Jim Harbaugh is headed back to the NFL.
The Los Angeles Chargers have agreed to a five-year deal with Harbaugh, who led the University of Michigan to a national championship earlier this month, to become their next head coach, NFL Network Insiders Ian Rapoport, Tom Pelissero and Mike Garafolo reported on Wednesday. The team later announced Harbaugh's hiring.
Rapoport added that Harbaugh, 60, received an offer from Michigan that would have made him the highest-paid coach in college football, but chose to helm the Chargers.
"Jim Harbaugh is football personified, and I can think of no one better to lead the Chargers forward," Chargers owner and chairman of the board Dean Spanos said in a statement. "The son of a coach, brother of a coach and father of a coach who himself was coached by names like [Bo] Schembechler and [Mike] Ditka, for the past two decades Jim has led hundreds of men to success everywhere he's been -- as their coach. And today, Jim Harbaugh returns to the Chargers, this time as our coach. Who has it better than us?"
A return to the NFL has long been speculated for Harbaugh after he spent the past two offseasons interviewing with the Minnesota Vikings and Denver Broncos, respectively.
Harbaugh has seen success at every stop in his coaching career, including the four seasons he spent with the San Francisco 49ers, whom he led to wins in nearly 70% of his games (44-19-1) from 2011-2014. During that run last decade under Harbaugh, the Niners went to three consecutive NFC Championship Games and advanced to Super Bowl XLVII, where they lost to the Ravens and Harbaugh's brother, John. Coincidentally, the Ravens are on the Chargers 2024 schedule, with L.A. set to host the brotherly matchup.
Prior to his time on the sideline, Harbaugh was a quarterback at Michigan who was taken in the first round of the 1987 NFL Draft by the Chicago Bears. His NFL career ran from 1987 through 2001, concluding with three years on the Chargers roster and 17 starts for the club.
"My love for Michigan, playing there and coming back to coach there, leaves a lasting impact. I'll always be a loyal Wolverine," Harbaugh said in a statement. "I'm remarkably fortunate to have been afforded the privilege of coaching at places where life's journey has created strong personal connections for me. From working as an assistant coach at Western Kentucky alongside my father, Jack, and time as an assistant with the Raiders, to being a head coach at USD, Stanford, the 49ers and Michigan -- each of those opportunities carried significance, each felt personal. When I played for the Chargers, the Spanos family could not have been more gracious or more welcoming. Being back here feels like home, and it's great to see that those things haven't changed.
"The only job you start at the top is digging a hole, so we know we've got to earn our way. Be better today than yesterday. Be better tomorrow than today. My priorities are faith, family and football, and we are going to attack each with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind. This organization is putting in the work -- investing capital, building infrastructure and doing everything within its power to win. Great effort equals great results, and we're just getting started."
In Los Angeles, Jim Harbaugh will be tasked with salvaging the start of Justin Herbert's career, which has often flashed promise but has featured more notable losses than wins from a talented roster featuring one of the brighter young passers in the NFL.
The Chargers fired head coach Brandon Staley and general manager Tom Telesco in December following an embarrassing 63-21 prime-time loss to the Las Vegas Raiders. That loss was the culmination of a disappointing 2023 calendar year that started with the Chargers suffering a historic loss to the Jaguars during Super Wild Card Weekend and continued into the next regular season when L.A. continued to struggle at the end of games.
In 2023, Herbert was lost for the season due to a broken finger after playing in a career-low 13 games. He also saw career worsts in team points per game (21.7), record (5-8), completion percentage (65.1) and passing yards per game (241.1).
Harbaugh is no stranger to quick turnarounds in the NFL. The 49ers went 6-10 in 2010, the year before Harbaugh was hired away from Stanford, and San Francisco saw a seven-win improvement in Harbaugh's first season in the Bay Area, a campaign that saw the Niners make the first of their three straight NFC title games.
Who the Chargers pair Harbaugh with in the front office remains to be seen. Los Angeles has been connected to nine candidates for its open general manager position and will bring in Ravens director of player personnel Joe Hortiz for a second interview on Thursday, Rapoport reported. The team interviewed Giants assistant GM Brandon Brown on Wednesday.
Harbaugh has spent the past nine years leading his alma mater, Michigan, to an 89-25 record, but his time in college has not been without controversy. Harbaugh served a school-imposed three-game suspension this past season for alleged recruiting violations during the COVID-19 dead period and not cooperating with investigators. Harbaugh could still face NCAA punishment from that case and from allegations against the program for an alleged sign-stealing operation, which led to a separate three-game suspension for the team's final three regular-season games.
NFL Network Insiders Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero reported back in October that the NFL would unlikely be a safe harbor for Harbaugh and could enforce some or all of any discipline imposed by the NCAA.
