December 18, 2025 • 25 mins
Jourdan Rodrigue is joined by Chargers Assistant General Manager Chad Alexander to discuss what went into establishing a new identity for the Chargers, selecting players who exude what the team wants to be, and being led by Jim Harbaugh. Also, Chad explains why communication on every level is important along with building bridges between departments, coaches and players.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hi, everybody, This is Jordan Rodrigan.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I am so excited to share that we are trying
out a new capsule series for NFL Daily called NFL
Daily Power Players. As many of you know, I love football.
One of my favorite things about the NFL is learning
about how teams are built out, decision makers from coaches
to executives to scouts to players think, and the process
itself of the sport. How football people do football is
(00:31):
the coolest thing ever. So in these episodes of NFL
Daily Power Players, We're going to talk to football people
and learn from them and pull back the curtain of
the sport for you just a little further. We'll sprinkle
these into your feed from time to time a little
surprise extra treat for our listeners, be sure to check
out a fantastic first episode with Carolina Panthers Executive vice
(00:52):
president of football Operations Brant Tillis. And today, I am
so thrilled to be speaking with Los Angeles Charts assistant
GM Chad Alexander. Chad has helped build NFL teams for
twenty seven years, with two decades in Baltimore in various
roles in that storied front office and five years with
(01:14):
the New York Jets. Now Chad is GM Joe Hortiz's
right hand man as the Chargers establish themselves as one
of the best teams in the AFC. The playoff hunting
Chargers have obviously had more than their fair share of
injuries all season, but as Chad likes to say, there
are no style points in this league, and.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Especially the way that these Chargers are built.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
And they keep finding ways to win games even unconventionally,
and even before the injuries started rocking their offensive line especially,
you could see the clear vision to be bigger, more physical,
tougher than their opponents. I refer to them often as
a modern throwback because they blend progressive ideas with vintage
football qualities. We're going to talk to Chad today about
(01:57):
helping to build that ethos within the team, which of
course starts with the players, but it's also an important
responsibility for the front office and coaching staff too. I
think you guys are gonna love this. Let's get right
into it, Hi, Chad thrilled to have you here today
on NFL Daily's Power Players.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Thanks for having me. Joan's great to see I.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Feel like we should have just had you come right
up the street from Elsagundo and come into the studio. Here,
I'm staring right across the street at your home stadium.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
I know, I know, that's crazy.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
It's I love La It's it's been cool since being
here for a couple of years.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
And I never lived.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Here before, but obviously visited it quite a few times.
And this is just a great area. It's a lot
of fun.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I know, warm winters. Man, you can never go back.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
You can never go back, never go back. I mean,
I'm not used to this for sure.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
You know, I want to get right into this idea.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
It's so fun watching what you guys have built with
the Chargers over the last couple of seasons, because when
you talk about team identity sometimes it's hard to describe.
You know it when you see it, and you know
it when you feel it. And I would say that
what you guys have built over there has been the
epitome of establishing a tone, establishing a culture, and I
(03:08):
sort of describe your team.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
And we've talked about this as a little bit.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Of like a modern throwback, right, like you sort of
pivoted a little bit when the rest of NFL's defenses
got a little bit smaller, you guys decided to load
up and be bigger, stronger, tougher than everybody, and to
be really multiple schematically in the ways that you also
did that. So take me back to the installation of
(03:34):
this process, what you wanted your identity to be, and
what you started doing, the little pieces you had to
put in place to start trying to figure out how
to get the guys in the building that would epitomize that.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Yeah, I think we always knew that we wanted our
identity to be a team that was extremely tough, extremely physical,
and we wanted our identity to really kind of emulate
the identity of our head coach. You know, Jim Is
every every program he's been associated with has been one
that has been recognized as being extremely tough, violent. Uh,
(04:08):
players that are you know, gritty, players that are versatile
like you talked about, and guys that just you know,
have this unselfishness about them and it's really a next
man up mentality, And you know, we wanted to enforce
our will on opponents, and I think you kind of
see that.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
You know, the last couple of weeks have.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Been really inspiring for for everybody in the organization. You know,
I mean, we won six of our last seven, but
the last two games have really been kind of fistfights
with the two Super Bowl teams from from a year ago.
And I feel like we we you know, we we
try to enforce our identity. We try to kind of
make teams play our style of football and it's not
(04:49):
necessarily conventional in today's football. But at the same time,
we're not really interested in style points and and we
were just really trying to trying to build a book.
And I feel like we're we're trying to establish that.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Well you see it because even with you know, injuries
happening and there's there's this sort of resilience. I think
that that comes through and certainly has this season, including
from the quarterback, who I think when justin Herbert and
especially kind of being in LA and the last you know,
before Jim came in and before you guys installed your
(05:22):
staff and the rest of this roster, some of a reputation.
