Not directly a Pittsburgh Steelers news story, but it’s the biggest football one of the day. After getting destroyed 63-21 Thursday night by the Las Vegas Raiders, the Los Angeles Chargers are cleaning house. They have fired head coach Brandon Staley and GM Tom Telesco, the team making the official announcement moments ago.
Though Staley’s job was always thought to be in danger and likely to be fired after the season, the tipping point came last night. The Chargers were rolled by the Raiders, down 42-0 at halftime and losing 63-21 in arguably the team’s worst loss in franchise history. Far from an NFL powerhouse, Raiders rookie QB Aidan O’Connell threw four first-half touchdowns as they rung up the score.
Chargers owner Dean Spanos released a statement about the decision.
In-season firings are rare for the typically conservative and patient Chargers. As pointed out by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, their last one came 25 years ago when they fired Kevin Gilbride, who became the Steelers OC for the 1999 and 2000 seasons.
Through 14 games, the Chargers are 5-9 and sit at the bottom of the AFC West and obviously will not make the playoffs. Staley ends his tenure with a 24-24 record, leading teams who were talented but consistently underachieved. Hired with limited NFL experience and just one year as a coordinator, the team’s goal was to make him their version of Mike Tomlin, who had spent just a handful of years in the league and one year as a coordinator before being hired by Pittsburgh in 2007. Staley was named the Chargers’ head coach in 2021. He didn’t even make it three full years.
Telesco had served as the team’s GM since 2013, making him one of football’s longest-tenured people in that position. But the Chargers won just two playoff games over that span and will have had three losing seasons over their last five years.
The team will name an interim head coach and GM soon.
UPDATE (1:53 PM): The Chargers have named OLBs Coach Giff Smith interim head coach and JoJo Wooden interim GM. Wooden was one of many candidates to interview for the Steelers GM job when Kevin Colbert stepped down in May of 2022.
