Popper: If Chargers’ personnel is the problem, Brandon Staley, Tom Telesco share the blame

The Athletic has live coverage of Ravens vs. Chargers on Sunday Night Football

COSTA MESA, Calif. — Los Angeles Chargers coach Brandon Staley has vocalized his stance in direct terms over the past two weeks.

He does not believe his defense’s issues are related to scheme. He does not believe they are related to structure. He does not believe they are related to his play calling. He does not believe they are related to his game plans. He does not believe they are related to his messaging to the players.

Instead, “execution” is the word Staley has used on multiple occasions to diagnose the problem. It is a buzzword thrown around all the time by NFL coaches. In Staley’s case, what it really means is this: The players are not doing what they are being coached to do.

Using that premise, let’s do a small thought experiment. Let’s say Staley is correct in his assessment. It is not scheme, or structure, or play calling, or messaging, or game planning. It is execution. It is the players. And thus, it is how this Chargers roster has been constructed.

GO DEEPER

Defensive issues of Brandon Staley era encapsulated in Chargers’ loss to Packers

A problem persists: Staley was directly involved in building the roster. This is not Year 1 of his coaching tenure when he was coaching a defense full of holdovers from a previous regime. This is Year 3. And over three seasons, Staley has worked in concert with general manager Tom Telesco to hand-pick players who were supposed to fit into his defensive system.

That has not materialized. Statistically, the Chargers defense is as bad now as it has been at any point in Staley’s time as head coach. If the players are the problem — and even that is up for debate depending on who you ask in the building — then another question must be asked: Who acquired the players?

Telesco is running the team’s personnel department day to day. Staley’s fingerprints, too, are all over this roster.

Consider the 11 defensive starters for the Chargers’ 23-20 loss at the Green Bay Packers on Sunday and each player’s path to the roster. Only three were not drafted, signed or extended under Staley: edge rusher Joey Bosa, linebacker Kenneth Murray Jr. and safety Alohi Gilman.

The other eight:

Edge rusher Khalil Mack: Traded for in 2022, Staley’s second offseason as head coach. Staley was Mack’s position coach with the Chicago Bears in 2018.

Defensive lineman Sebastian Joseph-Day: Signed to a three-year, $24 million deal in 2022. Joseph-Day played under Staley with the Los Angeles Rams in 2020 when Staley was the defensive coordinator.

Defensive lineman Austin Johnson: Signed with a two-year, $14 million deal in 2022.

Linebacker Eric Kendricks: Signed with a two-year, $13.25 million deal in 2023.

Cornerback Michael Davis: Signed to a three-year, $25.2 million extension in 2021, Staley’s first offseason.

Cornerback Asante Samuel Jr.: Drafted in the second round in 2021.

Safety Derwin James Jr.: Signed to a four-year, $76.5 million extension in 2022.

Safety Dean Marlowe: Signed to Chargers active roster Sept. 30. Marlowe played for Staley at James Madison in 2014, when Staley was the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.

Cornerback Ja’Sir Taylor has also started six games this year. He was a sixth-round pick in 2022.

Not all of these have been misses. Mack has been a really solid player over his two seasons in Los Angeles, both as a pass rusher and run defender. When the Chargers gave up a second-round pick for Mack, they were not expecting the Defensive Player of the Year version of him. They were hoping for 80 percent of that player, and Mack has absolutely lived up to those expectations.

Joseph-Day and Johnson have both been central to the Chargers’ improved run defense this season.

But the reality is some of these pieces have not fit as anticipated.

The Chargers signed Davis to that extension in 2021 effectively by necessity. The following offseason, they signed cornerback J.C. Jackson to a huge contract. The ostensible plan was for Jackson to replace Davis, who lost his starting spot to begin 2022. That was until Jackson suffered a torn patellar tendon that ended his season. Jackson returned in 2023. Davis started and played 100 percent of the snaps in a Week 1 loss to the Miami Dolphins. He was relegated to a rotational role in Week 2 while Jackson was still unable to play a full game. Jackson was then benched in Week 3 and 4, and then traded. After that, Davis regained his full-time role.

There is a potential argument that Davis was not part of the Chargers’ long-term plans, as evidenced by the Jackson signing. But they also did not add a cornerback to the roster this past offseason, despite Jackson’s situation. They ran it back with Jackson, Davis, Samuel, Taylor and second-year corner Deane Leonard. Davis has struggled this season. He has not rediscovered the form he showed down the stretch of 2022 when he played some of the best football of his career. Staley also wanted Jackson, and that signing turned into a disaster.

GO DEEPER

How it all went wrong for J.C. Jackson and the Chargers

Samuel is a boom-or-bust player. He has great instincts in coverage and can get the ball. But he is also prone to some of the execution mistakes aggravating Staley. He committed a pass interference penalty on a third-and-20 in the fourth quarter against the Packers. Samuel is also not consistent in run support.

Kendricks has been solid in run defense this season. But he is also part of a disjointed back seven that has the Chargers ranked dead last in passing yards allowed this season. The Chargers opted to let Drue Tranquill walk in the offseason and replaced him with Kendricks. Staley pushed for this move. Tranquill was a holdover from the previous regime. He was a better coverage player than Kendricks but worse in run defense.

James is still a supremely talented player, but he has not realized that full potential in Staley’s defensive system. The Chargers ask him to do so many jobs, and James is capable of doing all of them. But are they getting the most out of James by using him this way? James played more in the slot against the Packers, and Staley said he liked the way James performed in this position. That could mean a more consolidated role down the stretch of this season as the Chargers try to find some defensive back combination that can mesh consistently. Taylor would be the odd man out.

Staley was involved in all these players finding a spot on the Chargers’ roster. He has admitted as much.

On Aug. 30, Staley was discussing the defensive personnel turnover from 2021 to this season when he said: “What’s been positive for us is, I think, teaming up with Tom and his staff. … We’ve been able to, in all three phases of our team, kind of engineer it the way that we want it.”

He added: “I think we’ve got the pieces to defend the way you need to in the NFL now.”

The Chargers entered this season with aspirations of winning a Super Bowl. Through 11 weeks, it is the defense primarily that has prevented them from even sniffing these aspirations.

Is it coaching? Is it the players? The truth is always somewhere in the middle.

This roster, though, is as much Staley’s as it is Telesco’s.

And if the attempt is to push blame onto the roster, Staley and Telesco should both share that weight.

(Top photos: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

“The Football 100,” the definitive ranking of the NFL’s best 100 players of all time, is on sale now. Order it here.