Mike McDaniel narrows his list: Do Chargers have a chance?

The Los Angeles Chargers might just have a serious shot at hiring Mike McDaniel as offensive coordinator.

Jim Harbaugh and the Chargers met with McDaniel in Los Angeles on Tuesday as scheduled, chatting about the team’s offensive coordinator position.

Later in the day, McDaniel himself offered an update about his trip to the coaching carousel.

According to NFL Network, McDaniel has removed himself from the running to be the next head coach of the Cleveland Browns.

A candidate withdrawing from one of the NFL’s very limited 32 head coaching jobs is rare on its own. Doing it while still in Los Angeles and presumably talking with the Chargers feels like an even bigger deal.

Former Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel informed the Browns he’s withdrawing from their head coaching search ahead of a scheduled in-person interview Wednesday, per sources.

McDaniel — who is still a candidate for the Ravens and Raiders HC vacancies — is interviewing for the… pic.twitter.com/qirkrsvbWX
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 20, 2026

To be fair, McDaniel is still a head-coach candidate for the Las Vegas Raiders and Baltimore Ravens. The write-up also mentions that he’s got at least one coordinator job offer on the table.

One would think, though, that if McDaniel doesn’t land a head-coaching gig, getting to temporarily go be the coordinator with a quarterback like Justin Herbert has to be a pretty appealing gig.

The Chargers ended the Greg Roman era after just two years, largely due to major struggles once the playoffs started. A typically conservative Harbaugh is now looking outside of the Chargers and his own comfort zone before hiring his first non-Roman coordinator ever at the NFL level.

McDaniel likely still has other communications set up with other teams and at least one job offer to consider, so it wouldn’t be a shock to see reports that he’s left Los Angeles and is still making the rounds. He’s one of the biggest names of this cycle and perhaps would’ve been the biggest, were it not for John Harbaugh.

Still, Chargers fans surely wouldn’t complain, either, if this whole saga came to an end on Tuesday night with McDaniel putting ink to paper that locks him in as Herbert’s coordinator.

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