One glaring hole on the coaching staff of the San Diego Chargers is at Linebackers Coach. After John Pagano, the LB Coach since Ron Rivera was promoted to Defensive Coordinator, was promoted to Defensive Coordinator he was tasked with the job of finding his replacement. Based off the fact that he hasn't named who that person is yet, I'm going assume they're going outside of the current crop of coaches. Join me while I dig up some interesting names for Pagano to look at.
Kevin Greene (Green Bay Packers - Outside Linebackers Coach)
The five-time Pro Bowler who turned his career around when paired with Dom Capers (and then followed him to the Panthers), who he now coaches under in Green Bay, has been tutoring Clay Matthews and the Packers' pass-rushers. While Pagano having good success coaching up MLBs in the 3-4, finding and crafting a pass-rusher to play opposite Shaun Phillips has been a struggle. Greene would help.
Keith Butler (Pittsburgh Steelers - Linebackers Coach)
Butler has been with the Steelers for 9 seasons and is largely regarded as the best 3-4 LBs Coach in the business. No idea how you'd get him to leave the Steelers without offering him the DC job, but we're just spitballing here.
Jim Leavitt (San Francisco 49ers - Linebackers Coach)
The long-time coach at the University of Southern Florida was brought to San Francisco by Jim Harbaugh. In his first season, his LB group was among the best in football at rushing the passer and stopping the run.
Reggie Herring (Houston Texans - Linebackers Coach)
Herring followed Wade Phillips, serving the same role in Dallas, to the Texans and did a fine job with the LBs despite losing Mario Williams early in the season.
Stephen Cooper (former San Diego Chargers player)
The dark horse, unlikely because of his total lack of coaching experience, that fans want because they know players better than they know coaches. Hiring Cooper to be the LB Coach would be an unprecedented move, but I wouldn't be surprised if he came on as some special assistant or maybe even the Assistant Linebackers Coach if Greg Williams got promoted to Linebackers Coach.
The odd thing, looking through the coaching staffs of successful 3-4 defenses, is how many of them have separate coaches for the Inside Linebackers and Outside Linebackers. It makes sense, with the two positions being so different. I wonder, if Pagano considers himself more of an Inside Linebackers Coach, if the Chargers are maybe looking for someone who can focus strictly on improving the pass-rush.