Adam Schefter opens up on what drew Jim Harbaugh to NFL

On Wednesday night, Jim Harbaugh made his official move to the NFL, accepting the head coaching position for the Los Angeles Chargers. To most, the move to the NFL could be seen a mile away. However, to some, there is still a sense of wondering ‘why’ Harbaugh left Michigan after winning the national championship with a perfect 15-0 record. And that is where ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter comes into play.

Shortly after the move was announced, ESPN college football expert Pete Thamel held an emergency pod for the College GameDay Podcast and brought on Schefter to help make sense of the move. It is there that the senior NFL insider provided more context to Harbaugh’s decision to become the Chargers’ next head coach.

“Well, Michigan was offering to make Jim Harbaugh the highest-paid coach in college football,” said Schefter. “But the fact of the matter, is no matter what Michigan offered him, it couldn’t offer him the chance to win a Super Bowl; there was just nothing that Michigan could do. He had won a national championship there. He wants to go back to the NFL and win a Super Bowl. “

In Schefter’s mind, there was little that Michigan could do to convince Harbaugh to stay after capturing the 2023 national championship. But to take things a step further, the NFL expert is of the mind that regardless of the outcome of this season, Harbaugh was headed back to the big leagues.

“And I think once he won the national championship, even if he hadn’t won it like he had taken Michigan to the final four three straight years, he had turned around the program; they had beaten Ohio State, he made Michigan a national power again, he had returned the program to prominence. Because of all that, then, it was a case of him wanting the next challenge, the next frontier. And with the money at the NFL level for coaches exploding and with his bargaining powers being at their peak leverage-ability, this is the time to do it. To me, he was going to the NFL as soon as the team made a compelling offer; the Chargers made that compelling offer.”

Per reports, Harbaugh is headed back to the NFL on a five-year deal with the Chargers. The value of the contract has yet to be revealed. Still, given the makeup of the contract offered by Michigan, which was a six-year extension worth $11.5 million annually, Los Angeles owner Dean Spanos is likely to have paid a pretty penny to acquire the services of the reigning national championship-winning head coach.