You know, he being a finesse thrower, right, but you're
seeing him put his foot in the ground, You're seeing
him lower's shoulder. What we talked about a lot on
this show was we're like, Justin Herbert's out of the
house right because he's pointing the first down marker and
he's letting some of that personality show. So with him,
how have you seen him grow and start to really
(05:44):
be the face of this, like this more physical brand
of football that you guys are playing.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Yeah, and we never when we got here, we never
associated him really with anything that's based on being finesse.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
You know, first of all, the guy's a specimen.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
I mean he's here huge, uh physically and you know,
really tough mentally, really tough physically, as he displayed by
by by playing through you know, several injuries and most
recently the non throwing hand. But uh, Justin is extremely rugged,
you know, as a as a player. And yeah, he's
a quarterback that has all the attributes. He's got the
big arm and and he's he's a really athletic player
(06:21):
and a good athlete and guy that can run. But
but at the same time, he he's extremely tough, and
you know, it's inspirational to his teammates, you know, for
for them to see a guy like that play through injuries,
just for them to see a guy like that who's
really tough, minded, and and and just has a no
nonsense approach to pretty much everything. I think it's it's uh,
(06:42):
it's it's really it's empowering for the rest of the team,
and and it's someone who people can look to and
draw inspiration from. So, I mean, he's an outstanding leader
and he really kind of embodies everything that we're trying
to accomplish here.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I love that response because you're also describing traits right
that you were really very much much needed to go
and scout to bring more players into the building as
you guys were establishing what you wanted this roster to be,
whether it was veteran players in free agency or retaining
some of the veteran players who are already on the roster,
or drafting guys who who have these traits. You have
(07:18):
worked for twenty five years in the league at the
highest levels of scouting and pro personnel, and I always
find that scouts are scouts.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
For life, right, Like you are.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Always looking and assessing, like how a part can fit
to a whole. Right, So when you're looking for trades,
what is the process, like how do you prove beyond
interviews and tape? How do you prove that a guy
has these types of qualities that can sometimes be considered intangible.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
You know, we do a lot of background, a lot
of research on every player that we discuss in terms
of the draft. Specifically, we spend as much time on
the player this is at the top of our draft
board as we do a player that's.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
You know, really the last player on our list.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
And it's really all about sequencing guys and putting guys
in an order, but we do we look for those
those core principles and we look for toughness, We look
for resiliency, We look for grit, We look for guys
who have overcome some sort of adversity, you know, anything
like that, you know, just just key tells that they
can let us know, Hey, this is the type of
player that we want to bring into this program because
it's really not for everybody, you know, it's it's it's
(08:25):
for those, you know, the rare players that are that
are the toughest of the tough, the guys that are
extremely h you know, durable guys that are extremely tough minded,
and you know, those are the type of individuals that
we look for. We uh, we talk to you know,
several different people when we go into these schools, and
we like to you know, compare notes and and bring
(08:47):
everybody into the discussion. And it's all about, you know,
really open and honest communication amongst the coaches, amongst the scouts,
and you know, we do, you know, draw on our experiences.
So myself being in the league for as many years
that I've been in it, you know, there's there's not
very many things that I haven't seen, so you know,
we we we kind of look at that and and
and think about, you know, how's this guy going to
(09:09):
project in our program, you know, and also what's us
our development plan that we have for them, and so
all that stuff is taken into consideration. You know, obviously
we consider analytics and you know, the player development part
of it. But I think that you know, for us,
we the best part about Jim and about Joe Hartiz,
our general manager, is that you know, they have a
(09:31):
clear identity and a clear h you know, set of
you know, standards that they have for each player that
comes into the building. And so we know, based on
the comments from the school, based on the comments from
their coaches, if they've transferred to comments comments from the
last school. We know which type of players are going
to survive and thrive in this building, and those are
(09:53):
definitely the types of players that we try to draft,
the types of players that we try to bring in
through free agency, on the practice squad and on any
avenue in terms of building the roster.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
I like what you said about getting you have such
clarity from Joe and Jim right. Can you speak more
about the importance of that type of clarity in communicating
what an identity is for a team, so that the
entire building has no question. The scouts who are all
over the country, you know, the people who are drawing
up the contracts, the players themselves. What is the importance
(10:25):
of like knowing what you're about and being able to
communicate it.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
I think it's vitally important, you know, it's it's extremely
critical that there's a lot of open and honest communication,
particularly between the scouts and the coaches, right between the
coaching staff and the personnel staff. And you know, Joe
and Jim have done a great job of connecting those
dots and you know, explaining to everybody, Hey, this is
(10:51):
our vision, this is our identity. These are the types
of players we want, and we need. And so when
we come into the draft room, when we discuss these players,
there's open and honest communication.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
There's there's a lot.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Of people that are giving their opinions, and you're encouraged
to give your opinion and not encouraged to you know,
your group think is not opinion is not encouraged. Uh,
you know, discussing things and silos is not encouraged. You're
encouraged to just throw it out out on the table.
And from there we just kind of come up with
a list and in order of how we like, you know,
these guys and and so you know that there's a
(11:24):
lot of detail that goes into every discussion and every
every player that we pick. So so yeah, it's it's
great to be a part of an organization where we
have a clear cut identity. We know what types of
players we want to bring in, and we know what
types of players that they may they you know, they
may they may fit fit elsewhere, but you know it
probably wouldn't be a fit here.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
So I think that that that's important.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Yeah, so much a team building.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
One of the pieces of it that I think is
so underrated is knowing what you also don't want, right
and that's a that's a life lesson too, as you.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
As you grow up.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
And so I'm curious, you know, on NFL Daily, I
warned you about this, Chad on NFL Daily. We like
to play, We like to gamify things. We love game theory,
we love testing out ideas and debating ideas with analysis
behind them.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Of course we don't shout here.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
When you think about like what you've been a part of,
and your life and you and your journey in coaching,
I guess I would ask, like, if you were going
to build a franchise from scratch, Let's say it's on Mars.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
You have a climate.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Control, oxygenated environment, right, it's you're starting totally from scratch.
