Chargers Keep Mike McDaniel Calling Plays as a Winless Start Tests Organizational Patience

By Stacy James · HuddleUp NFL Sports Desk

Event date: October 28, 2026

Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh will keep offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel as the team’s play-caller after the bye week, preserving the structure of an offense that has helped produce an 0–6 start. The decision is a public vote of confidence, but it also puts a sharper deadline on improvement.

Retaining the role does not erase the results. It shifts the next evaluation from whether McDaniel keeps calling plays to whether the staff can make the offense simpler, more coherent and more productive when the Chargers return against the Rams.

Harbaugh kept the assignment in place

In the Chargers’ official bye-week assessment, Harbaugh said McDaniel would continue calling plays. He also acknowledged that no one in the building was satisfied and raised the possibility of simplifying the playbook.

The NFL’s report describes the Chargers as the league’s only winless team. The offense has scored 15 points per game and ranks last in expected points added per play. Those measures capture both a basic scoreboard problem and a down-to-down efficiency problem.

Reuters independently reported the decision and the same performance context. Los Angeles managed six points and 259 total yards in its final game before the bye, a loss to Kansas City. Quarterback Justin Herbert has completed 59.4 percent of his passes with five touchdowns, eight interceptions and 21 sacks.

Those figures do not belong to one coach alone. Protection, route timing, quarterback decisions, injuries, personnel usage and play sequencing all contribute. A play-caller has influence over several of those areas, but treating him as the sole cause would make the diagnosis too simple.

Public confidence now creates an obligation

HuddleUp analysis: Leadership is easiest to describe when a team is winning. During a winless start, it becomes visible through how decision-makers assign responsibility, communicate standards and decide whether continuity still serves improvement.

Harbaugh has chosen continuity. That can protect a staff from panic and give players one system to execute rather than forcing a midseason reset. It also prevents the organization from using a title change as a substitute for solving the underlying problems.

The tradeoff is accountability. When a head coach publicly preserves a coordinator’s role, the head coach owns that choice as much as the coordinator owns the calls. The next games will evaluate both men’s judgment.

McDaniel arrived with a reputation for creative spacing and speed, but reputation cannot score points. The useful question is whether the Chargers can adapt those ideas to the players currently available rather than waiting for an ideal lineup.

Simplification should be measurable

“Simplifying” an offense can mean many things: reducing the menu of formations, narrowing protection calls, creating clearer reads, repeating the concepts players execute best or improving communication at the line. The value is not in the word. It is in whether players operate faster and make fewer avoidable errors.

Injuries provide important context. Reuters reports that center Tyler Biadasz and left tackle Rashawn Slater are on injured reserve. Protection problems are harder to solve when the line is missing established starters, and 21 sacks through six games show the cost of that instability.

Context cannot become an excuse. A coaching staff’s job is to build a plan for the available roster. If protection requires more help, the play menu should reflect it. If the quarterback is holding the ball too long, reads and timing must change. If receivers and Herbert are not seeing coverage the same way, the offense needs fewer ambiguous answers.

Useful signs after the bye would include fewer negative plays, fewer giveaways, more manageable third downs and sustained drives that protect the defense. One explosive play or one improved box score would not settle the larger evaluation, but a pattern of cleaner execution would show that the staff used the break productively.

The Rams game is a checkpoint, not a verdict

The Chargers return Sunday at SoFi Stadium against the Rams. A rivalry game will attract attention, but the organization’s challenge is larger than one afternoon. Los Angeles needs evidence that its offensive process can support Herbert, withstand injuries and give a winless roster reasons to trust the plan.

Firing a play-caller can create the appearance of urgency. Keeping one can create the appearance of patience. Neither appearance matters if the offense remains last in efficiency and unable to finish drives.

Harbaugh has made the first decision: McDaniel keeps the headset. The next decision belongs to the entire offense—whether continuity becomes clarity or merely extends the same problems. That is the leadership test created by the bye-week vote of confidence.

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Newsroom transparency: This AI-assisted desk report was produced from the linked public sources and edited for accuracy and context. HuddleUp did not conduct an on-site interview. Read our Editorial Standards & Transparency.