The Los Angeles Chargers are going in a new direction. The Brandon Staley era is over and has been replaced by legendary coach Jim Harbaugh. Chargers fans are ecstatic about the hire and the team’s official social media channels have posted perfect responses to the news. However, one segment of the zeitgeist has been mum on the hire. Not too many star former players have predicted what will happen in 2024, except for perhaps one of the most important players in the team’s modern history.
Philip Rivers, in comments made at Moe’s Original BBQ in Mobile, Alabama, last week revealed his prediction for the number of wins the team will get in 2024. He predicted the team to win 10 games, finishing with a 10-7 record.
Some might look at that record as a cynical prediction after hiring the star coach. However, others might see a massive ray of sunshine in the prediction. Here’s a breakdown of both sides of the argument.
Why Predicting 10 Wins for the Los Angeles Chargers is Cynical
Fans of teams that have long struggled tend to predict ten wins for their team because they need to have some hope. That said, deep down, they know not to set expectations too high to avoid massive disappointment. One might say this is the case for Rivers, who arguably could be one of the biggest Chargers fans in the world.
Few fans will predict their team to finish under .500, but if they set expectations just high enough to have hope to make the playoffs, they have a reason to watch with 100 percent attention. Otherwise, going into a six-month season, their options would seemingly become that they can watch a football team chase most other teams or they can pretend it’s still the offseason for another six months. Then, they can wait through the actual offseason for another six months. When all is said and done, they’d be burning a year.
Put simply, 10 wins is a mind game to talk oneself into watching their team.
Why Predicting 10 Wins for Chargers is Positive
The Los Angeles Chargers have a new coach and with that comes new expectations, ways of doing things, personnel changes, implementing schemes, and every other aspect of running a team from the top down. It takes time to implement changes. Many coaching changes take time to take effect.
For the Chargers to win 10 games while overhauling massive parts of the team’s foundation and philosophy is a quality accomplishment. It took Harbaugh one season to get 10 wins with the Wolverines. He got to 13 wins in his first 49ers season, so getting 10 wins in his first season with the Chargers seems like something within reach.
All of this said, there remains one more interpretation: perhaps instead of looking at it as a positive or a negative prediction, Rivers merely gave a prediction brought on by Harbaugh’s history, which would be a heads-up revealing that Rivers indeed keeps up on the sport more than just coaching at the high school level (his current “occupation”).