I want to know what the top three or the
first three decisions you would make, starting with the very
first one, the most important decision you think somebody building
a franchise from scratch needs to make when they come
into an organization.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Wow, that's a good question, I think.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
I think when you're talking about building a franchise from scratch,
I think you're not necessarily concerned about individual players, but
you're really concerned about the culture. You know, culture certainly
matters most theoality of the people in the organization is
always going to determine the success of the organization. And
(13:05):
I think you want to start with alignment. You know,
you want to start with alignment with ownership. And you know,
everybody wants to win, but and everybody wants to do well,
and everyone wants to compete for championships. But how do
you want to win? You know, what do you want
your team to look like? What are your sacred yeses
and those? You know, what do you what are your
(13:26):
non negotiables? How are you going to build an environment
to where people are comfortable having uncomfortable conversations and talking
about every department and throughout football ops and you know,
the analytics, the coaching, the player development, scouting, everybody. How
are we all going to communicate? And you know, how
(13:49):
are we going to have these discussions? You know, the
best decisions really do come from discussion, and I think
that's you know, vitally important. I also think that from there,
you really want to talk about the leadership structure. You know,
you want to decide who's going to come in and
and and be the head coach. You know, who's going
to be the leader of of of men who's going
to come in and and and preach his philosophy and
(14:11):
who's going to be aligned with our vision.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
I think that's extremely important.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
And it's also important to have someone who's a great communicator,
who is a great leader, who's a great teacher, who's
a great motivator, and someone who is extremely authentic. And
I think we're very fortunate to have Jim here.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
He's he's extremely authentic.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
And seen we've seen the clips.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
Yeah, that's exactly who is you know, people ask me
all the time, you know what's he like? And I'm like,
all you got to do is watch one of his
press consages.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
That's who he is.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
You know, he's all ball all the time. And uh,
he's extremely authentic. And that resonates in the locker room.
And I truly do believe that, you know, the locker
room is the most important room in the building, but
also believe that the locker room is the smartest room
in the building.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
And they didn't get.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
To where they are just by you just on our
athletic ability and football ability alone. They also got to
where they are by being able to read people and
being able to read the room, and being able to
adapt in certain situations. So you have to be extremely
authentic and and your message has to resonate with the
locker room. And you know, it's uh, I think I think,
(15:18):
I think that's really important. And you know it's also
it's not just a head coaches bringing in coaches who
are able to develop talent. And I think we've done
a great job with that here too. Our coaches have
done an outstanding job of developing talent and getting the
best results out of players that they can. And I
think you see that the results are are are are
(15:39):
easy to see. I think the third thing is you
want to talk about what type of players that you're
going to bring in.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
You know, how are you going to build a roster
and how are you going.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
To build a developmental blueprint for the roster? You know,
everyone has to be involved in these discussions, and you
know it has to be uh, you know, it doesn't
matter who gets it right, as long as you know,
you're going to a room and you decide what's what's
the best decision for the organization. And each player has
to have their own individual developmental plan, you know, whether
(16:09):
it be you know for you know, through the analytics,
through you know player development, the strength and conditioning, the
medical plan. Each player has to have their own plan,
So I think I think that's really important. And we
have to decide, you know, where where are you're going
to spend the resources, where the resource is going to
be allocated. You definitely want to have a draft centric approach.
(16:31):
You want to build through the draft. The draft has
to be the bloodline of your organization. And you know,
but you're always trying to upgrade the roster, always trying
to churn the bottom of the roster, always trying to
you know, upgrade the practice squad, and you know, just
trying to create an environment where, uh, you know, competition
is paramount. So I think I think those are probably
(16:52):
the three things that you want to establish it.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
When coming in.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Well, sign me up. First of all, I'm a fan
of this team already. And second of all the things
that you mentioned culture, leadership, structure, starting with the head
coach down to the assistance and the type of players
that you're scouting and that you're bringing in. I appreciate
the way that you've presented it because if you think
about it, all of those things have to be so
connected to each other.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
You mentioned earlier in our conversation no.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Silos, right, How and when you're building in this way
where you're creating like an environment less so different departments,
how do you in your role because one of your
main roles is to build bridges through between all of
these places, to know everything that's going on, to be
able to make clear decisions or assist in making clear decisions,
(17:39):
to understand the people of the building as much as
you're understanding.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
The process of the building.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Right, So how do you in your personal journey, Like,
how do you go about connecting or reaching into other
parts of the building in order to create that environment
that you're talking about.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
Yeah, I think you have to try to just force collaboration,
force communication on every level. And like I said, in
particular between you know, coaching and personnel. Uh, you know,
we're not going to be in all the meetings with
the coaches, but I'd like to, you know, talk to
the coaches and talk about how the players are performing
in those meetings. You know, how how is this guy
taking notes? You know, how's he watching film? Is he
(18:18):
you know, does he communicate well? Does he learn well?
Like what are the things that he needs to work on? Uh?
Speaker 3 (18:25):
What's his attitude like all those things.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
I mean, you have to you know, you have to
try to bridge the gap and you have to try
to connect those dots. And you know, likewise with with coaching,
you know, when we get into those draft meetings, they're
asking a lot of questions as well. You know, they're
asking the scouts, you know, what's this kid's background, what
makes him tick?
Speaker 3 (18:41):
You know, how is he motivated? How does he learn?
