The Los Angeles Chargers, no matter how you spin it, are certainly taking a risk in the wake of Jesse Minter's departure.
In one sense, it was always going to be this way. Minter found great success over his two seasons in Los Angeles, implementing a zone-heavy scheme that maximized the Chargers' secondary talent and managed to both prevent explosive plays and stifle opposing teams' drives from the start. Minter's only weakness were the inconsistencies in the run defense, and even those weren't as bad as some of Los Angeles' worst performances would lead you to believe.
But heading into 2026, first-time play caller Chris O'Leary has some large shoes to fill. He has the tools he needs, including health from the secondary and a host of fresh talent at his disposal, to lead the Chargers back to dominance on that side of the ball.
But ESPN's Ben Solak, in his piece detailing questions for a number of this season's first-time play callers, makes an excellent point. O'Leary won't find success through simply imitating Minter. As he figures out the best expression of his scheme at the NFL level, there's certain to be growing pains.
No matter what, therefore, the Chargers will likely need to face some early-season struggles before O'Leary hopefully rights the ship.
"If O'Leary tries to replicate Minter's defense with the Chargers, he'll almost certainly miss expectations. If he's willing to run his own stuff -- and able to survive the inevitable growing pains that will have fans grumbling -- we might see the next branch of the Macdonald coaching tree rise this season in Los Angeles." Ben Solak, ESPN
Chris O'Leary still needs to prove that his scheme can come close to the success that Jesse Minter found
In terms of continuity, there really wasn't a better choice than O'Leary. He spent 2024 as the Chargers' safeties coach— a job he likely secured because of his experience under Minter when he was defensive coordinator at Georgia State. After that season, O'Leary then went to call plays for Western Michigan in 2025, leading a highly effective, blitz-heavy defense to success in the typically risk-averse MAC.
O'Leary's scheme will likely carry many of the hallmarks that Minter's did— pre-snap communication, heavy use of zone coverage, and the employment of Derwin James in a nickel/dime role. But there will also be differences.
Both O'Leary and defensive line coach Mike Elston have made clear they want to utilize the defensive line differently, allowing players to line up wider than usual in an attempt to provide additional disruption in the backfield. If this move is successful, it could open the door for O'Leary to blitz at a higher rate than we saw from Minter, who sent an extra man just 18.9% of the time in 2025.
Solak's point, however, is that the Chargers owe a great deal of their defensive success over the past two seasons to Minter's coaching. Teams who run frequent zone defensive looks are often successful at preventing explosive plays, but they also struggle to keep plays in the intermediate parts of the field contained. Los Angeles was an outlier in terms of opponent success rate over the past two seasons.
Of course, Minter's defense had its hiccups during his first season as well, including a 15-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals in which their opponent completed 27 of 39 passes for 336 yards.
It will simply take some time for O'Leary to figure out the expressions of his scheme, and Chargers fans must be prepared to wade through some difficulties in the early parts of the season in hopes that O'Leary will find his footing quickly.
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