Jim Harbaugh was under center the last time the Chargers started a season this poorly, finishing a franchise-worst 1-15 in 2000.
Now, Harbaugh could be shaking up the offense to avoid tying that record.
After the Bolts fell to 0-6 and scored a season-low six points in Kansas City on Sunday, Harbaugh said, “we have to address everything, and especially, offensively,” including Mike McDaniel’s status as play caller.
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How is the Chargers offense this season?
There is plenty of blame to go around for the Chargers’ struggles this season, but offense is arguably the biggest disappointment. LA hired McDaniel, former head coach of the Miami Dolphins and widely regarded as one of the most innovative offensive minds in the NFL, to unlock more out of Justin Herbert.
Instead, he’s playing some of the worst football of his NFL career— even worse than when he unexpectedly made his NFL debut after Tyrod Taylor suffered a punctured lung while receiving a pain-killing injection for a rib injury. pregame
The Chargers are averaging just 15 points per game, 30th in the league. Herbert has eight interceptions, the most of any quarterback this year, and a 29.9 QBR, the lowest of any quarterback this year. Perhaps it’s a sign that McDaniel tried to change too much, too much with Herbert, who is in his 7th NFL season.
“If I had any answers, then we’d definitely be having a different conversation,” Herbert said Sunday when asked why it hasn’t clicked for him this year.
What changes are the Chargers making to fix the offense?
Harbaugh and the Chargers will have the bye week to take a step back and potentially come out with a different look on the sidelines. Not only was Harbaugh mum on McDaniel’s future as play caller, but there is “growing buzz” that the Chargers could move on entirely from their first-year offensive coordinator, per Mike Florio of PFT. Adam Gase, LA’s pass game specialist and a former head coach of the Jets and Dolphins, would be expected to take over, per Florio.
McDaniel, meanwhile, said before the team’s latest loss that he feels “like it’s core to my job to always feel” like he’s coaching for his job.
“I will be doing my very best because from an integrity standpoint I think it’s really insulting to do anything else,” McDaniel said at practice on Thursday. “I would be embarrassed if I told you, ‘well now I’m going to try harder.’ Like what? What have you been doing? I’m confident in the players that we have. I think that the improvement that I see before the results generally leads to good things. But talk is cheap. We got to do.”
Should they make the change, Herbert would be operating with his sixth offensive coordinator since 2020.
What began as a season with Super Bowl aspirations in their own backyard has suddenly turned into a Chargers’ story that’s all too familiar: underperformance and wasted talent.
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