Danny Parkins Obliterated The Hypocritical Arguments People Have Around The Chargers

Not to start beating the drum to early for Herbert, but this is always what the arguments come down to. Rules for thee, but not for me. When Herbert comes into the playoffs with the offensive line in the league, an inoperative run game and an OC that will never OC again, it's tough shit for him. But when their team loses a big player, has a bad WR room, shitty OL play etc, how are they supposed to win? And Nick Wright is patient zero of this effect. Every factor that he would say limits the Chief's ceiling is just an excuse for anyone else. 

But this is just how it goes. In the preseason, all the media goes off saying the Chargers are a dark horse super bowl contender while simultaneously saying Herbert sucks when neither of these things are true. One take Ive seen trending lately is that Herbert is a legit MVP candidate this year. Let me be clear by saying there is a 0% chance of that happening. McDaniel is 100x the offensive coordinator that Greg Roman is, but this is NOT the situation he was working with in prime 2023 Miami. 

As much as it's fun to joke about how he was handicapped by Tua, he also had the #1 player in the NFL that year in Tyreek Hill, an awesome WR2 in Waddle, Mostert and Achane on the ground and the easiest schedule in the NFL. This year, who is the best player on that offense outside of Herbert? Joe Alt? After that, Slater is still working his way back from injury, they have one of the worst Guard combos in the NFL, a rookie center, and, to be clear, a WR room that doesn't hold that Miami depth charts water. Here is a general question, how many rosters would Quentin Johnston(or Ladd McConkey) currently be the WR1 on? The Raiders, Browns, Titans, Dolphins and maybe that's it? On top of that, the Chargers play the hardest schedule in the NFL this year. 

I think McDaniel + Herbert is enough to weather the storm and make this a 10 or 11 win team despite these conditions. But I do NOT see this being an MVP numbers type season at all with how the roster is currently constructed. This is more of an "eek it out and be happy with it" type of year.