In fact, I think in six weeks we’ve discovered that McDaniel is definitely not the right coordinator. for Justin Herbert. The anti-Herbert crowd will view the following as an elite excuse for Herbert, which I understand. The pro-McDaniel crowd will demand mention that the Chargers’ offensive line was almost 100 percent made up of mid- and late-round rookies, with the unit once again in tatters in Sunday’s loss to the Chiefs.
But what stands out is not the fact that this unit is outmatched. It’s the weird timing of some play calls. It’s the screen passes where half the offense acts like it’s another play call. It’s the dance of backfield movement in which all the players run into each other like it’s another dress rehearsal. And it’s Herbert himself, whose stare into nothingness as he cups his headset ears and listens to a play call, whose headset slams against the bench, whose build-up of frustration every time these issues are framed as a leadership problem, is indicative of someone who simply disagrees with the person designing his offense and tries not to call it out. That’s my interpretation anyway.
To me, this illustrates the fine line between quarterbacks who can thrive in a Shanahan-style offense and quarterbacks who would prefer to have more tools at their disposal to control the outcome of the preplay. Shanahan’s offenses are more post-snap-leaning offenses, but Herbert has had success in his career with coordinators like Joe Lombardi, who spent nearly a decade as Drew Brees’ quarterbacks coach. At its core, it’s more of a pre-snap offense that doesn’t ask the quarterback to react to the flow of a play, but rather to have a good idea of where he’s going before the snap, based on coverage cues, and quickly confirm it after the snap before letting it rip.
Tom Brady is one of the most famous examples, famously clashing with former head coach Bruce Arians in Tampa Bay and shuffling the personnel in order to have Byron Leftwich as offensive coordinator (and, in effect, an invitation to run the offense the way he wanted).
Let me back up for a second and say this: While it seems crazy to fire McDaniel just six weeks into the season — after McDaniel was considered one of the biggest hiring moves of the offseason — we have to consider team dynamics. The Chargers defense played with fire on Sunday. Over the past three weeks, Los Angeles has second in the NFL—SECOND—in EPA per game allowed. Down 13 points at the end of the third quarter, the defense was still struggling the Kenneth Walker III machinestopping Kansas City in a goal-to-play situation when the game was already in complete despair.
And what followed was a zero-yard run, a delay of game penalty (which was actually to avoid using a timeout because the Chargers were pressed against the one-inch line), and one of the most broken pass concepts we’ve seen in the NFL this week.
Again, McDaniel deserves the benefit of the doubt given the offensive line situation, but balancing the powerless nature of this offense with a defense that keeps Los Angeles in games is untenable. People are I’m talking about trading Herbert at the deadline– for fun, of course – instead of realizing that this team shouldn’t be worse than 2-4 right now with the way their defense is playing.
Now, this is where I’m going to lose the rest of you, but I urge you to be patient. The other coach on this offensive team who has playmaking experience is Adam Gase. Your memories of Gase probably date back to the end of his tenure with the Jets. You can also tie Gase’s tenure to Sam Darnold and the journey Darnold subsequently took as reason to believe someone like Gase would be a disastrous mid-round replacement for McDaniel based on those facts alone.
But-but!—Darnold is a perfect Shanahan-style post-snap player and came to life as a quarterback after spending time with Shanahan in San Francisco. His run to the Super Bowl came with Klint Kubiak, a Shanahan disciple, as offensive coordinator. And Kubiak was replaced by Brian Fleury, who was Shanahan’s tight ends coach. Darnold wasn’t the right fit for Gase, whose rise as offensive coordinator happened alongside Peyton Manning, one of the most infamous players. presnap NFL players. What if Herbert was just closer in terms of preferences – again, I’m not calling Herbert Peyton Manning— to Manning, Brady and Rodgers (another quarterback who loves offense in his own way and has clashed with Matt LaFleur and his spin on Shanahan’s offense) than he is to Darnold and Tua Tagovailoa and Brock Purdy?
Again, if a decision is made, McDaniel will most likely return to San Francisco or one of Shanahan’s satellite campuses around the NFL and perform admirably. He is extremely creative and in the galaxy of those infractions, remains an innovator. But this situation might be the defining example of why a great playmaker and a great quarterback can’t always coexist; why we see players flourish in other offenses after years of inexplicable decline, just as quarterbacks take time to find the right offense.
None of us see anything like this. We all deal with things differently. Some of you will want to sit with your thoughts for a minute, then write me an email saying I’m a fool for thinking a Herbert-Gase pairing might work better. Some of you would rather immediately go to social media and throw in a quick clown emoji. Both are correct, you just treat the game differently.
In McDaniel’s case, his fatal flaw was assuming that this style of offense was universal and absolute, when in reality, the best thing for Herbert might be to eliminate McDaniel’s ideology from this offense altogether, no matter who replaces him.
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