The Los Angeles Chargers have completely reshaped their offensive coaching staff already this offseason by replacing about half of the guys in the room.

Fired

Hired

I imagine we have not heard the last of the comings and goings of the offensive coaching staff, either.

For instance, do the Chargers need Adam Gase (who came out of five years of retirement to take the job) when they have Marcus Brady acting as the passing game coordinator? Probably not! But Gase was hired anyway, with most assuming that it was a Mike McDaniel hire, which means Brady is probably shopping for other jobs around the league.

However, I do think we can start to make some assumptions on how the offense will be put together and called based on McDaniel's history (vs. Roman's), but I'm going to ignore Gase's history because I don't know how to compare data from his pre-Jets days to today's NFL.

The 2025 Chargers finished the season 19th in the percentage of offensive plays that included pre-snap motion (50.6%). But the Shanahan style of offense that McDaniel built his system around is built on pre-snap motion, so it's no surprise that the 2025 Miami Dolphins finished the season 1st in the percentage of offensive plays that included pre-snap motion (67.5%).

I think we can expect that Chargers to finish a lot closer to 1st than 19th in the same stat next season.

Another staple of McDaniel's offense has always been play-action. The goal is to use motion to create numbers advantages and then run behind those until the defense adjusts. Once it adjusts, you fake the run and open up huge holes in the defense for downfield passing. So, you won't be surprised to find out that his 2025 Dolphins team finished 5th in play-action rate (18.0%). 

The Chargers, by comparison, were 14th in play-action rate (15.7%) despite Greg Roman's own offensive philosophies. I suspect this number would've been higher had the Chargers fielded a healthier offensive line.

You can start to pick up clues about offensive philosophies when you dig through enough stats.

McDaniel's offenses have always been below-average in the number of plays per game. Could this be a side effect of a consistently bad Dolphins defense? Sure, that's in there, but the most successful versions of McDaniel's offenses have always relied on creating bit plays.

In the years when it didn't feel like the team's QB was holding them back (a small sample, I'm aware), the Dolphins would consistently rank in the top 3-5 for big plays through both the passing and rushing game.

Armed with Justin Herbert as his quarterback, I think we can expect McDaniel to put together a balanced-attack that creates play-action opportunities downfield for Herbert and the Chargers receivers. This is not going to be a dink-and-dunk offense that slowly works its way downfield on long drives, it should be explosive and fun.