EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — How do you create the appearance of continuity and stability with a new front office and coaching staff? You import it.

The Los Angeles Chargers’ baby-blue-and-gold color scheme is different, and the SoCal weather has a much calmer temperament than Baltimore. But when Tony Jefferson, who spent four of his NFL seasons with the Ravens, looks around at his new team, he sees a lot of familiar faces.

“There’s moments where it’s like, yeah, this has a feeling of, you know, that organization in Baltimore,” said Jefferson.

One of the lockers across from him belongs to J.K. Dobbins, the running back whom he took a liking to back in Baltimore. Nearby are Gus Edwards, Hayden Hurst and Bradley Bozeman, all former teammates. Joe Hortiz, a longtime member of Baltimore’s front office, signed Jefferson to the Chargers out of retirement — Jefferson spent last season as a Baltimore scouting intern working under Hortiz. His defensive coordinator Jesse Minter was one of his coaches with the Ravens.

And again, his head coach is a Harbaugh. Just the other one. But Jefferson hears a lot of the same folksy Harbaugh-isms from Jim in L.A. as he did from John in Baltimore, asking him to attack practice with an “enthusiasm unknown to mankind.”

“I’m just really in tune with them,” Jefferson said. “I feel like a part of their family already.”

The Ravens and Chargers’ connections already make the two teams feel related. And for the first-year staff trying to overhaul the Chargers, that was the idea.

A Baltimore-style blueprint

The lead-up to the Chargers-Ravens matchup Monday has drawn an intense focus on the similarities between two programs that are 2,600 miles apart. Leading the teams are John and Jim Harbaugh, facing off for the third time as opposing NFL head coaches (their parents have decided to sit this one out, John said earlier this week).

The players, coaches and front office members have relationships that are almost as close as the brothers, with relationships spanning decades. Many old friends set dinner reservations for Sunday night before battling on the gridiron on Monday.

But to only examine the complicated networks between the franchises is to miss the pure ambition of what Hortiz, Jim Harbaugh and the Spanos family (the longtime owners of the Chargers) are trying to do — and yes, even succeeding at — in the first year of an incoming administration. At 7-3, the Chargers are doing a lot better than most would have predicted for a perennial NFL stepchild most associated with brutal choke jobs.

In their own division, the Chargers are annually outpaced by the Kansas City Chiefs. In their own stadium, they had to watch their co-tenant Rams win a Super Bowl before they could even get to a conference championship game. “Chargering” is known around the league as a term to describe losing a lead in unimaginable fashion, as the Chargers did in 2023 when they surrendered a 27-0 lead to Jacksonville in the playoffs.

When Hortiz pledged at his introductory press conference to build a winner in his first year — “We want to compete to win a championship every year, OK?” he said — it smacked of hubris to some.

But Hortiz was coming from Baltimore, where playoff berths are the expectation. In the same span that the Chargers have struggled to gain traction in their own division, John Harbaugh has gone 167-103 with a Super Bowl win. The Spanos family hired Jim Harbaugh, minted with a national championship at Michigan, to get their own touch of Harbaugh magic, while Hortiz was brought in as a chip off the Ravens’ front office success over the past few decades.

Hortiz and Jim Harbaugh hired coaches and staffers familiar with the Ravens way, the Harbaugh way, or both. They brought in players who would understand their schemes and culture. And they would whip the preexisting talent already with the franchise — like quarterback Justin Herbert and pass rushers Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack — into gear with an energetic approach that now has L.A. well in the mix for a playoff spot.

So it’s not a surprise that offensive coordinator Greg Roman, who has broken records for both Harbaugh brothers, is running an offense that has helped unleash Herbert again. It’s not a surprise that Minter, who ran a deceptive defense at Michigan that looked a lot like the Ravens’ recent schemes, has his side of the ball humming with the fewest points allowed in the NFL. It shouldn’t surprise, either, that Hortiz’s first draft has had some early hits like receiver Ladd McConkey and Maryland cornerback Tarheeb Still.

Jefferson sees how Hortiz and Harbaugh have brought in key pieces of Baltimore’s blueprint, calling it “the smart thing to do.” When Hortiz offered him a chance at the roster and to get closer to his family, it made sense. And Jefferson has been one of the players trying to help instill the culture from his last stop.

“Baltimore has been pretty much successful in every aspect — the draft, building a tough resilient football team,” Jefferson said. “When we were there, that’s all we knew. So it would make sense to want to bring that here.”

The brutal history of the Chargers? Hortiz and Harbaugh hope to make it, one day, just history, one game at a time.

A brotherly divide

It’s not quite as simple to call the Chargers the Ravens of the west, of course. That simplified label sidesteps Jim Harbaugh’s own impressive coaching legacy through stops at Stanford, San Francisco and Michigan. John Harbaugh has borrowed as much from his brother as vice versa.

This week, John called Jim “one of the best coaches of this generation, no question – I believe that. Even if he weren’t my brother, I would say the same thing.”

