Brandon Staley and Christian Parker interviewed for Defensive Coordinator, Doug Nussmeier interviewed for OC; all on Feb 16

zorro37 said

I don't think that is entirely fair. Donald was obviously an amazing talent, but you don't coach a defense to number 1 in the NFL (which he did in 2020) based on one player alone.

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Measured by DVOA ranks, Staley didn’t accomplish much with the Rams. Their defense ranks:

2019: 7th
2020: 3rd (Staley’s one year)
2021: 3rd

They were a top unit before he got there, and remained a top unit after he was gone.

Same ranks for the Chargers, with the year before and after Staley included:

2020: 20th
2021: 26th (Staley)
2022: 21st (Staley)
2023: 26th (Staley)
2024: 9th

Their defense was bad before he got there, stayed bad while he was there, and improved a ton one year after he was gone.

He hasn’t shown that he can build a defense from the ground up when given the opportunity. Sure, other candidates haven’t shown an ability to build a defense either, but they haven’t had the opportunity like Staley did.