A Familiar Face, A Bigger Opportunity
The Los Angeles Chargers did not need to conduct a nationwide search to find the architect of their next defense. They simply looked to someone who already understood the building.
Chris O’Leary arrived in El Segundo this offseason with a different title than the one he held just a year earlier. After spending the 2024 season as the Chargers’ safeties coach, O’Leary accepted the opportunity to coordinate Western Michigan’s defense in 2025, where he quickly built one of the Mid-American Conference’s most disciplined and opportunistic units. When the Chargers sought a new defensive coordinator following the season, they turned to a coach whose familiarity with the roster was matched only by his reputation for teaching and leadership.
The promotion represents another step in a coaching career built deliberately rather than dramatically.
O’Leary spent much of the previous decade at Notre Dame under Brian Kelly and later Marcus Freeman, developing a reputation as one of college football’s rising defensive minds. His work with the Fighting Irish secondary emphasized communication, discipline, and positional versatility - principles that have remained remarkably consistent throughout every stop of his career.
Those same ideas followed him west in 2024 when Jim Harbaugh assembled his first Chargers coaching staff.
Although O’Leary spent only one season coaching Los Angeles’ safeties before departing for Western Michigan, he left with a thorough understanding of the organization’s culture and many of the players who would eventually become the foundation of his defense. That familiarity has allowed him to hit the ground running in his return.
“I think we have the best coaches in the world,” O’Leary said during minicamp. “I view them as the head coaches of their positions.”
That perspective says as much about O’Leary as any coverage shell or blitz package.
Rather than positioning himself as the singular voice directing the defense, he consistently describes the unit as a collaborative effort. Position coaches contribute to the run game, pass defense and weekly game plans. Ideas are encouraged instead of protected. The objective, O’Leary believes, is simple: build the strongest defense possible, regardless of where the best ideas originate.
That collaborative approach became one of the defining characteristics of his lone season coordinating Western Michigan’s defense.
A Year That Accelerated His Rise
When O’Leary accepted the defensive coordinator position at Western Michigan before the 2025 season, he inherited more than a playbook.
He inherited responsibility.
For the first time in his career, every defensive decision - from personnel packages to game-day adjustments - rested on his shoulders. The results strengthened his standing as one of football’s promising young coordinators.
Western Michigan emerged as one of the MAC’s stingiest defenses, helping propel the Broncos to a conference championship while finishing near the top of the league in scoring defense, total defense and takeaways. O’Leary’s unit consistently forced opponents into uncomfortable situations by limiting explosive plays and communicating efficiently before the snap.
Success, however, wasn’t measured solely by statistics.
The Broncos played with a cohesion that mirrored the values O’Leary now describes inside the Chargers’ facility. Assignment football rarely gave way to freelancing. Safeties rotated seamlessly. Defensive backs trusted their leverage. Front-seven defenders played aggressively because they knew help would arrive behind them.
Those habits are difficult to quantify, but they are often what separates good defenses from championship-caliber ones.
The experience also expanded O’Leary’s perspective as a leader.
Coordinating an entire defense required balancing schemes with relationships, preparation with adaptability, and accountability with encouragement. The season reinforced a belief that coaching extends far beyond designing pressures or disguising coverages.
“As a coach your job is to solve problems,” O’Leary said. “Your job is to take on challenges.”
It is an answer that reflects his broader coaching philosophy.
Challenges are inevitable. Injuries happen. Opponents adjust. Young players make mistakes. Rather than viewing those moments as setbacks, O’Leary approaches them as opportunities to teach, refine and improve. That mindset earned the respect of players at Western Michigan and helped convince the Chargers he was ready for a much larger responsibility.
Building an Identity Before Building a Scheme
Ask O’Leary about defensive installations, personnel packages or exotic blitzes, and he quickly redirects the conversation.
For him, identity comes first.
During organized team activities and minicamp, O’Leary repeatedly returned to the same themes - not coverage structures or pressure percentages, but standards.
“Our identity,” he said, “is really a group that plays together, that plays fast and violent.”
It is an intentionally simple vision.
The Chargers spent the spring installing terminology, concepts and adjustments, but O’Leary viewed those tasks as secondary to establishing how the defense would function collectively. Communication. Block destruction. Physicality. Effort. Brotherhood.
“We believe in unit strength,” O’Leary explained. “Eleven guys playing together as one is better than 11 guys playing independently.”
That philosophy has become the foundation of everything the Chargers have installed this offseason.
When O’Leary evaluated the progress of the defense following minicamp, he estimated the scheme was roughly “80 percent” complete. More importantly, he believes the core identity is already in place.
His emphasis on togetherness isn’t accidental.
Throughout his coaching career, O’Leary has argued that football’s best teams are rarely defined by talent alone. Instead, they distinguish themselves through selflessness.
“The team that plays together, cares about each other, does it for reasons that are selfless,” he said, “those teams really do special things.”
That belief explains why conversations about the Chargers’ defense often sound less like discussions about X’s and O’s and more like discussions about culture.
Because for Chris O’Leary, the two have never been separate. They are one and the same.
The Teacher Behind the Scheme
Spend enough time listening to Chris O’Leary speak, and one thing becomes clear: he doesn’t view himself as the smartest coach in the room.
He doesn’t want to be.
