Chargers will be first NFL team to meet with Jim Harbaugh

The Los Angeles Chargers are going to become the first NFL team to meet with University of Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh as he gets closer to making a return to the NFL. ESPN reported on Sunday that the Chargers will be the team to get the first crack at signing him after his national championship win this past week.

The Las Vegas Raiders, Washington Commanders, Tennessee Titans, Atlanta Falcons, Seattle Seahawks and Carolina Panthers also have job openings and would figure to have interest in Harbaugh. 

But the Chargers have one thing that none of those teams have and would make them an attractive option for Harbaugh (or any potential new coach) – a quarterback. 

The presence of Justin Herbert should, in theory, make the Chargers job one of the most attractive of any of the open jobs. Quarterbacks play the most important position on the field and if you have a great one it can mask an awful lot of flaws elsewhere on a roster. The Chargers simply have not had the head coach capable of maximizing Herbert's talents. 

Harbaugh could be that coach.

Along with his impressive tenure at Michigan, where he led the Wolverines to three consecutive College Football Playoff appearances, he also owns a 44-19-1 record in the NFL (along with a Super Bowl appearance) during his time with the San Francisco 49ers. 

The wild card in the Harbaugh sweepstakes is going to be if a team that gets ousted early in the playoffs decides that Harbaugh could be their missing Super Bowl piece. Specifically a team like, say, the Dallas Cowboys. If Dallas loses to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday it could put Mike McCarthy on the hot seat and maybe convince owner Jerry Jones to swing for the fences with Harbaugh.

Bill Belichick, Mike Vrabel and Pete Carroll are the other three prominent names on the head-coaching market.