Steal the Chargers thunder? Not quite, Los Angeles Rams. Haven’t you seen their helmets? The newly-minted Los Angeles Chargers followed up a huge news day for the cities teams when reports surfaced that former Buffalo Bills interim head coach Anthony Lynn will become the Chargers’ new official head coach.
The #Chargers are finalizing a deal with Anthony Lynn, source said.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 13, 2017
Lynne was connected, to some degree, with every available job on the board and, frankly, I didn’t think he would get any of them. This is literally the fourth job title the man has had in a calendar year after starting 2016 as the Bills’ running backs coach.
In fact, prior to this season, coaching running backs is all Lynn had done since joining the coaching ranks in 2000. The idea that Lynn was a serious contender to get the open Buffalo job was ridiculous to me. This, landing with the Chargers, blows my mind.
Lynn steps in for departed Mike McCoy and it’s difficult to see how the Chargers will benefit from it at all. Lynn is a ground and pound style coach and the Chargers are a passing team with one of the most prolific quarterbacks in the league, Phillip Rivers, tossing the ball around to elite receivers like Antonio Gates and Keenan Allen.
If Anthony Lynn gets the #Chargers job, he’d keep OC Ken Whisenhunt, source says. A big decision that helped him in his quest for the job.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 12, 2017
The idea of a young offensive mind like the New England Patriots’; Josh McDaniels or the Atlanta Falcons’ Kyle Shanahan was exciting and I’m sure any Chargers fans in Los Angeles and beyond were excited about adding one of those guys. Now they get Lynn, the exact wrong man for the job. Congratulations, I guess.
What the Chargers might end up with is a solid defense, since with his old buddy Lynn getting the head coaching nod, Rex Ryan suddenly becomes an option at defensive coordinator. That means Rob will get a job too, so he can probably shut down the year’s supply of ramen order on Amazon.
Under Lynn, the Bills’ offense was ranked No. 16 in a league of 32 teams in yards per game, No. 10 in penalties and No. 24 in points per game, so you can see why he’d be such a hot candidate in the head coaching ranks, right? Right?
"If he's so great why didn't the Bills hire him?" –Every Chargers fan, if there are any left after today, reaction to Anthony Lynn hire.
— Ross Tucker (@RossTuckerNFL) January 13, 2017
By the end of the season the Bills finished 7-9, lost four of their last five games. Lynn was the interim head coach for a week and led Buffalo to a 31-0 loss to the hapless New York Jets on the final day of the regular season. Quite a coup you’ve made here, Dean Spanos.
If there was any fear of the Chargers eclipsing the Rams in Los Angeles, the news from the latter part of the day silenced that possibility. The only reason I could see in picking Lynn and not waiting for Shanahan or McDaniels (with just two open jobs left, for God’s sake) is money. Lynn was a much cheaper option and since the Spanos signed Mike McCoy to an extension last offseason, he still has to pay him as well as Lynn.
Unless something happens overnight, there will be just one open head coaching position left in the NFL; the San Francisco 49ers. The Yorks should be in no hurry at this point, since anyone they have targeted has no other potential job offer to take. This should be McDaniels the whole way, but the Chargers should have been Shanahan and look how that turned out.
Anthony Lynn has gone from replacing Greg Roman to replacing Rex Ryan to replacing Mike McCoy. Busy 17 weeks.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) January 13, 2017
If the 49ers’ pattern holds, they’ll tab the exact wrong person too, ending up with somebody like Tom Cable, offensive line coach of the Seattle Seahawks or Dave Taub, the Kansas City Chiefs’ special teams coach. There are so many solid choices still out there, like Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia, this should be impossible to screw up. But, you know, look at what the Chargers did.
And as ridiculous as it is for guys like Cable and Taub to even be considered, it’s more ridiculous that the Chargers hired Anthony Lynn today. Or, you know, tomorrow, officially.
With the Chargers’ job off the table, Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive coordinator Mike Smith signed an extension with the team to stay on in the same capacity under head coach Dirk Koetter.
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