Chargers fire offensive coordinator Greg Roman: Five candidates to maximize Justin Herbert

The Los Angeles Chargers officially fired offensive coordinator Greg Roman on Tuesday as well as offensive line coach Mike Devlin. 

Roman came to the franchise when Jim Harbaugh was hired as head coach in 2024 after working with him as his San Francisco 49ers OC from 2011-2014. He also served as John Harbaugh's Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator from 2019-2022, establishing prolific rushing attacks in the early Lamar Jackson years before being let go in order for Baltimore to add more nuance to their passing game. Like Roman's firing in Baltimore, his firing in Los Angeles is about maximizing Herbert's abilities. According to CBS Sports Research, Roman's teams have lost six of their last seven playoff games while averaging 12.0 points per game with his quarterbacks combining to throw 5 passing touchdowns to 11 interceptions. Those numbers span the end of his tenure with the 49ers and then his entire Ravens and Chargers tenures. 

The regular season performance for Herbert was mostly the same in terms of his counting stats. Herbert's 17,223 yards passing before Roman from 2020 to 2023 ranked as the third-most in the NFL while his 114 passing touchdowns in that same span were the fourth-most in the league. His 114-42 touchdown to interception ratio before Roman ranked 10th in the NFL from 2020 to 2023 while his expected points per dropback (0.11) ranked as the seventh-best in the league. Under Roman, Herbert's 7,597 passing yards across the last two seasons ranked as the sixth-most in the NFL while also ranking top 10 in yards per pass attempt (7.5, 10th), passing touchdowns (49, 10th) and touchdown to interception ratio (3.1, 8th). 

Under the weight of injuries to both starting offensive tackles, Rashawn Slater (patellar tendon) and Joe Alt (ankle), Los Angeles' offensive line collapsed in 2025, which is likely while Devlin was sent packing with Roman. The Chargers allowed 60 sacks in the 2025 regular season, a franchise-worst and the fifth-most ever by an NFL team that made the playoffs in league history. As a result, Herbert was pressured on an NFL-most 42.8% of his dropbacks in 2025. 

* Top 10 in NFL 

** Bottom 10 in NFL

Herbert is now 0-3 in the playoffs despite him producing the second-most passing yards in a player's first six seasons in NFL history with 24,820. Only Hall of Famer Peyton Manning's passing yards total of 24,885 in his first six seasons is better than Herbert's. The Chargers' two-time Pro Bowl quarterback's 24,820 yards passing also rank as the second-most in a six-season span without a playoff win in NFL history trailing only Matthew Stafford's 27,501 from 2011 to 2016 with the Detroit Lions. Stafford eventually gave up on playing meaningful playoff football in Detroit and requested a trade away from the Lions. He won a Super Bowl in his first season in a new environment.  

So who could help schematically uplift Herbert, the Chargers' offensive line and the passing game as a whole both in the regular season and postseason going forward in order to maximize his career? Here are XX potential candidates. 

Mike LaFleur, Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator 

Even though Mike LaFleur holds the offensive coordinator title with the Chargers' SoFi Stadium neighbor, he doesn't call the offensive plays. That's a role Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay has held since taking the job in 2017. The Chargers could offer Matt LaFleur's younger brother the chance to get out of McVay's shadow and run the show for one of the NFL's top 10 quarterbacks. 

Mike is a longstanding member of the Kyle Shanahan-Sean McVay coaching tree that utilizes creative motion, zone-blocking, under center offensive schemes that confuse defenses and create easy answers for their respective quarterbacks. LaFleur began his NFL coaching career as an offensive intern for Shanahan on the Cleveland Brown before working under him as an offensive assistant (2015-2016) on the Atlanta Falcons' staff when Shanahan was their offensive coordinator. After quarterback Matt Ryan's 2016 NFL MVP season that led Atlanta to heartbreaking Super Bowl defeat to the New England Patriots, LaFleur followed Shanahan to the San Francisco 49ers in 2017 when the latter was named the head coach with the franchise. 

He worked as Shanahan's passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach until making the leap to being the play-calling offensive coordinator himself on Robert Saleh's New York Jets' staff from 2021 to 2022. Having Zach Wilson as his Jets quarterback doomed his tenure. Since 2023, he has been McVay's offensive coordinator with the Rams. Los Angeles is the NFL's No. 1 scoring offense (30.5 points per game) with 2025 All-Pro quarterback Matthew Stafford at the controls, and the Rams are alive to play in the NFC divisional round. 

