Chargers OC Mike McDaniel Moving to Booth to Call Plays This Week
Still 0-7 and averaging about 14 points a game, Los Angeles is adjusting McDaniel's spot without changing the play-caller
Chargers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel is changing where he calls plays. McDaniel said Thursday he is moving from the sideline to the booth this week, Ari Meirov reported, framing it as an adjustment based on how the season has gone.
#Chargers OC Mike McDaniel says he's making a change this week, moving from the sideline to the booth to call plays: "I think we're going to try that this week. Seems like a good action to take based on how things have gone this year."View on X →
Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate): #Chargers OC Mike McDaniel says he's making a change this week, moving from the sideline to the booth to call plays: "I think we're going to try that this week. Seems like a good action to take based on how things have gone this year."
"I think we're going to try that this week. Seems like a good action to take based on how things have gone this year," McDaniel said. He remains the play-caller. After the Chargers' bye, Jim Harbaugh kept McDaniel in that role following an internal review of the offense. The booth move is the next tweak without a coordinator change.
Los Angeles is still searching for its first win at 0-7. The Chargers have scored 99 points in seven games, about 14.1 per game, and the offense has been the central problem of a season that began with playoff expectations around Justin Herbert. McDaniel was hired in the offseason after Miami fired him as head coach, with the job of unlocking Herbert and the skill players around him. That has not happened yet, and the booth gives him a wider view of the field and a quieter place to operate between plays.
The Chargers host the Houston Texans on Sunday at SoFi Stadium. It will be the first game of the McDaniel booth experiment, and the next measuring stick for an offense that has yet to find a footing through two months.