Brandon Staley, Former Rams DC - New Chargers Head Coach

[gzubeck]

A lot of people thought this team's defense was a top 5 D in the league. They were sadly mistaken, it turns out to not be the case. Those who thought it was (with the roster going into 2020) were having too much of the Kool-Aid. Copping out to the injury excuses and blaming everything on Gus when things aren't going well. There were people who said this team had the talent to do well with James or Bosa out. But it's been proven how bad this team is without one of these two.

Gruden chose Gus to be the Raiders DC for a reason. It's not a coincidence being that they were in the same division and he took notes on what Bradley did well in order to improve against Mahomes and Reid. The talent issues on the roster did more to kill the defense than the scheme and play-calling. The team was so-so in coverage in the secondary and did not have enough pass rush up front. At the end of the day it's all about having the talent to succeed, and unfortunately the talent that the roster of this team's D boasted was overrated.

This is where Staley comes in. Staley needs to fix the weak areas that Bradley and Lynn had in place.

Gus is a horrible coach now. He totally has mailed it in since his head coaching gig. He'd be better served by going to the college ranks and getting a bigger paycheck. We did lose two starters at the beginning of the season but still we had two new 1st rounders. People will be astounded by the huge jump in performance from last year. 23rd with this player roster is really getting -10% performance from your roster.

[like54ninjas]

Gus is a horrible coach now. He totally has mailed it in since his head coaching gig. He'd be better served by going to the college ranks and getting a bigger paycheck. We did lose two starters at the beginning of the season but still we had two new 1st rounders. People will be astounded by the huge jump in performance from last year. 23rd with this player roster is really getting -10% performance from your roster.

GusD’s inability to adept, change, adjust, and tweak his base scheme is his major downfall.

[ghost]

GusD’s inability to adept, change, adjust, and tweak his base scheme is his major downfall.

Bradley’s defense, which is run by former Seattle assistant Todd Wash, is a variation of the 3-4. It uses what is called a leo (weakside defensive end) and a big end (strongside defense end). The leo’s job is to get pressure on the quarterback on first and second down, and the big end’s job is to set the edge against the run. On third down, there are multiple leos on the field.

The defense also relies on cornerbacks playing press man coverage, the strong safety playing closer to the line of scrimmage to help with run support and the free safety in the middle of the field responsible for eliminating explosive plays. The Jaguars mix things up a bit, but for the most part, they keep things simple, especially in the secondary, where the defensive backs are drilled to stay on top to avoid giving up big plays.

Jalen Ramsey said he could have made more of an impact if given the flexibility to play different techniques, blitz more and play multiple positions, the way he did in college at Florida State. That's what got him drafted fifth overall.

Ramsey said he spoke with the coaches about doing some of those things but was denied.

"Every week, we ran the same defense," said Ramsey, who finished his rookie season with 55 tackles, 14 pass breakups and two interceptions. "We never changed defenses. We never changed plays. What we were running on first down at the beginning of the season we were running on first down at the end of the season. What we were running on second down, third down, same. Nothing ever changed."

https://www.boltsfromtheblue.com/201...aguars-defense

Jalen Ramsey told us on January 2nd, 2017. I didn't learn.

In Gus's defence: He said the Chargers don't have the talent at CB to play press.

[Topcat]

https://www.boltsfromtheblue.com/201...aguars-defense

Jalen Ramsey told us on January 2nd, 2017. I didn't learn.

In Gus's defence: He said the Chargers don't have the talent at CB to play press.

Horrible waste of Ramsey's talent the way Gus played him...

[BoltUp InLA]

A lot of people thought this team's defense was a top 5 D in the league. They were sadly mistaken, it turns out to not be the case. Those who thought it was (with the roster going into 2020) were having too much of the Kool-Aid. Copping out to the injury excuses and blaming everything on Gus when things aren't going well. There were people who said this team had the talent to do well with James or Bosa out. But it's been proven how bad this team is without one of these two.

Gruden chose Gus to be the Raiders DC for a reason. It's not a coincidence being that they were in the same division and he took notes on what Bradley did well in order to improve against Mahomes and Reid. The talent issues on the roster did more to kill the defense than the scheme and play-calling. The team was so-so in coverage in the secondary and did not have enough pass rush up front. At the end of the day it's all about having the talent to succeed, and unfortunately the talent that the roster of this team's D boasted was overrated.

This is where Staley comes in. Staley needs to fix the weak areas that Bradley and Lynn had in place.

