Justin Herbert is the undoubted starting quarterback of the Los Angeles Chargers. And near the start of the 2026 calendar, Mike McDaniel became the offensive coordinator of the Chargers. McDaniel, who was fired as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, on January 8, didn’t spend much time on the unemployment list.
Just 18 days later, on January 26, McDaniel was officially becoming a member of the Chargers organization, signing on to become the team’s offensive coordinator. While the team has a plethora of talented offensive players, Herbert, is regularly spoken about, in and around the organization, like he’s the second-coming of the QB position.
Head coach, Jim Harbaugh, has sang his young QB’s praises since the day the now 62-year-old Harbaugh stepped foot in the door. And the world can now add McDaniel to the list of NFL personnel who absolutely love Herbert.
Mike McDaniel Reveals True Feelings For Justin Herbert
This week, on an episode of the “Chris Simms Unbuttoned” podcast, McDaniel was asked why he ultimately chose to work for the Chargers, and an incredible level of admiration oozed out of the 43-year-old OC.
“Okay, so this is a fun exercise. With Justin Herbert, make a list of things he can’t do. I don’t really know what that is. You’re talking about a savant athletically and mentally,” McDaniel said.
Simms co-hosted this episode of his podcast with NFL Draft Analyst for NBC Sports, Connor Rogers.
McDaniel, who’s been in the NFL in different capacities for just over 20 years, drew a parallel to Herbert being viewed as the best played on this Chargers roster to Matt Ryan being the best player on the Atlanta Falcons roster when they reached Super Bowl LI.
“Outside of that Matt Ryan experience in Atlanta, that two year experience, I’d be hard pressed to ever say hey, yeah, I was on this football team, and the quarterback was the best player on the team…I just hadn’t operated in professional football with the assumption that the quarterback was the best player. In that process over 20 years, you get yourself in a situation, where at this point, to be on the team where the best player being the QB, it’s extremely unique, and exciting, and I feel like I’m doing something illegal each day at practice because it doesn’t make any sense,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel Reveals Exact Moment He Chose Chargers
McDaniel is clearly a big fan of Herbert’s abilities as a QB in the NFL. But, ahead of his meeting with the Chargers, he did his own personal, mental exercise, that helped narrow down the QBs he’d most want to coach.
“This was a unique exercise. I was thinking to myself, what if I had the choice to coach all 32 QBs? Let me rank who I’d want to coach. And it was like 10 seconds into the thought. I was immediately debating Justin Herbert with like two other guys out of anyone I could coach on the planet,” McDaniel said.
And ultimately, over breakfast, McDaniel realized Los Angeles, coaching alongside (Jim) Harbaugh, coaching a (Justin) Herbert led offense, was the next step he needed to take in his career.
“In the morning, I met with Jim (Harbaugh) and John Spanos, and it was in that breakfast, through conversation I was like, let me call Cleveland real quick. I need to cancel some of the stuff I have upcoming because this is definitely the place I need to be,” McDaniel said.
Chargers OC Mike McDaniel Doesn’t Hold Back on Feelings For Justin Herbert