Brandon Staley’s Defense Has A Fatal Flaw 

Signup to Bounty Sports today at bountysports.com/sign-up/QUxFWDU= and use referral code ALEX5 to receive a FREE $5 credit, no deposit necessary! Bounty Sports. Winning Just Got Easier.

Hmmm after watching, it seems like the main takeaway is the simple/generalized (yet true) take of how guys like Donald and Ramsey were irreplaceable and allowed for all sorts of versatility, right? Dedicating plenty of resources into defensive personnel in the offseason will definitely do them some good, esp with the offense humming

This aged like fine wine

In the last couple of years, the Chargers were having problems with the run D and we're bringing a D coach that plays to stop pass first with the same weak interior D-Line. It's not surprising what is happening. If Fangio is fired at the end of the season, I wouldn't be surprised if Staley try to hire him. I'm expecting a big defense draft next season.

You know your a bad coach when you can make people forget Derwin James is on ur squad

It's also true that some guys have harder time adjusting to new schemes than others. The chargers run defense struggled the year before Staley was there as well, while playing a more standard run first scheme. You make a good point that a big issue is with personnel. The chargers defense has had a strange sort of metamorphosis this season, where players that were on a great trajectory have fallen off slightly, and others that were rotational players are now looking like quality starting talent. As all of these players have likely never played this scheme before, some pick it up better than others.

Can we all come to the reality that he inherited Lynn, Bradley, and Telesco’s defense? None of these players are picked by him and his staff. Give him time!!!!

Imo it most definitely has to do with the talent there it'll be improved next season if they beef up the front 7

In order to run his scheme you have to have dawgs that can hold up in front. My guess is they go for some DL early on in the 2022 draft.

Watching this after the Chargers chargered last night....pain. two back to back runs for a combined 56 yards, the first a draw on 3rd and 23 to give a new set of downs. Staley knows what he needs to do to bolster this run d in the offseason, I just hope Telesco doesn't cockblock our spending in FA.

It feels weird that this so called defensive genius can't modify his scheme at all. Ioved the Rams' defense last year and thought that Staley would continue to dominate on defense with the Chargers. I feel like he'll be able to aquire some good players (that actually do fit his scheme) and work on his system a little bit this offseason though. Loved the video bro🔥🔥🔥

As a seahawk fan, the Legion of Boom was the same thing. NFL teams tried that concept like Seattle, but fail because of poor personnel that didn’t fit the scheme. Staley defense is the same point. So far, I’ve seen seattle defense better in the late second half because Ken Norton Jr kept working with the linebackers and work with the players rather than schemes. Schemes work for a particular unit, but not for all. And, you’re right! The best defensive coaches learn their defense players weakness and strengths! And, they do well working with those players with what they can do. Not what they can’t.

I love how you gave great criticism the whole video and then at the end complemented him on all the good things he’s done and you’re right next year will be big

It’s so crazy that we’re at the end of regular season football 😭

I didn't know any of these things!!! Something to look for this weekend and hopefully the rest of the playoff season. Rooting for the Chargers! Thanks Alex!

A strong DT is all this team needs. Either needs to be addressed in the off-season or early in the draft. Im not worried about Staley making that happen he'll get it done

As always, great stuff, Alex.

My mans said “day one madden ultimate team players” 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I think Staley will get the defense together I definitely had higher Hope's in year one but, I expect a lot of new personnel in free agency in year 2 and the draft all over the place to fit Staleys scheme. First year was all about making sure Justin got the protection he needed and it's been mostly a successgotta get that right side together. That IS the most important peice of the franchise going forward. They got 3 offensive lineman in free agency one left tackle in the first round and only a few lineman returned from last season one starter and mostly back ups. Staley had to bite the bullet for one year on defensive acquisitions besides picking up Asante Samuel Jr in the second round of the draft who shows promise and Chargers got a starter out of him. I expect them to deep dive into turning around the worst defenses in the league. Edit:And the Chargers have the most or second most cap space in the league next off season. Gonna be highly disappointed with anything less than a big over haul in on the D line at the very least.

