One more from Popper. If anyone is interested, I believe that I can gift a few week’s subscription to the Athletic. Message me and I’ll look into it tonight. For what it’s worth, in my opinion, it’s worth it.
_____
Why Chargers’ hiring of Kellen Moore is giving Brandon Staley vibes of Sean McVay
Daniel Popper
Jul 25, 2023
On quiet evenings in February, a ritual was forming inside the Chargers facility. Each night, after a day of offseason work — self-scouting, evaluating, planning — Brandon Staley and Kellen Moore would convene for one-on-one meetings.
Moore was less than a month into his new job as Chargers offensive coordinator. His wife and three kids were still in Dallas, where the family had lived for the past eight years. The full-time move to Southern California would come later. Moore had his nights free, and he spent them debriefing with his recently discovered kindred spirit. A nightcap of film for Staley and Moore was the only item on the cocktail menu.
These recap sessions were a dream for the football-obsessed coaches in the infancy of their partnership. No idea too lofty. No concept or play design off the table. The meetings were part creative expression, part bonding experience, part football history discourse.
“We were able to kind of do this problem-solving quest together,” Moore said.
Moore would offer up a concept he thought might work for Justin Herbert and the Chargers’ talented skill players. Staley would reply with four or five examples, when similar concepts gave his defenses fits.
Staley poured his encyclopedic knowledge of NFL defensive schematics onto Moore — structures, systems, rules and the stress points an offensive play caller can exploit.
“Guys like him love that,” Staley said of Moore.
For Staley, this process marked a 180-degree role reversal. Because three years ago, Staley was catalyzing a similar exchange of ideas with Rams coach Sean McVay.
After the 2019 season, McVay had parted ways with defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, an original member of his staff. McVay and Phillips had made the Super Bowl together in 2018. The following year, the Rams finished 9-7 and missed the postseason, but Phillips’ defense finished in the top 10 in multiple advanced statistical metrics.
McVay nonetheless decided to move on from Phillips. There was a level the Rams defense had not yet reached, and McVay went looking for a forward-thinking defensive mind who could push the unit there. He found that in Staley, who was hired as Rams defensive coordinator in January 2020 after a 12-hour in-person interview with McVay in Los Angeles.
The Rams finished 2020 ranked No. 1 in weighted DVOA, a Football Outsiders efficiency metric. Staley was hired as Chargers head coach weeks later.
Staley is now entering his third season with the Chargers. And as those nightly February meetings with Moore set the foundation for a 2023 season teeming with expectations, Staley could not help but compare his current situation to the 2020 offseason with McVay.
“The parallels were crazy,” Staley said.
Staley fired offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi three days after the Chargers’ historic playoff collapse at the Jaguars in January.
Lombardi’s offense was not poor. The Chargers were tied for sixth in offensive scoring over his two seasons calling plays. But as Staley assessed where his team was and where it needed to go after the shocking defeat in Jacksonville, he came to a familiar conclusion.
“Just like Sean felt like he needed to make that change, I felt like I was in a very similar spot,” Staley said during a June sit-down interview in his office. “There were a lot of good things that have happened for two years. But you knew that there was another level that you could get to.”
What transpired next over a whirlwind weekend in late January led Staley, officially, to that someone — Kellen Moore.
Unknowingly, the two started laying the groundwork for the partnership as early as 2020.
One could call it luck, or destiny, or merely preparation meeting opportunity. Regardless, Staley has found what he says is a true “competitor” and “energizing” force in Moore.
How Moore performs in building this Chargers offense and elevating Herbert will, more than anything, be the deciding factor in the team’s 2023 season — and Staley’s future as head coach.
Staley debuted as Rams defensive coordinator on Sept. 13, 2020, at SoFi Stadium. It was the first time he called plays in an NFL game.
Standing on the other sideline calling plays for the Cowboys’ offense? Kellen Moore.
