The NFL’s revamped accelerator program is smaller (34 people total) and features high-profile coaches and executives – including former Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel.
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Los Angeles Chargers Head coach Mike McDaniel
The Los Angeles Chargers have made a lot of changes during the offseason.
An argument can be made that the biggest of all wasn’t at a roster position, but within the coaching staff. Los Angeles hired Mike McDaniel, who has spent the last four seasons as the Miami Dolphins head coach, as its offensive coordinator.
McDaniel is considered to be one of the brightest offensive minded coaches in the NFL. He has helped shape many of the best offenses of the past several years. The Chargers are hoping he will do the same for them after fielding middling units as of late.
GettyChargers OC Mike McDaniel
Hopefully McDaniel gets Los Angeles’ offense up and running quickly, because it’s possible he isn’t around for long. Still just 43 years old, McDaniel likely wants to return to being a head coach as soon as possible. One step toward accomplishing that is attending the NFL’s accelerator program, which helps assistant coaches and general managers prepare for main roles.
“The May accelerator is intended to focus on advancing talent from underrepresented groups while remaining open to qualified senior-level candidates of all backgrounds,” the NFL wrote in a March memo addressed to all 32 teams (H/T ESPN).
The NFL’s revamped accelerator program is smaller (34 people total) and features high-profile coaches and executives – including former Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel.
The program has been revised this year, as previously it was strictly for minority candidates, as Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer pointed out.
“It started in 2022 as a way of bridging the gap for minority coaching and GM candidates who had long heard that a hiring team was simply ‘more comfortable’ with another guy,” Breer wrote. “The idea was to educate, sure, but mostly just get bright young football minds face time with the owners so they’d have an opportunity to get those owners an idea of who they were, for better or worse.”
GettyChargers passing game specialist Adam Gase
Bringing in McDaniel was just the beginning. Here are the other new additions to the offensive coaching staff that were made during the offseason:
Max McCaffrey is the brother of San Francisco 49ers star running back Christian McCaffrey. Max played for several NFL teams from 2016-2018, mostly on practice squads. He began his professional coaching career under McDaniel with the Dolphins, serving as an offensive assistant and running backs coach.
Butch Barry is also coming from Miami, as he coached the offensive line from 2023-2025 under McDaniel. Barry has coached in the NFL for a decade with five different teams. Another name that stands out is Adam Gase, who was the head coach of the Dolphins from 2016-2018, and New York Jets from 2019-2020.
Gase has also served as offensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos and Chicago Bears. He has worked with big-name quarterbacks such as Peyton Manning, Jay Cutler, and new Super Bowl champion Sam Darnold. It will be crucial for Gase and McDaniel to gel and be on the same page schematically for Herbert to take the next step in his development.
Nick Roesch Nick Roesch covers the NFL for Heavy Sports, with a focus on the Kansas City Chiefs, Green Bay Packers, and Los Angeles Chargers. He previously covered the Chiefs for USA TODAY Sports' Chiefs Wire, and all 32 NFL teams for A to Z Sports. Roesch's career in sports media spans 10 years. More about Nick Roesch
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