Mike McDaniel held his first press conference Quarterback Justin Herbert has been a major topic of conversation since being hired as Chargers offensive coordinator on Tuesday.
McDaniel raved about Herbert’s talent and said the “short answer” is that he hasn’t worked with a quarterback of the same caliber as his current one. He’s not the first to praise Herbert’s skills, but the Chargers have been unable to translate that into postseason success so far in Herbert’s career. McDaniel said one of the things he hopes to do is create an offense that’s less reliant on Herbert’s individual talents.
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“I think not relying too much on Justin’s ability, I think that’s critical to maximizing these types of opportunities,” McDaniel said. “One of the first things we’re going to do is take some of the load off of him so that when his greatness is called upon, he’s free to do that.”
McDaniel didn’t share all of the ways he planned to do this, but he did emphasize that the offense needs to “take advantage of the space provided by the defense” before the snap in order to protect the quarterback and build momentum as a whole.
“Justin made a lot of unbelievable games,” McDaniel said. “He’s very capable, and sometimes as a coach you can lean on him a little too much. There are some schematic ways to get all three quarterbacks on your roster to be able to do that. It’s easier to do it and not put as much into it — over time, for a player, if he needs to It can be a burden to make incredible plays to score points and win football games on a regular basis, so you try to take that away from him by creating some low-cost, high-return offense that he’s completely capable of, but maybe less talented players are capable of doing that as well.”
McDaniel said Herbert isn’t “close to where he can be in the NFL” yet, and the Chargers are counting on their new coordinator to help him get closer to that level in 2026.