The first real concern around Chris O’Leary’s Chargers defense showed up fast.
Los Angeles opened the 2026 season with a loss to the Arizona Cardinals, and the number that stands out most from Sunday is the one up front: just eight pressures, according to Pro Football Focus’ initial tracking. If that holds, it would be the Chargers’ lowest pressure total in a game since they had seven against the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2025.
That kind of output is a sharp departure from what the Chargers were getting under Jesse Minter. In 36 games with Minter as defensive coordinator, they reportedly finished with fewer than 10 pressures only four times. So even if one game is far too small a sample to judge an entire system, it’s still enough to raise a real question about how O’Leary’s version of this defense is going to function.
O’Leary is in his first season running an NFL defense, and he’s putting his own stamp on a unit that still has many of the same core pieces. The expectation was simple: keep the aggressive identity that helped make the Chargers one of the league’s better defenses over the last two seasons.
And there’s still every reason to think that can happen. Khalil Mack, Tuli Tuipulotu, Akheem Mesidor and the rest of the pass rush have too much talent for eight pressures to suddenly become the standard.
But pressure is the engine behind an aggressive defense, and when it doesn’t show up, the whole thing gets tricky. Blitzing can create turnovers and negative plays, but it also pulls bodies out of coverage. If the quarterback has enough time, that aggression can flip on you.
That’s the part O’Leary has to solve quickly. The Chargers have plenty of defensive talent, and one rough opener doesn’t erase that. Still, if the pressure numbers stay this low, it will get harder for Los Angeles to match the defensive success it had under Minter.
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