What’s that saying about the definition of insanity? Something about doing the same thing over and over again, experiencing failure and not changing anything? Rinse and repeat. Who said that? Bill Walsh? Tom Landry? Tom Brady? Chuck Bednarik?
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Someone very wise and accomplished, anyway.
This is what we’re seeing from the Chargers through four games, a chaotic, damaged football team incapable, so far, of making the necessary changes to its offensive scheme to pull it out of an obvious funk that threatens to destroy what’s remaining of the 2026 season.
Combing through the wreckage of the Chargers’ latest defeat, a 30-23 setback to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday that really wasn’t as close as the final score, we learned a great deal more about a team that appears to have lost its way and is uncertain about what to do next.
Here’s what we learned, what we heard and what comes next after the Chargers’ fourth consecutive loss, and their seventh in a row dating to last season:
STAYING THE COURSE?
Coach Jim Harbaugh is loath to talk about football strategy in general or about game plans specifically during his postgame sessions with reporters. He prefers to talk about the fight his teams show in the heat of the battle, about generalities that lend little insight.
However, he allowed himself two rare moments of candor Sunday.
“I mean, the plan did not work to result in a victory,” Harbaugh said when asked why the Chargers have failed to put together four cohesive quarters in any of their four games this season. “We go back and plan some more with the skilled coaches and talented players and the fight, that’s what gives me optimism.”
Harbaugh also addressed quarterback Justin Herbert’s lack of comfort in offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel’s offense, as evidenced by his poor statistics to start what’s fast becoming the worst season of his seven in the NFL. Herbert has thrown six interceptions so far, for instance.
Overall, Herbert is completing 59.7% of his passes, down from a career average of 66.2% He’s averaging 204 passing yards per game, down from 259 yards per game for his career. His interception percentage, a figure based on the percentage of picks per total of attempts, is 5.0, double what it was last season.
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“You asked me what his comfort was in the first half?” Harbaugh asked a reporter, who had asked if he could tell whether Herbert has reached his comfort level in McDaniel’s offense yet. “Yeah, I can’t speak to knowing what that comfort was in the first half or to a particular play.”
Compounding matters are injuries to their offensive line, including left tackle Rashawn Slater’s sprained right ankle and right tackle Joe Alt’s unspecified neck injury, which might land either or both players on injured reserve, forcing them to the sideline for a minimum of four games.
Stay tuned.
ROSTER UPGRADES?
One thing that was never fixed during the offseason was providing Herbert with additional targets. It’s been written here and elsewhere that Herbert missed the reliability that veteran Keenan Allen provided him over the years. Third-down-and-Keenan was a real thing.
All credit to Ladd McConkey, who has shown flashes of the sort of rapport Herbert established with Allen, but when he’s been sidelined by an injury, as he was in the second half of Sunday’s loss to the Seahawks, the offense isn’t nearly as effective as when he’s on the field.
True, Allen and McConkey play the same slot position in the array, but there are ways around having players with duplicate skills on the field at the same time. The solution wasn’t as simple as re-signing Allen, now with the Indianapolis Colts, but simply adding veteran depth to the position.
It’s unfair to say it’s past time for Chargers general manager Joe Hortiz to look for ways to improve the depth and experience at wide receiver. GMs, including Hortiz, are always looking for ways to improve their rosters. GMs, including Hortiz, are always on the phone in search of answers.
So far, there aren’t any.
WHAT COMES NEXT
The Chargers (0-4) play host to the Denver Broncos (2-2) on Sunday at SoFi Stadium, looking to avoid a repeat of their four previous offensive pratfalls. To be sure, many of their troubles are self-inflicted. Getting penalized 16 times for 130 yards isn’t exactly going to get you Super Bowl bound.
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Or even to your first victory of the season.