Omarion Hampton Reveals Mike McDaniel’s Blunt Advice for Running Through Tacklers
The Los Angeles Chargers are building a new-look offense around new offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel this season. When Greg Roman was fired and McDaniel was hired to call plays, a lot of the early attention understandably went to quarterback Justin Herbert.
That focus makes sense. Herbert has spent much of his career working behind shaky offensive lines and uneven play-calling. McDaniel got more out of Tua Tagovailoa in Miami than most coordinators would have managed with a similar roster, and Tagovailoa isn’t in Herbert’s class as a passer. With both starting tackles back in the fold and McDaniel now running the offense, there’s real reason to think Herbert’s ceiling goes up this year.
But McDaniel didn’t build his reputation on the passing game. Miami’s ground attack was one of the most consistently well-schemed running games in the league during his tenure, even in years when the offensive line struggled to hold up. McDaniel’s offenses were always difficult to stop on the ground, regardless of who was blocking up front.
Hampton Gets the Same Blunt Advice
That identity looks set to carry over to Los Angeles. Omarion Hampton now runs behind a Chargers offensive line that should be healthier and more stable than it was a year ago. On Wednesday at training camp, Hampton shared the piece of advice McDaniel gave him — simple, direct, and built around one idea: speed is the best form of contact avoidance.
Alex Insdorf of BoltBeat posted on X: “Basically just if I run full speed, it’s going to be hard for them to tackle me” —
Chargers RB Omarion Hampton on what Mike McDaniel has told him: “Basically just if I run full speed, it’s going to be hard for them to tackle me.”
— Alex Insdorf (@alexinsdorf99) August 5, 2026
“Basically just if I run full speed, it’s going to be hard for them to tackle me,” Hampton said of his new offensive coordinator’s advice.
It’s not a complicated coaching point, but it fits Hampton’s build. At 6-foot, 220 pounds, he’s not an easy back to bring down in the open field even at partial speed. McDaniel’s advice is essentially permission to stop worrying about arm tacklers and just run through them.
That approach lines up with what McDaniel has said publicly about Hampton’s camp so far. Speaking to reporters, McDaniel praised Hampton’s growth through the first week of practices, saying the second-year back has shown as much development as anyone on the roster. Tuesday’s session was the first with pads, and McDaniel said afterward he specifically wanted to see how Hampton handled contact and whether he kept moving forward through it rather than absorbing hits and stalling out.
A Rookie Year Cut Short, a Second Season With More Runway
Hampton was productive as a rookie before an ankle injury cut into the second half of his season. The North Carolina product now enters year two in a scheme built to feature the run, working with a running backs room that new position coach Max McCaffrey has spoken highly of throughout the offseason.
If McDaniel leans into the ground game the way he did in Miami, and Hampton takes the “run full speed and make them deal with it” mentality into the regular season, the Chargers’ offense could be difficult to game-plan against on early downs. Herbert benefiting from more manageable second-and-short and third-and-short situations would be a direct byproduct of that identity, not a separate storyline.
Training camp is still in its early, mostly pads-optional stages, so how this translates once preseason games and then the regular season begin remains to be seen. But the early signs — from McDaniel’s public comments to Hampton’s own description of the coaching point that’s stuck with him — point toward a run-heavy identity built specifically around what Hampton does well.
