Following Renaldo Hill‘s exit for Miami, the Chargers are expected to promote defensive backs coach Derrick Ansley to defensive coordinator. But the team is either looking into more options or covering its bases.
The Bolts have interviewed Patriots defensive line coach DeMarcus Covington and University of Houston defensive coordinator Doug Belk for the role, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. Teams must interview at least one external minority candidate for coordinator positions to comply with the Rooney Rule.
It is unclear if the Chargers are set on Ansley, though the initial report of the two-year DBs coach being ticketed for the promotion points to that still being the team’s plan. Both Ansley, 41, and Covington have coached in the NFL for several seasons; Belk has been with Houston for the past four.
The Chargers will have two new coordinators in 2023. Following the team’s decision to fire OC Joe Lombardi and hire Kellen Moore, Hill left for a non-DC job on Vic Fangio‘s staff. Hill, who coached on Fangio’s Broncos staff from 2019-20, is now the Dolphins’ defensive pass-game coordinator.
This marks an interesting shakeup for a Bolts team that won 10 games in 2022. That said, the Chargers are coming off a 27-point playoff collapse in Jacksonville. The team is not believed to have strongly considered firing Brandon Staley, but the two-year HC’s seat temperature certainly increased because of the way his team’s season ended.
Belk, 35, has hovered off the NFL radar prior to this interview, and Houston is coming off a down defensive season. The American Athletic Conference team slid to 112th nationally in scoring defense (32.2 points allowed per game). Belk, who was the Cougars’ co-DC from 2019-20, did helm a top-20 scoring defense in 2021, however. Houston went 12-2 that year.
Covington, 33, interviewed for the Cardinals’ DC job recently and can be considered a candidate to monitor for future positions at the very least. He has been New England’s D-line coach for three seasons. The Patriots hired Covington out of the college ranks back in 2017. The Cardinals ended up going with Nick Rallis for their DC post; at 29, Rallis is currently the league’s youngest coordinator.