Chargers will fire both Turner and AJ Smith

[ThomasTomasz]

San Diego Chargers coach Norv Turner and general manager A.J. Smith will be fired Monday, league sources told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.

Turner told reporters after Sunday's game that he expected the team will begin looking for a new coach.

"Obviously, we're going to meet with the team and I'm sure they'll start looking for a new coach," said Turner, who has one year left on his contract, at $3 million.

Team president Dean Spanos said he would speak with the media on Monday.

After the Chargers flopped in 2011, team president Dean Spanos gave Turner and Smith a reprieve. But the Chargers finished 7-9 and missed the playoffs for the third straight season.

Turner got the Chargers to the AFC Championship Game his first season before losing at New England. Since then, though, there's been a steady decline.

The 60-year-old Turner was 55-40 in seven seasons with the Chargers after being hired in 2007. Turner, who also has coached the Redskins and Raiders, has a 114-122-1 career record.

From the beginning, many outsiders believed Smith wanted a puppet of a head coach after butting heads with Marty Schottenheimer for two years before Spanos fired the coach because of what he called a "dysfunctional" relationship with the GM.

Schottenheimer was fired following a 14-2 season and a home playoff pratfall against New England and replaced by Turner in February 2007 in what was an unpopular hire among the team's fans.

Smith, 63, has come under fire for the erosion of talent from a roster that at one time was considered among the NFL's best.

Smith's best draft was in 2004, when he took Eli Manning with the first pick despite Archie Manning's request that he not do so, then swapped the player's rights to the New York Giants for Philip Rivers and additional picks he used on kicker Nate Kaeding that year and Shawne Merriman the following year.

Besides his tiff with Schottenheimer, Smith's iron-fisted dealings with players have turned off some people. He mocked LaDainian Tomlinson toward the end of the running back's time in San Diego and used hardball negotiating tactics against tight end Antonio Gates in 2005 and wide receiver Vincent Jackson and left tackle Marcus McNeill in 2010.

The Chargers in 2012 suffered their first losing season since 2003. San Diego's current three-season playoff drought is its longest stretch out of the postseason since a drought that lasted from 1996-2003.


http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/8795549/san-diego-chargers-fire-norv-turner-aj-smith-sources

 

[x0xHumblex0x]

and now Andy Reid goes to SD..........

 

[ThomasTomasz]

Norv Turner is a great offensive mind, but he should not get another head coaching gig. Good success in the regular season, but not so good in the playoffs. Any team would be lucky to nab him as an offensive coordinator this off-season.

AJ Smith is also a good talent evaluator, but he let far too many players walk due to his bullheaded stances. I think he could actually end up with the Panthers as their new GM, and his attitude might be good for that team to get things back on track.