Chargers Punditry Check: The Whole Room Called Two Wins That Didn't Happen | MissedTakes Daily

The Los Angeles Chargers are 0-2, and the record we've graded shows pundits didn't see it coming — twice.

In Week 1, a wall of straight-up picks had the Chargers beating Arizona: Shanna McCarriston, Pete Prisco, Simon Hunter, Brandon Deutsch, John Granato, Mitch Goldich, Gilberto Manzano, Conor Orr, Eva Geitheim, Matt Verderame, Mike Kadlick, John Pluym, Albert Breer, and Jason McIntyre all took Los Angeles. Arizona won 26-14. In Week 2, the same thing happened against the Raiders: Rich Eisen, Nick Shook, Dan Beyer and Nick Wright all had the Chargers covering an 0-2 hole they were actually about to fall into. Las Vegas won 26-14.

Across the 59 graded game-outcome calls we've tracked for the Chargers, the average accuracy is 25.4 — worse than a coin flip, because so many of those calls were the popular, not-particularly-brave pick. It's a good illustration of how a crowded consensus can still be a bad one.

The division-winner mirage

It gets worse looking backward. Sixteen graded calls picked the Chargers to win the AFC West last season, and all sixteen scored zero — including nine separate calls from Colin Cowherd alone, repeated from March 2025 through this February. Cowherd was still working through it on air last week, saying flatly: "I have not whiffed on any team more than your L.A. Chargers." That's not humility after the fact — he's on record making the same kind of division-winner claim again for 2026, even as the 0-2 start unfolds.

The good news for Cowherd, if there is any: his 2025 win-total calls for the Chargers were actually sharp (two separate 11-6 calls both graded 100 accuracy against an actual 11-6 finish). The division pick is the one that keeps burning him — a reminder that a pundit's record can vary sharply by the kind of claim, not just by the pundit.

Where the calls have actually held up

Not everything about this club's coverage misses. Mock draft calls tied to Chargers picks have graded out well (51.8 average accuracy on 58 graded calls, with a skill score well above the naive baseline). Roster-spot calls (94.1 accuracy, 17 graded) and playoff-berth calls (96.2 accuracy, 26 graded) have been strong too, though the playoff number is helped by the fact that the Chargers made the postseason last year — the easier call gets rewarded.

Trade and signing chatter is the opposite story: only 5 graded calls, and it's ugly — Nick Shook sending Breece Hall to LA, Justin Penik and Bobby Skinner both guessing free agent Darius Slayton would sign with the Chargers, Dalton Feely doing the same with Davante Adams, and Cowherd predicting a Nick Bosa trade to Los Angeles that never happened. Five calls, all wrong. That's too small a sample to hang a verdict on, but it's a clean sweep of misses.

By position, the picture is mixed: offensive tackle calls (74.3 accuracy, 11 graded) and tight end calls (79.6 accuracy, 5 graded — thin) have done well, while quarterback calls have been the softest spot on the roster (28.5 accuracy across 12 graded calls), and running back and wide receiver calls sit in the high 40s.

Who to actually listen to

Among pundits with a real sample of graded Chargers calls, Daniel Wade stands out — 70% accuracy on 18 graded calls, the best skill score of anyone doing regular Chargers coverage. Rich Eisen (79.9 accuracy, 12 graded) and Gregg Rosenthal (63.2, 15 graded) also grade out well. Cowherd, despite talking about this team more than almost anyone, sits at 45.7 accuracy on 17 graded calls with a skill score barely above zero — a volume act more than a sharp one, and his own words back that up.

What's still open

The newest material is still waiting on the season to answer it. Blaine Grisak has already put Quentin Johnston in "bust territory" as a first-round disappointment. Daniel Jeremiah predicted rookie Omarion Hampton could lead the league in rushing — a call Eisen needled him about on air after Hampton's early fumbling issues. Eisen also shut down any Justin Herbert trade speculation flatly ("it ain't gonna happen"). And after the 0-2 start, the SportsLine model cut its 2026 Chargers win total to 6.0 — a sharp drop from the 9-to-12-win range that pundits like Cowherd, Nick Wright, John Breech and Nate Tice were all calling as recently as August.

The rest of the league, briefly

We graded 2,006 takes across the league in the last week, the bulk of them roster-spot calls (1,477) as rosters keep churning through injuries and moves. The cleanest hits belonged to Nathan Jahnke, Noah Compton and Patricia Traina, each landing full 53-man roster reads for perfect scores. The rough end belonged to Randy Gurzi on the Bills, Jeff Cavanaugh on the Cowboys, and Tom Jensen's tight end cut list — all zeroed out.

On the consensus side, the field's 2025 win-total calls missed Kansas City low by 6.3 wins and had New England and Seattle both pegged about 5 wins short of what actually happened. Matthew Stafford's MVP season also caught the field mostly by surprise — he drew 26 of 100 ballot picks we tracked, more than anyone else but still a minority view of a season that became his.

Where everyone stands after another week of grading is on the leaderboard.