to develop chemistry with his new group of receivers, the Chargers hope to keep their quarterback on his feet. Herbert has been sacked 130 times in his first four seasons, and he missed the final four games of last season due to an injury as a result of the poor pass protection.

The Chargers will look to newly acquired veteran center Bradley Bozeman and their fifth overall draft pick, All-American Joe Alt to protect their franchise quarterback.

The Chargers defense has been the subject of scrutiny for many years and last season may have been the low point for this unit, after allowing 23.4 points per game with a pass defense that ranked 30th in the league, allowing 249.6 yards per game through the air.

The talent on defense isn’t the issue; Joey Bosa, Khalil Mack, Denzel Perryman, Asante Samuel Jr., and Derwin James Jr. collectively form one of the best defenses on paper in the league.

The two questions that this defense will have to answer are, can they stay healthy for an entire season and can new defensive coordinator Jesse Minter translate the success he had at Michigan to the NFL?

Analyzing the Chargers schedule and finding the opportunity for wins isn’t an easy task. The first opponent that stands out is their division rival in Kansas City. Can the Chargers beat Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs?

Mahomes is 8-2 in his career versus the Chargers, and if Harbaugh and Herbert want to change the direction of this franchise, beating the Chiefs would be a good starting point.

The matchups against the four teams from the AFC North are not going to be easy. Having to play in Pittsburgh the week before heading home to face the aforementioned Chiefs is brutal, as is having to travel to Cleveland for an early kickoff, and then having to face the Bengals and Ravens in back-to-back weeks is just a cruel punishment.

Now, there are plenty of winnable games on the schedule as both the Broncos and Raiders are in a rebuild mode, and getting home matchups against the Saints and Buccaneers coupled with road games in Carolina and New England provide opportunities to stack a few wins.

As for which direction I am leaning.

Prediction Under 8.5 Wins

Long-term I believe that Harbaugh will create stability and instill a winning mindset that the Chargers franchise arguably has never had before.

That will take time however, and while he is inheriting a team with a star quarterback and talent on defense, there are too many holes at receiver, which in my opinion will result in a very one dimensional offense, which is not a recipe for success in the NFL.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.