Speaker 4 (18:44):
And I think those types of questions constantly have to
be asked in order to come up with with with
a great developmental plan for each player that's on our roster.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
So I think that's that, you know, it's really important.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
I think you know, there's no quick fix to any
of it, but it all comes to know, just constant
communication about you know, everything and everyone in the building
and trying to develop you know, the players, but but
also trying to develop us as as people that work
in football. Opposite trying to develop coaches, you're trying to
develop scouts and you know, come up with the best
plan for for for everyone to improve and ultimately just
(19:20):
to improve the team as a whole.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
I like that you included the scouts in development too.
I think when people think of scouts. They think of
like the grizzled guy living out of his car somewhere
in Alabama, right, scouting between Aubert and Ala on that
long highway, right, probably flew into Atlanta in the process, right,
And that's true too, Yes, yeah, that's true too. But
but still, like I think that that I like what
(19:41):
you said about because they're they're like in little satellite
worlds all around, all around the country. And part of
managing the talent identification process is communicating despite the fact
that their job is very much remote for a lot
of the year, and they are finger on the polls
of these buildings. And I know from your own experience,
(20:02):
and then also what you're doing now in managing a
lot of these people, how what was the biggest most
important thing in terms of your development of Like I'm
I'm learning how to identify talent, to I identify talent,
and then how do you sort of apply that now
to bringing together a collective of people that are all
(20:24):
in different places at once.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
That's a good question, I think, you know, and you
know obviously in starting out, uh you know, twenty seven
years ago. Yeah, you're you're you're learning how to identify talent.
You know, you're looking for what traits, uh each coach
specifically wants for their position. And you know, again it's
through communication. So you're talking to the coach, Hey, what
(20:46):
what are you? What are you talking to the linebacker?
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Coach? Hey, what are you?
Speaker 4 (20:49):
What are you looking for in terms of the linebacker
reading is run fits? What are you looking for? In
terms of you know, what what keys are? Are are
they looking for? And I think you know, you have
you have those discussions, and you know, we do a
great job I think, and it's been it's happened throughout
my career at the various different spots. We do a
great job of during the times that the coaches and
(21:10):
scouts are together, like training camp and mini camp and
whenever scouts are in the building, forcing collaboration, forcing conversations,
forcing you know, discussions, and so I think that through that,
you know, we get to kind of learn each other's world,
you know. And I have a great appreciation and great
respect for scouts because I did that for years and
(21:31):
uh yeah, I think that that that's the only way
that you're going to grow and develop as someone in
uh in personnel and football ops in general. Is just
really through a lot of communication, and that's that's what
we do. That's what we preach and uh, you know
that that's kind of how we operate, you know, that's uh.
And and once you're in it for a long time
and you feel like you've been through a lot of
(21:53):
different scenarios and you've seen a lot of different, uh,
you know, situations, that helps you from a management perspective
as well, you know, because you can you know, talk
to the scouts and hey, you know what, you know,
what did you see here? And offer suggestions and but
you always you always want to kind of let the
scouts give their own opinion and you know, give you know,
their own assessment of the player. You don't want to
(22:14):
you know, try to you know, force or influence you know,
the scouts to to see things your way. But you
also want to kind of open their eyes at times
to you know, different you know, things that are going on.
So I think it's really important to you know, have
those discussions.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
You can never communicate enough about players.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
I think it's it's really important to talk about each
player individually and talk about you know, different scenarios and
try to you know, cast a wide net when it
comes to discussing players for the draft or for a
free agency or or any part of like the the
onboarding process.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yeah, that's a tough line to walk. You have to
be open as open minded as possible while still being
incredibly decisive in in crunch time, and that takes time
to Chad. You're you're at the top of your game here,
at the top of your field. Your team is about
to I hope, knock on wood here, make a real
playoff push here and down the stretch run What still
(23:10):
makes you curious about football? Like, what still kind of
makes you excited about the not just the sport, but
the process of it everything. You know, I.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Love the process and love love football and have you
know since I was a little kid, you know, and
when I first fell in love with the game. And
you know, it's ever evolving, you know, and it's kind
of like the more things change, the more things stay
the same.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
You know.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Like I said, I think I've seen a lot of
different scenarios involving the game. But at the same time,
you know, there's always new strategies, new techniques to explore,
and so yeah, I'm always interested in, you know, anything
that's you know, cutting edge and analytics or coaching or scouting.
(23:56):
I just have a passion to learn. I think I've
I've always had that passion. And for me, it doesn't
feel like work, you know, it really is. We have
too much fun, Like we really have a great We
have a great time, you know, but we have a
great time.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
And we also we're not going to let anybody out
work us.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
And I think that's a major part of why we've
had success here and hopefully while we're going to continue
to have success.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Awesome, you're listening to Chad Alexander, the assistant general manager
of the Los Angeles Chargers.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Chad, awesome, awesome stuff.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Thank you so much for joining me today on NFL
Daily Power Players.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Thank you so much. Thanks Jordan.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
That of course was Chargers assistant general manager, Chad Alexander.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
We thank him for his time. I could have talked
to him all day.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Because what they're building over there this combination of sort
of vintage like.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Old school ideas.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
And traits and toughness and then this really modern way
of blending analytics and coaching and certainly some cutting edge coaching,
especially on the defensive side of the ball. With what
Jesse minter is doing and under Jim Harbaugh, how all
of those departments and all of those variables have to
interconnect together, and.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Chad obviously has a huge role in that.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Thanks for listening to NFL Daily Power Players. We are
thrilled that you all seem to be liking these episodes
so far, and thanks again to Chad Alexander and the
Los Angeles Chargers
Hi, everybody, This is Jordan Rodrigan.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I am so excited to share that we are trying
out a new capsule series for NFL Daily called NFL
Daily Power Players. As many of you know, I love football.