Now that he has years of experience with both Shanahan and McVay, LaFleur is ready for his second shot at being a play-calling offensive coordinator, and the best part about it is he won't have to relocate his life. 

Klay Kubiak, San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator 

Klay Kubiak, the younger brother of Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, is also now a well-versed member of the Shanahan coaching tree. He joined the 49ers' coaching staff in 2021 as a defensive quality control coach before climbing the ranks as an assistant quarterbacks coach from 2022 to 2023 and a passing game specialist in 2024 before becoming San Francisco's offensive coordinator in 2025.

Like McVay, Shanahan has called the 49ers' offensive plays as their head coach since taking the job in 2017, but Kubiak has been marinating in Shanahan's process and playing a critical role in putting together their game plans as the OC this season. That's been baptism by fire with wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk leaving the team, quarterback Brock Purdy missing eight games and wide receiver Ricky Pearsall missing eight games among other contributors that have been in and out of the lineup throughout the season. Despite all the adversity, the 49ers still had a top 10 scoring offense, ranking 10th while averaging 25.7 points per game, and they're still standing entering the NFC divisional round of the playoffs. 

Hiring Kubiak, like LaFleur, would get Herbert into the NFL's top offensive scheme today while allowing the offensive coordinator to grow alongside their quarterback for a few years. That's a good deal. 

Grant Udinski, Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator

Like the rest of these candidates, Grant Udinski is a member of the Shanahan/McVay coaching tree. He worked under Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell, who himself was one of McVay's Rams offensive coordinators, in three roles in three seasons: assistant to the head coach/special projects (2022), assistant quarterbacks coach (2023) and assistant offensive coordinator/assistant quarterbacks coach. 

In 2025, Udinski became an offensive coordinator himself under another former Rams offensive coordinator in Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen. Jacksonville won the AFC South for the first time since 2022 with quarterback Trevor Lawrence playing the best football of his career in 2025. The Jaguars finished the regular season on an eight-game winning streak to average 27.9 points per game, making them the league's sixth-best scoring offense. 

Hiring Udinski makes plenty of sense considering he's been a part of helping both the Vikings and Jaguars win 13-plus games with top 10 offenses while learning the league's top scheme. 

Klayton Adams, Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator 

Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Klayton Adams helped coordinate one of the NFL's most balanced offenses in 2025. Dallas ranked as the league's No. 7 scoring defense (27.7 points per game) and No. 2 total offense (391.9 total yards per game) while being the NFL's No. 2 passing offense (266.3 passing yards per game) and No. 9 rushing offense (125.6 rushing yards per game).

Quarterback Dak Prescott ranked third in the NFL in passing yards (4,552), wide receiver George Pickens ranked third in the league in receiving yards (1,429), running back Javonte Williams ranked ninth in the league in rushing yards (1,201) and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb ranked 11th in the league in receiving yards (1,077) despite sitting out three games with an ankle injury. 

The Chargers offensive coordinator job would be a promotion for Adams since he wasn't calling the plays in Dallas. That is a responsibility held by head coach Brian Schottenheimer, but Schottenheimer routinely credited Adams, a former offensive line coach, with the nuance his run-blocking schemes had. Schottenheimer entrusted Adams to fully put together the rushing component of their weekly gameplans. After working with Schottenheimer and Prescott, Adams has the experience to handle coaching and developing a high octane passing attack. No, he won't be able to take Pickens and Lamb with him, but he's one of the NFL's up-and-coming offensive minds.

Declan Doyle, Chicago Bears offensive coordinator 

Declan Doyle is part of another prolific NFL offensive coaching tree, working for both Sean Payton with the New Orleans Saints and Denver Broncos, as well as Ben Johnson in 2025 as his Chicago Bears offensive coordinator.

Doyle worked under Payton with the Saints as an offensive assistant from 2019 to 2021. He spent one more year in that role with New Orleans after Payton's departure, but he then joined him as the Denver Broncos tight ends coach from 2023 to 2024. Johnson hired him to be his Bears offensive coordinator this season, and he helped Chicago win the NFC North for the first time since 2018 thanks to having the league's ninth-ranked scoring offense (25.9 points per game.

Quarterback Caleb Williams made a noticeable leap this season, breaking the Bears' single-season passing yards record with 3,942 this season. The Bears also won a playoff game for the first time since 2010 thanks to completing a franchise-record 18-point comeback against the hated Green Bay Packers in a 31-27 victory. 

Doyle is the most green candidate on this list, but that could provide the Chargers a number of seasons with him before he would potentially become a desired head-coaching candidate.