POLL: Is It Time To Fire Bradley?

[Critty]

He has been a rotational depth player for his first couple years.
He had 7 QB pressures vs the Panthers.

Nwosu has 2nd most QB hits after Bosa so far this season. He has good bend and good anticipation of when QB thows and can get hands in passing lane. I think he can be a great player. Tillery too, he has flashed in these first 3 games. I would not blitz much all year. Let the front 4 do work and develop.

[Xenos]

Popper talks about Bradley's defense and the lack of turnovers:
@danielrpopper any chance you’ll write about LAC scheme and lack of turn overs? Did Seattle and/ or Jax have turnover issues with Bradley?

Gus Bradley was hired as the Seahawks’ defensive coordinator in 2009. He has been either a defensive coordinator or head coach in every season since. Here is how his defenses have finished in takeaways in each of those seasons:

Gus Bradley's defenses

2019	Chargers	14	32nd
2018	Chargers	20	T-16th
2017	Chargers	27	6th
2016	Jaguars	13	T-30th
2015	Jaguars	18	26th
2014	Jaguars	20	24th
2013	Jaguars	21	T-24th
2012	Seahawks	31	T-5th
2011	Seahawks	31	T-5th
2010	Seahawks	22	T-25th
2009	Seahawks	23	T-23rd

This season, the Chargers have forced two turnovers in three games, which is tied for the third-fewest in the league.

As you can see, speaking generally, Bradley’s defenses have never been consistently adept at getting the football. His two best seasons in that area came in 2011 and 2012, when the Seahawks’ famed Legion of Boom was taking shape. Cornerback Richard Sherman’s rookie season was 2011. Safeties Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor joined the team in 2010. Also worth mentioning that 2012 was linebacker Bobby Wagner’s first season.

Those are four Hall of Fame-level players, and great defensive players force turnovers. But when you take away those two seasons, when Bradley didn’t have the same kind of talent on the back end, the picture becomes clearer.

Bradley said this week that he makes every defensive call with the idea of taking the football away. But that isn’t the priority in his Cover 3-heavy scheme. His main goal is to limit explosive plays. That is why his defenses regularly finish at the bottom of the league in blitz percentage. The philosophy is to simplify the defense so young players can grasp the system and play fast.

He is the antitheses of Bowles, who tries to overwhelm opposing offenses with different looks and lots of blitzes. Bradley believes that perfecting a small number of concepts will lead to better results than being decent at a large number of concepts. The downside of that approach is his defenses are not particularly aggressive and, as such, don’t consistently force takeaways unless they have extremely talented personnel. This season, the Chargers are missing two of their most talented defensive players, Derwin James and Drue Tranquill, and those missing pieces will obviously make forcing turnovers more difficult.

The philosophy can be successful, though. The Chargers finished in the top 10 in defensive DVOA in 2018 without being a prolific takeaway unit.

At the same time, it’s hard to be successful as a defense when you’re hovering near the bottom of the league in takeaways. Ultimately, the players need to step up and make plays on the ball. From a scheme perspective, the Chargers can try to be more aggressive in terms of blitzing. Right now, their 11.9 percent blitz rate is last in the league. If the turnover problems persist, we could see that rate increase as the season progresses.

[Boltjolt]

So for Lynn
It's hard to win the turnover battle when you don't get any.
You can also take that as,...... We need better players. Missing Derwin is huge for one. Young upcomers at LB and DL will help as they get better (Tillery,Murray,Tranquil)I'll also add Adderly.

[beachcomber]

gonna volunteer a guess that points allowed is more important than takeaways on D ??

[Steve]

Ultimately, points allowed is the metric that counts. If you score more than the other team you win.

Turnover differential is a good metric, but mostly because if you take the ball away, the other team has fewer chances to score. if your D isn't allowing a score to begin with, then the turnover diff is a secondary thing.

The one exception is that if the timing is good, you win the turnover diff, then you can potentially turn that into more points. You have more possessions on offense, and sometimes have better field position. But it is hard to generalize it.

[Topcat]

this is a great question Charge.
most frustrating part is watching our secondary get carved up with the dinks and at the most inopportune time, a deep ball
I think it's likely a soup of all those reasons

This is my biggest frustration...our D usually plays well for 3+ quarters, only to lose it the last few minutes with that lame prevent D...

[Lyth]

Bradley has always been like this. His defenses don't (usually) allow big plays and lots of points. He's fine with an offense that can put up 20+ each week.

[AK47]

This is my biggest frustration...our D usually plays well for 3+ quarters, only to lose it the last few minutes with that lame prevent D...

I hear you. Instead of:

Q1- prevent
Q2- prevent
Q3- prevent
Q4- attack

its more like

Q1- prevent
Q2- prevent
Q3- prevent
Q4- asthma attack

[Xenos]

I feel like we’re really missing Ingram in this game.

[jubei]

D is flat out terrible!

[gzubeck]

Is it time to fire Bradley, Yes...Brady owns Bradley and Bradley will never win with his scheming against playoff teams. We didn't even play 3 quarters of defense today before the opposing team figured out how to school bradley's scheming. Same thing happened in playoff game in New England. No pass rush with 4 rushing in fourth quarter and then Brady playing pitch and toss the whole second half. Whatever he's doing it's not working and he can't train up younger players. If he doesn't have a team with over whelming talent his defenses suck period! I said a few days ago when I said our offense gets a pass and they get a pass again even with the late pick off. Making a rook pass against a decent buccaneers defense is difficult to say the least.

:mybrainhurts:

[wu-dai clan]

Charger injuries.
World Class DC's TB12 has done this to.
Don't let that stop you from typing.
SMH.