Staley was familiar with Moore’s career as a player and coach, admiring the former Boise State standout from afar. Moore became the winningest quarterback in college football history with 50 victories from 2008 to 2011. He went on to spend six seasons as an NFL quarterback, with the Lions and Cowboys, before joining Jason Garrett’s staff as quarterbacks coach in 2018.
It was in this Rams-Cowboys game, though, that Staley started to appreciate Moore’s football acumen firsthand.
While preparing his Rams players for the opener, Staley had warned of the versatility of running backs Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard and the potential for one of the backs to split out to receiver in certain two-back packages.
Moore took it a step further. On the Cowboys’ third offensive play, Moore lined up CeeDee Lamb, then a rookie making his NFL debut, in the backfield next to quarterback Dak Prescott. Elliott was at receiver to the right side. Prescott took the snap. Lamb ran a wheel route up the left sideline. The Rams carried Lamb’s route, but Elliott came open on a shallow crosser, in the space Lamb created. Prescott hit Elliott, who surged ahead for a first down.
“He’s going to be a good coach,” Staley remembered thinking after that play.
Staley’s defense held the Cowboys to 17 points, and the Rams escaped with a three-point victory, closing the game out in a two-minute drill.
He walked away impressed.
“It definitely started that first night at SoFi,” Staley said.
Moore had a similar experience. Staley, at that point in his career, was a relative mystery. Moore knew Staley had coached under Vic Fangio for three seasons, in Chicago and Denver, before taking the Rams job. But the preseason was canceled in 2020. There was no film of Staley’s scheme and play-calling. Moore and the Cowboys staff had to do some guesswork to figure out what his defense would look like.
During lunch breaks in the week leading up to that game, Moore and a couple of his younger offensive coaches watched YouTube clips of Division III John Carroll’s 2016 defense.
That was the last time Staley had called plays.
“There’s just such an element of unknowns,” Moore said.
Those unknowns transformed into respect over 60 minutes.
“He just gave you so many different looks and so many different presentations,” Moore said. “Usually on the offensive side, you’re trying to create this for the defense, and he’s doing it in the reverse order.”
Moore and Staley faced off again in Week 2 of 2021. Moore was still calling plays for Mike McCarthy’s Cowboys. Staley, of course, had moved on to take the Chargers job. Moore got redemption, helping Dallas to a 20-17 victory in another tight game that came down to the wire.
“Playing against him the second time, I was like, ‘He really makes it easy for his guys, but he makes it tough for you,’” Staley said. “That’s what good coaches do.”
The following summer, the Cowboys came to Orange County for joint practices with the Chargers ahead of the teams’ preseason matchup in Los Angeles.
The respect developed during the preparation and competition through those first two games. But it is difficult to truly understand what makes another coach tick — demeanor, personality, style — without interacting up close.
The two joint practices in August 2022 afforded Moore and Staley that opportunity.
The Cowboys and Chargers coaches collaborated on scripts and practice structure. Staley brought player leaders from both teams together to emphasize the importance of clean practices.
The process added depth to the burgeoning relationship.
“The whole operation for two straight days was just phenomenal,” Moore said.
Staley and Moore called plays against each other for the two days.
“He’s got a great way about him — really good presence, very calm, really smart, and I really value that,” Staley said. “And the ball was really good.”
Staley and Moore chatted before the preseason game, and the two vowed to stay in touch during the season.
As the Chargers were battered with injuries, so were the Cowboys. Left tackle Tyron Smith suffered a significant hamstring and knee injury in practice, after the Chargers-Cowboys preseason game. Prescott missed four games with a thumb injury.
The two coaches commiserated about these harsh NFL realities over text: “Hey, love what you’re doing, know how impossible it is.”
The Cowboys went 4-0 with Cooper Rush starting in place of Prescott and made the playoffs at 12-5. The Chargers won four straight games in December and January to clinch a playoff spot. The texts continued through the season. Neither Staley nor Moore knew in the moment how consequential the communication would end up being.
