It’s official: Mike McDaniel is the new offensive coordinator of the Los Angeles Chargers.
After firing Greg Roman, the Chargers landed one of the best offensive minds available in McDaniel to fill their coordinator vacancy. Meanwhile, McDaniel comes to the Chargers after spending the last four seasons as the Dolphins head coach. Though he was fired following the 2025 season, he led a creative scheme that ranked as high as No. 1 in total yards and passing yards per game in 2023.
Now, McDaniel will be tasked with elevating the Chargers offense and quarterback Justin Herbert after a season that saw the unit plagued by offensive line issues.
McDaniel in particularly is “geeked” to get to work with Herbert after speaking to the sixth-year quarterback last week.
“It was enthusiastic, I was in a room talking with a really loud inside voice out of passion,” McDaniel said of their conversation. “I think he recognized that and we were both geeked for the future and the possibilities that it brings.”
The Chargers are optimistic that the hiring of McDaniel will be beneficial for Herbert especially to help him earn his first win in the postseason. After losing to the Patriots in the wild-card round, Herbert is now 0-3 in the playoffs.
“You lose in the playoffs in the first round and it’s a lot of work that you feel you have an empty stomach,” McDaniel said. “That hunger, I could hear in his voice.”
“He hasn’t neared the ceiling to what he’s capable of,” McDaniel added. “He can make every throw, but as a competitor you can tell he enjoys what the National Football League and the franchise quarterback, he enjoys all the burden, the responsibility of touching the ball every play. ... There’s a lot we can be capable of here with him leading the charge.”
Perhaps most importantly, McDaniel wants to help Herbert by alleviating the pressure on him. Between injuries to the offensive line and running backs, Herbert too often had to carry the load for the Chargers offense this past season, and McDaniel wants to shift that dynamic.
"Not relying too heavily on Justin's ability to do above and beyond I think is critical.”
"There's a lot of incredible plays that Justin has made,” McDaniel said. “He's firmly capable and sometimes as a coach you can rely upon that a little too much. There's schematic ways to get completions that maybe all three quarterbacks on your roster would be capable of doing, easier completions, it can be taxing over time for a player to necessitate an incredible play too often to be able to score points and win football games. You try to take it off of him by creating some low cost, high reward offense that he's firmly capable of doing, but maybe a player of lesser talent would be capable of doing as well.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mike McDaniel 'Geeked' to Be Working With Justin Herbert After Joining Chargers.
