Mike McDaniel enters his first season as offensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Chargers in 2026. He came to the Bolts after spending the last four seasons (2022-25) as head coach of the Miami Dolphins.
One of football's top offensive minds, McDaniel totaled 35 wins with Miami, leading the Dolphins to postseason berths in each of his first two seasons at the helm. His 2023 Miami squad posted 11 wins and featured the NFL's top offense, leading the league that season in total offense (401.3 total net yards per game) and passing offense (265.5 net passing yards per game) while ranking No. 2 in scoring offense (29.2). That season, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa led the NFL in passing yards (4,624) and the Dolphins were just the 18th team in NFL history to boast a 4,000-yard passer, 1,000-yard rusher and two 1,000-yard receivers in the same season. In 2023, the Dolphins defeated the Denver Broncos, 70-20, in Week 3. It marked the most points scored in a single NFL game since 1966 and the performance made the Dolphins the second team to have more than 700 yards of offense in a single game.
In 2022, McDaniel coached Dolphins to rank No. 6 in the NFL in total offense (364.5 total net yards per game) and 11th in scoring offense (23.4 points per game). That season, Tagovailoa led the NFL with a career-best 105.5 passer rating, throwing 25 touchdowns to just eight interceptions. Meanwhile, wide receiver Tyreek Hill set single-season franchise records with 1,710 receiving yards and 119 receptions en route to his seventh Pro Bowl selection. Hill and fellow wide receiver Jaylen Waddle totaled 3,066 receiving yards that season, the third-most by a pair of teammates in a ingle season in NFL history and more than two teams totaled in 2022.
Over the course of his NFL career, McDaniel has coached 17 players to a combined 26 Pro Bowl selections, including Hill (2022-23), Deebo Samuel (2021), Trent Williams (2021) and George Kittle (2019) as Associated Press first-team All-Pros. As he ascended the NFL ranks, McDaniel was a fixture on the offensive coaching staffs of San Francisco Head Coach Kyle Shanahan while with the 49ers and during Shanahan's time as offensive coordinator with Atlanta, Cleveland and Washington.
McDaniel spent five seasons on Shanahan's staff with the San Francisco 49ers, first as run game coordinator from 2017-20 and then as offensive coordinator during the 2021 season. During McDaniel's time with San Francisco, the 49ers offense ranked No. 6 in the NFL, averaging 367.4 total net yards per game. As offensive coordinator in 2021, McDaniel oversaw a dynamic group that ranked No. 7 in total offense, fifth in rushing offense and leveraged wide receiver Deebo Samuel as a multi-purpose threat, totaling over 1,700 yards from scrimmage including 1,405 receiving. Samuel led the NFL among qualifying players with an 18.2-yard receiving average that season.
Before his time with San Francisco, McDaniel spent two seasons (2015-16) in Atlanta as an offensive assistant under Shanahan. Featuring quarterback Matt Ryan, the 2016 NFL Most Valuable Player, the Falcons ranked No. 2 in total offense, third in passing offense, fifth in rushing offense and led the league in scoring offense in 2016, going on to win the NFC Championship and earning a berth in Super Bowl LIII. Prior to Atlanta, McDaniel spent the 2014 season coaching the wide receivers for the Cleveland Browns under Shanahan. McDaniel followed Shanahan to Cleveland after coaching together in Washington from 2011-13, when Shanahan was the offensive coordinator. He was an offensive assistant for the first two seasons in the nation's capital before coaching wide receivers in 2013, when McDaniel tutored wide receiver Pierre Garçon who led the NFL with a career-high 113 receptions and added a career-best 1,346 receiving yards.
McDaniel broke into the NFL with the Denver Broncos as a coaching intern in 2005 under Head Coach Mike Shanahan before joining the Houston Texans. In Houston, McDaniel served as an offensive assistant for three seasons (2006-08), working alongside Kyle Shanahan on Head Coach Gary Kubiak's staff. He then coached running backs for the United Football League's Sacramento Mountain Lions from 2009-10 under former NFL head coach Dennis Green before returning to the NFL with Washington.
A Colorado native, McDaniel was a ball boy for the Denver Broncos while attending Smoky Hill High in nearby Aurora. A wide receiver at Yale University from 2001-04 who graduated with a degree in history, McDaniel and his wife, Katie, have one daughter, Ayla.
