Chargers’ Joey Bosa Tempers Expectations With Jim Harbaugh

The Los Angeles Chargers hired Jim Harbaugh as their head coach with the expectation that he will alter the direction of the franchise, and that is exactly what defensive lineman Joey Bosa thinks he will do.

Speaking on Harbaugh this week, Bosa said he was left with “great first impressions” of the new coach and that while he does expect Harbaugh to change the culture, he says it’s important to take things one step at a time.

“That’s an expectation for sure,” Bosa said, via Jared Schwartz of The New York Post. “I’d like to win Game 1 first, then we can talk about Week 2 and then Week 3.”

The Chargers went just 5-12 this past season and have made the playoffs just once the last five years, so you can understand why Bosa wants to take things slow.

As exciting as it may be to have Harbaugh in tow, Bosa understands that the team still needs to get a lot done first before it can start thinking about championships.

“Sometimes getting caught up with all the Super Bowl talk and all the hype gets you unfocused and worrying about the wrong things when you should just be worrying about what’s in front of you,” said Bosa. “… There’s a lot of talk of Super Bowl every year, and every year I kind of have a similar answer like ‘alright, let’s see how the first week goes and then we’ll talk about that.’”

Harbaugh just won a national championship at the University of Michigan after spending the last nine years with the Wolverines.

Prior to that, Harbaugh was head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, where he spent four seasons from 2011 through 2014. During that time, he went 49-22-1 (including playoffs), highlighted by a Super Bowl appearance in February 2013. He also led the 49ers to a pair of NFC West division titles.

It remains to be seen if Jim Harbaugh can have a similar type of impact in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, Joey Bosa was limited to just nine games due to injury this past season. During that time, he registered 20 tackles and 6.5 sacks.

The four-time Pro Bowler has been inhibited by injury issues quite a bit over the last couple of years, as he has played in a grand total of 14 games since 2022.