Very well said! It did not take long to put together that the defense was a bit top heavy, which explains the larger than expected drop off when key injuries occurred throughout the season. In fact, an argument can be made that the entire roster lacks depth overall, especially in key areas.

Important FA signings last season did not pan out for the most part on an already thin roster in my opinion. Hopefully, this gets better addressed by TT this off-season.

[BoltUp InLA]

TB, KC, and NO for the most part had strong defensive lines, but somehow the Chargers with one of the worse OL units I have seen in years was able to still move the ball and score on these defenses. Agreed that Lynn was one of the worse clock managers I can remember, and I also agree with some of the puzzling play calling by Steichen as well, but with all that said, the Chargers competed by and large very well against those teams. If the Chargers coaching staff was 100% bad, I do not believe any of those would have been close.

A very fair assessment in my view is that the Chargers absolutely made the right move to let that coaching staff go, but I have a tough time not acknowledging to some degree some positive aspects also. How much was positive? Measuring that part is hard to quantify, but almost certainly was there regardless. George Stewart was far removed from his days as ST coach I believe, so that move is even more puzzling to me now as I look back.

There were some competitive games last season against what appears to me were some talented teams that could have better exploited personnel issues the Chargers certainly had, but those teams were not able to until very late in those games. I’m more talking outside of my head than anything else..

I have high hopes for this new coaching regime, but I am starting to lose some faith in TT. He has certainly done some nice things, but if you were to take away Bosa, Herbert, and Allen, I struggle to find a well enough constructed roster overall.

[gzubeck]

TB, KC, and NO for the most part had strong defensive lines, but somehow the Chargers with one of the worse OL units I have seen in years was able to still move the ball and score on these defenses. Agreed that Lynn was one of the worse clock managers I can remember, and I also agree with some of the puzzling play calling by Steichen as well, but with all that said, the Chargers competed by and large very well against those teams. If the Chargers coaching staff was 100% bad, I do not believe any of those would have been close.

A very fair assessment in my view is that the Chargers absolutely made the right move to let that coaching staff go, but I have a tough time not acknowledging to some degree some positive aspects also. How much was positive? Measuring that part is hard to quantify, but almost certainly was there regardless. George Stewart was far removed from his days as ST coach I believe, so that move is even more puzzling to me now as I look back.

There were some competitive games last season against what appears to me were some talented teams that could have better exploited personnel issues the Chargers certainly had, but those teams were not able to until very late in those games. I’m more talking outside of my head than anything else..

I have high hopes for this new coaching regime, but I am starting to lose some faith in TT. He has certainly done some nice things, but if you were to take away Bosa, Herbert, and Allen, I struggle to find a well enough constructed roster overall.

Drafting he gets a B and for Dumpster diving for unwanted playmakers he gets an A+ (Eckler, Guyton, and others)

[RTPbolt]

Personally I think its very difficult to pin this on TT. There is so much going on we never even see that it takes to running a club and creating an environment to succeed that has nothing to do with hiring and drafting. The drafting process has dozens of people involved too and goes on year round....it aint that simple. I actually feel overall the talent has been pretty good. Players have sometimes not progressed and thats on them or the coaching or due to injury...its hard to put that on TT imo. I feel hes set things up pretty good but its up to coaches and players to figure out the next steps which are mostly out of TTs control level. He has given coaches and players the time to succeed and if it did not work he IS willing to make the difficult call to pull the plug. I still think TT is a good GM...no issues with him at this time.

Gus had some pretty decent years outside LA and his system has had success while here but we werent able to adjust to injuries and adjustment seemed to not get us the needed outcome especially 4th quarter bending that really did break......from my poor football observations. Its really tough to judge when we only see so much of what preparation, practice, game planning and in game looks like to know where the deficiencies were coming from. That said I think we have a pretty good roster depending on the system and im ready for something new. Watching videos of Staley gives some insight into his player focused approach and in game work where modifying strategies and techniques based on player input helped the Rams D and others hes been on improve. Im sure some of this went on but I think Staley was able to be more flexible in using his players and their input to achieve last year. Sounds exciting for our D if he can mesh ours into optimizing the talent we have and not give so much away in presnap looks.

This offseason should be fun to witness. If Staley can produce half the positive change he did last year to our defense we should pick up a few more games we just folded on defensively last year.

