Exclusive: Jim Harbaugh Breaks Down Chargers Draft Picks

The Los Angeles Chargers are now entering the second year of the Jim Harbaugh era, as the former Michigan Wolverines head coach is back in the NFL after a 10-year absence.

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Harbaugh has been a proven winner in every organization he has been a part of, including the Chargers. The team went 5-12 in 2023, letting go of Brandon Staley and replacing him with Giff Smith as interim.

Harbaugh would come in and immediately turn the franchise around, leading the team to an 11-6 record. The Chargers would lose in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs, but there is budding hope for LA to be a force in the AFC moving forward.

Harbaugh joined Newsweek Sports to discuss his partnership with Invivyd, breaking down the Chargers draft picks, and to give some important health updates.

Harbaugh is partnering with Invivyd, which is a biotech company creating a non-vaccine preventative for COVID-19.

“COVID-19 is still with us, and a year-round virus. Summer surge is coming. People are going to be getting together, traveling, and there’s things that you can do to combat it that don’t include a vaccine, and especially for those that are immunocompromised, that have organ transplants or or have cancer. So the recommendation is to talk to your doctor about it and talk to your doctor about and vivid and visit expandtheiroptions.com.”

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Harbaugh had one of the most intense moments on the sideline in 2024, as he was rushed off the field after experiencing a heart palpitation issue. It was revealed that he had an arrhythmia that caused his heart to beat irregularly.

Since then, he revealed he would undergo a procedure to correct the heart arrhythmia, and also got a hip issue addressed.

“Thanks for asking, feeling like a new man, with a new energy, attacking a new day. All patched up and ready to roll.”

Harbaugh thanked the multiple doctors who took care of him during these procedures, including those at UCLA and Cedars-Sinai.

“I want to give a shout-out to Doctor Zeegen over at UCLA, who really did an amazing job. I mean this hip is night and day difference, and Dr Shehata at Cedars Sinai, who did my heart ablation. Thank you. Thank you very much. And, yeah, just like I said, I just feel like a new man with a new energy attacking a new season.”

There are high hopes for the Chargers and Harbaugh going into their second season under him leading the team, including his excitement for the new draftees selected.

“We were fortunate enough to select Omarion Hampton with the 22nd pick. He was still there. He was still on the board, and we’re going to make him a Charger. And Trey Harris, wide receiver in the second round, you know, a guy that we had, had rated very high, you know, one of the top receivers in the entire draft. And then Jamaree Caldwell, you know, for us to, another piece in our defensive line, I think we’re going to have one of the biggest defensive lines in the National Football League this year.”

Harbaugh showed his excitement for all the draft picks, and especially touched on the impact that he expects Hampton to provide for the run game to add to Najee Harris, who came over from the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The run game can now complement the passing game, as quarterback Justin Herbert now has Ladd McConkey, Quentin Johnston, Harris, and more.

“You want to be good at both … You know you want to have a good fastball. You want to have a good curve. You know they’re they’re both critical to the game, and to have people that Justin can get the ball to. Justin’s excited to get the ball to Ladd McConkey, Quentin, Tre … Mike Williams is back!”

The excitement for the offense is clearly there, and Harbaugh even stated that he is hoping the Chargers can get J.K. Dobbins back.

“Hopefully, we get J.K. Dobbins back. Well, we’ll see. I mean, there’s you can hope for, hope for a lot of things. So we’re just, we’re just trying to build and be better.”

Dobbins still remains a free agent, but it sounds like Harbaugh is hoping the team can work something out with him.

The Chargers are in a stacked division with the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos, and now the division will see the Las Vegas Raiders with former Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll leading the team.

Harbaugh touched on what it would be like to take on his former rival, as the pair matched up plenty when he was leading the San Francisco 49ers.

“You look across not just the AFC West, but that’s well documented. Andy Reid, Sean Payton, Pete Carroll, but across the entire league, John Harbaugh, Mike Tomlin, you know, and the young coach, Sean McVay, I mean, these are some of the best coaches who ever coached in the history of the National Football League.

And every single coach, as I look the the new coaches, Brian Callahan, Ben Johnson, it’s coach after coach. Dan Campbell, you know you can just, you can go, Kyle Shanahan, it’s, it’s dog eat dog, and you feel like you’re wearing milk bone underwear.”

Though there was a worry that Harbaugh would have some NFL rust on him, considering he hadn’t led a professional team in 10 years, he mentioned the surprise that the league had become so popular, among his expectations for this season and beyond.

“The thing that surprised me was that I didn’t think the NFL could get any bigger, any more popular than it was a decade ago. But then come to find out, it’s like, three times as popular, you know. And that was probably the biggest thing, coolest thing as well. But, yeah, as far as expectations go, I mean, they’re going to be high. They’re high we’re excited about, you know, version 2.0 here and the expectations are really highest for, you know, today. Making today a great day. Seeing how good we can get today, like I said before, see if we can be better today than we were yesterday.”

To listen to the entire interview, watch the video above.

For more on the Chargers and the NFL, head to Newsweek Sports.