This was the final act of ensuring the Chargers are unable to live up to the 2006 regular season record. They had a great season, fell short (and hard) in the playoffs. Now through indecisiveness of management (Schottenheimer stays, no he goes), they lost both coordinators and then finished the sweep by firing the coach after continued political infighting in the organization reached a crescendo.

Now, of course everyone gets that "we're learning a new system" excuse for the inevitable fall off that was coming in 2007, but beyond the symbolic crutch it offers is the very real likelihood of a big fall-off. There are a lot of young key players on the team and the last thing they need to waste time doing is learning a new system when they could be growing another year in a successful system. Norv Turner is a good coach but there is also a reason he was on the job market. So rather than having a complete team (coaches included) that could look back on last season to learn from, they get to experience all new choices (good and bad).

If you look at the league as a whole the teams that keep things generally consistent have generally been successful for the longer runs. Losing all the lead coaches on a team with a QB with 1 year starting experience, is asking a lot of the new coaches and the QB, plus other team leaders, or is writing off the 2007 season to settle organization squabbles.

Learn more about this author, James Rawson.
Click here to send author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about Reflections on the firing of Marty Schottenheimer ?
We want to hear your view. Write now!