{"id":29779,"date":"2026-08-06T11:48:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T06:48:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=29779"},"modified":"2026-08-06T11:48:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T06:48:38","slug":"new-offensive-coordinator-mike-mcdaniel-brings-a-different-vibe-to-chargers-on-and-off-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=29779","title":{"rendered":"New offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel brings a different vibe to Chargers on and off field"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/05\/Chargers_Camp_Football_797__s1440x960.jpg?f72536d07237fdd262042ae8f5e6e6de3b865f3c\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>SAN DIEGO \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/mike-mcdaniel\/\">Mike McDaniel<\/a> has brought his Miami vibe to Southern California, both on and off the field.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/los-angeles-chargers\/\">Los Angeles Chargers<\/a>\u2019 new offensive coordinator showed up for a pre-practice news conference at the University of San Diego wearing sunglasses, as well as his customary rolled-up joggers and a pair of bright gold Nikes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m really excited to be here. I\u2019m not excited that I\u2019m completely unprepared for an indoor press conference as I\u2019m wearing sunglasses inside,\u201d McDaniel said Tuesday morning, explaining that his transition lenses \u201care failing right now, so I meant to have not sunglasses on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am prepared for practice, though, which I think is better news. And Ron Burgundy wasn\u2019t lying. This place is sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McDaniel invoked the fictional newscaster from \u201cAnchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy\u201d before the Chargers wrapped up their two-day visit to their former hometown with a light practice at 6,500-seat Torero Stadium, where Jim Harbaugh began his head coaching career 22 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Harbaugh, heading into his third season as the Bolts\u2019 coach, hired McDaniel less than three weeks after he was fired as head coach following a four-year run with the Dolphins. McDaniel went 35-33, with wild-card losses after each of his first two seasons.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/multimedia\/collection\/new-offensive-coordinator-mike-2026-08\/\" target=\"_blank\">PHOTOS: New offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel brings a different vibe to Chargers on and off field<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr style=\"margin-bottom: 15px;\"\/>\n<p>The idiosyncratic McDaniel is one of the top offensive minds in football. He\u2019s bringing his speed-based schemes and high-flying attacks to a Chargers offense that ranked 12th in the NFL last season.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p>He\u2019s working to get franchise quarterback <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/justin-herbert\/\">Justin Herbert<\/a> to make quicker throws, in large part to help keep him upright. Herbert absorbed the most sacks and hits of his six-year career last season, culminating when he was sacked six times in a 16-3 AFC wild-card game loss to the New England Patriots. It was the second playoff one-and-done under Harbaugh, who\u2019s gone 11-6 in each of his two seasons with the Bolts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think one of the attractive things coming to the Chargers was the roster that was already built as, you know, all the recent draft picks were targets of mine on the other side of the country,\u201d McDaniel said. \u201cAs a group, I talked to the offense the first day of the offseason back in April, about being fast, physical, with elite technique.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo what that looks like is, it doesn\u2019t mean with your 40 time that you\u2019re a fast guy. It means everyone playing to their full speed, shocking the defense at the snap, a physical brand of football with elite technique and fundamentals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tuesday was the team\u2019s first practice in pads.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the offseason, McDaniel said Herbert was a bit nervous making throws earlier in his reads.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be clear, he wasn\u2019t as nervous as he was proposing,\u201d McDaniels quipped, referring to Herbert\u2019s recent engagement to Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Madison Beer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut he was still nervous. Absolutely. You know, I think that\u2019s been my favorite part of practice, that alongside some of the growth we\u2019ve had up front in terms of our line of scrimmage play,\u201d McDaniels said. \u201cBut with Justin, full lean-in, full buy-in. And I can\u2019t stress it enough. It\u2019s very difficult for high performers to do things outside of what has given them success.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Herbert threw an interception on Tuesday and McDaniel was OK with it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat you\u2019re asking a quarterback to do is not succumb to the compass of results,\u201d McDaniel said. \u201cIt\u2019s the process of how we\u2019re doing things and his investment and full immersion into that process. Yesterday, he threw a pick, simply because he\u2019s leaning into the process and getting comfortable with all the different things we\u2019re asking him to do.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn that particular play, he has his eyes set on an eligible here and reset the throw and got an incredible learning experience that will benefit him in the game,\u201d McDaniel said. \u201cSo it\u2019s to his credit. He\u2019s really progressing as fast as one could even picture, much faster than I was planning for. The Chargers organization is doing well by his daily effort, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tackle Joe Alt, who is back after season-ending ankle surgery in November, spoke highly of McDaniel.<\/p>\n<p>                        <a name=\"pagebreak\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love coach McDaniel,\u201d Alt said. \u201dThe way he approaches offensive game planning and playing has been really fun for me to learn. I look forward to being able to continue to work down this path through training camp and into games and continue to build because it\u2019s a lot of fun. I think a lot of guys will say it: He\u2019s a wizard. It\u2019s exciting to see what we\u2019ll be able to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"permission\" style=\"padding-top: 25px;\">\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 The Washington Times, LLC.\n                        <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SAN DIEGO \u2014 Mike McDaniel has brought his Miami vibe to Southern California, both on and off the field. The Los Angeles Chargers\u2019 new offensive coordinator showed up for a pre-practice news conference at the University of San Diego wearing sunglasses, as well as his customary rolled-up joggers and a pair of bright gold Nikes&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/05\/Chargers_Camp_Football_797__c0-223-5346-3341_s1200x700.jpg?bd3207266cd9dd9f6ea3e066b2737123571b58cb","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}