The Chargers announced the new hires to head coach Jim Harbaugh’s 2026 coaching staff.
Butch Berry joins the team as offensive line coach, bringing more than 20 years of experience coaching the position. He held the same title with the Dolphins under current Chargers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel for the past three seasons.
Barry coached the offensive line for the Denver Broncos in 2022. He had previously worked as the assistant offensive line coach for the 49ers in 2021 and as a senior analyst for the Packers in 2020. Barry spent the 2019 season as the offensive line coach at the University of Miami, joining the Hurricanes after a four-year tenure as the assistant offensive line coach for the Buccaneers (2015-18).
Julian Campenni enters the NFL coaching ranks with the Chargers as assistant defensive line coach. He spent the past two seasons at Rutgers University, coaching outside linebackers in 2025 and defensive ends in 2024.
Campenni also coached at Bowling Green (2019-23), working up from defensive line coach to add assistant head coach and defensive run game coordinator responsibilities.
Rob Everett follows McDaniel from Miami to Los Angeles, taking a job as an offensive assistant. Everett previously worked as a senior offensive analyst at the University of Wisconsin (2023) and as an offensive analyst at the University of North Carolina (2022). He spent the spring of 2019 with the Alliance of American Football’s Memphis Express, coaching tight ends and as assistant to the defensive coordinator.
Adam Gase, a former head coach of the Dolphins (2016-18) and Jets (2019-20), returns to the NFL as passing game specialist for the Chargers. He brings 18 years of NFL experience, including a season as offensive coordinator for Chicago (2015) and two years as the offensive coordinator for Denver (2013-14).
Chandler Henley, who spent four seasons coaching under McDaniel in Miami, will coach the tight ends for the Chargers. With the Dolphins, Henley worked as assistant quarterbacks coach (2022-23), a senior offensive assistant (2024) and run game specialist (2025).
Henley was the assistant offensive line coach in Atlanta during the 2021 season, and he broke into the NFL as a quality control coach with the Titans in 2018.
Denzel Martin, a 10-year coaching veteran with the Steelers, will serve as the assistant outside linebackers coach in Los Angeles. He worked his way up the ranks in Pittsburgh from a scouting assistant (2016-17), defensive coaching assistant (2018-19), assistant outside linebackers coach (2020-22) to outside linebackers coach (2023-25).
Max McCaffrey will coach the running backs for the Chargers after spending the past three seasons as an offensive assistant with the Dolphins under McDaniel.
He is the eldest son of former NFL wide receiver Ed McCaffrey and is the brother of 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey, former University of Michigan quarterback Dylan McCaffrey and Commanders wide receiver Luke McCaffrey.
After coaching with Chargers defensive coordinator Chris O’Leary at Western Michigan in 2025, Sean Spence joins O’Leary’s staff as linebackers coach. O’Leary coached the past three seasons for the Broncos in Kalamazoo, Mich., working his way up from special teams analyst in 2023 to linebackers coach in 2024 before coaching the edge rushers in 2025.
Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh is shaking up his offense this offseason, but two important assistant coaches are staying in place.
The Chargers plan to keep wide receivers coach Sanjay Lal and quarterbacks coach Shane Day, according to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.
Harbaugh fired offensive coordinator Greg Roman after the season, dismissing a longtime trusted assistant who had also been Harbaugh’s offensive coordinator with the 49ers and his associate head coach at Stanford. Harbaugh replaced Roman with Mike McDaniel, a significant change in the offensive approach as Harbaugh heads into Year Three with the Chargers.
But Lal and Day will stay in place, representing some stability on an offensive staff that Harbaugh wants to see take the Justin Herbert-led unit to the next level in 2026.
The Seahawks, if the NFL concocts its schedule in the usual way, will open the 2026 season with a home game on Thursday, September 10. And with both the 49ers and Rams reportedly set to play Week 1 in Melbourne, two viable options to get the short straw in Seattle will be out of the mix.
But there are still plenty of good matchups, given a 2026 home schedule for the Seahawks that is chock full of competitive teams.
Beyond the NFC West rivals, the Seahawks will host the Chiefs, Chargers, Bears, Cowboys, Giants, and Patriots. Every one of those games has appeal.
The Chargers and Giants would introduce the wrinkle of Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald squaring off against one of his former bosses, Jim and John Harbaugh. The Chiefs have the Patrick Mahomes (and maybe Travis Kelce/Taylor Swift) angle. The Cowboys are always a major draw. The Bears will be one of the “hot” teams for 2026.
And while a Super Bowl rematch may not have much sizzle given what happened on Sunday, it would still be a Super Bowl rematch.
Even a game against the Cardinals could be compelling, since they have a new coach and presumably will have a new quarterback. (Seattle and Arizona played an overtime game in Week 4 of the 2025 season.)
It nevertheless remains possible that Whoever vs. Seahawks won’t be the first game of the season. 49ers-Rams may need to be played before the opening Thursday in order to reduce the significant travel/jet-lag burden.
Still, if the existing approach holds, it’ll be Seattle against someone as they hang their latest banner on the first Thursday night of the season. One of the many decisions the NFL will need to make about the 2026 schedule will entail selecting the opponent for what should be a fairly significant game.
Another week, another high-level NFL executive has left the building.
NFL V.P. of football development Roman Oben has been named the SEC’s associate commissioner for football.
“Roman Oben brings a rare combination of elite football experience and high-level sports-business leadership, with more than 15 years serving in senior executive and board roles across professional football, collegiate athletics, and global sport development,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said in a release. “Roman is well-positioned to grow SEC football through campus engagement and innovative operational strategies, and he will play a central role in advancing the SEC’s national influence and long-term success in college football.”
“Joining the SEC is an incredible honor,” Oben said. “The tradition, competition and passion of SEC football are unmatched, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve its coaches, administrators, and student-athletes. I look forward to working with Commissioner Sankey, Charlie Hussey and the outstanding leadership within this conference to strengthen alignment, support institutional priorities, and advance the game with integrity, clarity. and purpose.”
Oben, who played college football at Louisville, spent 12 years as a player in the NFL, from 1996 through 2007. He played for the Giants, Browns, Buccaneers, and Chargers, appearing in 143 regular-season games and starting 130.
Last week, NFL chief administrative football officer Dawn Aponte left the league office to become senior V.P. of football operations with the Giants.
The Chargers are hiring Rutgers outside linebackers coach Julian Campenni as assistant defensive line coach, Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports.
Campenni worked at Rutgers for the past two seasons.
He is a former all-conference defensive lineman and team captain at UConn, where he made 38 career starts.
Campenni was on Scot Loeffler’s staff at Bowling Green for five seasons, coaching the defensive line for three seasons before assuming the title of defensive run game coordinator. He was also assistant head coach in 2023.
Bowling Green had 71 combined sacks in 2022-23, the most ever in a two-year period in program history.
Campenni spent part of the summer in 2022 with the Packers as part of the NFL’s Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship.
