Inside the demise of Chargers’ Brandon Staley: ‘Too smart for his own good’

Daniel Popper

https://theathletic.com/5141270/2023/12/15/brandon-staley-chargers-demise/

The beginning of the end for Brandon Staley came at a news conference in Wisconsin.

It was Nov. 19. The Los Angeles Chargers had just lost to the Green Bay Packers, 23-20, to fall to 4-6. A season with the highest of stakes was slipping through Staley’s fingers, and the Chargers coach could not hide the emotion of the moment.

His defense had imploded on the Packers’ game-winning touchdown drive. The Chargers committed a pass interference penalty on a third-and-20. Two plays later, two defenders collided, leading to a missed tackle on a 35-yard catch-and-run. Two plays after that, the defense failed to line up quickly enough pre-snap, and a blown coverage allowed receiver Romeo Doubs to run free for the go-ahead 24-yard touchdown.

At the lectern after the loss, Staley reiterated that he had “full confidence” in himself as the defensive play caller. The Chargers had given up the most passing yards in the league through 11 weeks. When asked about the apparent disconnect between his confidence and the product on the field, Staley said the quiet part out loud: “I know we give ourselves a chance to win every single week with the game plans that we have.”

The Chargers fired Staley on Friday morning, less than a month after he uttered these words. The team also fired general manager Tom Telesco, who was in his 11th season. Giff Smith takes over as interim coach. JoJo Wooden is the interim general manager. This amounts to a full-blown organizational reset. “We are clearly not where we expect to be,” owner Dean Spanos said in a statement, “and we need new vision.”

In the end, Staley’s greatest strength — an unwavering belief in himself — became his downfall. The news conference moment in Green Bay revealed this for the world to see. In the same answer, without another question being asked, Staley said he was “fully responsible” for the defensive performance. His true feelings, though, were rooted in his initial statement: The plan was good enough; the execution was not.

There is a fine line between conviction and arrogance, between confidence and hubris. At times, Staley toed that line with an admirable deftness. Too often, however, he crossed it, both publicly and privately.

“He’s a good, smart f—ing coach,” a team source said of Staley. “Too smart for his own good sometimes.” This was a sentiment shared by multiple team sources throughout Staley’s three seasons as head coach. Each was granted anonymity so that they could speak freely.

On the broadest of levels, ownership’s decision to fire Staley and Telesco came down to a clear case of missed expectations. There was no ambiguity in the organizational goals for this season. Push for the franchise’s first AFC West title since 2009. Make the playoffs. Win a playoff game. Contend for a Super Bowl.

The Chargers, from the Spanos family to Telesco to Staley, believed they had a championship-caliber team. It is why they restructured four contracts in the offseason — Khalil Mack, Joey Bosa, Mike Williams and Keenan Allen — pushing almost $40 million in cap charges into 2024. They felt like 2022 had been derailed by injuries. They wanted one more shot with their existing nucleus.

It was a gross miscalculation — of the roster and of Staley. The Chargers have not come close to reaching any of their goals.

They are 5-9.

Staley’s defense ranked 29th in EPA per drive this season, according to TruMedia. They ranked 31st in EPA per drive over his entire stint as head coach and defensive play caller.

Staley drove the decision to fire offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi in January and replace him with Kellen Moore. Through 13 weeks, before quarterback Justin Herbert’s season-ending finger injury, the Chargers offense ranked 18th in success rate, according to TruMedia. Moore was supposed to fix the run game. The Chargers rank 30th in rushing success rate.

Nothing has gone according to plan for the Chargers this season. Some of it was predictable. Some of it was unforeseen.

Cornerback J.C. Jackson, whom the Chargers signed to a five-year, $82.5 million contract in the 2022 offseason, made a remarkable comeback from a ruptured patellar tendon. He rehabbed quickly enough to be back on the field for training camp and the season opener. Physically, he was ready to contribute. Mentally, he was not committed in meetings and his day-to-day preparation, team sources said. The Chargers made Jackson a healthy scratch in Week 3 as an attempted wake-up call. The next week, team sources said, Jackson refused to enter the game against the Las Vegas Raiders when Michael Davis suffered an injury. The Chargers traded Jackson to the New England Patriots three days later for a late-round pick swap.

They will wear a $20.83 million dead-money charge for Jackson on the 2024 cap, according to Over the Cap.

The Chargers whiffed on their character evaluation of Jackson. Staley and Telesco both bear the blame.

Then there are the mitigating factors. Center Corey Linsley has not played since Week 3 because of a heart-related medical issue. He is expected to miss the remainder of the season. Williams suffered a torn ACL in Week 3 and is out for the season. Receiver Joshua Palmer missed six games with a knee sprain. Herbert broke his left middle finger in Week 4 trying to make a tackle after an interception. That injury affected his play.

And yet as left tackle Rashawn Slater said Thursday night, “This is the f—ing NFL. People get hurt. S— happens.”

The painful truth: The Chargers had their chance to make a deep postseason run in 2022. They battled through an injury-riddled season before rattling off four straight wins in December and January to make the playoffs. As the Chargers prepared to kick off their Week 18 matchup at the Denver Broncos, they had already locked in fifth place in the AFC. The result of the game did not matter for seeding. Staley, though, played his starters into the third quarter of the meaningless game. Williams suffered a back injury in the second quarter. He missed the collapse in Jacksonville, when the Chargers’ season ended after they blew a 27-point lead to the Jaguars.

This decision was the clear line of demarcation in Staley’s Chargers tenure. Williams could have been the difference in the second half of the playoff loss, when the offense was struggling to move the ball. Staley ultimately acknowledged he played his starters to try to maintain momentum and rhythm. He likened his decision to Tom Coughlin’s playing his New York Giants starters in the regular-season finale in 2007 against the then-undefeated Patriots. The Giants lost that game but went on to win the title, beating New England in the Super Bowl.

