Buzz About Chargers Firing Mike McDaniel is Getting Hard to Ignore

The Los Angeles Chargers might not wait long to make Mike McDaniel the scapegoat of a horrific 0-6 start. 

At 0-6 heading into a bye week, the Chargers have looked like one of the worst teams in modern times. Year 3 of the Jim Harbaugh experience derailing this terribly is, frankly, worse than the infamous 63-21 moment in franchise history. 

That demands accountability. And for Harbaugh, that probably means cutting ties with McDaniel. 

Chargers firing Mike McDaniel seems on the way

Justin Herbert’s Chargers just generated six points in Kansas City. He threw for 204 yards and an interception and the ground game ran for 73 yards on a 3.3 average. 

For those keeping count, the Chargers now have a -98 EPA, the sixth-lowest over this span since 2016. 

"We're going to look at everything, “Harbaugh told Noah Furtado of The Athletic after the game. “I feel bad for our players, our team, our coaches, our fans. And (the offense) needs to be addressed."

Let The Athletic’s Mike Florio tell it, this move is already making buzz around the NFL. 

“There’s a growing buzz that the Chargers will be making that move, soon,” Florio wrote. “Pass game specialist Adam Gase, a former head coach of the Jets and Dolphins, is expected to take over, if McDaniel is fired.”

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport followed the next morning, echoing many of the same sentiments: 

At this point, it’s not just onlookers connecting the dots and stating the obvious. There’s a little smoke around the fire, as there should be.

This isn’t what anyone envisioned when the Chargers made the apparent slam-dunk hiring of McDaniel. Something went deeply wrong with Herbert’s fit in the offense and the franchise’s acquisition of talent to make the scheme work, to name a few factors. 

Alas, canning McDaniel as soon as possible gives the Chargers an extra week to get back to basics while tearing up, or at least deeply modifying, the plan. 

The Chargers aren’t making the playoffs at 0-6 and could very well be looking at a fire sale before the trade deadline. But self-preservation mode is a go in Los Angeles, but likely without McDaniel. 

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