Will the Chargers fire Anthony Lynn? Bad coaching mistakes, blown leads keep his seat hot

Anthony Lynn’s early success with the Chargers has turned into a hot seat.

Los Angeles (4-9) spent much of the early part of the 2020 season making history by blowing leads. Growing pains were fair to expect with rookie quarterback Justin Herbert at the helm, but Lynn has come under fire more for individual in-game coaching mistakes than the Chargers’ overall struggles. Special teams have been especially shaky at times, and it’s forced Lynn to explain the unexplainable on multiple occasions. 

With only three regular-season games left in Lynn’s fourth year in charge, it seems unlikely that he’ll be sent packing before the season concludes. But Los Angeles could soon be looking for a new coach to team with Herbert in what should still be a bright L.A. future.

Here’s what Lynn and others have said about his potential firing, along with a breakdown of the coaching mistakes that make it seem like only a matter of time.

Will the Chargers fire Anthony Lynn?

The Los Angeles Times reported on Dec. 7 that the Chargers intend to keep Lynn on board for the remainder of the season. The Chargers haven’t fired a coach mid-season since Kevin Gilbride in 1998.

Lynn hasn’t said anything crazy as questions about his job have picked up, but rather just gone with standard responses.

“Right now, I don’t have time to worry about job status,” Lynn said after Week 13. “As long as I’m the head coach here, my focus is trying to get this thing back on track and finish the season out the right way.”

In addition, Lynn does believe he’s the guy to fix the problems with the Chargers.

“I’ve worked my tail off my whole life to get here,” Lynn said. “Yeah, I’m having a down year, and I understand people are going to take shots and people are going to be critical. That’s to be expected. But we have had some success here, as well. I think I’m the guy to get this back on the right track.”

Through Week 14, there have been three NFL head coaches fired during the 2020 season: Bill O’Brien (Texans), Dan Quinn (Falcons) and Matt Patricia. Right now, it’s looking like Lynn will see the season out, but beyond that, it’s anyone’s bet.

Lynn became the Chargers’ head coach in 2017, and his first two seasons went well (9-7 record followed by 12-4). But it’s been a struggle in 2019-20, going 5-11 in Philip Rivers’ final season with the Chargers before entering Week 15 of 2020 with a 4-9 record. 

If the Chargers choose to fire Lynn, the job could be desirable thanks to the presence of Justin Herbert, the likely 2020 NFL Rookie of the Year.

Anthony Lynn’s bad coaching decisions

It’s worth acknowledging before these breakdowns: Not everything that happens on a football field is the head coach’s fault, and it’s impossible to know how much each mistake was because of Lynn or rather because of his coordinators or players. But the head coach still winds up taking a lot of responsibility for what happens in his team’s football games, both good and bad. For the Chargers, there’s been a lot of bad in 2020.

No time for a field goal (Week 14)

The most recent of the Chargers’ blunders came in Week 14 against the Falcons. First, L.A. ran on third-and-1 with no timeouts left late in the first half and didn’t convert, so it’d be a rushed fourth-down decision. Watch what transpired next:

There seemed to be total indecision about what to do, and the Chargers didn’t run a fourth-down play before the break. There were way too many Chargers on the field even if that snap had been in time. 

“You cannot run the ball in that situation,” Lynn told media postgame. “You just can’t. We try to be aggressive, but you can’t run the ball in that situation and that right there, that’s an area where we’ve got to improve as a coaching staff, communication wise, and we will. But you cannot run the ball there.”

Run with no timeouts in fourth quarter (Week 12)

Against the Bills, down by two scores, Justin Herbert completed a Hail Mary-esque pass to Tyron Johnson. With 24 seconds left and no timeouts, the next Chargers play was a run. 

“There was completely miscommunication and that is all I’m going to say about that,’’ Lynn said after the game.

Miscommunication might’ve been the case, but there’s still some roots in coaching that such miscommunication would be possible in an obvious spike or pass situation. This also happened before the game concluded:

Punting on fourth-and-short multiple times

In Week 2, the Chargers punted on fourth-and-1 in overtime. Sure, L.A. was in its own half of the field, but receiving the ball with a chance to walk-off the game was Patrick Mahomes. That’s exactly what he did.

The Chargers also chose to punt to Tom Brady on fourth-and-1 in Week 4. With 8:56 remaining, L.A. had already blown a big lead and was down 35-31 with the ball at its own 34-yard line. Again, risky, but it goes into the next play — playing not to lose instead of playing to win. 

Playing not to lose causes blown lead vs. Saints (Week 5)

The Chargers took a 20-3 lead on the Saints by throwing, letting Herbert air it out. But then they made the mistake that many squads do in this spot — they went to the run and took the ball out of Herbert’s hands.

L.A.’s first three drives of the second half ended with punts, never picking up even 30 yards on a single drive. New Orleans had tied the game back up at 20 before the Chargers really gave Herbert a chance to do his thing again, and the Saints wound up winning in overtime. 

Special teams nightmares galore (Week 13)

The Chargers have had rough special teams all season. First, it meant a demotion for special teams coach George Stewart. Then against the Patriots, it was Keith Burns and Chris Caminiti leading special teams, with Lynn helping before he chose to take over himself in Week 14. Nothing’s worked.

Look at this list of special teams ugliness from a 45-0 loss to the sub-.500 Patriots in Week 13:

It’s not all Lynn’s fault. But wow, that’s not pretty.