Jim Harbaugh was hired to change the Chargers’ culture.
So far, so good.
His fingerprints were all over the Bolts' Week 1 win over the Raiders. They gashed Las Vegas for 176 rushing yards and wore them down as the game went on. His trademark tough-as-nails defense allowed only 10 points and pitched a shutout in the second half. They also forced three turnovers and sacked Gardner Minshew four times.
Harbaugh entered the season tied with Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus as co-favorites to win Coach of the Year at +850. He’s now the outright frontrunner according to DraftKings at +750 while Eberflus remains +850. The Seattle Seahawks’ Mike Macdonald and New England Patriots’ Jerod Mayo are tied with the third-best odds at +900.
Harbaugh, Macdonald and Mayo are all entering their first year with their teams. They each got off to a rousing start, pulling off Week 1 wins. First-year head coaches have won Coach of the Year in four of the past seven seasons in Brian Daboll (2022), Kevin Stefanski (2020), Matt Nagy (2018) and Sean McVay (2017).
Ironically, the last full-time first-year head coach to win the award was Harbaugh in 2011 with the San Francisco 49ers. Winning it again would make him just the fourth head coach to win it twice in the past 25 seasons. It would also mark back-to-back years a coach won it for a second time as Kevin Stefanski took it home a year ago.
