The blown leads, the game mismanagement and the losses finally caught up with Anthony Lynn as the Chargers fired their head coach Monday.
The move came a day after a 38-21 victory in Kansas City. The Chargers finished the season 7-9 and were 12-20 in Lynn’s final two years.
Owner Dean Spanos expressed his respect for Lynn in a statement released by the team.
But, the statement read in part, “as we all know, this is a results-driven business and, simply put, the results of the past two years have fallen short of expectations.”
Lynn, 52, was 33-31 (plus 1-1 in the playoffs) in four seasons with the Chargers, who gave him his first full-time head coaching job.
Among the names that figure to be attached to the Chargers job are three prominent offensive coordinators: Eric Bieniemy of the Chiefs, Josh McDaniels of the New England Patriots and Brian Daboll of the Buffalo Bills.
McDaniels, 44, was 11-17 in parts of two seasons as Denver’s head coach in 2009-10.
Bieniemy, 51, who never has been a head coach, was a running back for the Chargers from 1991 to ’94.
Daboll, 45, a top offensive assistant in the NFL for seven years, has been with the Bills during the development of Josh Allen.
Particularly with rookie quarterback Justin Herbert, the Chargers job does have appeal. Herbert, the No. 6 overall pick in April, emerged in 2020 as a potential franchise cornerstone.
The Chargers are one of six teams looking for a head coach. The other jobs are with Detroit, Houston, Atlanta, Jacksonville and the New York Jets.
Among the offensive assistants expected to draw interest for the openings are Tennessee coordinator Arthur Smith, Baltimore coordinator Greg Roman and Chiefs quarterbacks coach Mike Kafka.
Former longtime Cincinnati Bengals coach Marvin Lewis and former Detroit Lions coach Jim Caldwell are among other candidates who have gotten interviews.
The Chargers opened the 2020 season with a 16-13 victory over Cincinnati, but things quickly soured as they lost seven of their next eight.
They squandered leads of at least 16 points in four consecutive games, an NFL record. That streak didn’t include an 11-point advantage they blew in a Week 2 loss to Kansas City.
The Chargers also suffered the worst defeat in franchise history, falling to New England at home 45-0 on Dec. 6.
In that game, they gave up touchdowns on a punt return and a blocked field goal return and also lined up three times for punts with the wrong number of players on the field. Lynn called the performance “embarrassing.”
At one point, dating to last season, Lynn’s teams lost 16 of 18 one-score games, the only victories coming when the opposing kickers missed late field goals. They also dropped nine consecutive AFC West games.
The Chargers made glaring play-call mistakes in a loss at Buffalo and a victory over Atlanta, further bringing into question the direction of the franchise.
Still, Lynn had the support of his players until the end. Cornerback Chris Harris Jr. and safety Derwin James were among the Chargers who recently publicly praised Lynn.
“He’s a leader,” Herbert said last week. “This team follows him. I really believe in him.”
The Chargers hired Lynn in January of 2017, shortly after the organization announced it was relocating from San Diego to Los Angeles.
His first team began 0-4 but rallied to finish 9-7 and narrowly miss a postseason berth.
Lynn gained a large degree of respect for that first-year performance, with the Chargers transitioning to a new city and playing their home games in what was then called StubHub Center, a facility built for soccer.
The 2018 Chargers then went 12-4, made the playoffs and won a wild-card game at Baltimore before losing the next week at New England, the team that would eventually win the Super Bowl.
At that point, the Chargers appeared to be heading in the right direction. But everything changed in 2019 when they suffered significant injuries and struggled with turnovers in their final season with Philip Rivers at quarterback.
Lynn originally signed a four-year contract that ran through this season. In February, he agreed to an extension through 2021.
Lynn played in the NFL for six seasons, with Denver and San Francisco. He was a running back and special teams player.
He began his coaching career in the NFL in 2000, as a special teams assistant for the Broncos. He also has worked for Jacksonville, Dallas, Cleveland, the New York Jets and Buffalo.
He was a longtime running backs coach before being promoted to offensive coordinator by the Bills during the 2016 season.
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