As a Charger fan we know exactly what went wrong, and it's not just personnel issues, but scheme issues as well. At the time, Anthony Lynn drafted a lot of our defensive personnel to play in his then base 4-3 defense, which is what we should run in some scenarios, especially against the run. Unfortunately when Staley was hired, the majority of our personnel especially our LBs and DL had to adopt the 3-4 scheme, but because they were drafted to fit Lynn's 4-3 defense they struggle schematically. Staley's gonna have draft or acquire the appropriate talent to effectively run his 3-4 scheme. I assume he may target ILB/OLBs and possibly another DE to compliment Bosa. So in a nutshell, we're not good defensively because of the 3-4 and lack of OLB/ILB depth and talent it takes to run it effectively.

Love your channel, greets from Germany! =)

Another great video. The gap and a half technique seems very difficult indeed. It seems like special interior lineman are truly needed. I hope Staley gets it figured out. I really like him. I hope he has a lot success. 😌✊🏾

It’s bc we have no depth and have been missing key players once he can get the players that fit his scheme some more the defense will be great

Excellent content very professionally done 👍✅

If you look at the stats when Joey Bosa and Derwin James are on the field it is a completely different defense.

Love your videos💯

New Alex video? Great weekend incoming 😈

Impressive take! Hey Alex, with the season coming to an end, could you do a video on drafting for need vs drafting best available? Thanks!

Nice Alex. I've been saying it for years ; ' You can have all the X's and O's in the world. If you don't have the Jimmy's and Joe's, you don't have much'. I wonder if he will get management support to build what he wants. All that said , if he's such a great defensive mind he should be able to craft a defense based off what he does have.

I just imagine that all 32 teams are subscribed to this dude and are waiting for an update so they can exploit these weaknesses and improve their own team/play calling

Great analysis.

Glad you mentioned missed tackles. A few "highlights" LA had players in good spots and blew tackles

there is a lot of context missing. obviously we don't have a DT like Donald or a shutdown CB like Ramsey, but our full, starting secondary has played maybe 4 games together this year due to injury. injuries have been a huge concern for our D-line as well, if Justin Jones is out our run defense disappears, Murray has regressed to the point of no longer playing LB and Bosa doesn't have a legit partner in crime on the opposite EDGE. bottom line is Staley inherited a defense that doesn't have the personnel that he wants. give him another offseason and I guarantee our defense will look much better next year.

This video sums it up exactly why the chargers lost to the raiders before the game even happened. Great vid.

I really hope this draft they bring in a young nose tackle and let go off Linval Joseph and Chris Harris jr in the resigning period, with that money the should bring in someone like Brandon Williams who is one of the strongest nose tackles in the league and Vernon Butler who brings more of a pass rushing element from the dt position because they barely generate interior pass rush with jerry tilery. For Chris Harris's replacement, a good slot corner ( Harris's position) would be Bryce Callahan, who was a top 5 PFF corner in 2020, or someone like Xavier Rhodes on the outside that brings in some height to the outside. Another viable option at CB is Darrius Williams who was on the rams at the same time as Staley, so he already has a connection with him.

Weird to see the parallels between Saleh and Staley. Two “Defensive gurus who had superstar talent and created great defenses”. Of course, Saleh doesn’t call the plays; Jeff Ulbrich does. For the Jets, they have a lot of injuries, but their defensive performances have been inexcusable. Both need to adapt to personnel or have a huge injection of talent.

Hello. So I have a question after a year of getting some of his guys, what happened? Being a Charger fan I still don't understand how bad we are at our run d. Thanks.

