For the L.A. Chargers, the McDaniel approach isn’t working: from Super Bowl favourites to 0–6

Take a team that’s already strong, well-drilled and featuring Justin Herbert, one of the best quarterbacks around. Add to these ingredients an offensive mastermind, and the result is sure to be a favourite for the next Super Bowl.

On paper, this was the idea the Los Angeles Chargers had at the end of last season when they decided to hand the reins of their offence to Mike McDaniel. Having just been sacked by the Miami Dolphins, McDaniel immediately became one of the most sought-after coaches in the entire NFL. Instead of trying his hand at head coaching straight away, the 43-year-old Colorado native preferred to accept the offer from Jim Harbaugh, head coach of the Los Angeles side, convinced that one or two seasons with Herbert would relaunch his career on the head coaching market.

Nevertheless, it is often easier said than done. The hundred yards of the football field have demonstrated that the City of Angels’ second team (the first being the Rams, who are not exactly thriving either) simply cannot seem to secure a victory.

No team in the history of the NFL has ever reached the play-offs after starting the season 0-5. The Bolts (the franchise’s nickname) are 0-6. Such a poor start has not been seen since 2000, when the franchise was still based in San Diego.

Jim Harbaugh has already been through a similar experience when, as a quarterback, he played for those very same Chargers. However, as head coach, the younger brother of John Harbaugh (coach of the New York Giants) has never found himself 0-3, either at university or in the NFL, where he previously managed the San Francisco 49ers.

No one could have imagined such a collapse from Los Angeles. The partnership between McDaniel and Herbert isn’t working out, with the quarterback having already thrown eight interceptions – the worst record in the entire league.

Harbaugh himself, who had described his offensive coordinator as “the head coach of the offence”, is now reconsidering McDaniel, whose position is no longer entirely secure, at least according to some sections of the American press. And to think that, to make way for the former Miami coach, Harbaugh sacked Greg Roman last January – the only offensive coordinator with whom the manager had ever worked at NFL level.

The aim, of course, was to help Herbert take another step up in quality, replicating the success McDaniel had achieved in Miami with Tua Tagovailoa, a left-handed quarterback now playing for the Atlanta Falcons. Not a prodigy, but one who appeared to be just that, thanks in part to the plays designed by McDaniel.

Of course, injuries – which affected the receiving corps and the offensive line, with obvious repercussions on Herbert’s performance – also played a part in the Chargers’ poor results. However, in the United States, it’s results that count and, as the great Bill Parcells (former coach of the Dallas Cowboys) used to say, “you are what your record says you are”. And the Chargers are, in fact, 0-6.