Betting the Chargers in 2026: See how Los Angeles' win total, Super Bowl odds are trending and our best bets
The Chargers played most of 2025 with a patchwork offensive line after losing left tackle Rashawn Slater before the season, with right tackle Joe Alt managing just six games played. Still, they won 11 games and made the playoffs for a second straight year since Jim Harbaugh took over as head coach. With hopefully better health at tackle, a rebuilt interior of the offensive line and a new offensive coordinator in Mike McDaniel, quarterback Justin Herbert has the pieces in place to make a run at MVP and potentially much more success with the Chargers in 2026.
We're taking a look at everything you need to know before making Los Angeles Chargers futures bets below, including odds, trends, 2026 schedule, offseason changes and more before sharing our preseason betting strategy for the team. Odds are via DraftKings.
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The market faded the Chargers early in the offseason, with their win total moving from a slightly juiced Under 10.5 to a slightly juiced Over 9.5. Perhaps that due to the lack of sexy additions both in free agency and the draft, with the team's first-round pick being used on 25-year-old Akheem Mesidor. The Chargers sit behind the Chiefs but ahead of the Broncos in odds to win the division.
Jim Harbaugh has now gone over his win total in five of his six seasons as an NFL head coach, making the playoffs in all five of those overperformances. However, he has yet to win a playoff game since returning to the league in 2024, though the Chargers' Super Bowl odds in 2026 will be the shortest of his tenure in Los Angeles. All six of his defenses have finished top 10 in points allowed, with five finishing top five in yards allowed.
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The Chargers offense was pretty average across the board, but one area it understandably struggled with the tackle injuries was protecting Herbert, with the team finishing 28th in sack rate. Still, Herbert and Co. managed to rank third in the league in third down success rate to keep the unit afloat. The defense finished second in interception rate and sixth in sack rate, with the unit the best in the league by far in goal to go situations.
The defense lost its coordinator to a head-coaching hire and dipped into the college ranks to hire Western Michigan DC Chris O'Leary, who served as Harbaugh's safeties coach in his first season with the Chargers. McDaniel represents one of the biggest coordinator hires of the offseason on a name identity basis, and he'll be tasked with sorting out an offensive line that saw massive turnover this season, with potentially three new starters in the interior in second-round pick Jake Slaughter and free-agent additions Tyler Biadasz and Cole Strange. The offense also added Keaton Mitchell at running back and David Njoku at tight end to complement Omarion Hampton and Oronde Gadsden entering their second seasons.
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The Chargers get about as good a slate as you can ask for in the first two weeks with home matchups against the Cardinals and Raiders, but it turns brutal after that with seven straight games against playoff contender, five on the road against the top five teams in Super Bowl odds. Things get much easier from there as they'll get to face the Jets and Dolphins along with their road game against the Raiders.
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I don't really want to fade Harbaugh, especially when I have high hopes for the Herbert-McDaniel pairing. But I can't make positive plays on all three of the Broncos, Chiefs and Chargers, and this is the spot where I see the least value doing so. While good teams can navigate tough schedules, that road slate through Week 10 is one where they'd be lucky to go 2-3, and home games against the Broncos, Chiefs, Texans, Patriots and 49ers don't figure to be pushovers, either. After the Chargers managed just a +28 point differential last year, I'll bank on the loss of Jesse Minter mattering and the interior of the offensive line taking time to gel, putting this just under the total.