The LA Chargers made the biggest head coaching upgrade imaginable this offseason as the team has officially replaced Brandon Staley with National Championship-winning coach Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh was the golden goose for the Chargers all offseason and earlier this week the move was made official.
At the time of Harbaugh's hiring, Staley still did not have any reported interviews lined up for jobs throughout the league. With how poorly his Chargers stint was (especially on defense), many fans expected him to either take a huge demotion or be out of the league entirely next season.
But ever since Harbaugh was hired the interview opportunities have seemingly been flowing in for Staley. Staley was circled as a potential candidate for the Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator job after Vic Fangio agreed to part ways and now we know that it is not the only team that may be interested in Staley's services.
Former Chargers’ HC Brandon Staley is meeting today with the Packers about their defensive coordinator job, is scheduled to meet with the Dolphins about their DC vacancy this weekend, and has drawn interest from the Rams about being a potential Raheem Morris replacement, per… pic.twitter.com/76Bk9ItNVV
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 26, 2024
3 teams interested in Brandon Staley following Chargers disaster
Many were wondering if Staley had any chance at all of getting a coordinator job after his Chargers tenure ended and now it looks like there might be a bidding war for his services. The Dolphins, Green Bay Packers and LA Rams are all interested in some capacity and could hire him to run their respective defenses.
Staley did nothing during his time with the Chargers to earn this level of interest from other teams in the league. The Chargers were statistically one of the worst defense in the entire sport throughout Staley's entire tenure even after he was able to add "his guys" to that side of the ball.
Perhaps the duties of being a head coach were just too much for Staley and maybe he is just a good coordinator. Some guys can be great coordinators but cannot be head coaches and Staley could simply be one of those guys. It is not impossible for him to turn in a strong defense for whichever team hires him next season.
But whichever team hires him is taking a massive risk. They would be hoping that the one strong year as defensive coordinator with the Rams is more telling of who Staley is than the three bad years as a head coach. Because if the Chargers version of Staley shows up then he will bring a bottom-tier defense with him.
Unfortunately, the Chargers do not play any of these three teams in 2024 so Justin Herbert won't have the chance to face a Staley defense. When (or if) that happens in the future, Chargers fans are going be rooting for the team to show no mercy and drop 40+ points.