The Los Angeles Chargers made a splash before free agency even started. The trade for All-Pro edge rusher Khalil Mack was a clear sign that the front office wanted to invest heavily in their defense. But it’s the signing of Sebastian Joseph-Day in free agency that really shapes the way that the Chargers will operate on that side of the ball.
To understand how head coach Brandon Staley wants the Chargers defense to function, you first must understand his philosophy. Staley is a disciple of the Vic Fangio coaching tree. He was the outside linebacker coach for the Chicago Bears when Fangio was the defensive coordinator and followed him to the Denver Broncos in 2019. His defensive schemes are similar to Fangio’s. Both prefer the option of playing two-high shells, or coverages that employ two-high safeties, and want to put a roof over an offense’s head.
It’s no secret that the NFL is a passing league now more than ever. Teams are passing earlier, further, and more often. Being proactive and limiting that action is a smart decision. Two-high coverages are in vogue and it’s easy to see why. But this is the NFL and everything comes at a cost.
And the expense is charged down in the tackle box. Taking that safety out of the box and dropping them into coverage leaves defenses exposed against the run. Historically, early-down defenses have been some form of Cover 1. Be it, Cover-1 man or Cover-3, the idea has been simple: defenses want to have enough bodies in the box to defend the run.
That means, if the offense has their five offensive lineman blocking, the defense would need six defenders – five blockers and a free man to tackle the ball carrier. It’s referred to as gap sounds, plus one in the box, or just loading the box.
But take away that extra defender, and suddenly you’re not so structurally sound. There simply wouldn’t be enough defenders to block every man and tackle the runner. It’s a numbers game, and the defense would always be at a disadvantage. Having the best of both worlds – a defense that can consistently defend the pass and the run proves elusive.
With Staley as their defensive coordinator, the 2020 Rams defense allowed under 200 passing yards per game and the second-fewest explosive passing plays – passing plays of 15+ yards – in the league, per Sharps Football Analysis. The secondary, led by All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey, was untouchable. Proof that Staley’s philosophy had merit.
But this is where things get interesting. The Rams also allowed just 91.3 rushing yards per game, the third-best in the NFL. Staley found a way to have his cake and eat it, and he did it by borrowing a defensive front from college football: the Tite Front, a defensive alignment consisting of three down defenders, one of which is a zero technique nose tackle – who lines up directly over the center and two 4i defensive ends, who have an inside shade on the offensive tackle.
The job of the defensive front isn’t necessarily to slip blocks and penetrate running lanes, instead, it’s to squeeze interior gaps, delay a running backs decision on which lane to take, and force runs outside. There’s a heavy emphasis placed on the role of the zero technique defender in the alignment. And that’s where Sebastian Joseph-Day comes in.
Joseph-Day was the nose tackle in Staley’s Tite Front in 2020. He’s a big and powerful defender that possesses the necessary strength and speed to eat up interior space in a flash and disrupt running lanes. As the nose tackle in a Tite Front, his job was to cover both A-gaps – the gap between the center and the guard. Using his power and length to shift from gap-to-gap and squeeze those interior running lanes.
He excelled in this role. No interior defender had more stops in the run game than Joseph-Day’s 35 stops in 2020, and his run-stop percentage of 14.2 percent was the highest in the NFL. Along with Aaron Donald, he was the anchor of the Rams’ run defense. His ability to play both gaps caused enough hesitation in the offensive running game that it gave the Rams’ safeties enough time to come down into the box to help out as extra tacklers.
And those runs that he helped force wide were often cleaned up by Jalen Ramsey, who played a noticeable amount of slot corner on early downs. There aren’t many more physical cornerbacks in the NFL than Ramsey, and that physicality was utilized in the slot to allow him to have more impact in the running game. If the running back still found a way to bounce his run inside, he’d have to contend with Donald or Michael Brockers, who could also penetrate those rushing lanes, inside or out.
Every player had his part to play, but Joseph-Day was the unsung hero of the defense. The Rams allowed a rushing success rate of 34.7 percent, per RBSDM, and Staley’s incredible year as the defensive coordinator got him the job as the Chargers head coach. And a year later, the Chargers have just signed Joseph-Day to a three-year, $24 million deal, per Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network.
It’s not a moment too soon either. Staley tried to utilize two-high coverages meshed with the Tite Front to slow down the pass and the run in his first year with the Chargers, but the results weren’t anything to write home about. The Chargers allowed the worst success rate against the run in the NFL in 2021 and allowed the third-most rushing yards per game, while their defensive interior was consistently gashed while trying to implement Staley’s philosophy.
Linval Joseph played the role of the nose tackle for the Chargers last season, a role he’s excelled at during his career. But this front asks a lot of its defensive tackles. This was Joseph’s age-33 season, and expecting him to handle such a heavy workload was always going to be a big ask.
The main difference between the Chargers front in 2021 and the Rams front of 2020 is obvious: only one of those teams had Aaron Donald. Overall, the Chargers just didn’t possess the personnel to make the scheme work. Derwin James could have been used in the same role as Ramsey on early downs, but his value in coverage as a safety was equally important.
And, of course, the Chargers didn’t have Joseph-Day in 2021. Not many teams have a 6-foot-4, 310lb defensive tackle that moves with speed but also flashes raw concentrated power. His reunion with Staley makes a lot of sense from a few different perspectives.
The Rams found some success with Greg Gaines playing as their nose tackle in 2021 after Joseph-Day missed significant time with a pectoral injury. The Rams also had other financial commitments to make in the offseason and were simply unable to allocate the funds to pay Joseph-Day.
But Staley had undoubtedly been planning for this moment all year. He knew the adjustments and acquisitions that would have to be made to overhaul the Chargers defense in 2022. It started with the trade for Mack and was followed by the signings of Joseph-Day and lockdown corner, J.C. Jackson.
Each player offers fundamental value that was missing from the team last year. Mack has been one of the best run defenders off the edge for the better half of a decade and brings a pass-rush ability that few can match. He, along with Joey Bosa, will likely be tasked with cleaning up a lot of those runs that are forced outside. Or, they’ll use their elite athleticism to slip blocks and force the runner to stay inside, into the grasp of the 4i technique.
Yet it will be Joseph-Day who is the key component in helping the Chargers in their weakest area. He allows Staley the flexibility to run the front that he’s seen the most success with by bringing a skillset that he’s familiar with. The Chargers’ defensive identity will look much the same as 2021, but the results may well be more in line with what’s expected from a Brandon Staley defense.
-Thomas Valentine
Twitter: @ThomasValenfine