The preseason buzz surrounding football in Los Angeles was true. The Rams have made bold and dramatic moves to overhaul a once stellar team and turn it into a monster. The Chargers have overhauled their coaching staff, adding senior offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel in the move. at last Get a franchise without a hump over the hump and into contention.
Fast forward six weeks and both organizations are trash fires. The Rams (2-4) have greatly underplayed their potential, losing to the Cardinals on the weekend and finding themselves at the bottom of the NFC West with no clear path forward. The Chargers (0-6) are even worse, boasting one of the worst offenses in the NFL, hurt to the No. 1 overall pick, with a coaching staff that seems unable to turn the ship around.
All Los Angeles, Chargers vs. The Rams Super Bowl idea never felt out of the realm of possibility. Now the thought of bringing these teams together on football’s brightest stage is a farcical joke. There is no chance that any team will make the playoffs, and everything can go wrong.
What happened to the Los Angeles Rams?
We all know that bad feeling when you wake up on the wrong side of the bed. From the second your feet hit the floor, you know it’s going to be a rough day, and even the smallest problems feel like an all-encompassing conspiracy to ruin your life. That’s it for the Rams after Ian McVeigh made an unexpected move to send the team to Australia late in the season, play on little rest and get stomped by the San Francisco 49ers to start the season.
The Rams are dormant this season. McVay, with his typical football mind, is known for coming up with creative ways to solve problems – but he can’t do anything to right the ship this season. The Rams’ players seem to be on the move, as if they’ve bought their team’s preseason exposure and entered the NFL season without putting in the work.
It’s fair to say that Puka Nacua is still on the field after offseason surgery, with the team struggling with injuries and the defense not being able to benefit from Myles Garrett. Regardless, it’s hard to imagine this team simply getting better with those additions. This isn’t the problem of one or two players, but a fundamental, total breakdown of everything we know the Rams to be when it comes to discipline, focus and commitment.
It’s the special teams that indicate how far this team has fallen. The Rams, football’s middle child, have refrained from spending and strengthening special teams over the past five years under the assumption that resources would be wasted. That came back to bite them in 2026, as the Rams are going 6-for-10 on field goals at 28.86 yards-per-punt-return, 13.50 yards-per-punt-return, and the worst punt team in football.
The hits just keep coming for the Rams:
- Matthew Stafford is on pace to throw 15 less touchdowns and double his interceptions by 2025.
- Kieran Williams is poised to catch the fewest carries of his career since he was a rookie.
- Puca Nacua has the worst catch rate and success rate of his career.
- Davante Adams is out for up to 10 weeks with an injury
- Pune Ford will miss the rest of the season.
This is not a case of lightning from nowhere, rather Everyone Failure at the same time against the Rams. Rubbing salt into the wound is the fact that the 49ers are undefeated and trailing in the NFC West, which makes it incredibly difficult to imagine how Los Angeles can handle it. Instead of watching the Super Bowl in Week 13, the Rams may be preparing to make some big changes to their future by starting Ty Simpson.
What happened to the Los Angeles Chargers?
The shared DNA between the Chargers and Rams was to be expected, but it comes from very different places. We’ve seen the potential in the Rams before, and the idea of adding both Myles Garrett and Trent McDuffin to the mix felt like a home run. The Chargers, on the other hand, were easy to like on all of these papers, but it was clear that Jim Harbaugh wasn’t the offensive guy to unlock their potential — which is where Mike McDaniel came into the picture.
This test is completely messed up. The Chargers have an injury problem on their offensive line, but that doesn’t mean Justin Herbert and co. Several other teams have equal, if not worse, injuries on the OL, but are doing better than the Chargers.
Herbert’s downfall is remarkable because it makes no sense on paper. The Chargers’ QB is seeing the same amount of pressure as he has the last three years, and has a career-high 0.2 seconds of pocket time, but his 17.9% passer rating is a bad throw, leading to a career-high 23 interceptions, and all this after the offense’s time-consuming, attempted drop is down to 7. Beginner season
In short: the offense is easy, Herbert is worse. That extends to the receivers as well, who throw 18.1% of the passes they throw their way and can’t move the chains on critical downs. That caused Herbert to force the ball too much, allowing the team to gain 24.2 yards per drive, down from 32.4 a year ago.
There is a significant problem with the Chargers’ offense, but it’s hard to pinpoint the biggest problem. Offensively, they feel like a team fighting against itself, which has always been the danger of trying to pair Jim Harbaugh’s football sensibilities with Mike McDaniels. Harbaugh is an old-school football leader who believes in establishing the run, developing the passing game and breaking down defenses over time. McDaniel, meanwhile, is a new-school coordinator who believes in winning with explosive plays, turnovers and unpredictable sets. What we’re left with is a team trying to run both systems at once and it’s blowing up in their faces.
Going back to the game action situation highlights the problem this team is in. In both In 2022 and 2024, when Justin Herbert was one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, he punted 165.5 times for an average gain of 8.7 yards a season. This year, he averaged 6.74 yards rushing to throw 111 passes.
The Chargers don’t score in game action because they can’t establish the run, and they can’t establish the run because they have Mike McDaniel. Absolutely It was about “establishing the race.” He’s a coordinator who likes to use running backs as in-house explosive threats, not tactical chain movers. As a result, the feeling around the Chargers is that there are a lot of traps in the kitchen on offense and they’re all going to burn their soup to hell.
What’s next for NFL football in Los Angeles?
Sadness. He feels that with each passing day these organizations are hurting their rebuilding efforts. The Rams were ready to go with this fast-paced, all-expenses-paid rapid fire run designed to bring the organization a trophy or two before Matthew Stafford retires. Now this team is going to look to reshape the roster on an accelerated schedule, and they don’t have the draft picks to complete it — as part of the Garrett trade, immediately holding their pick with the Browns.
As for chargers, well, they’re chargers. It’s hard to imagine a scenario where Jim Harbaugh is fit to keep his job, but it’s even harder to imagine the Chargers being able to. Fire The man with the Jim Harbaugh report. Instead, the team seems more content to jettison Mike McDaniel and Omarion Hampton for offensive issues, because it’s easier than admitting that Justin Herbert is an ass. We’re back to the old chargers we’ve known and loved for decades. A team that looks good on paper but can’t get the job done.
One thing is certain about these two groups will do Going to the Super Bowl – only because the owners of both teams have an interest in Sophie Stadium and use their suites to watch two successful teams play football.
