The Chargers defense, of course, put together another strong season as one of the NFL’s best, and O’Leary named a couple who stood out to him when watching the film.<\/p>\n
“I think there’s a lot of really good personnel,” O’Leary said. “[Odafe] Oweh flashed \u2026 there’s certain guys on this defense that have really interesting skillsets. I think Elijah, Derwin, Cam [Hart], Khalil [Mack] \u2026 all those guys are still playing at really high levels. Daiyan [Henley].<\/p>\n
“I just think there’s a lot of pieces we’re really going to be able to work with and develop their game,” he added. “When I watched them, I had a similar feel to when I was here. It’s kind of the same guys just doing what they do.”<\/p>\n
Not to mention James, who has earned two straight Second-Team All-Pro and Pro Bowl honors, and with whom O’Leary worked with closely as his position coach in 2024.<\/p>\n
“Every single day, you win, you lose, whatever \u2026 he’s the ultimate competitor,” O’Leary said. “Spending the year I did with him here \u2014 I hate saying favorites \u2014 but one of my favorite players I’ve ever worked with and coached because of how contagious his energy is and how great he wants to be.<\/p>\n
“I can’t put it into words and I’m ready to get started right now,” O’Leary added.<\/p>\n
The defensive personnel has changed some from when O’Leary was with the team a pair of years ago but the confidence remains he can evolve the elite play the defense has shown.<\/p>\n
He’s fired up and ready to get to work and take it to the next level.<\/p>\n
“I think, as a coach, you operate with a certain level of respect, accountability, demand on the players,” O’Leary said. “When you transition roles from a position coach to a coordinator, there’s not a lot that changes as far as your interactions with them.<\/p>\n
“I think all the guys here see me as a coach, see me as a guy that’s going to push them and elevate them and rally pull the most out of them,” O’Leary continued. “Again, as a player, that’s what you want.”<\/p>\n
He later added: “We’re really focused on taking what we built and the foundation that’s laid and taking it to another level.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chargers defense, of course, put together another strong season as one of the NFL’s best, and O’Leary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2064],"tags":[98782,37,9944,241,103399,7,34,38,1014,262,2444,2443,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-727925","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-chargers","8":"tag-2026-offseason-editorial","9":"tag-app-homepage","10":"tag-articles-from-the-podium","11":"tag-chargers","12":"tag-chris-oleary","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-homepage-cp","15":"tag-homepage-headlines","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","18":"tag-losangeles","19":"tag-losangeleschargers","20":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116010445934732130","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}