“Jalen’s wild” as DC Staley deals winning hand for LA Rams D

DC Staley using Jalen Ramsey as a wildcard in LA Rams 2020 D

The LA Rams new defensive coordinator Brandon Staley is a complex, many-layered, but fun case-study in the realm of NFL defense construction.  After all, where else can you talk with a straight face about a new defensive coordinator who has never called a single defensive play in his entire NFL career. While that is not unheard of, it does tempt the eye-roll reaction from anyone who hears it for the first time.

With all that said, he has had the good fortune of coaching up to four future NFL HOFers? He is a refreshing matter-of-fact voice from someone who is neither star-struck nor hollow when he talks football. He is simply the guy who knows so much about the game that he understands he doesn’t know everything.

JCU tree of NFL coaches

He comes from the JCU pipeline, John Carroll University which has the uncanny distinction of turning out future NFL coaches and executives. The school’s reputation is so widespread that Ashley Bastock of Sports Business Daily.com wrote a feature article about the connection while Brandon Staley was still the outside linebackers coach for the Chicago Bears.

While I won’t attempt to draw a cause and effect relationship, I will point out that there is a fraternal bond for persons who graduate from the same alma mater. That in itself gives Staley a huge network of NFL experienced persons to draw upon, beyond his own direct contacts made during his career. And it’s perhaps that which has helped Staley’s own command of the game, blended with an undying willingness to learn new innovations as well.