The Chargers wasted zero time making changes in the wake of their loss Sunday night to the New England Patriots in an AFC wild-card game. They announced Tuesday morning they parted ways with offensive coordinator Greg Roman and offensive line coach Mike Devlin.
Hired nearly two years ago, Roman was roundly criticized for his lack of imaginative play-calling during the Chargers’ 16-3 loss to the Patriots, when their offense failed to generate more than a second-quarter field goal from Cameron Dicker. The Chargers managed only 159 yards through the air and 87 on the ground.
Quarterback Justin Herbert seemed uncertain about how to contend with the Patriots’ defense. He completed only 19 of 31 passes and scrambled for 57 yards and 10 runs. The Chargers failed to establish anything resembling a potent ground game with Kimani Vidal rushing 11 times for 31 yards.
Overall, the Chargers’ offense lacked the creativity shown by other playoff teams, including those who also were defeated in their wild-card matchups. Their plays seemed predictable and unimaginative by comparison to the winning teams, including the Patriots, who had at least one or two tricks up their sleeves.
Coach Jim Harbaugh said late Sunday night that the Chargers would look at “everything” as another lengthy offseason began. Roman was Harbaugh’s hand-picked offensive coordinator, having worked together with the San Francisco 49ers more than a decade ago in Harbaugh’s first head coaching job.
“Yeah, right now I don’t have the answers,” Harbaugh said Sunday when asked about Roman and the lack of offensive punch. “We’re going to look at that, at everything. It really falls on me that we weren’t at our best tonight. I don’t have the answers. I wish I did. We’ll work hard. It’ll be a new beginning.”
Asked if Roman was the right person to be calling the plays, Harbaugh said, “I don’t have that answer right now. I know you’re being very specific. We weren’t good enough as a team. That’s what we do. We win as a team and we lose as a team. That’s my responsibility to have the team in a better position.”
Neither response was exactly a ringing endorsement.
Several offensive linemen also questioned Roman’s approach during exit interviews with reporters Monday. Right guard Mekhi Becton, who completed his first season with the Chargers after three with the New York Jets and one with the Philadelphia Eagles, said he never found a comfort level with Roman.
“There’s a lot of different things I’m not used to,” Becton said. “That’s all I can say. There’s a lot of different things I’m not used to. … We haven’t talked about it. We didn’t talk about it after the game, so I don’t know. It was just different. That’s all I got. I’m not going to go into everything. So, yeah, it was just different.”
Left guard Zion Johnson, a pending free agent after the Chargers declined to pick up the fifth-season option on his rookie contract before the 2025 season began, said simply of his experience with Roman, “I think he has a lot of creativity in his play calling and I think it’s been good.”
Added center Bradley Bozeman, who worked with Roman when both were with the Baltimore Ravens, “He always does his best in everything he does. There are games where we’re not great or successful on offense, and some of it is our fault. Some of it is our scheme. Some of it is different things.
“It’s not all on one person. We’re all in this together.”
In fact, the Chargers’ offense was hamstrung from almost the start. Left tackle Rashawn Slater, a Pro Bowl selection twice in four seasons, suffered a season-ending knee injury during training camp. Joe Alt, a standout right tackle who shifted into Slater’s position, then sustained a season-ending ankle injury in Week 9.
That the Chargers managed to win 11 games and advance to the playoffs for the second time in Harbaugh’s two seasons as coach was surprising. Herbert was the NFL’s ninth-leading passer during the regular season with 3,727 yards in 16 games. Herbert fell to 0-3 in the playoffs, however.
Harbaugh and Chargers general manager Joe Hortiz are scheduled to speak with reporters Thursday.