I personally thought Staley was going to adjust to the chargers roster and run it more like TCU does with their 2 high 4-2-5 defense

Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey make any defensive scheme look great

NOT DAY 1 MADDEN ULTIMATE TEAM, Alex you didn’t have to do them dirty like that 😂

Looking at these clips it's interesting how he's gone away from some of the tite fronts he used in LA that allow you to steal back gaps by gumming up the interior with lineman To me that's a crucial element of making this style work, alongside gap and a half.

Could you make a video about Jalen Hurts? I can't figure out if he is a franchise QB in the making or if he hit his ceiling already... should the eagles look for another QB?

Your analysis of the defence is good but I would argue his biggest failures have been with the weak "analytics" calls on the offensive side of the ball. If he had a better feel for 4th down calls and clock management, they would not be in this "win and in" situation. He can't create defensive superstars out of nothing but he could at least not sabotage his offense (especially with that QB).

Very great video. You broke down everything. You made it a fact that Staley doesn’t have the horses and was trying to run his scheme with Gus Bradley’s guys. It’s amazing that we were 9-8. Thanks for video and I’m trusting they will upgrade this defensive roster and recreate Staley’s vision. This defense has ALOT of potential, but without the proper personnel, it’s a very bad defense.

Makes sense . They should change their defense to fit the personal. Not make it rams 2.0

The fatal flaw is Brandon Staley

We;ll see how he does in year two. They brought is some free agents to shore up the defense. As well as a running back that hoperfully allows the chargers to be able to pick up those 3rd and short / 4th and short. Ekeler is NOT able to do that when the defense sells out on the run. He needs an open hole and space where he can juke people. He's not big enough / powerful enough to knock guys backward. Hopefully, he will mix it up more to confuse offenses and hopefully the players will know the system and be capable of making plays.

They just need to find a spare Aaron Donald. Anyone got one laying around?

Nailed it on the head with the personnel + scheme comment. Definitely and interesting video no doubt! Not a Chargers fan but I’m rooting for Brandon Staley to change things around with their team’s D. Love the vids like always, Alex!

I play a lot of cover 4 and cover 1 against the runs because cover 4 the safetys play the run first then they react to the pass second and cover 1 allows a extra man In the box.

shouldn't good coaches change their scheme to fit the players?

Watching this after the 9ers interview with Staley

I hope you're going to do a video about the Eagles rushing offense (No. 1 ranked in NFL), the Eagles main hitting power for their playoffs run.

How would you rank the top 10 qbs?

Reminds me a lot of Adam Gase. He got the rep of a QB whisperer by coaching Payton Manning. But Manning had been around for fifteen years. Then the Jets hired him and he virtually ruined Sam Darnold. He couldn't teach a quarterback the ropes; he excelled at nodding and smiling as a superstar made him look brilliant. I agree, though, that the jury is still out until Staley can draft some guys and pick up free agents. And I agree with the philosophy: it's a passing league, so you stop the pass first, because OCs are so wedded to setting up the pass. But a coach like Belichik will just run all over you if you let him and you can't stop the run.

You could see it too in the Ravens game, when everybody thought they were contenders.

This is really interesting from a Packers fan perspective. Joe Barry was McVay and Staley’s right hand man last year with the Rams, and LaFleur specifically hired him to implement something akin to Staley’s version of 2-high. If I remember correctly, the Rams were the best in the league in tackling last year, and this year, the Packers (who have for my entire life been notoriously awful at tackling) have become one of the best in the league. DeVondre Campbell has 4 (4!) missed tackles, and Preston Smith has ZERO. I don’t know yet if Barry has the level of system ingenuity that Staley does, but he has a strong grasp of the fundamentals at least. The Packers’ roster also more closely resembles the Rams with Kenny Clark and Jaire Alexander, with solid safeties, and more run stopping (though much less talented) D linemen.

BTW, as a Charger Fan, I wouldn't mind drafting a kicker (from Oklahoma) and a punter (from SD state) with our 6th and 7th rounders. Would be nice to get a guy that could flip the field. And if we get the top kicker that we can trust kicking from 50...it's a game changer.

