My Hottest Take: O’Leary’s Unit Picks Up Where Minter’s Left Off

Jesse Minter’s defenses during his two-year tenure with the Chargers ranked first and ninth in points allowed, respectively. To say what he did in his short time in LA was magnificent, especially considering the resources allocated to the defense, would be an understatement. Career revivals of Kristian Fulton, Donte Jackson, Tony Jefferson, and Elijah Molden. The breakout of Daiyan Henley, Teair Tart, Poona Ford, Tarheeb Still, and Cam Hart. Odafe Oweh and Tuli Tuipolutu both took massive steps in their game.

All of these things happened in the span of Jesse Minter, and absolutely none of those names commanded any serious team-building resources, such as a hefty price tag or a high draft pick, outside of maybe Tuli. So what gives me the confidence that Chris O’Leary can step in and maintain the standard set by Minter? The simple answer stems from the pure excitement that publicly came from the Chargers' defensive stars when the hiring was made official.

Chris O’Leary spent 2024, Minter’s first year, as the safeties coach, playing a part in the most impressive room on the Chargers defense when Molden and Alohi Gilman both had their best year as a pro, and a resurging Derwin James, who bounced back from multiple years struggling under Brandon Staley.

One of the more notable stories is that when the Chargers acquired Elijah Molden, they tasked O’Leary with giving a crash course on the defensive scheme in 10 days to prepare him to take the field, after the 10 days, Molden was already comfortable enough to be a starter, a testament to O’Leary and his ability to both understand and convey a top-five defense’s scheme at an extremely high level

Putting pressure on Chris O’Leary to make this a seamless transition may be a bit out there, but I’ll gladly co-sign the thought process. The continuity of keeping someone from the original 2024 Harbaugh staff is important, but it’s clear that both players and the rest of the staff are convinced O’Leary is more than capable of being yet another leader of another amazing defensive unit.

What You Need to Know: Who is Chris O’Leary?

Unlike Mike McDaniel, O’Leary was far from a hot commodity in this coaching cycle, so a lot of fans may have heard the name and thought “Who?” Allow me to help you out!

Chris O’Leary, as previously mentioned, was the safety coach for the 2024 Chargers. After that job, he moved on to Western Michigan to get experience as a defensive coordinator, taking the Western Michigan Broncos from the 108th total defense to the 14th in the country in one year.

Most notably before that, he was the Notre Dame safeties coach from 2021 to 2023, where he was credited with playing a part in the growth of both NFL Superstar Kyle Hamilton and strong rookie Xavier Watts. Only 34 years of age, O’Leary is the latest in the generation of younger NFL coaches quickly rising up the ranks, a rise that was predicted by Tony Jefferson.

Before You Go: This Was The Plan All Along

Jim Harbaugh has had this plan in motion since he came back to the NFL. He was more aware than anyone that Jesse Minter was a head coach in the making, and that he had to have a plan for when Minter inevitably moved on.

Let me take you back to 2020, the Ravens, under John Harbaugh “move on” from Jesse Minter as a position coach, allowing Minter to get coordinating experience at the collegiate level, spending a year at Vanderbilt, before in 2022, Jim Harbaugh has Mike MacDonald to jump to the NFL level to become the Ravens new defensive coordinator for his brother, opening a spot for none other than Jesse Minter himself to now coach under Jim. Long story short, this is not the first time a Harbaugh has sent a position coach to the collegiate level to get coordinator experience before immediately finding a defensive coordinator gig for said position coach a year later.

For MacDonald, fast forward to today, as he’s preparing for a Super Bowl as a head coach, and for Jesse Minter, he’s parlaying this into taking the best HC Job that was available this offseason in Baltimore. The ball is now in Chris O’Leary’s court, as the bar is set and the opportunity is there for him to become next on the list of defensive minds to make that eventually head coaching job in high demand under the Harbaughs.