After a four-year stint as Dolphins head coach, Mike McDaniel landed with the Chargers as their offensive coordinator in 2026.
McDaniel and head coach Jim Harbaugh certainly make for an intriguing coaching combination. While there are months until the Chargers will suit up for a game, so far, the two men have been working well together.
“Awesome,” Harbaugh said Tuesday, via Eric Smith of the Chargers’ website, when asked how it’s been having McDaniel in the building. “Awesome with a capital A.”
Harbaugh noted he’s gained plenty of insight from McDaniel since the OC has been in Southern California, saying he’s had a “paradigm shift in ways I’ve thought about football.”
“Where to really start would be just how his mind is. Just how much football information, how good it is, his expertise at all positions, and on defense, too,” Harbaugh said. “He’s a real expert in how defenses play different coverages, schemes, fronts, blitz patterns.
“The receivers, the timing between the quarterback, offensive line play, the running backs being tied into the blocking scheme … really been doing a lot of listening, a lot of learning, just leaned in to how he sees football,” Harbaugh added. “It’s really great. And it is what I really thought it was, a perfect combination of Mike McDaniel and Justin Herbert.”
Harbaugh noted he feels like the pairing with McDaniel as offensive coordinator and Herbert is “going to bode really well for the Chargers,” as McDaniel’s scheme is designed to better protect the QB.
“It’s probably two ways. One, it’s just less … dropback protection. Straight dropback protection, the defensive line can transition into pass rush immediately,” Harbaugh said. “The second way is the way the run game and the pass game, play action, are tied together. It takes a second more that you can see defensive linemen [thinking], ‘Oh, now it’s a pass.’
“And then they transition to their move or their bull or their pass rush. They’re going from run defense to pass defense,” Harbaugh added. “How valuable is a second? Very valuable.”
Herbert was sacked a career-high 54 times in 2025 while throwing interceptions at the highest rate of his career (2.5 percent, 13 total picks). He completed 66.4 percent of his passes for 3,727 yards with 26 touchdowns and 13 interceptions last season.
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Najee Harris visited the Seahawks on Wednesday and the running back has another visit lined up with a prospective employer for the 2026 season.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that Harris has a visit planned with the Raiders as well.
The Raiders have 2025 first-round pick Ashton Jeanty at the top of the backfield depth chart. Dylan Laube and Chris Collier are the only other backs currently on the roster in Las Vegas.
Harris is recovering from a torn Achilles he suffered while playing for the Chargers last September. The 2021 first-round pick spent his first four seasons with the Steelers and ran for 4,312 yards during his time in Pittsburgh.
The Seahawks have met with a potential addition to their backfield.
The NFL’s daily transaction report shows that they reported a visit with running back Najee Harris. Harris is coming off of a torn Achilles that ended his 2025 season with the Chargers in Week Three.
Harris recently shared a video of him sprinting on a treadmill to update where things stand in his return to health. Harris also suffered an eye injury in a fireworks accident last summer, but returned to play in the first three games of the season. He ran 15 times for 61 yards and caught three passes for 25 yards.
Harris had four straight seasons with at least 1,000 rushing yards with the Steelers to open his career.
Kenneth Walker left the Seahawks for the Chiefs as a free agent this month and Zach Charbonnet is recovering from a torn ACL. The newly signed Emanuel Wilson joins Cam Akers, George Holani, Kenny McIntosh, and Jacardia Wright on the running back depth chart.
The Chargers have added some depth for their offensive line.
Los Angeles announced on Wednesday that the club has signed Kayode Awosika.
Awosika, 27, spent the last four seasons with the Lions. He appeared in 13 games with four starts for the club last season, on the field for 35 percent of offensive snaps and 18 percent of special teams snaps in games played.
Awosika entered the league as an undrafted free agent out of the University at Buffalo in 2021. He’s played 50 games with 11 starts for the Eagles and Lions in his career.
Offensive lineman Foster Sarell failed to make the Commanders during training camp last summer, but he’ll take another shot at it in 2026.
The Commanders announced that they have signed Sarell on Tuesday. No terms of the deal were disclosed.