One of my favorite things about the NFL is learning
about how teams are built out, decision makers from coaches
to executives to scouts to players think, and the process
itself of the sport. How football people do football is
(00:31):
the coolest thing ever. So in these episodes of NFL
Daily Power Players, We're going to talk to football people
and learn from them and pull back the curtain of
the sport for you just a little further. We'll sprinkle
these into your feed from time to time a little
surprise extra treat for our listeners, be sure to check
out a fantastic first episode with Carolina Panthers Executive vice
(00:52):
president of football Operations Brant Tillis. And today, I am
so thrilled to be speaking with Los Angeles Charts assistant
GM Chad Alexander. Chad has helped build NFL teams for
twenty seven years, with two decades in Baltimore in various
roles in that storied front office and five years with
(01:14):
the New York Jets. Now Chad is GM Joe Hortiz's
right hand man as the Chargers establish themselves as one
of the best teams in the AFC. The playoff hunting
Chargers have obviously had more than their fair share of
injuries all season, but as Chad likes to say, there
are no style points in this league, and.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Especially the way that these Chargers are built.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
And they keep finding ways to win games even unconventionally,
and even before the injuries started rocking their offensive line especially,
you could see the clear vision to be bigger, more physical,
tougher than their opponents. I refer to them often as
a modern throwback because they blend progressive ideas with vintage
football qualities. We're going to talk to Chad today about
(01:57):
helping to build that ethos within the team, which of
course starts with the players, but it's also an important
responsibility for the front office and coaching staff too. I
think you guys are gonna love this. Let's get right
into it, Hi, Chad thrilled to have you here today
on NFL Daily's Power Players.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Thanks for having me. Joan's great to see I.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Feel like we should have just had you come right
up the street from Elsagundo and come into the studio. Here,
I'm staring right across the street at your home stadium.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
I know, I know, that's crazy.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
It's I love La It's it's been cool since being
here for a couple of years.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
And I never lived.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Here before, but obviously visited it quite a few times.
And this is just a great area. It's a lot
of fun.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I know, warm winters. Man, you can never go back.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
You can never go back, never go back. I mean,
I'm not used to this for sure.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
You know, I want to get right into this idea.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
It's so fun watching what you guys have built with
the Chargers over the last couple of seasons, because when
you talk about team identity sometimes it's hard to describe.
You know it when you see it, and you know
it when you feel it. And I would say that
what you guys have built over there has been the
epitome of establishing a tone, establishing a culture, and I
(03:08):
sort of describe your team.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
And we've talked about this as a little bit.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Of like a modern throwback, right, like you sort of
pivoted a little bit when the rest of NFL's defenses
got a little bit smaller, you guys decided to load
up and be bigger, stronger, tougher than everybody, and to
be really multiple schematically in the ways that you also
did that. So take me back to the installation of
(03:34):
this process, what you wanted your identity to be, and
what you started doing, the little pieces you had to
put in place to start trying to figure out how
to get the guys in the building that would epitomize that.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Yeah, I think we always knew that we wanted our
identity to be a team that was extremely tough, extremely physical,
and we wanted our identity to really kind of emulate
the identity of our head coach. You know, Jim Is
every every program he's been associated with has been one
that has been recognized as being extremely tough, violent. Uh,
(04:08):
players that are you know, gritty, players that are versatile
like you talked about, and guys that just you know,
have this unselfishness about them and it's really a next
man up mentality, And you know, we wanted to enforce
our will on opponents, and I think you kind of
see that.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
You know, the last couple of weeks have.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Been really inspiring for for everybody in the organization. You know,
I mean, we won six of our last seven, but
the last two games have really been kind of fistfights
with the two Super Bowl teams from from a year ago.
And I feel like we we you know, we we
try to enforce our identity. We try to kind of
make teams play our style of football and it's not
(04:49):
necessarily conventional in today's football. But at the same time,
we're not really interested in style points and and we
were just really trying to trying to build a book.
And I feel like we're we're trying to establish that.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Well you see it because even with you know, injuries
happening and there's there's this sort of resilience. I think
that that comes through and certainly has this season, including
from the quarterback, who I think when justin Herbert and
especially kind of being in LA and the last you know,
before Jim came in and before you guys installed your
(05:22):
staff and the rest of this roster, some of a reputation.