Roman, who led Jim’s 49ers to the Super Bowl and helped elevate Lamar Jackson to an MVP season in 2019, has spent most of his NFL coaching career working for the Harbaughs. They each have their quirks and nuances, Roman said, but, “from a principles standpoint, I think they’re both very aligned as far as leadership.”

Minter also credits both Harbaughs for giving him copious opportunities to grow, first as a defensive backs coach in Baltimore, then as a title-winning coordinator at Michigan.

“They really try to put coaches in position to be better,” he said. “I feel like some head coaches, you hire a guy to coach whatever, and that’s what he does. And three years later, that’s what he does. So I think they do such a good job of empowering people, developing people, building confidence into their players. Just two of the best — certainly two of the best I’ve been around and two of the best all time.”

Both brothers draw from their father Jack, a former head coach at Western Michigan and Western Kentucky who has come into both the Ravens’ and Chargers’ locker rooms this season after wins to shout, “Who’s got it better than us? No-body!” Somehow, that particular saying sparks joy across generations to both franchises.

“It’s a lot of fun just seeing the energy he brought,” said a grinning Derwin James, the seventh-year Chargers safety.

But as charismatic as Jim Harbaugh (and his dad) can be, the cohesion of the staff is what sticks out to the Chargers, who are onto their fourth coach in the last nine seasons. Linebacker Joey Bosa, who has seen all of those coaching changes, has been impressed by how smooth the staff has gelled, thanks in part to their collective working history — including a chunk with the Ravens. Run game coordinator Andy Bischoff and offensive line coach Mike Devlin also spent time in Baltimore.

“Coach Harbaugh has brought a really cohesive team, and they all have one goal that mostly trickles down from him,” Bosa said. “He’s done a great job of bringing the best guys to make that possible.”

For his own part, Jim Harbaugh plays down his role in the team’s early success, saying he’s admired the willingness of people in the organization to play their roles to a T: “I’m drinking the Kool-Aid as much as anyone,” he said.

But players and coaches say a key part of their weekly effort is for Harbaugh’s approval.

“I think Coach [Jim] Harbaugh has his own style of coaching in a different way than his brother,” said Edwards, who played for John and the Ravens across six years. “He just knows what to say. He knows how to get us going hard and how to make us play for him.”

Fond memories and fierce competition

That has noticeably trickled down to the field. After spending the last year recovering from an Achilles injury, Dobbins is enjoying the best year of any former Raven for the resurgent Chargers, totaling 726 yards and 8 touchdowns on the ground, including a game-winning score against the Bengals last week. His longtime backfield mate Gus Edwards is L.A.’s second-leading rusher. Center Bradley Bozeman has started every game so far.

It’s not surprising to Jefferson that former Ravens have played a significant role in galvanizing the team.

“Everybody who played at Baltimore has a crazy connection, bro,” he said. “It’s so family oriented there, and it’s a really good place to be. So all these guys that’ve been over there, we’ve all shared the same experiences. Even the guys who are still over there now, still keep in contact heavily.”

Among this group, however, there could be some animosity for this primetime matchup. Dobbins did not address reporters in the locker room in the week leading up to the game. But Edwards told The Banner there was “absolutely” a revenge element to the contest.

“A ton of respect for them, but there’s a little bit in me that wants to get back for them,” said Edwards, who was replaced in Baltimore by former All-Pro Derrick Henry. “I know what they’re [the Ravens are] gonna do. It’s gonna be a physical game. It’s probably gonna come down to the wire. And we just gotta punch them in the mouth and keep our foot on the ground.”

Others who theoretically have axes to grind struck a more conciliatory tone. Roman left the Ravens in 2023, after a tough season marred by injury to Jackson. With Jackson’s evolution as a passer under new OC Todd Monken, Roman has been on the receiving end of jabs from outside observers who say his heavy personnel offense held Jackson back from tapping into his full powers.

Roman, however, doesn’t look back on his final Ravens campaign with bitterness.

“We made the playoffs with the backup quarterback, and we should have won that playoff game, too,” he said, referring to Tyler Huntley. “I think there’s a feather in the cap of everybody involved with that. And I look fondly back on those days, and really all the experiences I’ve had. A lot of great people here. A lot of great people there. Just try to take it all in, appreciate every opportunity you get.”

That is the tone of a lot of the Chargers folks who will see familiar faces across the sidelines Monday — happy memories and constructive experiences. L.A. probably wouldn’t be off to the start it is without an injection of Ravens-groomed talent, and many of the key coaches and players learned what winning looks like from their time in Baltimore.

Now they can keep it going by getting a win over the Ravens. If it helps Jim get a win over his brother, it’s just a bonus. Bosa, whose brother Nick plays for the 49ers, understands the balance the Chargers must find against the Ravens, the team they’ve mirrored so much through their first 10 games.

“We don’t really have any chance for missteps here, especially with the goals we set,” Bosa said. “But obviously me having a brother that I’m very competitive with, I understand that very well. I love him to death and I’d do anything for him.

“But it doesn’t matter what we’re competing in,” Bosa continued. “We hate to lose, and we end up beating each other.”