Still, this choice from Staley befuddled many in the organization, from the top down.

The Chargers never truly recovered from that entire week — the Williams injury, the second-half meltdown in Jacksonville, all of it.

Five of the Chargers’ first six losses in 2023 were by 3 points or less. Their failure in late-game situations, offensively and defensively, became a defining characteristic of this version of the team.

“We have to look at ourselves in the mirror and be real with ourselves,” defensive lineman Sebastian Joseph-Day said.

Staley was hired to produce an elite defense. He had done so in his lone season as an NFL coordinator, with the Los Angeles Rams in 2020. He failed to come close to that with the Chargers in three seasons.

Staley is a brilliant schematic coach. He can develop a game plan on the whiteboard capable of stopping any offense. The only problem is the game is not played on a whiteboard. There were weeks when this brilliance shone through, like in a win over the Miami Dolphins in Week 14 last season. But more often, the scheme and plans were too layered and complex for the players to grasp and execute consistently. Players detailed how Staley and his defensive staff would try to build in answers and rules for every minute facet of opposing offenses — every route, every motion. At times, players said, this bogged down the unit as a whole.

They were overthinking, and they could not play fast as a result. That showed up in some noteworthy losses this season — Miami in Week 1, Kansas City in Week 7, Detroit in Week 10.

Staley’s inexperience was exposed in this stubborn commitment to a defensive vision that simply was not working. There was a disconnect between how some players wanted to play and how Staley wanted to play.

Telesco’s demise, meanwhile, was a gradual culmination over 11 years. He produced just two playoff wins, and one of those came in 2013, his first year on the job.

Telesco was a decent drafter: Allen, Bosa, Hunter Henry, Williams, Desmond King, Derwin James Jr., Uchenna Nwosu, Justin Jones, Drue Tranquill, Alohi Gilman, Slater, Asante Samuel Jr., Palmer, Tuli Tuipilotu. And, of course, Herbert. He also had his blemishes: Jerry Tillery, Quentin Johnston, Tre’ McKitty, Kenneth Murray Jr., Nasir Adderley, Forrest Lamp, Dan Feeney, D.J. Fluker.

He had his free-agency wins, like Casey Hayward. And he had plenty of losses, like Jackson and Bryan Bulaga.

On the aggregate, Telesco has a solid eye for talent. But he failed in two primary areas: Building a consistent offensive line and developing depth from spots 23 to 53 on the roster. Telesco inherited Philip Rivers. He acquired Herbert. He certainly did not prioritize protecting Rivers. With Herbert, Staley urged the organization to invest in the trenches when he was hired in 2021. The Chargers signed Linsley and guard Matt Feiler in free agency that year and drafted Slater and Zion Johnson in the first round in back-to-back years in 2021 and 2022. The offensive line, however, was never the strength of this roster over Telesco’s 11 seasons.

For this season in particular, the Chargers desperately needed a functional run-blocking tight end. Despite a loaded draft class, the Chargers did not add a tight end to their room. It has dramatically affected their rushing offense. McKitty was supposed to be that player, but the Chargers cut the 2021 third-round pick on Halloween of this year.

“Building and maintaining a championship-caliber program remains our ultimate goal,” Spanos said. “And reimagining how we achieve that goal begins today.”

The Chargers overestimated what they had this season, and it all went up in flames Thursday night in Las Vegas.

It was not every player, but there was a clear, discernible lack of effort as the Chargers wilted against the Raiders.

The locker room Staley and Telesco had built was fractured.

And together, they paid the price.

Jared Goff's first 5-TD game since 2018!

📺: #DENvsDET on @NFLNetwork 
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/vtmfEKvOLy pic.twitter.com/R3srOrkaHw

— NFL (@NFL) December 17, 2023

The Steelers have had a lot of embarrassing moments this month. This loss to the Colts, and how it unfolded in losing to an Indy offense that was basically a preseason lineup, shows how little fight they have left to save their season. https://t.co/3enWKuvyJ7

— Frank Schwab (@YahooSchwab) December 17, 2023

They discuss the Rams starting at 2:04 in.

…

I think Stafford's throwing style might be best described as "Lucha libre" pic.twitter.com/XRj1vzDgpV

— Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) December 14, 2023

Zooey wrote:

The Rams should put up over 30 points, and the Redskins shouldn’t score over 20. But, you know, football.

I don’t know, man. What is the Rams historical record against teams named after a military rank?

Remember when Matthew Stafford was washed and gonna retire?

Nice job avoiding pressure and finding Demarcus Robinson in the end zone. pic.twitter.com/GJx8cjXQNg

— Blaine Grisak 💭 (@bgrisakTST) December 14, 2023

The sack numbers aren't there for Aaron Donald, but he's just as good as ever for the Rams defense.

At one point, three different players are blocking him and he's still 5-7 yards in the backfield and almost gets through. pic.twitter.com/bguCsnQgNT

— Blaine Grisak 💭 (@bgrisakTST) December 14, 2023

The most impressive thing @AndrewWhitworth saw in the NFL? Sean McVay's first OTAs as a head coach where he only taught character. Great insight on McVay's success. "A lot of teams that suck right now it's because their head coaches are scared to challenge their players as men." pic.twitter.com/0fP0pGw5Pa

— Kevin Clark (@bykevinclark) December 13, 2023

Most passes defended this season:

Charvarius Ward – 20
Darious Williams – 19
Devon Witherspoon – 16
Darius Slay – 15
Benjamin St-Juste – 15
Paulson Adebo – 14
DaRon Bland – 14 pic.twitter.com/Ep7xFuy68g

— NFL Stats (@NFL_Stats) December 13, 2023