No, that’s not Netflix’s one-liner about the Theranos documentary about the fake blood machine. This is a lead-in to an article about the Mike McDaniel-era Chargers, a team that took our sense of imagination and bludgeoned it behind a lone Siberian pyre.
Of all the teams without a win after three weeks of football in 2026, the Chargers are feeling particularly hopeless. Sunday’s loss to the Bills came despite the Bills losing five turnovers, three of which came in their own territory. The Chargers sacked Josh Allen four times, hit him three more times and broke up five passes. The Chargers held a 10-0 lead at the end of the first quarter and a 13-10 lead at the end of the third quarter. The interim was filled with a concoction of moments that would make this improbable loss understandable: a bad call by Justin Herbert, another nauseating fall by Quentin Johnston, a gutless fourth-and-goal attempt and back-to-back procedural penalties inside the red zone. You guessed correctly that there is a posterized stat associated with this loss: Since 2013, teams that have forced five turnovers and led the turnover margin by four are now 81-3-1 in those games. The Chargers suffered these three losses, by Evan Abrams.
Those who are already dead inside are ready to say I told you so – and for good reason. The preseason hype about the Chargers was divided between true idealists and realists. Combining McDaniel with Herbert, getting back tackles Joe Alt and Rashawn Slater and correcting the loss of DC Jesse Minter with one of the most inventive defensive players in the FBS last season was catnip for those susceptible to mid-level marketing scams, extended warranties and Iraqi currency swaps.
Ninety-six percent of teams without a win through the first three weeks of the season since the expansion of the playoff format in 2020 missed the playoffs. Only the 2025 Texans, who finished the season on a furious nine-game winning streak, were able to overcome this serious deficit. The Texans also didn’t have quite the prospect to match that of Los Angeles, which now faces the Seahawks, Broncos, Chiefs, Rams, Texans and Ravens next.
We bring all this up not to rehash certain obvious facts, but to emphasize that a Chargers collapse has some major consequences. On the one hand, the question of the McDaniel-Herbert-Harbaugh relationship is not going to go away. The informal belief was that McDaniel would make the 2026 season a one-stop shop en route to a head coaching job of his choosing after getting Herbert to score high pinball numbers in the arcade. Herbert would finally be in a repeatable system that would suppress his worst impulses and surround him with a double-barreled running game that would remove the need for him to turn into Herbert gloomy. This running game would also take the pressure off a defense that has depended on some aging players to contribute meaningful snaps while remaining generationally excellent.
Instead, the Chargers are looking at a situation where McDaniel must improve simply to win another year. Considering Harbaugh has never called plays at the NFL level before and his lifelong sidekick Greg Roman is now the game coordinator for the Giants, there aren’t many administrative levers Harbaugh can pull at this point in the year. He’s unlikely to be in any potential “hot seat” after a failed season, following back-to-back 11-win campaigns to begin his tenure in Los Angeles, but the shine will fade quickly. He is not that far more successful than Chargers predecessors Anthony Lynn, who had 9–7 and 12–4 seasons before back-to-back losing campaigns and Brandon Staley, who posted 9–8 and 10–7 seasons before his own steep decline. Only Lynn, whose masterful game plan against Lamar Jackson in 2018 edged the Chargers past the Ravens, has a playoff victory.
Back to the question at hand: What happens after you promise that the blood machine instantly diagnoses your most serious illnesses and can change the world, but ends up being as valuable as an HP InkJet spray printer? That’s the kind of swing the Chargers took in the 2026 season by entering the coordinator sweepstakes and winning the top prize. Herbert has completed just one of 12 passes of 20 yards or more this season and three of those passes have been intercepted. The Chargers are dead last in the NFL in EPA per carry and 25th in pass rate, making a clean sweep of all of McDaniel’s big promises entering the year.
It’s almost easier at this point when the head coach is screwed at the end of the season. When you can cleanse your palate of all the nuances of this doomed season and start a new dream with new characters, new heroes and new possibilities. The Chargers have locked themselves into something far more perilous: an endless loop of the same madness that will go on and on, with the only hope of recovery being slightly less likely than the creation of a miracle medical machine.
Add us as your favorite source on GoogleFollow
Gn sports
