The Los Angeles Chargers are rudderless. There's no other reasonable conclusion to make amid a disastrous 0-6 start with no clear end in sight. But they're particularly woeful on offense. They lack a discernible, coherent identity, and Justin Herbert, a supposed star quarterback, looks absolutely miserable while playing in their current offensive scheme.
The designer of that scheme is first-year offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel, whose offense clearly isn't clicking with his Chargers players whatsoever. As the Chargers' season continues spiraling down the drain, canning McDaniel and trying to salvage something positive is starting to become more and more of a realistic possibility. Though the reported hilarious replacement they have in mind probably won't change much.
Head coach Jim Harbaugh's assessment of where the Chargers have gone wrong so far this season might even point to tenuous job security for his embattled offensive coordinator:
Question to Jim Harbaugh: "I have to ask you point-blank. Is Mike going to continue calling plays?"
— Noah Furtado (@bynoahfurtado) October 19, 2026
Harbaugh: "We're going to look at everything. ... I feel bad for our players, our team, our coaches, our fans. And (the offense) needs to be addressed."
Oof. To be clear, that's Harbaugh answering a direct question about McDaniel's play-calling (a.k.a. his job) and responding by saying, "We're going to look at everything." If that doesn't say that McDaniel's possible firing from the Chargers seems imminent, then I don't know what would.
Harbaugh is right. The Chargers do need to change something because whatever they're doing isn't working at all. A broken offense, led by McDaniel, would be a good place to start, if not nothing, but to change the energy in their building.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Are Chargers about to fire Mike McDaniel? Jim Harbaugh's comments are bad sign