EL SEGUNDO — Brandon Staley was considered by almost everyone around the NFL to be a defensive wunderkind when the Chargers hired him to be their head coach in January 2021. After all, he had turned the Rams into a formidable unit that would go on to win the Super Bowl by season’s end.
Things went haywire with the Chargers, though, and Staley and General Manager Tom Telesco lost their jobs before the end of the 2023 season, largely because Staley could not recreate the same sort of defensive pressure and efficiency he had designed with the Rams as their defensive coordinator.
Staley called the defensive plays for the Chargers and so the results of the lost season of 2023 fell upon his shoulders, and those of Telesco. The general consensus, inside and outside the locker room, was that Staley’s defensive calls were too complicated, too intricate to be effective from play to play.
So, fast forward to Week 6 of the 2024 season. Jim Harbaugh is the head coach of the Chargers and Jesse Minter is their defensive coordinator. No team has been as stingy as the Chargers, who have given up an NFL-low 12.5 points per game going into Sunday’s game against the Denver Broncos.
The Kansas City Chiefs, winners of the past two Super Bowls and three of the last five and owners of one of the league’s most dynamic offenses, managed only 17 points in a 17-10 victory over the Chargers in Week 4. Only the Pittsburgh Steelers, in a 20-10 win in Week 3, have scored more against the Chargers.
“I think a lot of it has to do with the guys we have in the room and the combination of the coaches,” Chargers defensive lineman Morgan Fox said. “I think the coaches came in and really put together an attitude, put together who we are and who we want to be. So, I think guys have really bought into that, and really important for us and the coaching staff is not only what we do but how we do it. Everyone has bought into the idea of when we do it, we do it the right way.”
To be sure, the Chargers upgraded their defense by signing free agents such as defensive lineman Poona Ford, linebacker Denzel Perryman and cornerback Kristian Fulton during the offseason. Plus, Minter has kept things simple and easy to grasp, especially on the fly and in the heat of the moment.
The Chargers are especially deep at outside linebacker with eight-time Pro Bowl selection Khalil Mack leading their pass rush and capably backed up by Joey Bosa, when healthy, Bud Dupree, a 10-year veteran, and Tuli Tuipulotu, an emerging standout in his second year out of USC.
Minter’s influence cannot be overlooked. He arrived with Harbaugh from the University of Michigan, where he was the Wolverines’ defensive coordinator for two seasons. He spent one season at Vanderbilt and four with the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens, serving in various roles on the defensive side.
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It’s safe to say that Minter is pleased but hardly satisfied after his first four games as a defensive play-caller in the NFL, after victories over the Las Vegas Raiders and Carolina Panthers and losses to the Steelers and Chiefs. After all, the Chargers are 2-2 going into Sunday’s game against the Broncos at Denver.
“It’s such a week-to-week league,” Minter said of the play of the Chargers’ defense to date. “We’ve done some good things. I appreciate the guys’ work. I appreciate their buy-in, how we want to play. That, to me, is what I’m most pleased with, just the buy-in to how you play defense. Some of it is scheme related, but a lot of it isn’t, just the physicality, the want-to, the way they prepare.
“So, I’m happy with that, but there are things we’re still chasing. I said this after the Pittsburgh game, but playing winning defense, we’ve done that in a lot of spurts. We need to do it for four quarters. We need to do it consistently. We need to do it at the biggest moments, when the score is 10-10 and we need a big stop.”