You know, he being a finesse thrower, right, but you're
seeing him put his foot in the ground, You're seeing
him lower's shoulder. What we talked about a lot on
this show was we're like, Justin Herbert's out of the
house right because he's pointing the first down marker and
he's letting some of that personality show. So with him,
how have you seen him grow and start to really
(05:44):
be the face of this, like this more physical brand
of football that you guys are playing.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Yeah, and we never when we got here, we never
associated him really with anything that's based on being finesse.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
You know, first of all, the guy's a specimen.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
I mean he's here huge, uh physically and you know,
really tough mentally, really tough physically, as he displayed by
by by playing through you know, several injuries and most
recently the non throwing hand. But uh, Justin is extremely rugged,
you know, as a as a player. And yeah, he's
a quarterback that has all the attributes. He's got the
big arm and and he's he's a really athletic player
(06:21):
and a good athlete and guy that can run. But
but at the same time, he he's extremely tough, and
you know, it's inspirational to his teammates, you know, for
for them to see a guy like that play through injuries,
just for them to see a guy like that who's
really tough, minded, and and and just has a no
nonsense approach to pretty much everything. I think it's it's uh,
(06:42):
it's it's really it's empowering for the rest of the team,
and and it's someone who people can look to and
draw inspiration from. So, I mean, he's an outstanding leader
and he really kind of embodies everything that we're trying
to accomplish here.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I love that response because you're also describing traits right
that you were really very much much needed to go
and scout to bring more players into the building as
you guys were establishing what you wanted this roster to be,
whether it was veteran players in free agency or retaining
some of the veteran players who are already on the roster,
or drafting guys who who have these traits. You have
(07:18):
worked for twenty five years in the league at the
highest levels of scouting and pro personnel, and I always
find that scouts are scouts.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
For life, right, Like you are.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Always looking and assessing, like how a part can fit
to a whole. Right, So when you're looking for trades,
what is the process, like how do you prove beyond
interviews and tape? How do you prove that a guy
has these types of qualities that can sometimes be considered intangible.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
You know, we do a lot of background, a lot
of research on every player that we discuss in terms
of the draft. Specifically, we spend as much time on
the player this is at the top of our draft
board as we do a player that's.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
You know, really the last player on our list.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
And it's really all about sequencing guys and putting guys
in an order, but we do we look for those
those core principles and we look for toughness, We look
for resiliency, We look for grit, We look for guys
who have overcome some sort of adversity, you know, anything
like that, you know, just just key tells that they
can let us know, Hey, this is the type of
player that we want to bring into this program because
it's really not for everybody, you know, it's it's it's
(08:25):
for those, you know, the rare players that are that
are the toughest of the tough, the guys that are
extremely h you know, durable guys that are extremely tough minded,
and you know, those are the type of individuals that
we look for. We uh, we talk to you know,
several different people when we go into these schools, and
we like to you know, compare notes and and bring
(08:47):
everybody into the discussion. And it's all about, you know,
really open and honest communication amongst the coaches, amongst the scouts,
and you know, we do, you know, draw on our experiences.
So myself being in the league for as many years
that I've been in it, you know, there's there's not
very many things that I haven't seen, so you know,
we we we kind of look at that and and
and think about, you know, how's this guy going to
(09:09):
project in our program, you know, and also what's us
our development plan that we have for them, and so
all that stuff is taken into consideration. You know, obviously
we consider analytics and you know, the player development part
of it. But I think that you know, for us,
we the best part about Jim and about Joe Hartiz,
our general manager, is that you know, they have a
(09:31):
clear identity and a clear h you know, set of
you know, standards that they have for each player that
comes into the building. And so we know, based on
the comments from the school, based on the comments from
their coaches, if they've transferred to comments comments from the
last school. We know which type of players are going
to survive and thrive in this building, and those are
(09:53):
definitely the types of players that we try to draft,
the types of players that we try to bring in
through free agency, on the practice squad and on any
avenue in terms of building the roster.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
I like what you said about getting you have such
clarity from Joe and Jim right. Can you speak more
about the importance of that type of clarity in communicating
what an identity is for a team, so that the
entire building has no question. The scouts who are all
over the country, you know, the people who are drawing
up the contracts, the players themselves. What is the importance
(10:25):
of like knowing what you're about and being able to
communicate it.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
I think it's vitally important, you know, it's it's extremely
critical that there's a lot of open and honest communication,
particularly between the scouts and the coaches, right between the
coaching staff and the personnel staff. And you know, Joe
and Jim have done a great job of connecting those
dots and you know, explaining to everybody, Hey, this is
(10:51):
our vision, this is our identity. These are the types
of players we want, and we need. And so when
we come into the draft room, when we discuss these players,
there's open and honest communication.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
There's there's a lot.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Of people that are giving their opinions, and you're encouraged
to give your opinion and not encouraged to you know,
your group think is not opinion is not encouraged. Uh,
you know, discussing things and silos is not encouraged. You're
encouraged to just throw it out out on the table.
And from there we just kind of come up with
a list and in order of how we like, you know,
these guys and and so you know that there's a
(11:24):
lot of detail that goes into every discussion and every
every player that we pick. So so yeah, it's it's
great to be a part of an organization where we
have a clear cut identity. We know what types of
players we want to bring in, and we know what
types of players that they may they you know, they
may they may fit fit elsewhere, but you know it
probably wouldn't be a fit here.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
So I think that that that's important.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Yeah, so much a team building.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
One of the pieces of it that I think is
so underrated is knowing what you also don't want, right
and that's a that's a life lesson too, as you.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
As you grow up.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
And so I'm curious, you know, on NFL Daily, I
warned you about this, Chad on NFL Daily. We like
to play, We like to gamify things. We love game theory,
we love testing out ideas and debating ideas with analysis
behind them.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Of course we don't shout here.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
When you think about like what you've been a part of,
and your life and you and your journey in coaching,
I guess I would ask, like, if you were going
to build a franchise from scratch, Let's say it's on Mars.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
You have a climate.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Control, oxygenated environment, right, it's you're starting totally from scratch.
