Who’s Next NFL Genius? Chargers Could Use One

Every year, at about this time, a genius is born. It has to do with the Super Bowl, of course, and the brains behind the brawn.

Bill Walsh, for example, was born a genius in January of 1982, and reborn in January of 1985. Joe Gibbs had his January of genius. This is the way it has gone for coaches whose athletes win the very biggest of them all.

This year’s genius is not a head coach, and this is unusual. His name is Buddy Ryan, and he is the creator of the Chicago Bears’ defense. To hear tell, it probably took him six days of work prior to a seventh day of rest.

This brings us to a fellow named Ron Lynn, whose job occupation is not one of inherent longevity. He is the latest of the Chargers’ defensive coordinators.

“The possibility for lengthy employment in San Diego would not, on the surface, appear to be very good,” he mused. “There are a lot of headstones down there.”

The defensive coordinators of the 1980s have been Jackie Simpson, Jack Pardee, Tom Bass, Dave Adolph and now Lynn, who will be the fifth in seven seasons. There are fast food joints with less turnover.

Lynn, however, assumes the position in what might be the worst of times. Lynn assumes the position in The Year of Buddy and the Bears, the year in which defense has been glorified as never before.

Charger defensive coordinators have always suffered from comparisons with the Charger offense, and now along comes this “state of the art” behemoth from Chicago. Everyone’s defense will now be measured against the Bears’, which managed to turn a Super Bowl into a private party.

Logically, the Bears’ success will prompt an epidemic of imitators.

“Really,” Lynn said, “a lot of factors are involved. Anybody can line up players where the Bears line them up, but I’m not sure everybody can be as successful because of who they line up in those places. Personally, I think the key is that the Bears have four down linemen and two linebackers who are very successful at rushing the quarterback. The system just turns them loose.”

Obviously, Lynn conceded, defensive coordinators will spend considerable time studying film of the Bear defense.

“It’s typical that these things become cyclical,” he said. “It was the same way with the one-back offense, and all the off-shoots from that. The one-back offense made Dan Henning a head coach.”

Henning became a head coach in Atlanta after working as Joe Gibbs’ right-hand man in Washington. The same thing had happened to Gibbs under Don Coryell’s tutelage here.

And it now appears that Buddy Ryan, defensive genius, has parlayed his success into a head coaching position with the Philadelphia Eagles.

However, Charger defensive coordinators have not taken those giant steps into head coaching positions. They seem to disappear into an oblivion. This fate is almost a relief after enduring the slings and arrows which invariably come their way.

“The supposition that Tom Bass or Dave Adolph or Jack Pardee are not good coaches is fallacious,” Lynn said. “Part of the problem was likely timing, and who knows the chemistry of a team? Maybe everything will just click for us.”

Lynn is not approaching his chore in San Diego as if it will be a short-term stay. He is selling his house in Walnut Creek, over the foothills from his previous employment with the Oakland Invaders of the United States Football League. He is headed south, hoping his defense does not do the same thing.

On this particular occasion, he was in his apartment in Reno. That would seem to be an appropriate place for a gambling defense to be formulated.

“I’ve just popped a roll of film onto the projector,” he said. “I brought along the films of our division opponents.”

Since his hiring 10 days ago, Lynn has spent most of his time viewing Charger films. He had previously seen little of the unit he will be asked to turn into a force rather than a farce.

“Obviously,” he said, “we need to improve. We’ve got good young players, and they’ll continue to get better. A lot of them have been forced to play before they were ready emotionally or technically or maybe even in terms of physical maturity. We’re looking to see if we have any glaring needs or weaknesses we might be able to address in the draft.”

The draft is a priority, and Lynn goes to New Orleans Thursday for a camp showcasing the top collegiate seniors. He will measure what he sees in the flesh against what he has seen of the Chargers on film.

Lynn will be trying to determine if perhaps the Chargers have a budding Mike Singletary in Mike Green and if Gill Byrd might be another Gary Fencik and if Lee Williams can wreak havoc a la Richard Dent. If the Chargers cannot find a Refrigerator, maybe they can at least find a Vacuum Cleaner capable of cleaning up on enemy quarterbacks.

Indeed, the Chargers are a mirror image of the Bears of two or three years ago. The Chargers have the offense in place, but the defense struggles. The Bears had the defense in place, but the offense struggled.

Ron Lynn comes to this town of fallen defensive coordinators with the challenge of succeeding where so many others, all of them bright and talented, have failed. Yes, the headstones of many a defensive coordinator are strewn in the end zones of Mission Valley.

Ron Lynn has an opportunity to be a genius. He’ll have to be.