Dolphins to interview Brandon Staley for defensive coordinator opening

The Dolphins are interviewing former Los Angeles Chargers head coach Brandon Staley for their defensive coordinator opening, a league source told the Miami Herald.

ESPN first reported Staley is scheduled to meet with Miami about its defensive coordinator vacancy this weekend.

According to NFL Network, the team also requested to interview Buffalo Bills linebackers coach Bobby Babich.

The Dolphins and Vic Fangio mutually parted ways on Wednesday after one season.

Staley, 41, was fired as Chargers head coach on Dec. 15. He was hired before the 2021 season and had a 24-24 regular season record in Los Angeles. He was 0-1 in the playoffs.

Staley offers the chance to retain a defensive scheme that gave the Dolphins its first top-10 finish since 2010. Staley got his start in the NFL as the outside linebackers coach of the Chicago Bears in 2017 and 2018, learning under Fangio when he was defensive coordinator.

From there, Staley was a fast riser in the coaching ranks. He joined Fangio in Denver when he became the Broncos head coach; Staley once again coached outside linebackers (Dolphins outside linebacker Bradley Chubb was in Denver that season but only played in four games because of a torn ACL). Staley then spent one season as the Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator in 2020 — he coached cornerback Jalen Ramsey — before getting the head coaching job with the Chargers.

In Staley’s lone season with the Rams, Los Angeles led the NFL in scoring defense (18.5 points per game) and yards per play (4.6), was third in third-down defense (35.2 percent) and 12th in red zone efficiency (58.7 percent).

Ramsey, who was named a Pro Bowl and a first-team All-Pro selection in that 2020 season with Staley, was highly complimentary of the coach. Ramsey called Staley “the best defensive coordinator that I’ve had for sure in the NFL.”

There could also be continuity among the coaching staff. Renaldo Hill, who is the Dolphins’ passing game coordinator/secondary coach, was the defensive coordinator under Staley for two seasons before leaving to join Fangio’s staff.

Staley ran a similar defense to Fangio’s with the Chargers but the units struggled in his three seasons as head coach. From 2021 to 2023, the unit ranked bottom-10 in yards per game allowed, third-down defense, takeaways and points allowed, despite a high-priced group that included multiple Pro Bowlers. Staley called defensive plays as head coach.

But Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel got an up-close look at Staley’s acumen when Miami faced Los Angeles in Week 14 of the 2022 season, a 23-17 loss. The Chargers held the Dolphins to a season-low 4.5 yards per play and Miami’s 17 points were tied for the third-lowest the team scored in a game that season.

The Dolphins faced the Chargers again in Week 1 of the 2023 season, a 36-34 win for Miami.

In Miami, Staley would inherit a talented defense that was undercut by injuries in the second half of the season. The Dolphins played their season-ending loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the wild-card round without five starting defenders. Chubb and fellow outside linebacker Jaelan Phillips sustained severe lower-body injuries late in the regular season that place their availability for the start of the 2024 season in question.

The Dolphins also have multiple key contributors set to hit free agency, including defensive lineman Christian Wilkins, outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel and safety DeShon Elliott.

An Ohio native, Staley was the starting quarterback at the University of Dayton in 2003 and 2004 before finishing his playing career at Mercyhurst College in 2005. He got his start in coaching as a graduate assistant at Northern Illinois in 2006 and had stops at St. Thomas, Hutchinson Community College, Tennessee, John Carroll and James Madison before joining Fangio in Chicago.

Babich, 40, just completed his seventh year coaching in Buffalo. He joined the team in 2017 an assistant defensive backs coach and then was promoted to safeties coach in 2018. Before the 2022 season, he was named the team’s linebackers coach.

An alum of North Dakota State, where he played cornerback for his father, Bob, Babich got his start in coaching as a graduate assistant for Kent State in 2006. He then served as secondary coach at Eastern Illinois for the next four years before making the jump to the pros, starting as an administrative assistant for Ron Rivera and the Carolina Panthers in 2011. In 20212, Babich served as a defensive assistant in Carolina before moving on to roles with the Cleveland Browns (he was on the same staff as McDaniel in 2014) and FIU.

Babich joined Buffalo’s coaching staff at the same as his father and replaced him as linebackers coach in 2022 upon Bobby’s retirement from coaching in the NFL.

Staley and Babich are the first known candidates for Miami’s defensive coordinator opening. ESPN reported that Staley is also meeting with the Green Bay Packers for their defensive coordinator vacancy and has drawn interest from the Rams after Raheem Morris left to become the Atlanta Falcons head coach.

The Packers and New York Giants have also reportedly expressed interest in Babich for their defensive coordinator vacancies.