One of the coaches potentially guiding his team through Week 17 preparation for the final time, Mike McCoy is positioned in an interesting place regarding his status with the Chargers.
His head-coaching record over the past two years — the Chargers’ first consecutive losing seasons since 2000-01 — makes him an easy chopping-block candidate. The Bolts will finish with either nine or 10 wins combined in McCoy’s third and fourth seasons, doing so after they made the divisional playoff round in his first and finished with the same 9-7 record — but short of the postseason– in his second.
And a prospective move to Los Angeles after 55 years in San Diego makes starting fresh an understandable move for a franchise that would be, in this scenario, moving from the most popular team in its current market to a potential lower-tier entity in its next. CBSSports.com’s Jason La Canfora pointed to the L.A. move when reporting the Chargers will begin searching for McCoy’s replacement soon.
Another sign pointing to the Bolts moving on after four years — which would be the least amount of time they’ve given a coach since Mike Riley (1999-01) — is the lack of an extension offer. As of now, McCoy would enter 2017 as a lame-duck coach after signing a one-year extension in January to cover ’17. Of course, both Marty Schottenheimer and Norv Turner — who received five and six years, respectively, in San Diego — each helped the team to at least two division titles. McCoy, though, faced tougher opposition during his tenure, with former charge Peyton Manning guiding the Broncos to three straight division championships and finishing off a stretch where Denver secured the AFC’s top seed three times in a four-year span.
It’s also difficult to analyze the Chargers over the past two years and not start with injuries. Player unavailability has marred McCoy’s past two seasons, helping contribute to the Bolts falling off their perch as a middling AFC team to a bottom-tier outfit.
San Diego’s 2016 has been worse than its ’15 regarding setbacks, with Keenan Allen, Jason Verrett, Danny Woodhead and Manti Te’o being among numerous players who wound up on IR. Jahleel Addae and Joey Bosa missing portions of the season due to injury contributed to the struggles as well. McCoy also could not deploy Bosa for nearly the entire offseason due to the No. 3 overall pick’s battle with Chargers management.
The Chargers have also lost almost all of their games over the past two years in one-score fashion, dropping nine contests by eight points or less in both this season and 2015. This line of thinking led Ben Volin of the Boston Globe to estimate McCoy will be kept for a fifth season, the loss to the Browns notwithstanding.
McCoy has also presided over a resurgence from Philip Rivers, who enjoyed the finest season of his career in the head coach’s 2013 debut. Rivers completed more than 66 percent of his passes from 2013-15, surpassing that standard for the first time in his career. He eclipsed 30 touchdown passes for the first time in consecutive slates under McCoy (2013-14) before finishing second in the league in passing yards last season despite missing some skill-position threats.
However, Rivers has regressed to some degree this season, completing just 60 percent of his throws. At 19 interceptions, the 35-year-old passer is one away from matching his career high. While Rivers hasn’t enjoyed the luxury of having his full complement of pass-catchers available, he’s off his usual trajectory under McCoy. He would presumably have to adjust to a new offense in 2017 if the offensive-minded leader is ousted, factoring into the McCoy decision surely.
So, how much of a pass should McCoy get due to the Bolts’ spate of injuries of these past two years? Has four years been enough regardless of circumstances? And how does a possible relocation to Los Angeles factor into this decision?
Yes I think McCoy should go. Unfortunately I cannot see a positive solution with Anyone named Spanos associated with the team. It’s been bad decision, bad drafting, cheap solutions, letting talent(Brees, LT, Jr., Rodney, Sproles, V Jackson , etc) get away, and weak yes men coaching and now here is what it has come to. Run to LA with your sorry organization and see what happens!
My sentiments exactly! McCoy needs to go but he’s not even close to the only or the main problem. The main problem won’t be solved until the team is sold, which will probably be never. Move, stay, it really doesn’t matter…..
Shouldn’t have been hired
Exactly. Who in that organization thought he should be hired
With all the talk of moving to LA, firing McCoy, possibly trading Rivers, and now rebranding the team with a new name and colors I think most of us ought to welcome this as an opportunity for fans…we are all essentially free-agents! I am looking at other teams and talking to friends…whoever offers u the most and best swag may just get a new fan!
Jeepjoe: Agreed, if they remove the brand we have a choice to free ourselves of decades of suffering and ownership nepotism. But, should there be a criteria for who we switch to? Do we jump on a bandwagon that has multiple titles (N.E., PIT, etc) or should we pick a team with the same pedigree, with no titles (PHL, MIN, etc)?
George, I think you’re on the right track. I wouldn’t jump on a bandwagon team. I am looking at teams like ARI, Rams, and TEN too.
Join PackerNation known for tradition, winning and owned by the people. Sell outs always.
If there is one thing the Chargers do well it is getting rid of people. We have gotten rid of players, coaches, and GM’s all for the sake of changing. Everyone wanted Marty out of town if you remember. The winners have consistency. Even through adversity they stick with their philosophy. The Steelers are a great example of that. Cower and Tomlin would have been fired by the Bolts. I’m not sure Belichick truthfully would have won more than a couple of games more than McCoy with this squad. Having Gronkowski on the IR is one thing but having everybody on injured reserve is just too much to overcome. You can’t win with a lack of depth. Maybe for once Spanos should do what the Pats, Steelers, and the other handful of continuous winners do and see how keeping McCoy turns out. We already know what will happen the other way.
With all the injuries this year, it is the conditioning coaches that need to go. How can one team have so many injuries? A lot of that comes down to conditioning!
Sell the team. Business run a top down model and succeed in the same way. All this team does consistently is hire coach after coach, let players go only to see them succeed elsewhere. When will they realize it is ownership that ruins this organization. Take the money from the sale, and buy another sports team and ruin those fans lives. Or when you leave, rebrand so when we do get a new team we can look back after we win rings and say see, it was ownership.
The Chargers will NOT fire McCoy before seasons end. That already seems clear. Will they fire him after Sundays game? Possibly. McCoy seems to be a really nice guy but he is not what I would call a head coach in the NFL. I think there is time for a change, especially with the likelihood of San Diego moving to LA. McCoy will land a job somewhere as a coordinator and I wish him success but its time for a change. Now let’s hope the rumors to the “rebrand” are not true.
In a league where statistics is a way of life, it is surprising that no one is looking at statistics for an indication of how long to keep a coach in the driver’s seat. You really have to look at more than one game or even one year.
Looking at the performance of all coaches in the Super Bowl era, the average time it took to get to their first Super Bowl with that team is 3.52 years. Since the distribution is skewed, the median is the better measure of central tendency at three years. Essentially, that means most coaches who took their team to the Super Bowl did it in three or less years.
When you look at Super Bowl wins, the median for the time it took for coaches (who went to a Super Bowl) to win the Super Bowl was four years (average / mean 4.4 years).
If your coach does not get to the Super Bowl in three years and does not win in four years, then they are in the bottom half of all coaches.
Notable exceptions are Hank Stram (Kansas City) and Vince Lombardi (Green Bay) [SB I] who were head coaches for four and eight years, respectively, when they took their teams to the Super Bowl; Tom Landry (Dallas) who did not take the Cowboys to the Super Bowl for eleven years and did not win his first Super Bowl until his twelfth year as the Head Coach; and Chuck Madden (Oakland) who did not take the Raiders to the Super Bowl (and win) until his eighth year as Head Coach.
Clearly the League is moving to younger head coaches and looking for quick success. Statistically speaking, it is time for San Diego to try a new head coach.