On the night of Sunday, Jan. 29, McCarthy announced that the Cowboys and Moore had reached a “mutual decision to part ways.” This came one week after the Cowboys’ 19-12 loss to the 49ers in the divisional round of the playoffs and five days after Moore interviewed for the Panthers head job.
As the Cowboys entered a transition phase with their coaching staff, the Chargers were in the midst of their own shakeup in the aftermath of the Jacksonville loss. They fired Lombardi and quarterbacks coach Shane Day on Jan. 17.
The decision was painful for Staley. He and Lombardi had a longstanding relationship dating to when Staley played for Lombardi at Mercyhurst College in 2005. Day and Herbert had developed a close relationship over two years.
“You know it’s impossible, but you know that you have to do it,” Staley said in June. “You have to do what’s right.”
The day after the Chargers announced the firings, Staley identified three areas in which his offense had to improve: running game, marriage of the run and pass, and creating more explosive plays on early downs.
Over Lombardi’s two seasons calling plays, the Chargers ranked sixth in expected points added per play, according to TruMedia. The unit had taken a clear step back in 2022, but injuries were an unavoidable factor. Rashawn Slater, out for the season after a torn biceps in Week 3. Keenan Allen, seven games missed with a hamstring injury. Mike Williams, high ankle sprain and fractured back. Herbert, fractured rib cartilage and torn labrum. Despite that, the Chargers made the playoffs and then built a 27-0 lead in their first postseason game since 2018.
Still, the issues Staley pinpointed were real. Lombardi’s offense was too reliant on third-down performance. Over two seasons, the Chargers ranked 11th in EPA per play on first and second down, including 16th in 2022. On third and fourth down, they ranked third. The Chargers also ranked 20th in explosive-play rate on early downs; an explosive play is defined by TruMedia as any rush over 11 yards or any completion over 15 yards.
The rushing scheme never established an identity either. Part of that was some transition, as run game coordinator Frank Smith left for the Dolphins’ offensive coordinator position last offseason. Part of that was offensive line injuries in 2022, particularly losing Slater. But part of that too was Lombardi’s scheming and play-calling. The Chargers ranked 22nd in EPA per rush in 2022 — a sluggish overall season that was epitomized by the second half in Jacksonville, when Lombardi’s offense mustered just 7 yards on seven carries while trying to protect a 27-point lead.
“We didn’t ever get good at one thing last year in the run game,” center Corey Linsley said in June. “We had our plays that were successful, but they were individual plays. There wasn’t a scheme, and we never felt like we got in a flow.”
Staley needed more — more energy, more creativity, more innovation. He needed alignment. He needed a challenger.
“It was about joining up with someone who can think the way that I do,” Staley said, “and with that type of agility.”
Staley and the front office dove into their offensive coordinator search. They announced five interviews, all with either direct or indirect ties to McVay: Rams passing game coordinator/QBs coach Zac Robinson, Rams senior offensive assistant Greg Olson, Vikings assistant quarterbacks coach Jerrod Johnson, Rams assistant head coach Thomas Brown and Titans tight ends coach Luke Steckel.
In the background of the search, though, there were murmurs of a potential divorce in Dallas.
Moore had been elevated to offensive coordinator in 2019 by Garrett. In January 2020, the Cowboys fired Garrett, replacing him with McCarthy. The Cowboys kept Moore as offensive coordinator and play caller, setting up an arranged marriage with McCarthy. Moore achieved considerable success over three seasons, but by the end of the 2022 season, the partnership had run its course.
The Chargers announced their final interview with Steckel on Thursday, Jan. 26. By the weekend, their focus had shifted to Moore, who at the time was still under contract with the Cowboys.
Moore did not come from the McVay-Kyle Shanahan coaching tree, which had been the focus of the Chargers search thus far. That tree — highlighted in The Athletic’s recent narrative podcast, “The Playcallers” — includes several of the NFL’s brightest young offensive minds, such as Packers coach Matt LaFleur, Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell and Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel, the latter two of which Staley had tried to hire as his offensive coordinator when he first got the Chargers job in 2021.
But Moore, even without a direct connection, is considered almost an unofficial part of the tree.
