His father is supposedly waiting until after the season to decide what the Chargers will do next in their quest for a new stadium.
Between now and then, John Spanos will be watching and weighing.
Does he believe Mike McCoy is the best choice to be the Chargers head coach going forward? That's the most important decision a Spanos will make by January.
You know, the players the Chargers will have next year should make up a heck of a roster. It should, in fact, look a lot like the team they were supposed to have this year.
In the words of James Collins, head athletic trainer: "That training room looks like a pretty good team in there."
Excuses are like complaints about McCoy; everyone has them. Going into a season, every team knows it will have to overcome some level of attrition. We've heard it all before. It's tiresome.
But the fact is no NFL team has as many players on injured reserve as the Chargers (15) and, according to the website mangameslost.com, no team has lost as many games to injury (202) this season. It's not even close. The 160 games the New Orleans Saints have lost to injury are second-most.
As negatively impactful as any metric is who the Chargers have lost.
Among those missing games have been wide receiver Keenan Allen (nine), running back Danny Woodhead (eight) and cornerback Jason Verrett (six). That's arguably three of their six most impactful players and, certainly, players around which the Chargers plan and for which opponents strategize.
Also consider the more nuanced contributions of linebackers Manti Te'o and Nick Dzubnar and how their absences distress not just defense but special teams. Go deeper, too, into how the season-long absence of running back Branden Oliver and receiver Stevie Johnson affect how the offense operates throughout a game. Understand the periodic absences of receiver Travis Benjamin, tight end Hunter Henry, cornerback Brandon Flowers and linebackers Jatavis Brown and Denzel Perryman mean certain plays can't be called and/or schemes utilized.
Especially with the knowledge the Chargers have suffered every loss by one score, there just can be no denying that the number of key contributors sidelined is the biggest contributor to the team's 4-6 standing.
And since that can hardly be argued, it must also be deduced that while the Chargers' record might be what they are, it is likely not what they will be.
Factor in the continued development of Joey Bosa and other rookies and throw in whatever high draft picks the Chargers will add, and there is a lot to look forward to.
That leaves the decision Spanos and general manager Tom Telesco must make, if they have not already. (I don't think they have.)
It is not about how the team finishes. It can't be. If wins and losses are discounted to this point, now that Brandon Mebane is gone and the offensive line is leaking and so many remaining players are either overworked or unworthy, anything short of a miraculous 6-0 sprint to the finish line is irrelevant.
This is about assessing McCoy's effect on the team.
It is about trying to deduce how much of this team's unquestionable heart stems from the players' own character and the leadership among them and how much comes from McCoy and his staff. It is about trying to decipher talent from training, because what the assistant coaches have done to get a torrent of new players ready week to week is commendable.
And perhaps now more than ever, Mike McCoy's every decision should be under scrutiny.
Every timeout he takes or doesn't take. Every time he calls for the field goal unit or doesn't. Every fourth-down conversion he ... well, you know.
That is what remains of the 2016 Chargers season, for those who watch and those who run the team.
There might have been a handful of coaches between Lombardi and Belichick that could have guided this trauma unit to the playoffs. But that's not the point.
Even if you don't hold this year's results against McCoy _ as crazy as that sounds, it is probably a necessary omission when evaluating McCoy _ there is the matter of 4-12 last season and losing three of four in December 2014 when a playoff spot had been in hand.
If the 2017 Chargers are going to be as good as it seems, the head coach who leads them can't screw it up.
