The Chargers are expected to hire Joe Hortiz, the Baltimore Ravens’ director of player personnel, as their new general manager, according to multiple reports Monday. If so, then Hortiz would go from working with John Harbaugh in Baltimore to Jim Harbaugh in Los Angeles.
The final details of Hortiz’s contract had yet to be worked out, according to reports from ESPN and the NFL Network that cited unnamed sources.
The Chargers hired Jim Harbaugh as their coach last Wednesday to replace Brandon Staley, who was fired along with GM Tom Telesco on Dec. 15, one day after a 63-21 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders. John Harbaugh, Jim’s older brother, has coached the Ravens for the past 16 years.
Hortiz, 48, joined the Ravens as a scout in 1998, rising through the organization’s ranks to become director of player personnel in 2019. Baltimore won the Super Bowl following the 2012 season and advanced to the AFC title game after the ’23 season, losing to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.
Telesco became the Chargers’ GM in 2013, but they reached the playoffs only three times during his tenure, including after the 2022 season, when they built a 27-0 lead in the second quarter only to squander it and lose their AFC wild-card game to the Jacksonville Jaguars, 31-30, an epic collapse.
Telesco and Staley kept their jobs despite the playoff debacle.
But they were fired less than 24 hours after the Chargers gave up the most points in franchise history in a humiliating loss last month to the Raiders on Prime Video, a national streaming service that has taken over “Thursday Night Football” broadcasts since the start of the 2022 season.
The Chargers’ lengthy interview and hiring process landed Harbaugh first and then Hortiz, which might have seemed out of order at first glance but made sense with the team taking a big swing at the University of Michigan coach, who led the Wolverines to the national championship earlier this month.
Hortiz seemed like a natural fit…
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