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For many years now, NFL media partners have peddled a phony bad-luck narrative about the Chargers.
The Chargers indeed have received an inordinate amount of luck the past two-plus decades.
But the bulk of it has been good luck.
In reality, folks, they weren’t the Schleprock Chargers but the Shamrock Chargers, enjoying great fortune at quarterback and bumbling their way into ideal draft slots, a twin habit of sustained serendipity few NFL franchises could match.
The league’s media partners chose to ignore the club’s persistent good luck, while often mischaracterizing the Chargers’ ineptitude — all the Chargering — as bad luck.
A year ago, not one but two great things happened for the Chargers and their fans.
Dean and John Spanos loosened their firm grip on power and money enough to hire coach Jim Harbaugh away from the University of Michigan.
One, they got a great head coach.
Two, they got a head coach who could make good use of the good-luck gifts that were falling his way.
Hence my glowing forecasts that some of my Union-Tribune readers may have found over the top.
I wrote Harbaugh’s hire meant the Chargers had gone from being a pretend franchise to a serious franchise that could someday win a Super Bowl.
I predicted that Harbaugh’s first Bolts team would win more games than the oddsmakers projected, as has happened.
Informing that forecast wasn’t just my belief in Harbaugh but my recognition that old-fashioned good fortune was setting him up to start fast.
The prediction was on target.
Because the Shamrock Chargers had goofed their way into a terrific draft situation, Harbaugh and the general manager he hired, Joe Hortiz, were able to make large, fast upgrades to the roster.
Harbaugh’s first Bolts team will play in the postseason next week in part because of the fortuitous circumstances that led them to drafting rookie stars Joe Alt and Ladd McConkey.
When the 2023 Chargers lost their final five games of 2023 season, Harbaugh and Hortiz — hired to replace the fired Brandon Staley and Tom Telesco — got the No. 5 overall pick just as an exciting class of players was entering the NFL.
Quarterbacks were taken Nos. 1, 2 and 3 overall for just the fourth time since 1967, allowing Harbaugh to land his favorite or second-favorite player in the draft. And because an NFL record-tying six quarterbacks were drafted in the first round, Harbaugh and Hortiz were more apt to land a non-QB who was a first-round talent with their second-round pick.
Harbaugh and Hortiz didn’t whiff.
With the No. 5 overall pick, they took Alt.
The Notre Dame left tackle was the kind of prospect every NFL team loves — huge, athletic and, as the son of a former standout tackle with the Chiefs, NFL-savvy at a premium spot.
In the second round, Hortiz traded up three spots to No. 34 overall to take McConkey, the bright, sudden receiver from Georgia.
Seeing both players as rare rookies who would help out right away and should become stars, I wrote glowing forecasts.
“Smooth, sound giant Joe Alt, chosen fifth overall, will hold down a tackle spot for a decade,” I wrote. “Pencil in Alt, 21, for a few Pro Bowls.”
“Slot receiver Ladd McConkey’s stunning speed will translate to the NFL,” I wrote. “He’ll zoom upfield and snag quick-hitters and seam shots. He’ll pop big gains off perimeter screens. Enhanced by Harbaugh’s ground game and 6-foot-6 Justin Herbert’s middle-field vision and accuracy, Georgia’s McConkey will defy the high-bust rate for receivers taken among the top-35.”
Alt and McConkey indeed became not just starters, but standouts.
Alt has transformed a frequent Chargers weakness into a strength. Already, he’s a top-10 right tackle.
McConkey shone as brightly, going for 77 receptions, seven touchdowns, 49 first downs and more than 1,000 receiving yards as a rookie.
The Chargers regarded McConkey as a first-round talent.
There’s no disputing the Chargers have been fortunate for years in the aforementioned key areas. They had first dibs between Philip Rivers, Ben Roethlisberger and Eli Manning — an all-time great QB draft class — then saw Rivers miss no starts across his entire NFL career.
Thirteen years later, they had a chance to draft Patrick Mahomes.
They didn’t draft him despite the Chiefs thinking they would.
They drafted Herbert sixth overall without having to trade up. Herbert responded by being available for 64 starts, a durability feat matched in the same span by only one other QB: Bills star Josh Allen.
For at least 21 consecutive years, the Chargers had an above-average QB available to them for every single start.
When the astonishing streak ended when Herbert fractured a finger last season, it was actually a gift wrapped in powder blue and gold.
The Chargers lost all four games Easton Stick started. It started with a 63-21 December loss in Las Vegas, where they’ll return Sunday for the regular-season finale against the Raiders.
The Chargers’ good luck is real. Harbaugh and Hortiz know what do with it.
Has Chargering finally met its match?
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