Calls for Mike McDaniels’ job are only getting louder.
This time, though, Jim Harbaugh wasn’t as strong in his defense of his offensive coordinator.
Harbaugh, after the Los Angeles Chargers fell 22-6 to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, said that they are going to “have to address everything, and especially offensively.” The loss knocked them to 0-6 on the season, which marks their worst start since 2000. Coincidentally, Harbaugh was on that Chargers team as a player that finished 1-15 that season.
And when asked about McDaniel directly and if he was going to keep calling plays, Harbaugh said they were “going to look at everything.”
"The job I'm doing, it starts with me. We'll watch this and get with our offensive coaches," Harbaugh said, via ESPN. "I see the effort, I see the work being put in in the meetings, on the practice field, and to get that to translate to the field is what's necessary. Feel bad for our players, our team, our coaches, our fans. And [offense] needs to be addressed."
The Chargers only put up six points on Sunday, a season-low. They are averaging just 15 points per game, which is better than only the Miami Dolphins and Tennessee Titans. The Dolphins and Chargers are the only two teams in the league still without a win this season.
Justin Herbert went 22-of-37 for 204 yards with an interception. He was the team’s leading rusher, too, with 26 yards. Herbert has thrown just five touchdowns to eight interceptions so far this season. He only threw 13 total interceptions last season in total.
“I don’t know,” Herbert said when asked what’s not working for him offensively. “If I had the answers, then we’d definitely be having a different conversation.”
It would take a truly historic turnaround for the Chargers to salvage this season and make the playoffs. Only one team has ever made the postseason after an 0-4 start — the Chargers did that in 1992 — but none has ever pulled that off after six straight losses.
Making a change at offensive coordinator, though, could be a first step. McDaniel is in his first season in the role after his split with the Miami Dolphins last season. He led that franchise for four seasons, and finished with just a 35-33 record.
NBC Sports’ Mike Florio reported on Sunday that there is “growing buzz” that the Chargers will move on from McDaniel soon, too. When that happens, he said, former Dolphins and New York Jets head coach Adam Gase, now the Chargers’ pass game specialist, would fill his role in the interim. The Chargers are entering their bye week, so it would leave them extra time to adjust to the change were they to make it now. But “soon,” of course, is relative.
Simply firing McDaniel wouldn’t cure everything, either. And Harbaugh isn’t blaming him. They have a much bigger problem, and it starts at the top.
"There's no justification. Anything I would say would sound like an excuse. I'm opposed to that to the core and pointing fingers because I believe this is a team game," he said. "But definitely offensively, we need to evaluate and we need to look at it all — everything we're doing and how we're doing it.”