‘Wonder What He’s Teaching,’ ‘Nothing’s Happened’ — NFL Legend Questions What Exactly Mike McDaniel’s Bringing To Struggling Chargers Offense
· Yahoo Sports
The Los Angeles Chargers just look like a franchise with no answers for their current predicaments. The train of optimism from the offseason was stopped in its tracks after a winless 0-4 start to the season.
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Scrutiny has been intense when it comes to offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel and his job security. The Chargers have scored 16 or fewer points in three of their four games this season and rank No. 29 in scoring with 16.8 points per game.
Ahead of the their Week 5 game against the Denver Broncos, Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver Cris Carter made it a point to deliver some cutting criticism of McDaniel.
Cris Carter Blames Mike McDaniel for Chargers’ Offensive Struggles
During this week’s segment of the “Fully Loaded” podcast, Carter questioned McDaniel’s rebuild of the Chargers’ offense, which has seemingly stalled.
“Mike McDaniel’s the one who brought this offense, in that he’s going to revamp what the Chargers are doing. Nothing’s happened. Their offense looks nothing like the offense that I saw in Miami,” Carter said. “So I wonder what he is teaching. Is he trying to teach Harbaugh stuff? Because that’s not what they were doing.
“Those in-breaking routes, those quick throws, and everything they were doing in Miami when people were scared. Didn’t Miami score or 50 points on someone?”
After inconsistent performances last season, the Chargers parted ways with offensive coordinator Greg Roman and hired McDaniel in his place. On the back of that hire, Los Angeles’ offense was expected to be a high-octane, explosive unit, but those expectations have fallen flat on their face.
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Justin Herbert has also performed poorly under McDaniel, inheriting some of the heat for some of the team’s offensive struggles. Herbert has the league’s second-worst QBR (28.0) and is bottom in PFN’s QB Impact Metric (61.6).
McDaniel cut a niche for himself as one of the league’s most creative offensive minds during stints as the San Francisco 49ers’ offensive coordinator and the Miami Dolphins’ head coach.
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He orchestrated the NFL’s top-ranked offense by total yards in Miami in 2023 as the Dolphins averaged a league-leading 401.3 total yards and 265.5 passing yards per game while ranking second in scoring at 29.2 points per contest.
That year, the Dolphins accumulated over 700 yards of offense in a historic 70-20 blowout win over the Denver Broncos, the most points scored by an NFL team since 1966.
After the loss to the Seattle Seahawks, Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh insisted that McDaniel’s job was not in jeopardy.
During a presser on Thursday, McDaniel also addressed his job security in Los Angeles.
“I have about zero percent entitlement. You’re going to be held accountable,” McDaniel said. “That comes with the territory of the job… it’s pretty easy for me to focus on what I need to focus on.
“When you have high expectations, and you’re getting the results we’re getting, and you’re 0-4, that’s pretty standard operating procedure. I would be foolish, or I would feel entitled, if I didn’t expect there to be disappointment.”
Under McDaniel, the Chargers have earned a woeful PFN Offense Impact score of 69.6 (No. 30 in the NFL) this season. The Chargers have nine fumbles (lost four fumbles) and 10 turnovers in four games played, tiedwith the New England Patriots.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network.