I want to know what the top three or the
first three decisions you would make, starting with the very
first one, the most important decision you think somebody building
a franchise from scratch needs to make when they come
into an organization.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Wow, that's a good question, I think.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
I think when you're talking about building a franchise from scratch,
I think you're not necessarily concerned about individual players, but
you're really concerned about the culture. You know, culture certainly
matters most theoality of the people in the organization is
always going to determine the success of the organization. And
(13:05):
I think you want to start with alignment. You know,
you want to start with alignment with ownership. And you know,
everybody wants to win, but and everybody wants to do well,
and everyone wants to compete for championships. But how do
you want to win? You know, what do you want
your team to look like? What are your sacred yeses
and those? You know, what do you what are your
(13:26):
non negotiables? How are you going to build an environment
to where people are comfortable having uncomfortable conversations and talking
about every department and throughout football ops and you know,
the analytics, the coaching, the player development, scouting, everybody. How
are we all going to communicate? And you know, how
(13:49):
are we going to have these discussions? You know, the
best decisions really do come from discussion, and I think
that's you know, vitally important. I also think that from there,
you really want to talk about the leadership structure. You know,
you want to decide who's going to come in and
and and be the head coach. You know, who's going
to be the leader of of of men who's going
to come in and and and preach his philosophy and
(14:11):
who's going to be aligned with our vision.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
I think that's extremely important.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
And it's also important to have someone who's a great communicator,
who is a great leader, who's a great teacher, who's
a great motivator, and someone who is extremely authentic. And
I think we're very fortunate to have Jim here.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
He's he's extremely authentic.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
And seen we've seen the clips.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
Yeah, that's exactly who is you know, people ask me
all the time, you know what's he like? And I'm like,
all you got to do is watch one of his
press consages.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
That's who he is.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
You know, he's all ball all the time. And uh,
he's extremely authentic. And that resonates in the locker room.
And I truly do believe that, you know, the locker
room is the most important room in the building, but
also believe that the locker room is the smartest room
in the building.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
And they didn't get.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
To where they are just by you just on our
athletic ability and football ability alone. They also got to
where they are by being able to read people and
being able to read the room, and being able to
adapt in certain situations. So you have to be extremely
authentic and and your message has to resonate with the
locker room. And you know, it's uh, I think I think,
(15:18):
I think that's really important. And you know it's also
it's not just a head coaches bringing in coaches who
are able to develop talent. And I think we've done
a great job with that here too. Our coaches have
done an outstanding job of developing talent and getting the
best results out of players that they can. And I
think you see that the results are are are are
(15:39):
easy to see. I think the third thing is you
want to talk about what type of players that you're
going to bring in.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
You know, how are you going to build a roster
and how are you going.
Speaker 4 (15:48):
To build a developmental blueprint for the roster? You know,
everyone has to be involved in these discussions, and you
know it has to be uh, you know, it doesn't
matter who gets it right, as long as you know,
you're going to a room and you decide what's what's
the best decision for the organization. And each player has
to have their own individual developmental plan, you know, whether
(16:09):
it be you know for you know, through the analytics,
through you know player development, the strength and conditioning, the
medical plan. Each player has to have their own plan,
So I think I think that's really important. And we
have to decide, you know, where where are you're going
to spend the resources, where the resource is going to
be allocated. You definitely want to have a draft centric approach.
(16:31):
You want to build through the draft. The draft has
to be the bloodline of your organization. And you know,
but you're always trying to upgrade the roster, always trying
to churn the bottom of the roster, always trying to
you know, upgrade the practice squad, and you know, just
trying to create an environment where, uh, you know, competition
is paramount. So I think I think those are probably
(16:52):
the three things that you want to establish it.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
When coming in.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Well, sign me up. First of all, I'm a fan
of this team already. And second of all the things
that you mentioned culture, leadership, structure, starting with the head
coach down to the assistance and the type of players
that you're scouting and that you're bringing in. I appreciate
the way that you've presented it because if you think
about it, all of those things have to be so
connected to each other.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
You mentioned earlier in our conversation no.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Silos, right, How and when you're building in this way
where you're creating like an environment less so different departments,
how do you in your role because one of your
main roles is to build bridges through between all of
these places, to know everything that's going on, to be
able to make clear decisions or assist in making clear decisions,
(17:39):
to understand the people of the building as much as
you're understanding.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
The process of the building.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Right, So how do you in your personal journey, Like,
how do you go about connecting or reaching into other
parts of the building in order to create that environment
that you're talking about.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
Yeah, I think you have to try to just force collaboration,
force communication on every level. And like I said, in
particular between you know, coaching and personnel. Uh, you know,
we're not going to be in all the meetings with
the coaches, but I'd like to, you know, talk to
the coaches and talk about how the players are performing
in those meetings. You know, how how is this guy
taking notes? You know, how's he watching film? Is he
(18:18):
you know, does he communicate well? Does he learn well?
Like what are the things that he needs to work on? Uh?
Speaker 3 (18:25):
What's his attitude like all those things.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
I mean, you have to you know, you have to
try to bridge the gap and you have to try
to connect those dots. And you know, likewise with with coaching,
you know, when we get into those draft meetings, they're
asking a lot of questions as well. You know, they're
asking the scouts, you know, what's this kid's background, what
makes him tick?
Speaker 3 (18:41):
You know, how is he motivated? How does he learn?
