The Los Angeles Chargers are a team on the rise under the guidance of head coach Jim Harbaugh. After going 5-12 in 2023, they stormed back to finish 12-5 in 2024 with a trip to the playoffs.
However, many consider it to be a slow rise, particularly because the AFC is stacked with good teams. There is a strong belief that Harbaugh will get this team to the top eventually, but there will be some hard knocks along the way.
Moe Moton of Bleacher Report has high hopes. While predicting how each team will finish this coming season, he puts the Chargers higher on the food chain than most fans who are the biggest homers will put them.
Moton not only has the Chargers winning the AFC West, but he has them finishing with a 13-4 record.
"Head coach Jim Harbaugh turned the underachieving Chargers into a playoff team last season, and he'll build on that foundation. Like most of his previous clubs, Los Angeles is built to physically wear down opponents.
The Chargers added massive guard Mekhi Becton and bruising running back Omarion Hampton. Najee Harris' status is unclear after he suffered an eye injury in a fireworks incident, but Hampton, who's 6'0", 220 pounds, can handle a heavy workload. In 2024, L.A. allowed the fewest points, and it signed ball-hawking cornerback Donte Jackson, who recorded a career-high five interceptions last season.
The Chargers are equipped to dethrone the Kansas City Chiefs for the AFC West title", wrote Moton.
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That would be an incredible season for the Chargers and looking across all of Moton's predictions, it would put the Chargers as the No. 2 seed in the AFC West. The Chargers have won 13 or more games in the regular season just twice in team history, in 2006 and 2009. In each of those seasons, they were bounced from the playoffs in the divisional round.
If the season went down the way Moton predicts it will, this would be the AFC playoff bracket:
1 Baltimore (BYE)
2 L.A. Chargers vs 7 Denver
3 Buffalo vs 6 Pittsburgh
4 Jacksonville vs 5 Kansas City
That would be an interesting bracket, featuring a third matchup between the Chargers and Broncos in the season, taking place in the Wild Card round.
Moton may have written this before the news of Rashawn Slater going down for the season. That could certainly change anyone's prediction. A 13-win season in a difficult AFC West would be better than just about anyone can expect in 2025.
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