Chargers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel isn’t spending much time worrying about whether he still has a job.
After Los Angeles stumbled out to a 0-5 start, McDaniel told reporters on Thursday that job security isn’t really the way he approaches the NFL. In his view, the pressure is always there.
“I feel like it's core to my job to always feel that way,” McDaniel said.
He went a step further too, saying that once someone in this league gets too comfortable, “it’s a wrap.”
That attitude comes at a moment when the Chargers are nowhere near where they expected to be. McDaniel was viewed as the offseason’s best addition, and the hope around the team was that an offense led by Justin Herbert would take a major leap.
Herbert was supposed to be in the MVP mix. McDaniel, meanwhile, saw Los Angeles as a possible springboard to another head coaching job.
Instead, the results have gone the other way. Herbert is putting together the worst football of his career, and the Chargers are sitting with the worst offense in the league.
Even with the early-season mess, McDaniel said he still believes both he and the offense can claw their way out of it. He stressed that he’ll keep working the same way and pointed to the improvement he believes he sees behind the scenes.
“I will be doing my very best because from an integrity standpoint I think it’s really insulting to do anything else. That won’t change.
I would be so embarrassed if I told you, ‘well now I’m going to try harder.’ Like what?
What have you been doing? I’m confident in the players that we have.
I think that the improvement that I see before the results generally lead to good things. But talk is cheap.
We got to do."
Still, heading into Week 6, the climb looks steep. Herbert’s long-term future in Los Angeles appears settled, but McDaniel’s is far less certain if the losses keep piling up.
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