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Few would’ve guessed that we’d get to the month of November and the Los Angeles Chargers would still be sitting with a winless record. Even fewer would’ve believed that knowing that Justin Herbert has started every game.
But here we are. The Chargers are 0-7 after their latest loss to the cross-town rival Rams, and any hope for a turnaround seems to be far in the rearview. Instead, questions about Herbert, head coach Jim Harbaugh, and offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel are the only things making the Chargers a relevant national storyline.
With three Chargers primetime games on the horizon, however, it’ll be incumbent upon the NFL to find some alternatives to the sputtering Bolts, otherwise fans will be subjected to some rather low-stakes football in some of the biggest windows of the season.
Unfortunately, the first Chargers primetime game cannot be flexed at all. ESPN’s _Monday Night Football_ in Week 10 features the Chargers and the Baltimore Ravens, a team that is currently down to its third-string quarterback and sitting in last place in the AFC North. But per the NFL’s flex scheduling rules, games cannot be flexed out of _Monday Night Football_ until Week 12, meaning there’s nothing the league or ESPN can do to improve the matchup two weeks from now.
Things will get interesting in Week 12 and Week 15, however.
The Chargers are scheduled to headline _Sunday Night Football_ in Week 12 against the New England Patriots, a game that can be flexed under the league’s flex scheduling procedures. However, that week is particularly tricky to flex because it is the week of Thanksgiving. The NFL already has six other standalone games scheduled that week: one on Thanksgiving Eve, three on Thanksgiving, one on Black Friday, and one on _Monday Night Football_. That leaves very few quality games in the Sunday afternoon slate that would be available to flex the Chargers out of primetime. The best options would likely be Saints-Bengals, Falcons-Vikings, or Raiders-Browns; none of which really scream “worthy of primetime placement.” It’ll be interesting to see whether the NFL chooses to utilize a flex here.
Week 15 poses another interesting scenario. The Chargers are scheduled to play the San Francisco 49ers on _Thursday Night Football_. The NFL can flex _TNF_ games after Week 13, but must give a 21-day notice as opposed to the normal six- or 12-day notice the league is usually afforded (depending on which package and how late in the year the flex is happening). Only once in the league’s history has the NFL flexed a Thursday game; in 2024 to swap out Browns-Bengals for Broncos-Chargers. It’s unclear if 49ers-Chargers would meet the threshold for a Thursday flex, considering the 49ers figure to be Super Bowl contenders and that game will likely have playoff implications for them.
So despite the Chargers sporting an 0-7 record heading into Week 9, it’s quite possible the team is featured in three primetime slots the remainder of the season. That couldn’t have been in the NFL’s plans when it released the schedule back in May. But the league isn’t exactly left with the best flex options to remove the Chargers from primetime.