{"id":974120,"date":"2026-08-15T20:15:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T20:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/974120\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T20:15:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T20:15:33","slug":"chargers-dc-chris-oleary-gets-rave-reviews-after-nfl-playcalling-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/974120\/","title":{"rendered":"Chargers DC Chris O&#8217;Leary Gets Rave Reviews After NFL Playcalling Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Los Angeles Chargers offense is getting a ton of hype after the marquee addition of Mike McDaniel, the offensive wizard, but the defense is also getting a new playcaller, who impressed in the first game of the preseason.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Chargers lost Jesse Minter to the Baltimore Ravens, who took the head-coaching opening after John Harbaugh was fired.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Minter was highly regarded for years as a defensive mind, and in the modern NFL, where defense is making a comeback as the more important side of the ball, he was seen as one of the top head-coaching candidates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the last few years, Minter got a lot out of a group of defensive players who outperformed expectations.<\/p>\n<p><img data-od-added-loading=\"\" data-od-removed-fetchpriority=\"high\" data-od-replaced- data-od-xpath=\"\/HTML\/BODY\/DIV[@class='elementor elementor-246455 elementor-location-single post-257136 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-chargers tag-chargers tag-chris-oleary tag-jesse-minter tag-los-angeles-chargers mv-content-wrapper']\/*[2][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[4][self::DIV]\/*[5][self::FIGURE]\/*[1][self::IMG]\" loading=\"lazy\" data-dominant-color=\"31aec3\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #31aec3;\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/chris-oleary-offense-1024x683.webp\" alt=\"Jun 17, 2026; El Segundo, CA, USA; Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator Chris O'Leary at press conference during minicamp at The Bolt. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images\" class=\"wp-image-257137 not-transparent\" \/>Jun 17, 2026; El Segundo, CA, USA; Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator Chris O\u2019Leary at press conference during minicamp at The Bolt. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After losing someone who did such a good job as a playcaller, the Chargers had their backs against the wall to a certain extent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, they ended up hiring Chris O\u2019Leary, a defensive coach on Jim Harbaugh\u2019s staff who went on to be a defensive coordinator in college and is now returning to Harbaugh with real play-calling experience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Thursday, O\u2019Leary made his NFL play-calling debut, and the reviews were very positive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7512748\/2026\/08\/14\/chargers-texans-nfl-takeaways-dj-uiagalelei-trey-lance\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">According to The Athletic\u2019s Daniel Popper<\/a>, the scheme O\u2019Leary will deploy has elements of Minter\u2019s defense with a few new twists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNew defensive coordinator Chris O\u2019Leary had a tremendous showing in his first NFL game as a play caller. The Chargers gave up some yardage on the ground, but their pass defense was excellent against a pretty established backup in Davis Mills,\u201d Popper wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Texans totaled just 105 passing yards. They averaged 4.8 yards per attempt. This was the DNA of Jesse Minter\u2019s Chargers defenses. Playing with fewer bodies in the box creates some disadvantageous looks in run defense, but it lets the defense play suffocating coverage. O\u2019Leary\u2019s unit executed the vision effectively in Houston.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis defense will not be exactly the same, however. We wondered through the offseason what dials O\u2019Leary might twist one way or the other to put his own stamp on the scheme. We got an initial answer Thursday night: O\u2019Leary turned up the heat with his blitzes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img data-od-replaced- data-od-xpath=\"\/HTML\/BODY\/DIV[@class='elementor elementor-246455 elementor-location-single post-257136 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-chargers tag-chargers tag-chris-oleary tag-jesse-minter tag-los-angeles-chargers mv-content-wrapper']\/*[2][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[1][self::DIV]\/*[4][self::DIV]\/*[13][self::FIGURE]\/*[1][self::IMG]\" loading=\"lazy\" data-dominant-color=\"7197b1\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #7197b1;\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/chris-oleary-1024x683.webp\" alt=\"May 11, 2026; El Segundo, CA, USA; Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator Chris O'Leary during offseason workouts at The Bolt. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images\" class=\"wp-image-257141 not-transparent\" \/>May 11, 2026; El Segundo, CA, USA; Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator Chris O\u2019Leary during offseason workouts at The Bolt. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If the Chargers defense can maintain a solid baseline relative to their last few years, with a new supercharged offense, things will be looking up for the Chargers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Chargers offense is getting a ton of hype after the marquee addition of Mike McDaniel,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":974121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2064],"tags":[241,103399,7,10097,1014,262,2444,2443,6],"class_list":["post-974120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-chargers","tag-chargers","tag-chris-oleary","tag-football","tag-jesse-minter","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-chargers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangeleschargers","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117101365142627470","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974120","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=974120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/974121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=974120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=974120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=974120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}