We saw an abnormally large number of new coordinators this cycle, but every year some big hires hit and others flounder, while some lesser-known names come to surprise fans across the sport. I’ve chosen my top candidate for each fate among this crop of defensive coordinators.

Yesterday, I did this exercise with the offensive coordinators. Now, it’s time for the same on the other side of the ball. A few months back, I graded all of the new offensive and defensive coordinator hires (that were official at the time). Now, I’m going to take a closer look at three of the defensive coordinators hired this cycle and do a deep dive into their styles, tendencies and prospects. What are their histories? What schemes do they run? How likely are they to succeed in their new positions?

Thrive: 49ers DC Raheem Morris

The award for best defensive coordinator hire this cycle goes to the 49ers, scooping up Morris after his time as the head coach in Atlanta came to an end. Robert Saleh is off to be a head coach again after his one-year return to San Francisco, so Kyle Shanahan imported another former head coach to take his place running the defense.

Morris has coached defenses all over the league. He got his start on that side of the ball with Tampa Bay, working several different defensive assistant roles before making the rare jump to head coach without being a coordinator first. That run didn’t go well, but Morris’ defensive acumen never waned. He spent years as a defensive assistant in Atlanta before Sean McVay hired him as his defensive coordinator with the Rams in 2021.

Part of what makes Morris so unique is his experience coaching both sides of the ball. In addition to his time on defense, he spent time as a wide receivers coach and offensive pass game coordinator during his first stint in Atlanta, and this expertise shows up in how he coaches his defenses. Adaptability permeates everything he does — there aren’t many throughlines you can point to across his years coaching defenses to predict what he’ll do in San Francisco this year.

That said, he tends to tailor his scheme to his personnel. In Atlanta, Morris ran a high percentage of five-man fronts to take advantage of the group of young, talented defensive tackles the team had drafted. However, he’s already indicated that he plans to stick with the four-man fronts the 49ers ran under Saleh. Aside from offseason addition Osa Odighizuwa, San Francisco doesn’t have many interior defenders it can rely on. Morris knows this, and he’ll do his best to run schemes that benefit the team rather than rigidly sticking to “his looks.”

Despite having the league’s worst pass rush and a bevy of injuries to important players last year, the 49ers held it together on defense for the most part, even into the playoffs. They upgraded their personnel and got healthy this offseason. Morris has been set up for success, and he rarely disappoints.

Flop: Packers DC Jonathan Gannon

On the surface, the Packers hiring Gannon is a solid (if unspectacular) retread former head coach returning to the coordinator ranks. Before he was the top guy in Arizona, Gannon spent two years as the defensive coordinator in Philadelphia, following Nick Sirianni from the Colts, where he was a defensive assistant. Gannon got the Cardinals job following an Eagles run to the Super Bowl in 2022, so the thought is that he can comfortably return to the defensive coordinator ranks, giving Green Bay a proven commodity to run that side of the ball.

But a strong 2022 season in Philadelphia (a year in which the Eagles ranked second in total defense, fourth in PFF defensive grade and sixth in EPA per play allowed) is overshadowing the rest of a rather underwhelming resume. Let’s start by examining Gannon’s first season with the Eagles in 2021. That year, Philly boasted fairly strong basic defensive stats (such as total defense). But the advanced metrics and situational stuff painted a different picture. The Eagles had one of the worst red-zone and third-down defenses in the country that year, and ranked in the bottom quarter of the league in PFF defensive grade and EPA per play allowed.

Now let’s take a look at the three years Gannon spent running things in Arizona. He was the head coach there, but he called plays on defense and it was his scheme. Over those three years, the Cardinals ranked dead last in the league in PFF defensive grade and percentage of positively graded plays allowed. They were 31st in EPA per play allowed and ranked outside the top 20 in total defense each season. The Cardinals didn’t have the strongest roster in any of those years (though that excuse holds up less and less the further through Gannon’s tenure you progress) and they played in a tough division. But Gannon didn’t do anything to elevate that unit in his time there.

In short, Gannon has one good season in five as a defensive playcaller. After his first season in Philadelphia, fans were calling for his job. Eagles fans tend to do that a lot, but this time they had a point. Gannon’s defenses were never good at situational football. To me, that speaks to coaching, and that’s a shame, because on paper, Gannon looks like a pretty good fit in Green Bay. He runs a 3-4 defense (though he insists he has no scheme) which is a good match with the Packers’ personnel. He’ll be asked to lead a unit with high expectations on a team looking to compete in a loaded NFC. I don’t know that he’s the man for the job.

Surprise: Chargers DC Chris O’Leary

Most football fans have never even heard of O’Leary. But this was an incredible hire by Chargers HC Jim Harbaugh for several reasons. After Jesse Minter got a head coaching gig in Baltimore, Harbaugh settled on a unique target, a young Western Michigan defensive coordinator. NFL teams don’t typically hunt for coordinators from the Group of Five ranks, no matter how successful the Broncos were last season.

But the Chargers weren’t the only team that came calling. O’Leary was heavily pursued by Ohio State to fill their defensive coordinator vacancy, and other high-profile college teams were close behind. Western Michigan paid a premium to keep O’Leary in town — until the inevitable lure of the NFL drew him away.

O’Leary comes from the same coaching tree as Minter: Mike Macdonald. The Seahawks head coach just won a Super Bowl with one of the league’s most disruptive defenses and between his time in Seattle and Baltimore has developed a reputation as one of the most adaptive and creative defensive minds in the game. O’Leary actually worked under Minter in Los Angeles in 2024 and now takes the reins of his old friend’s defense.

Under Minter, the Chargers ran zone coverage almost exclusively, leading the NFL by a wide margin. In part, he did this to help mitigate an under-talented Los Angeles defense (Derwin James is the only All-Pro-caliber player on that unit), but unlike most zone-heavy teams, the Chargers weren’t content to just sit back and play passive defense. In fact, they became one of the stingiest defenses in the NFL, a testament to Minter’s scheme and ability to blend “safer” coverages with more aggressive playstyles.

In contrast, at Western Michigan, O’Leary was a frequent blitzer and played a lot of heavy man looks. College football rarely maps well onto the NFL, and it would be unfair to assume that O’Leary would maintain similar tendencies in Los Angeles. Still, it’s more in line with how Macdonald usually schemes his defenses, and it may be an indication that the 2026 Chargers may resemble Seattle’s defense from a year ago more than their own.