The folks at Pro Football Talk are reporting that the San Diego Chargers have announced they will retain head coach Norv Turner and GM AJ Smith heading into next season. I bring that up for a few reasons. For the purposes of the 49ers this news means the Chargers will not be in competition for either a head coach or a general manager. Maybe the odds were not high that they would make a change, but being able to clear them out of the picture helps.

The second reason this is noteworthy is that Norv Turner will apparently not be available to act as an offensive coordinator for a new 49ers head coach. Again, this might be reaching a bit, but it's certainly something to keep in mind given Turner's coordinating prowess.

Finally, this also could open the door for Alex Smith to head down to San Diego to act as Philip Rivers backup and go back to learning the QB position with Norv Turner as his guide. The 49ers won't play the AFC West for several years (outside of preseason) so I suppose it doesn't really matter, but it still seems worth noting.