As I immediately wrote on the last video on him and remained true, his Defense worked because Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey, without them it won't work... They hated on me over and over, but I'm right!

I said when the Chargers hired him that Jalen Ramsey and Aaron Donald doesn't grow on trees and people called me a madman ... dude is definitely a good coach but people hyped him up to much ... ramsey and donald were the reason the Rams defense was good not Staley

The flaw is the players from the last coaching staff. He’s improved it compared to what it was last year. Let him get his own players to groom.

I wish you mentioned 6 starters were out on the D against Houston, so all this is great I guess. Chargers laid another egg but what’s new. 2nd string and practice squad players as a reference is huge mistake though. The starting secondary hasn’t been together since week 1 and just have returned from injury. The starting D line just got healthy as well and since the BYE as long a the starting Dline was available the Chargers shut down a run game. Great Video though 👍

The fatal flaw was calling a timeout when you could have gone for a tie.

@alexrollinsNFL This video needs an update as they've added parts and pieces.

As I stated on another channel(maybe this one) his defense is great. . . If you have the right players in the right spots. Remember the legion of boom and all the teams trying to copy them? They all then found out about this deficiency in the scheme. Staleys in particular is a d line issue, whereas the LOB defense required stellar DB's.

So Staley coasted on the elite talent on the Rams roster?

Great video as a Chargers fan coming off heartbreak

Yea the the draft is gonna be big for him can't wait to see what type of players he goes for plus i think he should reevaluate some of his pos coaches and I'm fired up to see what he comes up with in the off-seasoif he reflect good on the sea he can learn a lot

I feel like this is similar to how much the Cowboys relied on the versatility of a few key players to make incredible schemes. But that setup wouldn’t work anywhere else because that caliber of personnel doesn’t really exist anywhere else

I'm usually against this line of thinking but if Brandon Staley was Brian Flores he would've been fired from the chargers..he actually had fireable offenses..same record same conference ..one has ridiculous talent and one has one star on the entire team..

I've never understood scheme coaches. If you just throw a scheme at every roster you encounter you get losses when you could've had wins. He needs to play to his players strengths and compensate for their weaknesses. But he's not doing that. Crazy.

Those rankings regarding Staley's defenses track well and you did hit the nail for a blame pie in terms not only for personnel (very obvious even when the Chargers front seven are healthy) and not being consistent on scheme. Then again Staley's defense philosophy does come from Fangio (different however) and when Fangio has the horses, he has done remarkably well against good passing offenses. So I would still give him the benefit of the doubt until next season. However there will definitely be no excuses if he does get the guys up front he needs to solve against the run and his defense is still missing tackles. At that point the Chargers might as well inquire about Fangio.

this my favorite channel

so staley is a good coach when he has superstar players and everything is perfect... okay

I feel with all the pieces the chargers picked up in the off season that the defense will have a massive shift in the right direction

Not the MUT reference😭

Can we get a Raheem Morris comparison for the 2021 Rams??

Jordan Davis will make Staley’s scheme elite again

This take was bad for it even being 3 months ago, Staley had to make due with the remains of the Anthony Lynn Chargers. What you’re seeing now is what happens when the HC has pull on the decision making with the GM and owners. Expect a Defensive unit to be in the top 10 this year. The new personnel, coaching and scheme will show you how Staley excelled from coaching D3 to being a NFL HC.

In Staley we TRUST ⚡

Literally all defenses have a fatal flaw. This is elementary school analysis.

Makes a lot of sense why they got Mack and JC jackson

You hit the nail on the head 💯 👏🏾 This coach got this job too soon in my opinion.

As a chargers fan, I hope TT goes all in on defense. For offense we draft a RT, resign Aboushi and Mike and that's it. For defense resign White, Nwosu and Jones. Then find another NT and DT in draft and FA. If we still got a lot of cap, go for some big name CB. We can also afford to lose Tillery and K9, we can trade em away for something fairly decent cuz of their youth.

