Mike McDaniel’s Firing Can’t Happen Soon Enough For Chargers

The Chargers are past the point of just keeping things the same. It's about saving Justin Herbert now.

Mike McDaniel | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

With Justin Herbert looking lost and the season even more lost at 0-7, the Los Angeles Chargers need to fire offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel. 

Things are so bad for the Chargers that reporters are starting to ask about benching Justin Herbert, for lack of a better term (“sitting” isn’t much nicer). 

Foolishness to even consider it, of course. But that’s how rough things have become for the NFL’s obviously worst team.

There are arguments against letting McDaniel go right now. One of those is that it wouldn’t accomplish all that much. Ripping up the plan and giving Herbert yet another coordinator change isn’t the best idea. There aren’t great backup options, either, not with Adam Gase and Shane Day as so-so stand-ins. 

And yet, something has to give. And it’s McDaniel. 

Chargers firing Mike McDaniel hits critical point

Mike McDaniel | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

There are levels to the firing-a-coordinator midseason thing. 

Herbert is playing the worst ball of his career. He’s not just getting whispers of a benching, but there is a pretty common thought making the rounds that he might need a full reset. 

Not just a coaching staff. A trade to an entirely new organization. 

That falls on McDaniel. The Ringer’s Sheil Kapadia pointed out that the Chargers just had one of the five worst EPA/drive performances of the season. Not only that, it was the Chargers’ worst performance of the season outright. 

After the bye, the Chargers got worse. 

Now layer the other stuff on top. The rumblings about McDaniel holding an “all-hands” meeting after the bye was topped off with a report that the inspirational film he showed the unit was…from a joint practice session with the San Francisco 49ers over the summer. 

Putting it all in context, things are ugly. We can bemoan the injury bug and how the loss of Tyler Biadasz was a domino effect. But if a supposedly elite offensive mind like McDaniel’s entire scheme falls apart to this extent because of one injury, there are bigger problems. 

McDaniel appears to be attempting to run his offense while pretending he has speedier players than what the Chargers have on the roster. Promising younger players like first-round back Omarion Hampton (3.5 yards power carry) and tight end Oronde Gadsden (17 catches in seven games) have dramatically regressed. Free-agent adds on the line like Cole Strange have flopped. 

Realistically, the Chargers need to reboot the entire coaching staff after the season. Another coaching change for Herbert stinks, but the alternatives aren’t pretty.

Showing McDaniel the door now, at least, would bump the chances of getting back to basics and helping Herbert through…whatever it is he’s going through at this point. That could set the foundation for a bigger rebuild in the offseason around him, at least.

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