[sonorajim]

Personally I think its very difficult to pin this on TT. There is so much going on we never even see that it takes to running a club and creating an environment to succeed that has nothing to do with hiring and drafting. The drafting process has dozens of people involved too and goes on year round....it aint that simple. I actually feel overall the talent has been pretty good. Players have sometimes not progressed and thats on them or the coaching or due to injury...its hard to put that on TT imo. I feel hes set things up pretty good but its up to coaches and players to figure out the next steps which are mostly out of TTs control level. He has given coaches and players the time to succeed and if it did not work he IS willing to make the difficult call to pull the plug. I still think TT is a good GM...no issues with him at this time.

Gus had some pretty decent years outside LA and his system has had success while here but we werent able to adjust to injuries and adjustment seemed to not get us the needed outcome especially 4th quarter bending that really did break......from my poor football observations. Its really tough to judge when we only see so much of what preparation, practice, game planning and in game looks like to know where the deficiencies were coming from. That said I think we have a pretty good roster depending on the system and im ready for something new. Watching videos of Staley gives some insight into his player focused approach and in game work where modifying strategies and techniques based on player input helped the Rams D and others hes been on improve. Im sure some of this went on but I think Staley was able to be more flexible in using his players and their input to achieve last year. Sounds exciting for our D if he can mesh ours into optimizing the talent we have and not give so much away in presnap looks.

This offseason should be fun to witness. If Staley can produce half the positive change he did last year to our defense we should pick up a few more games we just folded on defensively last year.

Agreed.
2020 wasn't all any unit or coach but special teams were our worst unit.
I hope to see HC Staley find greater balance with one unit supporting the rest when they're up. All having highlight moments.

[BoltUp InLA]

Personally I think its very difficult to pin this on TT. There is so much going on we never even see that it takes to running a club and creating an environment to succeed that has nothing to do with hiring and drafting. The drafting process has dozens of people involved too and goes on year round....it aint that simple. I actually feel overall the talent has been pretty good. Players have sometimes not progressed and thats on them or the coaching or due to injury...its hard to put that on TT imo. I feel hes set things up pretty good but its up to coaches and players to figure out the next steps which are mostly out of TTs control level. He has given coaches and players the time to succeed and if it did not work he IS willing to make the difficult call to pull the plug. I still think TT is a good GM...no issues with him at this time.

Gus had some pretty decent years outside LA and his system has had success while here but we werent able to adjust to injuries and adjustment seemed to not get us the needed outcome especially 4th quarter bending that really did break......from my poor football observations. Its really tough to judge when we only see so much of what preparation, practice, game planning and in game looks like to know where the deficiencies were coming from. That said I think we have a pretty good roster depending on the system and im ready for something new. Watching videos of Staley gives some insight into his player focused approach and in game work where modifying strategies and techniques based on player input helped the Rams D and others hes been on improve. Im sure some of this went on but I think Staley was able to be more flexible in using his players and their input to achieve last year. Sounds exciting for our D if he can mesh ours into optimizing the talent we have and not give so much away in presnap looks.

This offseason should be fun to witness. If Staley can produce half the positive change he did last year to our defense we should pick up a few more games we just folded on defensively last year.

TT hired the two previous coaches right? I am of the opinion that he should not be given a pass more often than not when overall the Chargers have not been as successful as anyone of us would like. Again, unless I am missing something, which I will certainly apologize for.. looking back, TT made some questionable hires that should put more into question his abilities as a GM as well.

With all that said, TT has made some really nice moves also with the drafting of Bosa and Herbert, which for the most part were not popular at the time. Also, Heyward was one of the better FA signs of the past decade in my opinion considering how cheap at the time and the overall value he has brought to the Chargers! TT should at least feel his seat a warming.. although I am hopeful that he has finally hired the right coach and he will put together an all important OL unit to be consistently solid for the next decade or so.

[sonorajim]

TT hired the last two HCs. Dean Spanos announced that he would be fully involved in the decision that produced Staley. It definitely feels different.
I see no reason to downgrade the Staley choice due to some level of TT involvement. At this time.
However he will be available to serve as the burnt offering if Staley proves to be an incompetent amateur as HC.

[like54ninjas]

TT hired the last two HCs. Dean Spanos announced that he would be fully involved in the decision that produced Staley. It definitely feels different.
I see no reason to downgrade the Staley choice due to some level of TT involvement. At this time.
However he will be available to serve as the burnt offering if Staley proves to be an incompetent amateur as HC.

Johnboy claimed he was the key decision maker in regards to AL.