Speaker 4 (18:44):
And I think those types of questions constantly have to
be asked in order to come up with with with
a great developmental plan for each player that's on our roster.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
So I think that's that, you know, it's really important.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
I think you know, there's no quick fix to any
of it, but it all comes to know, just constant
communication about you know, everything and everyone in the building
and trying to develop you know, the players, but but
also trying to develop us as as people that work
in football. Opposite trying to develop coaches, you're trying to
develop scouts and you know, come up with the best
plan for for for everyone to improve and ultimately just
(19:20):
to improve the team as a whole.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
I like that you included the scouts in development too.
I think when people think of scouts. They think of
like the grizzled guy living out of his car somewhere
in Alabama, right, scouting between Aubert and Ala on that
long highway, right, probably flew into Atlanta in the process, right,
And that's true too, Yes, yeah, that's true too. But
but still, like I think that that I like what
(19:41):
you said about because they're they're like in little satellite
worlds all around, all around the country. And part of
managing the talent identification process is communicating despite the fact
that their job is very much remote for a lot
of the year, and they are finger on the polls
of these buildings. And I know from your own experience,
(20:02):
and then also what you're doing now in managing a
lot of these people, how what was the biggest most
important thing in terms of your development of Like I'm
I'm learning how to identify talent, to I identify talent,
and then how do you sort of apply that now
to bringing together a collective of people that are all
(20:24):
in different places at once.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
That's a good question, I think, you know, and you
know obviously in starting out, uh you know, twenty seven
years ago. Yeah, you're you're you're learning how to identify talent.
You know, you're looking for what traits, uh each coach
specifically wants for their position. And you know, again it's
through communication. So you're talking to the coach, Hey, what
(20:46):
what are you? What are you talking to the linebacker?
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Coach? Hey, what are you?
Speaker 4 (20:49):
What are you looking for in terms of the linebacker
reading is run fits? What are you looking for? In
terms of you know, what what keys are? Are are
they looking for? And I think you know, you have
you have those discussions, and you know, we do a
great job I think, and it's been it's happened throughout
my career at the various different spots. We do a
great job of during the times that the coaches and
(21:10):
scouts are together, like training camp and mini camp and
whenever scouts are in the building, forcing collaboration, forcing conversations,
forcing you know, discussions, and so I think that through that,
you know, we get to kind of learn each other's world,
you know. And I have a great appreciation and great
respect for scouts because I did that for years and
(21:31):
uh yeah, I think that that that's the only way
that you're going to grow and develop as someone in
uh in personnel and football ops in general. Is just
really through a lot of communication, and that's that's what
we do. That's what we preach and uh, you know
that that's kind of how we operate, you know, that's uh.
And and once you're in it for a long time
and you feel like you've been through a lot of
(21:53):
different scenarios and you've seen a lot of different, uh,
you know, situations, that helps you from a management perspective
as well, you know, because you can you know, talk
to the scouts and hey, you know what, you know,
what did you see here? And offer suggestions and but
you always you always want to kind of let the
scouts give their own opinion and you know, give you know,
their own assessment of the player. You don't want to
(22:14):
you know, try to you know, force or influence you know,
the scouts to to see things your way. But you
also want to kind of open their eyes at times
to you know, different you know, things that are going on.
So I think it's really important to you know, have
those discussions.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
You can never communicate enough about players.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
I think it's it's really important to talk about each
player individually and talk about you know, different scenarios and
try to you know, cast a wide net when it
comes to discussing players for the draft or for a
free agency or or any part of like the the
onboarding process.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yeah, that's a tough line to walk. You have to
be open as open minded as possible while still being
incredibly decisive in in crunch time, and that takes time
to Chad. You're you're at the top of your game here,
at the top of your field. Your team is about
to I hope, knock on wood here, make a real
playoff push here and down the stretch run What still
(23:10):
makes you curious about football? Like, what still kind of
makes you excited about the not just the sport, but
the process of it everything. You know, I.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
Love the process and love love football and have you
know since I was a little kid, you know, and
when I first fell in love with the game. And
you know, it's ever evolving, you know, and it's kind
of like the more things change, the more things stay
the same.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
You know.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Like I said, I think I've seen a lot of
different scenarios involving the game. But at the same time,
you know, there's always new strategies, new techniques to explore,
and so yeah, I'm always interested in, you know, anything
that's you know, cutting edge and analytics or coaching or scouting.
(23:56):
I just have a passion to learn. I think I've
I've always had that passion. And for me, it doesn't
feel like work, you know, it really is. We have
too much fun, Like we really have a great We
have a great time, you know, but we have a
great time.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
And we also we're not going to let anybody out
work us.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
And I think that's a major part of why we've
had success here and hopefully while we're going to continue
to have success.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Awesome, you're listening to Chad Alexander, the assistant general manager
of the Los Angeles Chargers.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Chad, awesome, awesome stuff.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Thank you so much for joining me today on NFL
Daily Power Players.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Thank you so much. Thanks Jordan.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
That of course was Chargers assistant general manager, Chad Alexander.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
We thank him for his time. I could have talked
to him all day.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Because what they're building over there this combination of sort
of vintage like.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Old school ideas.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
And traits and toughness and then this really modern way
of blending analytics and coaching and certainly some cutting edge coaching,
especially on the defensive side of the ball. With what
Jesse minter is doing and under Jim Harbaugh, how all
of those departments and all of those variables have to
interconnect together, and.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Chad obviously has a huge role in that.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Thanks for listening to NFL Daily Power Players. We are
thrilled that you all seem to be liking these episodes
so far, and thanks again to Chad Alexander and the
Los Angeles Chargers
Host
Gregg Rosenthal
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