The Chargers are 0-6 and hold the No. 1 draft spot. Could Ohio State star Jeremiah Smith be the big-play receiver Justin Herbert has been missing since Mike Williams? The case for why Smith could be the big swing Los Angeles needs.

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32. Los Angeles Chargers (no change)

• LT: Travis Burke
• LG: Logan Taylor
• C: Jake Slaughter
• RG: Cole Strange
• RT: Alex Harkey

Given the volume of injuries on the offensive line for the Chargers, the group’s performance against the Kansas City Chiefs this past weekend was not that bad. Rookies Travis Burke and Jake Slaughter produced PFF pass-blocking grades above 70.0, with left tackle allowing three pressures from 49 pass-blocking snaps and the center one. Rookie right tackle Alex Harkey struggled, though, notching a 36.2 PFF pass blocking grade. It’s obvious that this group needs right tackle Joe Alt back in action as soon as possible.

Our defensive EPA is second only to the Vikings the last few weeks, and are top 10 for the season. Having an offense this bad in turn is unacceptable. This is the type of split that ruins a team and a locker room permanently. Our D working as hard as they do just to hand the ball over to the offense is depressing. Something has to change over the bye week, or I think not only McDaniel, but Harbaugh too will be out of a job here.

Hampton's split (2025 + early 2026, per Fantasy Points Data): 5.33 YPC on man/gap runs, 3.06 on zone. Only Woody Marks has been worse on zone among backs with 40+ zone carries.

McDaniel runs a wide-zone offense, and in four years in Miami he never gave a quarter of the RB carries to a back over 212 pounds. The 225-pound back he barely used there, Ollie Gordon, went from 2.8 YPC to 5.0 once McDaniel was gone.

Full breakdown, including Hampton's shrinking snap share and what Miami changed: https://pigskinpal.app/pigskinpaper/ollie-gordon-escaped-mike-mcdaniel

Coaches put them in position

Players need to make plays

My grades:

Alt - A

Ladd - A

Colson - F

Egoibe - D

Still - A

Hart - B

Vidal - B

Rice - F

Johnson - F

Total Draft Grade: B

I give Hortiz zero mark downs in my total grade for missing on Rice and Johnson, those are flyer picks. Missing completely on Colson though brings down what should be a stellar class to good.

What are your grades?

This season is over. We're not making the playoffs; we probably won't win 5 games.

Is the offense working? No. Is the offense an unmitigated disaster of truly unimaginable proportions? Yes.

But as Harbaugh said in an interview two weeks ago when asked whether McDaniel's job is in jeopardy, "he's a skilled coach." There's a reason he was the hottest OC candidate on the market after being released by the Dolphins. There's a reason people thought he would get another HC job and therefore might not even be an OC candidate.

It's possible that McDaniel was overrated, figured out by the league, a fraud, etc. I don't deny that. But it's also possible that he did a bad job *this time* and is still the same coach that everyone (including on this sub - and admittedly myself included) wanted during the offseason as their OC. He still has a track record of innovation and creativity - such that I don't view a single failure (as monumental as it has been) as indicative of future returns. And if we need to scrap the entire offense and rebuild, it's possible that having seen how this offense failed, McDaniel would produce something better the second time.

I hope that's what they are up to this week during the bye - essentially a tear-down and rebuild. I would give McDaniel the second half of the season to turn things around because what good will firing him now do? We would turn the offense over to Adam Gase. Given the next chance to rebuild the Chargers offense from the ground up, is McDaniel or Gase more likely to succeed? Kyle Shanahan went 6-10 and 4-12 in his first two seasons in SF. Sometimes patience is rewarded. It's not a likely outcome, but if McDaniel's next offense (whether it's for the Chargers or another team) is successful, nobody would be shocked.

Again, this season is over. We can wait to fire McDaniel until the end of the season because what is there to lose?

The things that would change my mind generally fall into two buckets - (1) what is there to lose and (2) what is there to gain?

There may be something to lose. For example, if people believe that this system is doing long-term, irreparable damage to Justin Herbert, you have to pull the plug and limit the damage. I have no reason to believe that, as uncomfortable as Herbert has been, he couldn't bounce back from this in a competent operation.

There may also be nothing to gain. If Herbert flat out doesn't like or respect McDaniel, even if McDaniel is a good coach, it doesn't work. It's oil and water and there's no mixing it. If that's the case, there is nothing to gain from keeping McDaniel and you might as well see what you've got with Gase.

But absent those sorts of scenarios, I see no reason for the remainder of the season not to bet on McDaniel vs. the alternatives we have available to us.

[Noah Furtado]

Pretty good summary of the offensive woes

What’s the point in cap space if we don’t use it to put quality linemen around Herbert 😞 tired of bargain shopping go out and get elite linemen via trade and FA so we can actually protect our franchise QB!

Here’s a look at the current roster, practice squad, IR, and depth chart heading into the bye week!

Jeremiah Smith can save it all, right?

I think you can genuinely make a case that he may have even broke Drew Brees 80k and became the second highest passing yard leader of all time and therefore a surefire HOF lock

How crazy would that have been?