Why Jim Harbaugh, Chargers QB Justin Herbert need each other

It's often said a head coach and a team's starting quarterback are in a professional marriage. If one fails, the other one is also destined to fail. They need each other to succeed. And as Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert has struggled to find his perfect match, there's one coach on the market who could be his best chance at eternal football happiness. 

That coach is Jim Harbaugh, who is still employed by the University of Michigan but is out looking for a new job. Fresh off winning his alma mater its first national championship since 1997 (first unanimous since 1948), Harbaugh is being courted by NFL teams, one of which is Herbert's Chargers. 

On Monday, the Chargers revealed they interviewed Harbaugh for their head coaching vacancy, a spot that became open after they fired Brandon Staley a month earlier. Despite Herbert's eye-popping numbers and natural talent that cause many to call him one of the best QBs in the game today, Staley was only able to lead Los Angeles to a 24-24 regular-season record in just under three seasons. 

Herbert is 25, the same age as some of this year's NFL Draft prospects, and already has four years under his belt in the NFL. He has thrown for 17,223 yards and 114 touchdowns and has a 66.6 completion percentage. Herbert — who is 30-32 as a starter — is not why the Chargers have failed to establish themselves as a contender.  

But assuming he starts next season fully healthy, there's still room for Herbert to take his game to another level and be able to elevate his team to a place former all-time great Chargers quarterbacks Dan Fouts and Philip Rivers failed to reach — the Super Bowl. That's where Harbaugh comes in. 

Harbaugh, a former NFL quarterback himself, has made a career of getting the most he can out of the quarterbacks he's coached. It's also fair to say he has been most successful when he has a star quarterback he can rely on. From Andrew Luck at Stanford to Colin Kaepernick with the 49ers to J.J. McCarthy at Michigan, Harbaugh's best professional marriages have been with quality quarterbacks.  

Harbaugh is also hungry for a Super Bowl title himself. He got there and lost to his brother John, Baltimore's head coach, in Super Bowl XLVII. And now that he has his national championship, actually winning a Super Bowl would place him among an exclusive group to win both championships. 

So regardless of Herbert's statistics, he and the Chargers — who finished 5-12 in 2023 — are in desperate need of a shakeup and a jolt of excitement, both on and off the field. Harbaugh would bring a bravado with him that could rub off on his quarterback and then the rest of the team. 

And while Harbaugh can likely have his pick of any job he wants, the one he should desire is the one with the best young quarterback. It would be the professional marriage most likely to go the distance.