Sarell was released by Washington last August and wound up on the Chargers’ practice squad. He went on to play six games and make one start during the regular season.
The move to the Chargers was also a return engagement for Sarell. He played in 35 games and made three starts for the AFC West team between 2021 and 2024. He also had brief stints with the Ravens and Giants after going undrafted out of Stanford in 2021.
Six months after tearing his Achilles tendon, free agent running back Najee Harris wants NFL teams to see that his recovery is on pace.
Harris’s agent posted video of him sprinting on a treadmill this week. Harris tore his Achilles in his third game with the Chargers, on September 21.
Running in a straight line on a treadmill is a far cry from the kind of cutting a running back has to do on the football field, but being able to sprint in March is a good sign that he’ll be able to do everything he has to do by Week One.
2025 was a rough year for Harris, who also injured his eye in a fireworks accident on the Fourth of July. That forced him to miss a lot of work in training camp and the preseason, but he was ready to go by the start of the regular season.
The 28-year-old Harris signed a one-year contract with the Chargers last year but was lost for the season after carrying the ball just 15 times. He had previously played for the Steelers, who drafted him in the first round in 2021, for four seasons and topped 1,000 yards in all four of them.
Two days before the inaugural Fanatics Flag Football Classic, there’s been an injury replacement.
Fanatics has announced that Chargers safety Derwin James Jr. suffered a “minor injury” earlier in the week, before reporting to the event. He’ll be replaced by longtime Vikings safety Harrison Smith.
A first-round pick in 2012 and a 14-year veteran, the Vikings released Smith last week.
Smith was a six-time Pro Bowler. He landed on the All-Pro first team in 2017 and the All-Pro second team in 2018.
He joins the Wildcats team captained by Jayden Daniels and Joe Burrow in Saturday’s three-team flag football tournament. Earlier this month, the event was moved from Saudi Arabia to Los Angeles.
Tony Jefferson is ready for another run with the Chargers.
Jefferson and the Chargers have agreed to a one-year contract, according to Jordan Schultz.
It’s the third year in a row Jefferson has signed a one-year deal with the Chargers. He also signed with them in 2024 and 2025, starting both seasons on the practice squad but then spending most of his time on the active roster. Last year Jefferson played in 13 games with eight starts.
The 34-year-old Jefferson originally signed with the Cardinals as an undrafted rookie in 2013. He then played for the Ravens, 49ers, Ravens again and Giants before announcing his retirement and sitting out the 2023 season. He un-retired when he signed with the Chargers in 2024.
Free agent offensive tackle Austin Deculus reached an agreement today with the Titans, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports.
Deculus, 27, spent last season with the Chargers.
He started five games on the team’s injury-plagued line last season and set career-highs with 13 game appearances, 516 offensive snaps and 41 special teams snaps.
Deculus entered the NFL as a sixth-round pick of the Texans in 2022.
He spent three seasons in his hometown, playing 13 games with one start.
The Texans traded him to the Chargers last August.
Despite playing with one of the league’s best quarterbacks last season with the Chargers, tight end Tyler Conklin had his worst season since 2019.
He played a career-low 13 games and saw the second-fewest offensive touches of his career (169), finishing with seven receptions for 101 yards in his only season with the Chargers.
Conklin, 30, signed with the Lions in free agency and expressed confidence in being able to rebound this season.
“I think I can definitely be very productive in the pass game still,” Conklin said, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “I think just because one situation didn’t quite work out the way anybody wanted it doesn’t mean you just, like, can’t do it anymore.”
Conkin, who arrives as the No. 3 tight end behind Sam LaPorta and Brock Wright, caught 50-plus passes for four consecutive seasons for the Vikings (2021) and Jets (2022-24) before landing with the Chargers. New Lions offensive coordinator Drew Petzing ran more three-tight-end sets than any play-caller in the NFL the past three seasons with the Cardinals.
“Whether I’m catching passes, whether I’m blocking more, whether I’m playing special teams, whether I’m just mentoring, whatever that role is, I want to help this team win,” Conklin said. “But I’ve definitely got a lot of good football left in me.”
