Staley pleads his case to keep job after embarrassing Chargers loss

Brandon Staley entered week 15 with "one of the hottest seats'' in the NFL, as Bleacher Report's NFL insider Jordan Schultz described before the game. Now add an embarrassing 63-21 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, who had scored zero points on the Minnesota Vikings four days earlier, and you can see where things are probably going for the Los Angeles Chargers.

Staley has a 24-24 regular season record as the Chargers head coach. His résumé includes a wild playoff loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars last season, a frequently underwhelming defense, and a feeling that they wasted an important part of Justin Herbert's career. Without their quarterback until the end of the year, everything is in disarray.

Even so, Staley still believes in his ability to coach the team.

"I know the type of coach that I am," he said after the game. "I believe in myself."

Obviously, the Thursday's Night Football loss was a heavy one, but Staley said it's part of the business.

"Games like this happen in the NFL, to every coach that's ever coached in this league," Staley added. "You can look at any great coach that's ever coached in the league, sometimes games like this happen. And I don't need to retrace history, but it's part of sports."

Rise and fall

Brandon Staley had a meteoric rise in the NFL. After two seasons as a defensive coordinator for John Carroll, he spent three years under Vic Fangio as an outside linebackers coach. In 2020, Sean McVay chose him to replace Wade Phillips, and he coordinated the best defense in football.

That performance opened up an immediate possibility to be a head coach, but Staley never replicated the success. Right now, even before the Thursday game is considered, the Chargers are 27th in defensive DVOA.

Moreover, Staley was never able to build a strong coaching staff. First, the offense had overwhelming production under coordinator Joe Lombardi for two seasons. The performance got better under Kellen Moore this year, but there's still a feeling that Staley hasn't taken everything they could out of Justin Herbert cheap years. And now that period is over.

Options

The idea of firing Brandon Staley goes beyond the premise that he might have lost the locker room. Analyzing the situation, it's highly unlikely that the head coach keeps his job after the season. Therefore, it might make sense to give offensive coordinator Kellen Moore a chance at showing what he could do as the team's interim head coach for the final three games.

Moore has done a better job as a coordinator than what the Chargers had, and he is seen as an important piece around Herbert.

However, another possibility would be to keep Kellen Moore exclusively working with the offense, potentially elevating special teams coordinator Ryan Ficken to the interim head coach position.

The non-playcaller defensive coordinator is Derrick Ansley, promoted from defensive backs coach this year after Renaldo Hill left to be the Miami Dolphins pass game coordinator and DBs coach.

Long-term situation

The Chargers will most likely go through a rebuild, and that's not just about Staley. General manager Tom Telesco has been on the job since 2013, surviving the firings of head coaches Mike McCoy and Anthony Lynn.

The roster is not as good as previously expected, it's old, and the cap situation is dicey. The team is 30th in projected cap space for 2024, being $42.2 million over the projected cap space for next season according to Over The Cap.