While many coordinators naturally become the face of a defense, O’Leary talks about leadership differently. During the Chargers’ offseason program, he repeatedly emphasized that building an NFL defense requires dozens of voices rather than one.
“I think we have the best coaches in the world,” O’Leary said. “I truly mean that.”
His praise isn’t lip service. O’Leary explained that he relies heavily on each position coach, viewing them as the “head coaches of their positions.” Whether discussing run fits, pass coverage or weekly game plans, he wants every assistant involved in shaping the defense.
That philosophy represents a subtle but important shift in leadership.
Instead of asking assistants to simply execute his vision, O’Leary wants them to help create it.
It is an approach that reflects the collaborative environment that Jim Harbaugh has long cultivated throughout his coaching career. Strong coaching staffs thrive when ideas are challenged, refined and improved. O’Leary appears comfortable leading those conversations rather than controlling them.
That same openness extends to his players.
“We want to win the Super Bowl,” O’Leary said. “Everybody knows in order to do that, we’ve got to work together.”
For O’Leary, collaboration isn’t about hierarchy. It’s about ownership.
If every coach and every player feels invested in the process, the standard becomes something the entire defense protects rather than something imposed from above.
Putting Players in Position to Succeed
Every defensive coordinator enters a new job with ideas he wants to implement.
O’Leary is no different.
The difference is that his scheme begins with the players instead of the playbook.
“My job is to get the players in position to do what they are best at,” he said.
That philosophy surfaced repeatedly throughout minicamp, particularly when the conversation turned to All-Pro safety Derwin James.
There is always temptation for a coordinator to expand the responsibilities of a player as talented as James. His athleticism allows him to rush the passer, cover tight ends, defend the slot and patrol the deep middle. O’Leary acknowledged that the possibilities are almost endless.
But restraint can be just as valuable as creativity.
Rather than reinventing James’s role, O’Leary intends to preserve the aspects that have already made him one of the league’s premier defensive players.
“What he’s the best at,” O’Leary said, “he’s the best in the world at.”
That means continuing to deploy James near the line of scrimmage, where his instincts, physicality and timing as a blitzer can disrupt offenses before plays ever develop. There will be subtle adjustments - more flexibility in alignments, additional opportunities to disguise intentions - but the core responsibility remains unchanged.
For O’Leary, maximizing talent is more important than showcasing schematic innovation.
The same philosophy extends throughout the secondary.
Rather than forcing defensive backs into interchangeable roles, he has spent the spring identifying the individual strengths that separate each player.
Cam Hart’s physicality at the line of scrimmage.
Tarheeb Still’s growing confidence and consistency.
Every player brings something different.
The coordinator’s responsibility is finding ways to let those strengths complement one another.
“You’ve got guys that have all different skill sets,” O’Leary said. “We’re going to find out which one stands up and gets to the top of that group.”
That competition begins in training camp, but O’Leary has been careful not to frame the offseason as a race for starting jobs.
Instead, he has challenged players to become better technicians.
Learning multiple positions.
Mastering defensive concepts.
Developing professional habits.
Only then, he believes, can competition truly reveal the best players.
“The cream rises to the top,” he said.
Competition Creates Confidence
One of O’Leary’s more revealing comments came when discussing roster battles.
Many coaches spend the offseason establishing unofficial depth charts. O’Leary has resisted that temptation.
“There should be a feeling of hope for each guy that’s on the roster,” he said.
It is an understated philosophy, but an important one.
The Chargers enter training camp with legitimate competition across multiple positions in the secondary. Safety, cornerback and nickel all feature young players capable of earning meaningful roles.
Rather than narrowing those opportunities before pads ever come on, O’Leary wants players to believe performance - not reputation - will determine playing time.
“Whether you’re the eighth guy or the fourth guy,” he said, “you’re going to get a shot to make it.”
That belief influences how he structures practices.
Rotations are fluid.
Repetitions are earned.
Mistakes become teaching opportunities instead of immediate demotions.
“I like guys to feel confident that we have their back,” O’Leary explained.
That confidence often leads to faster football.
Players who trust their coaches tend to play more aggressively. They recover quicker from mistakes. They stop worrying about the consequences of one missed assignment and instead focus on the next snap.
For a young secondary expected to carry significant responsibility this season, that mindset could prove invaluable.
A Defense Built to Evolve
One lesson O’Leary carried back from Western Michigan is that no defensive system should remain static.
Every opponent presents different challenges.
Every roster changes.
Every season requires adaptation.
Although he estimated the Chargers’ defensive installation was roughly 80 percent complete at the conclusion of minicamp, he intentionally left room for growth.
The remaining space isn’t unfinished work.
It is flexibility.
There will be opponent-specific packages.
Personnel wrinkles.
Pressure adjustments.
Coverage disguises.
The defense O’Leary unveiled during the spring is only the foundation.
As training camp unfolds and the pre-season approaches, it will continue to evolve alongside the players executing it.
That adaptability has already become one of his defining characteristics as a coordinator.
Just as important, O’Leary doesn’t see evolution as abandoning an identity.
The core principles remain constant: communication, physicality, effort and togetherness.
Everything else is designed to serve those ideals.
For a Chargers team with deep playoff aspirations and championship expectations, that balance between consistency and adaptability may ultimately define O’Leary’s first season as an NFL defensive coordinator.
