The Los Angeles Chargers‘ new coaching staff is starting to turn heads in the NFL for all the right reasons. And with coaching vacancies already starting to open up, many teams will look to Jim Harbaugh’s staff to fill their head coaching role.
Chargers DC Named Top Head Coaching Candidate
The first coach from the Chargers staff who is being named as a potential head coach candidate is defensive coordinator Jesse Minter. And it’s no secret why. In his first DC role in the NFL, Minter has led his squad to play at an elite level. They are currently the second-rank defense by EPA per play, they allow the sixth-fewest yards per game and they top the charts allowing just 13.1 points per game. If the season ended today, they would be the 16th-best defense by points per game in NFL history.
This prompted NFL analyst, Peter Schrager to speculate that Minter’s tenure with the Chargers is not long for this world. Posting to X, “The 41-year-old may be one and done as the DC in LA. Will be a very hot name come January.”
The topic was also brought up by Harbaugh on the Pat McAfee Show.
This would continue Minter’s meteoric rise through the coaching ranks, resulting in short stints in his recent stops. He has not worked in the same role for more than two seasons since he was the defensive coordinator at Georgia State from 2013-2016. After that job, he worked as a defensive assistant for the Baltimore Ravens for two seasons, before getting promoted to assistant defensive backs coach for a year, then defensive backs for another. He spent 2021 as defensive coordinator for Vanderbilt, then two years as DC with Jim Harbaugh in Michigan.
Schrager also shared another impressive statistic about Minter’s defense; “[The] Chargers is just the fourth unit since 1990 to hold their first nine opponents to 20 points or less.
Hiring defensive coaches has come back into fashion, particularly from the Raven’s tree.