Mike McDaniel: "You have to produce results or there's gonna be heat"

The Chargers’ bye week began with head coach Jim Harbaugh not committing to keeping Mike McDaniel as the offensive play-caller. The Chargers emerged from their Sunday off with Harbaugh reiterating that McDaniel will continue to call plays.

Meeting with reporters on Thursday, McDaniel was asked about Harbaugh’s initial unwillingness to state that McDaniel will keep doing that specific job.

“It kind of fits my expectation for what occurs,” McDaniel said. “Like, listen, you have a team game. Everyone has their rules, and somebody has to be responsible for the overall output. And when you’re 0-6, quite frankly, all people interested in the Chargers really want the results to be different. So you — it’s very natural. I don’t have any other expectation, you know, just because of the obvious.

“You’re new on the team, and the team’s not doing as well as they’ve done in the past. So that’s part of the part of, you know — you can’t have your cake and eat it, too. 
An incredibly fun job, a ton of responsibility, and in this league, you have to produce results or there’s gonna be heat. So I don’t expect anything else.

“What I spend my time on, instead of thinking about what’s being said, I think my time is best used to focus on the opponent, focus on us, and find ways that we can improve and nothing else. So I really don’t have any — everything’s an opportunity cost. If I’m spending time worried about things that I would assume would occur, that is an absolute waste of time. So, I try to stay out of that way.”

It’s obvious that, with the losses piling up, the pressure remains. For whatever reason, Harbaugh has decided to retain the status quo. Obviously, things need to improve. Starting on Sunday against the Rams.