Former Chargers HC Brandon Staley still hasn’t received any interview requests
Brandon Staley survived a blown 27-0 lead in the AFC Wild Card Round and got another chance to coach the LA Chargers in the 2023 season. That proved to be a bad decision by the Bolts, as 11 months later Staley was fired after a historic loss to the Las Vegas Raiders.
The Chargers’ season was already over by that point with Justin Herbert out for the rest of the season. Los Angeles simply needed to start fresh and getting both Staley and Tom Telesco out of the building was the best way to do that.
Fast forward to January and there are dozens of interview requests that are being thrown out for various openings throughout the league. The Chargers have their list of interview requests and even Telesco has landed an interview with the Raiders.
Former Chargers head coach Brandon Staley still has zero interview requests
As it stands at the time of writing this, there have been over two dozen interview requests for vacant head coaching jobs and not a single one is Staley. Granted, fired coaches typically are not the hottest commodity on the coaching market but they still get interviews. Mike Vrabel will be interviewed (and hired), Frank Reich was hired last winter and there are so many other examples. It happens.
If anything, this proves what Chargers fans already knew: Staley should not be a head coach in this league. For as confident (and oftentimes egotistical) as he was about himself as his seat heated up in LA, nobody seems willing to take a chance on Staley after what happened with the Chargers.
It will be very interesting to see what opportunities await Staley in the NFL. Will a team be willing to take a chance on him just as a defensive coordinator? After all, the New York Giants job just opened up and Staley could go join his friend Kevin O’Connell in Minnesota if Brian Flores leaves.
But when your last game as a head coach is a 63-21 routing it is hard to sell yourself as some defensive wizard. Staley may have to take a huge demotion, going back to just being a positions coach. Based on how Staley viewed himself in LA, he probably isn’t going to take that kind of demotion.
Maybe his best fit is on a college staff. There are going to be big programs that need a defensive coordinator and Staley’s defensive style could actually be disruptive in college football. But then again, Staley could not even coach up the players on the Chargers. How will he coach up a bunch of 19 and 20-year-olds?
One thing is for certain: Brandon Staley will not be a head coach in the NFL in 2024 (or perhaps ever again). The fact that he has not received a single interview request thus far proves that.
