The Chargers won nine games the past two seasons, tied for fourth-fewest in the NFL. They have won four playoff games the past 22 years. They’ve never won a Super Bowl, the only championship in their 57 seasons coming in 1963 while playing in the now-defunct AFL.
Los Angeles has a reputation for supporting a winner.
Despite itself, the city’s newest franchise hopes so.
Former Bills offensive coordinator and interim coach Anthony Lynn on Friday agreed to a four-year contract to become the Chargers’ head coach. He is expected to be introduced at a Los Angeles-area news conference next week. Lynn inherits control of a losing roster in a town with little patience for one.
But winning games is soon ahead, the Chargers believe.
To win favor, they are counting on it.
The franchise is not disillusioned as to where it stands on the Los Angeles sports-team totem pole, a mere face in the crowd — and initially unwelcome one. On Wednesday, shortly after learning about the forthcoming relocation from San Diego, Pro Bowl cornerback Jason Verrett listed some positives to joining the larger market, citing potential branding and business opportunities.
There was, however, a caveat.
“I feel L.A. is overpopulated,” Verrett said. “That’s probably going to be the hardest thing, just having so many teams out there and now putting another team out there.”
This, too, is where the Chargers can distinguish themselves.
The Rams, at least on the field, blundered their return to Los Angeles, going 4-12 in 2016. Now, it is the Lynn-led Chargers’ turn to attempt a splash. Players and coaches have discussed for several weeks their outlook for 2017. Making a stamp on a new city wasn’t exactly their thinking in November and December, but returning to the playoffs for the first time since 2013 surely would be the first step to building a fan base.
There are reasons for optimism.
Having identified a head coach is one. Lynn, 48, will be looked upon to infuse an added toughness to a locker room with an ever-creative tendency to lose close games. Eighteen of the Chargers’ 23 losses the past two years were decided by a one-score margin, including nine of 11 last year.
“One thing that’s very clear about Anthony Lynn is he’s a leader,” said John Spanos, club president of football operations, in a statement. “He’s a natural-born leader. … He is really going to communicate and connect with our players. He’s had a number of great coaching influences in his life and as a former player who won two Super Bowls, Anthony knows first-hand what championship pedigree is all about.
“We couldn’t be more excited to have him lead our franchise into this exciting new era of Chargers football.”
Then, there is the roster. San Diego caught a glimpse of it in 2016.
In Week 1, wide receiver Keenan Allen made All-Pro cornerback Marcus Peters look mundane, video footage of his route-running going viral on the Internet while the Chargers built a 21-3 halftime lead. Allen was not on the field for the third quarter; he tore his anterior cruciate ligament late in the second. Injured reserve. Out for the season.
In Week 2, during a blowout win over the Jaguars, running back Danny Woodhead similarly was off to a fast start to his season. Similarly, he exited in the second quarter with a torn ACL. Injured reserve. Out for the season.
After Week 3, linebacker and defensive co-captain Manti Te’o (Achilles) was placed on IR. After Week 4, it was Verrett. Twenty players finished the season there. With an off-season to return to health, the March free-agency window and resources such as the No. 7 overall draft pick, the Chargers have plenty of string.
Now, with a skeptical Los Angeles watching, they must tie it all together. The Chargers’ last run of consecutive playoff berths came in 2006 to 2009.
“It’s a matter of doing it,” quarterback Philip Rivers said in late December, “but you just feel we’re about to have this window of another chance to do something special. …You start to say: These next one, two, three years, we’re going to have as good of a chance since ’06, ’07, ‘eight, ‘nine. I believe. It’s just a matter of how it all plays out.”
michael.gehlken@sduniontribune.com
