The Chargers announced that they had officially finalized their coaching staff for the 2023 season this week. Los Angeles had a semi-busy offseason after changing both coordinators but, ultimately, kept most of the same support staff around the new coaches. We’ve noted a number of their offseason changes already on this site, but a few in this week’s announcement were new.
The Chargers used the announcement to officially announce the hiring of new offensive assistant Phil Serchia. For the last three years, Serchia has served as offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Hutchinson Community College in Kansas.
Serchia is likely taking the spot of former offensive assistant Mike Hiestand. Hiestand will be changing sides of the ball to serve on defense as the team’s front seven specialist. Also taking a role change is former defensive assistant John Timu. Timu has been promoted to the position of assistant defensive line coach for the 2023 season.
Here are a few other coaching updates from around the league:
- The Buccaneers have added an experienced veteran to their coaching staff in a minor role, according to team senior writer/editor Scott Smith. David Raih has been brought on to serve in the role of offensive analyst. Raih has had stints as a wide receivers coach for the Packers and Cardinals but most recently served as offensive coordinator at Vanderbilt in 2021.
- The Colts made their one and only change to their defensive staff last week, hiring Payton McCollum to the role of defensive assistant, according to Josh Alper of NBC Sports. McCollum only has offensive experience on his resume, serving as an offensive analyst at Eastern Michigan and quarterbacks coach at the University of Washington in recent years. His only NFL experience dates back to 2017 when McCollum spent two seasons as an offensive assistant with the Lions.
The Chargers have a talented defense that is awful. Their defensive coach is still there. I just don’t understand that.
The Chargers’ offense is great, despite being led by a still young and relatively inexperienced quarterback without a steady veteran presence on the coaching staff. You have to wonder how much better that offense could be with an experienced coordinator that stays for multiple seasons to foster a complete identity. Staley is not contributing to that, as he is a defensive coach. Staley also has managed to underachieve on the defensive side, despite having the likes of Derwin Hames, Asante Samuel Jr., Joey Bosa, and Khalil Mack. The Chargers have had lesser known contributors too, and yet have trouble in important moments defensively (such as allowing that historic Jaguars comeback in the playoffs).
The biggest, by far most important, knock on Staley in my mind is his refusal to change after making a mistake. Rather, he digs in and doubles down, and makes the same mistake again. It’d be one thing if his defense, one that the Chargers put a lot of investment into, was the best in the league. It instead has been above average to just good over the last few seasons.
Staley should’ve been shitcanned