How Justin Herbert and Mike McDaniel can unlock the Chargers Super Bowl potential in 2026
Mike McDaniel stood close enough to the Chargers’ formation that it made the defense wonder whether he was going to line up as a wide-receiver and run the route himself.Then he sent them a warning shot.“We’re about to bomb y’all right here,” McDaniel told the defense, looking specifically at All-Pro safety Derwin James.The Chargers did not throw deep.Instead they ran a quick halfback draw.“He’s playing mind games already,” James said, smiling.Welcome to the first day of the Chargers’ opening practice at training camp.McDaniel has arrived on the scene as the Chargers’ new offensive coordinator after four years as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins.
He brings an energy and a sideline presence the team has been lacking amongst their coaches in the Jim Harbaugh era.He also brings a restless imagination and an innovative offense.He comes to the Chargers not as a stepping stone to another head coaching opportunity, but perhaps with the most important assignment of his career: lifting Justin Herbert from gifted quarterback to championship quarterback.Herbert, in turn, offers McDaniel the best quarterback he’s ever had as a coach, and the best chance to prove his offense can do more than just dazzle on occasion.
It can endure.It can win in the postseason.
It can guide a team all the way to a Super Bowl.The newly-formed partnership between McDaniel and Herbert is intriguing because both men are at the point in their careers where their talent is no longer the question.Herbert has one of the strongest arms in football.He has the size, speed, intelligence and composure coaches will spend a decade searching for.
McDaniel has long been regarded as an inventive offensive mastermind.A coach capable of turning pre-snap motion into a faint sleight of hand and using open patches of grass as a trapdoor for defenders.Now, each of them needs the other to get them to the next level of their careers.Herbert must be quicker without rushing.
McDaniel must simpli...