If you wonder whether or not consecutive Super Bowl titles and eight consecutive divisional wins can finally silence the annual preseason belief in the Los Angeles Chargers, you have another thing coming.
Sure, it's just one guy, but Steve Coulter is a man with a platform and he's using it to make his early predictions for the 2024 NFL season that the Chargers will reach Super Bowl LIX.
Coulter is a writer/editor for NBC 10 in Philadelphia, or at least that's where this story appears, wherein Coulter explains what he sees in his Magic 8 Ball for the upcoming year. Instead of a three-peat for the Kansas City Chiefs, he believes in what Jim Harbaugh so much that he has the entire AFC looking up at Justin Herbert and company.
Specifically, Coulter has the Chiefs and Chargers facing off at SoFi Stadium in the AFC Conference Championship for the chance to go face the Detroit Vikings in the Super Bowl. From there, Herbert and Harbaugh take care of Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid before ultimately falling in their quest for glory to Dan Campbell and the Lions.
We can't fault Coulter for believing that the Chargers are an improved franchise for having hired Harbaugh. We'd admit that much ourselves. Also, if a franchise's primary building blocks begin with head coach and quarterback, the Chargers are about as set as any team in football.
However, the Chargers also lost Austin Ekeler, Keenan Allen, and Mike Williams on offense and hoping on a wing and a prayer that Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa can stay healthy and effective on defense. They're also in Harbaugh's first year and that's a tall order to flip a franchise's fortunes in such short order.
One look at Coulter's Twitter account, however, reveals that he's a "lifetime Broncos + Yankees fan". That level of taste speaks for itself, and at least he's not silly enough to back the Donkeys with such fervor as well. If a man has anti-Chiefs sentiments to use up, he's gotta find an outlet somewhere. Might as well join the offseason bandwagon of the Bolts.