“It’s really about how you think, not, like, did you work with them or did you learn from them?” Staley said. “Do you think like them? Do you create like them? … There’s a very specific number of people, and it’s not a very long list, who are wired that way. And he may not have worked with those guys, but the amount of respect that they have for him, they see him as peers, and they don’t really view people like that very often.”
The Chargers put in an official request to interview Moore. The Cowboys granted permission. And by the end of the weekend, Staley was on the phone with Moore.
Staley started the conversation with all his fundamental, big-picture football tenets: team-building, culture, relationships and competition, character and capacity, situational masters.
Next, he delved into schematic philosophies: weaponizing personnel groupings, motion, playing with pace, putting maximum pressure on a defense via play-calling and personnel usage.
As Staley dove deep into his football ideology, all he heard were affirmations and agreements on the other end of the line: “Yes, yes, yes.”
“There was the finishing of each other’s sentences,” Staley said.
“You got really, really excited,” Moore said.
As that excitement crescendoed over the phone, Staley was reminded of the 12-hour interview that landed him the Rams defensive coordinator job.
“You’re just building. Everything is like a build, and that’s how it was with Sean and I,” Staley said. “You knew that he was up for it. You just knew that he’s up for all of it.”
The only difference is Staley’s phone call with Moore did not last 12 hours. As Staley joked, “There was a lot less competition for my services.”
Moore was not lacking in opportunities when it became clear that his time in Dallas was coming to an end.
“He could have gone anywhere in the NFL,” Staley said. “And when I say anywhere — anywhere.”
The connection with Staley was a factor. But what offensive play caller wouldn’t want the opportunity to coach Herbert, one of the most talented quarterbacks in football who is still just scratching the surface of his limitless potential?
“Justin’s combination of arm talent, size and athleticism is very rare,” Moore said. “Not just now, but ever.”
Moore’s diverse schematic background as a player and coach has allowed him to both build a system tailored to Herbert and ease the transition.
Most notably, Moore played for Lombardi in 2014 with the Lions. So when he first picked up Lombardi’s playbook, he recognized pretty much all of the verbiage and concepts. No learning or adjustment period necessary.
“Everybody’s saying the same stuff, but we’re talking in different languages,” receivers coach Chris Beatty said. “Some is Spanish, some is French, some is English. Kellen’s fluent in a couple of the languages.”
For Moore, the process this offseason started with bridging these two worlds.
“People think change has to be a reset. No,” Moore said. “Part of this transition is to make sure you don’t lose all the good that’s going on at a place.
“It doesn’t have to be Dallas. It doesn’t have to be 2022 Chargers. It can be ultimately whatever we want it to be.”
What will that look like?
On a general level, it will revolve around Moore’s three core philosophies: play smart, play fast, attack.
On a more specific level, Moore’s passing game will be more spread out than it was under Lombardi. Varying tempos will be a staple of the offense. And Moore will encourage an aggressive mentality from Herbert, both in the structure of the system and how he calls plays on game day. Moore will also implement a simplified run scheme that has an identity rooted between the tackles.
This is the vision that resonated with Staley on that phone call in late January.
“It’s like we’ve known each other our whole lives,” Staley said. “It’s like we’ve worked together for years. You got this instant chemistry, and you can take it really far that way.”
Still, there is a reality here: No one outside of the Chargers facility really knows what a Kellen Moore offense looks like. Moore carved out a seat among the elite offensive play callers in four seasons in Dallas. But he did so under certain constraints. He was calling plays for two accomplished offensive coaches with clearly defined schematic philosophies in Garrett and McCarthy.
What else can Moore achieve when there are no limitations?
Staley is determined to give Moore that space, because it is the same space McVay afforded him in 2020.
He remembers the feeling.
“I’m going to have the latitude to go places I haven’t,” Staley said, “and that’s going to be better for me and it’s going to be better for us.”
theathletic.com/4701325/2023/07/25/chargers-brandon-staley-kellen-moore/
