Chargers' LB Daiyan Henley buries Brandon Staley's porous defense

The LA Chargers drafted Daiyan Henley in the third round of what was Brandon Staley's last draft with the team. Henley did not play much in his rookie season but he got a taste of the Staley experience fans were beyond frustrated with during a disastrous 2023 campaign.

Henley now enters his sophomore season as a huge breakout candidate under Jim Harbaugh and new defensive coordinator Jesse Minter. With Denzel Perryman and rookie Junior Colson — who was recently put on the NFI list — as the only other starting-caliber linebackers, it is imperative that Henley take a step forward in 2024.

Henley himself appears ready to take that leap for the Chargers in a new defensive scheme. Fernando Ramirez recently spoke with Henley, who shared how Harbaugh was the guy the entire locker room wanted after the Bolts fired Brandon Staley. In explaining his excitement for Minter, Henley also took a somewhat pointed shot at his former head coach and his defensive scheme.

"That's probably the most exiting thing about (Minter's) scheme. As complex as it is, it's simple enough to just execute. It's more so let's fool the offense rather than fool the players that's playing the defense.

A lot of coaches kind of get lost in that where they are trying to make it too complicated for everybody involved. We want to beat the offense, that's what we want to do. We want to take the ball away, we want to score as a defense. Let's throw them off, but let's keep it where the defense is playing fast."

Daiyan Henley buries former Chargers head coach Brandon Staley

Henley did not mention Staley by name when discussing the defense but it is pretty clear who he was talking about. After all, Henley has only been in the NFL for one season so the only other defense that he knows is Staley's defense.

Plus, his comments are directly in line with the criticisms around Staley and his defensive scheme. Staley is an innovative defensive mind and there is no doubting that. His defensive schemes were built around being complex to fool opposing quarterbacks and when it worked, it worked seamlessly.

Just look at the 2020 Los Angeles Rams. Staley coached the best defense in the league that season and that is how he got the Chargers' job in the first place. As bad as his tenure was with the Bolts, there is no denying that the 2020 Rams were an elite defensive team.

But Staley's biggest strength was also his biggest weakness. He proved throughout his tenure with the Chargers that he could not elevate the talent on his roster. The defensive development under Staley was appalling and he failed to put his players in a position to succeed.

That is arguably a bigger part of the equation with coaching in the NFL than the scheme is. It does not matter how great a scheme looks on paper if you do not coach up your players to actually execute that scheme. Staley proved that over three years with the Bolts.

If Henley's comments indicate anything, Minter is not going to have that problem with the Chargers. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, Minter will coach to his team's strengths. How refreshing is that?

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