Following weeks of rumors suggesting that Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh was going to change one aspect of his team’s game-day operations, he confirmed that first-year offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel would call plays when the 0-6 Chargers are the road team against the 3-4 Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium this coming Sunday.
Speaking with reporters on Thursday, McDaniel said he understands what could happen if the Chargers don’t start winning games soon.
Mike McDaniel: “Somebody has to be responsible” amid Chargers’ woes
“It kind of fits my expectation for what occurs,” McDaniel explained, per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. “Like, listen, you have a team game. Everyone has their rules, and somebody has to be responsible for the overall output. And when you’re 0-6, quite frankly, all people interested in the Chargers really want the results to be different. So you — it’s very natural. I don’t have any other expectation, you know, just because of the obvious. You’re new on the team, and the team’s not doing as well as they’ve done in the past. So that’s part of the part of, you know — you can’t have your cake and eat it, too. An incredibly fun job, a ton of responsibility, and in this league, you have to produce results, or there’s gonna be heat. So I don’t expect anything else.”
Earlier in the week, Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert defended McDaniel, saying he and his teammates “have to do our job” and make plays for the coaching staff. According to ESPN stats, Herbert heads into this weekend ranked last in the NFL among qualified passers with a 29.3 adjusted QBR for the campaign. Meanwhile, the Chargers will end October ranked 28th in the league with an average of 287.2 yards per game and last with an average of 15 points scored per contest for the season.
Mike McDaniel trying “to focus on the opponent” amid talk about his future
“What I spend my time on, instead of thinking about what’s being said, I think my time is best used to focus on the opponent, focus on us, and find ways that we can improve and nothing else,” McDaniel added during his comments. “So I really don’t have any — everything’s an opportunity cost. If I’m spending time worried about things that I would assume would occur, that is an absolute waste of time. So, I try to stay out of that way.”
That’s all well and good, but big changes could be coming for the Chargers if they don’t snap their losing streak before Thanksgiving. As of Friday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook had the Chargers as 6.5-point “road” underdogs against the Rams.