Think the answer is moving James into the force player in the nickel to use his range in the run game. Aaron Donald isn't probable but a NT like Vita Vea is to control the pivot which is so important in these zone run games inside can be. I doubt Ramsey is available but JC Jackson can be.

Another example of how coaching becomes less and less of a factor.

It’s crazy no one takes into account that they haven’t had there secondary healthy and playing together since week 1

There's maybe 5 guys in the whole league that can be asked to two gap or "gap and a half" and not one of them play for the Chargers. We've seen innovations create prototype standards before, such as the pass catching running back or the mobile quarterback. They're new standards because of precedents set by players in fitting schemes that allowed those skill sets to shine. I hope to see more and more dominant 3 techs come out that are asked to play the 4i tech that you described in a video last summer. Colts fan here and I'd like to see our D throw this in as a wrinkle with DeForest Buckner playing Aaron Donald's role and Rock Ya Sin playing Ramsey's role. Rock isn't QUITE a lockdown corner but his development has soared this season and QBs are increasingly worried about throwing toward his zone. The tendency for this defensive scheme to push ball carriers to the outside would play well into the hands of the Colts' rangy linebackers in Leonard and Okereke as well as Julian Blackmon AND Khari Willis' willingness and ability to come downhill toward the ball carrier from the safety position into the box to help bounce the RB outside. We have an underrated "nose" in Grover Stewart as well as two young versatile DL in Paye and Odeyingbo. We just need a coordinator with some gumption and the knowledge to instill these principles. I don't want it 45 percent of the time but if the Colts could show "tampa 2 nickel" which we play a lot of and morph into something more like this post-snap (if that's even possible to do) it could be a VERY effective wrinkle.

People ran on that nickle base defense. No stout d lineman who is strong with reach was on that line. Defense was very light. Need to get the personnel via draft

staley just wasnt able to completey fix the team in one offseason, the chargers had the worst oline and he had to prioritize that and transformed them into a very good oline, so hopefully this offseason he will be able to do a similar job w the defense

I think it's because he can't focus on his defense as much. Also it's his first year and u have to find guys that fit your scheme. It's gunna take a few years for him to get things figured out on the defense

I *HOPE* that my theory is correct here. I think that they know this isn't optimal, but that they want everybody to know *HOW* to play this system once all the pieces are in place for years 3 and 4 of Herbert's contract. We have all all of our draft picks and a TON of cap space to work with this year. I wouldn't hazard a guess at how next year will look, but if we draft and trade for two excellent interior defensive linemen, pick up/draft good CBs, and trade/draft a right tackle, this should be a scary team. We're also SUPER lucky that we have some real key positions already taken care of. The left side of the line is awesome, Herbert is a stud (who costs almost nothing) and (aside from DB) that pieces we need aren't the most expensive ones. I, for one, am super excited for the off season!

Now that the chargers got jc jackson and khalil mack and improved the interior d line, they will be much better. But im still questionable with their run stopping, since they are still weak at inside LB

Chargers have a franchise habit of drafting undersized, speedy d-linemen, which is why they get run over so much.

Rams fans were hating on Morris and wanting Staley back earlier this year. But in this situation, looks like players overcome scheme.

The real fatal flaw is calling a timeout at the worst time.

The overall stats for the season are bad yes but players learning a new scheme and plus all the players in and out of the defense skewed it a bit. The run defense with all our starters out there is much much better

When you have a guy like Aaron Donald, your defence gets that much better. As much as I love Joey Bosa, I’d take one Aaron Donald over 2 Joey bosa’s.

I can't wait to see how Kalil Mack effects the chargers d.

Tbh my take before watching was that he was carried by relying too much on key defensive talent, and failed to adjust for somewhat less dominant pieces in slightly different positions. Also the rams had the best overall defense, but didn't the bucs have best run d locked up?