This season has been a nightmare for the Los Angeles Chargers. They are 0-7 ahead of Sunday’s matchup against the Houston Texans and while many around the NFL assumed they were going to be sellers ahead of Tuesday’s November 10th trade deadline, recent reporting suggest the Chargers do not plan on selling at all. Head coach Jim Harbaugh may be chiefly to blame for that.

Jonathan Jones of The Athletic recently wrote about how teams are thinking ahead of the trade deadline. He noted that other executives around the league are puzzled by their stance and blame Harbaugh for the Chargers’ reluctance to move anyone.

Jones writes: “Whether Harbaugh believes that the 0-7 Chargers can rattle off 10 straight wins and make the playoffs doesn’t necessarily matter. But that is clearly his message to his team. To trade away a ‘pillar’ of the team such as Mack or any other top contributor would belie that message.”

That just does not make any sort of sense. The Chargers are toast this season. Even if they are not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs it is just hard to see how this team will be able to turn things around. Sure, the Chargers could win a couple of games and at least avoid a completely embarrassing record, but to think they can win out and make the playoffs is just an insane way to think.

Maybe the fact that Harbaugh has never had a season this bad in his coaching career is why he is so reluctant to pull the plug. He has enjoyed success everywhere he has gone, both as a coach in college and at in the NFL. It’s understandable why this season has come as a shock to him when most probably would have expected LA to be around the same 11-6 mark it reached the last two seasons, but he cannot be shocked into paralysis or just utter insanity.

Chargers must take advantage of trade deadline

The Chargers absolutely have to take advantage of how poorly the season has gone by acquiring some draft capital. They do not have to go the nuclear route and trade away Justin Herbert, but trading away someone like Mack just makes so much obvious sense. He is an aging veteran who deserves a shot to play for a team that has a chance at a Super Bowl. It’s far more disrespectful to force him to languish away on a terrible team.

Harbaugh is certainly a unique character and what seems like common sense to others may seem unthinkable to him. That may be part of why he’s been such a successful coach but right now that way of thinking is actively hurting the team.

Perhaps the Chargers are just playing hard to get and will start playing ball right before the deadline in order to drive up the price for desperate teams, but if Harbaugh and the Chargers hold firm then Los Angeles will have wasted the one positive that could have come as a result of this season.