The Los Angeles Chargers, unsurprisingly, suffered another loss this week—this time at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs. They are now 0-6 and possess the first overall pick in the 2027 NFL Draft.
Needless to say, this is nowhere close to where the Chargers' expectation sat before the start of the season. After back-to-back 11-win seasons under the Jim Harbaugh and Joe Hortiz regime, the expectation was that Los Angeles' gamble on a theoretically innovative coordinator, and a new scheme to be installed across the entire offensive side of the ball, would finally maximize the talents of Justin Herbert and the top contributors to the receiving corps.
Through six games, the Chargers are 26th in the league in total passing yards, 30th in points scored, and 32nd in EPA/play. This is not just an offense struggling to find its identity under a new coordinator and scheme. It is an unconscionably bad unit, and it's produced a set of results that should have fans furious with the way things have gone.
Perhaps Mike McDaniel's job doesn't survive the bye week. The Chargers, at the very least, need to indicate whether they believe he's the right man to turn this ship around. But as Los Angeles enters a much needed break from this schedule, the primary focus needs to be on charting a path forward.
Where does the blame truly lie, and how does Los Angeles start to pivot toward next season?
The blame for this season falls across every level of the Chargers organization
Things can obviously start to snowball in the urgent and never-ending environment of an NFL campaign. To this point in the season, it's clear that McDaniel and the rest of the coaching staff have been scrambling for answers to the woes and ineffectiveness that has plagued the offense.
But the blame for the way this season has gone can't entirely be pinned on McDaniel, even if he deserves a large share.
Injuries certainly haven't helped this team find its footing, and they've been missing a large chunk of their offensive line, their receivers, and their defensive playmakers from essentially the outset of the season. There's also a clear talent deficit here at certain positions—and that's something that can easily be pinned on Joe Hortiz, who had over $100 million in cap space to work with this offseason as he attempted to restock this roster's depth.
Even on a more minute level, this team has clearly been poorly coached. Penalties and miscues have defined their season on the offensive side of the ball, and through six weeks, nothing seems to have improved there either. That falls primarily upon Jim Harbaugh.
So how did we get to this point? And where do the Chargers go from here?
This regime did an excellent job cleaning Los Angeles' books and leading them to strong regular-season showings over the past two years. But assuming that firing McDaniel and simply going back to business as usual will fix all of the issues with this team is overly simplistic. This season is a culmination of poor decisions and poor habits on the organization's part, and the bye week likely represents their first true chance to sit back and reflect on that without the urgency of a matchup immediately looming in the future.
Firing McDaniel, therefore, can't be the end of it. Hortiz still has to navigate the trade deadline, and although he said he wasn't yet taking calls on any of the Chargers' players, it's likely that stance has changed after another loss. Donte Jackson, Kimani Vidal, David Njoku, and Khalil Mack (if he wants to go) are all trade candidates, and each could amass some late-round draft capital to help Los Angeles begin to rebuild its depth for next season. He then needs to spend this offseason in order to address the remaining concerns along the offensive line and the skill positions. Even assuming a Tuli Tuipulotu extension gets done, Los Angeles should have somewhere near $75 million to spend.
Harbaugh needs to take a serious look in the mirror as well. As a non-play calling head coach, his responsibility is to make sure both that his in-game decision making is as tight as possible and that the margins of this team's play are well-coached and complete. He's failed to do either of those things this season.
Moving on from McDaniel is more than justifiable at this juncture. But simply adding another OC, even if it's Shane Steichen, won't be enough to get this team back on the right trajectory. There needs to be at least an overhaul of process and expectations across this organization if it expects to see a different result in 2027.
Add us as a preferred source on Google