Chargers hire Chris O’Leary as defensive coordinator

The Chargers and coach Jim Harbaugh have found their replacement for Jesse Minter.

The team has announced that Western Michigan defensive coordinator Chris O’Leary will become the new defensive coordinator.

O’Leary had served as the Chargers’ safeties coach in 2024. He spent six seasons before that at Notre Dame.

Before that, O’Leary was a graduate assistant at Georgia State for in 2015 and 2016. He was hired to be the safeties coach at Florida Tech in 2017.

The return to the NFL in the position of defensive coordinator counts as O’Leary’s biggest break yet. And it puts him him position, like Minter, to eventually become a head coach at the pro or college level.