As the Los Angeles Chargers enter their new campaign, most of the eyes are on offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel and what he can do with the team's existing weapons— and rightfully so.
By the middle of last season, it became apparent just how stagnant Greg Roman's scheme was. Even if you account for the deficits in protection caused by the absences of Joe Alt and Rashawn Slater and the sub-par play of the interior offensive line, there simply wasn't enough ingenuity there to truly take the team into Super Bowl contention. McDaniel, for all the criticisms of him as a head coach, certainly has the requisite level of creativity.
If anyone can maximize Justin Herbert and the Chargers' pass catchers, it's likely McDaniel.
But the departure of Jesse Minter to the Baltimore Ravens this offseason leaves new defensive coordinator Chris O'Leary with a much heavier burden. At every turn, his performance will be compared to the dominance Minter was able to find during his two seasons in Los Angeles.
Even as we enter the preseason, where the stakes are low and most of the starters will be held out apart from select series, this pressure will start to show. O'Leary has some large shoes to fill, and he'll soon need to come face-to-face with the burden he accepted in taking over the Chargers defense.
Chris O'Leary won't be able to avoid comparisons to Jesse Minter— even in the preseason
The preseason is simply a time to evaluate different players within the context of the offensive or defensive scheme, implementing changes and pushing individual players who might be on the roster bubble to display a level of comfort with what's being asked of them.
It's not wise to draw sweeping conclusions, especially about an entire unit. But for O'Leary, it's an unavoidable part of his new job.
During his two seasons with the Chargers, Minter quickly became one of the league's hot young coordinators. His zone-heavy, low-blitz scheme helped Los Angeles stifle opponents even without a number of blue-chip talents on that side of the ball. He maximized the skill set of Derwin James and continually pumped production out of the secondary no matter what component parts the front office handed him.
In his first season, Los Angeles finished seventh in total passing yards against and produced the 13th-most takeaways in the NFL. In 2025, they were fifth and seventh in those respective categories.
On the surface, O'Leary has everything he needs to replicate that sort of production. He worked under Minter both as the Chargers' safeties coach in 2024 and as a graduate assistant at Georgia State earlier in his career. He has familiarity both with Minter's complex post-snap coverage rotations and with many of the personnel that will be trusted to implement them.
If he's able to maximize the rebuilt pass rush and the interior defensive line, there's certainly a chance he maintains the dominance the Chargers have found since the start of the Jim Harbaugh era.
But there's certainly room for some regression, and he'll be compared to Minter at every turn. Even if the Chargers offense comes out of the gate kicking, a difficult slate starting in Week 3 against the Buffalo Bills could put an immediate strain on the Chargers defense.
Even in their first preseason matchup against Houston, there will be a number of scrupulous eyes on O'Leary's handling of the defense. Perhaps that's unfair. But the shadow Minter has left even after his departure looms too large for O'Leary to truly avoid it.
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