Saints hiring Brandon Staley as defensive coordinator completes strong staff

The New Orleans Saints finished filling out the top of their coaching staff on Friday, hiring former Chargers head coach Brandon Staley to be their defensive coordinator, per ESPN's Katherine Terrell.

The move completes the team's hunt for coordinators, as former Eagles quarterback coach Doug Nussmeier was hired as the offensive coordinator on Thursday, and Phil Galiano is expected to be retained as the team's special team's coordinator from last year.

While everyone remembers Staley's maddening stretch as the Chargers' head coach, they forget that he's a pretty good defensive mind.

His Chargers tenure was marked by frustration and underperformance, and a defense that was particularly porous paired with an offense that was, in many cases, bafflingly conservative and bland despite featuring Justin Herbert, Keenan Allen, Mike Williams and Austin Ekeler. It was a team many had high hopes for, and Staley failed to meet those hopes.

However, as a defensive coach, he was stellar. He turned the Rams into the number one defense in all of football in 2020, a mark they hadn't approached before, and haven't come close to since. He was well regarded as a linebackers coach, and in both Denver and Chicago before going to LA, he helped construct some very solid defenses.

His head coaching experience, as frustrating as it may have been for Saints fans, will come in handy here as well; he can be a sounding board for Moore, who is in his first head coaching gig in the NFL.

He takes over a defense in New Orleans that likely needs some work, and some help in the pass rush, but that is also likely heading for a rebuild. They have some promising pieces, like defensive lineman Brian Bresee, but they gave up a ton of yards, ranking 30th in yards allowed.

Pairing Staley with Moore will help New Orleans be able to take some time and hopefully do a proper rebuild with a coherent vision, which is something they've lacked since the Sean Payton era (and really the Drew Brees era) came to an end.

It might get ugly in New Orleans next year due to salary cap constraints (the Saints are, as they have been every year since time immemorial well over the salary cap, and will need considerable help to get back under it), but Staley has the defensive chops to help keep this team competitive in the long run.

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Saints hiring Brandon Staley as defensive coordinator completes strong staff under Kellen Moore

By Sam Westmoreland | Feb 21, 2025