NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Power Players: Chargers Assistant GM Chad Alexander

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

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 teams 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. NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Is that another email from your boss bragging about their fantasy football team? It's time to take them down in the playoffs. I'm J.J. Zacharyason, host of the Late Round Fantasy Football Podcast. Tune in daily for winning insights to help dominate your work league, your family league,

or the league with your college friends who still think they know ball. It's time to lock in and get your roster championship ready. Listen to late round fantasy football in the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up? It's Cam Jordan. I'm back with season three of your favorite podcast, The Off the Edge with Cam Joorn podcast. Tap in every Wednesday to hear conversations with my friends and stars from the NFL, the sports world in general, and entertainment. About anything from teams and players making waves to pop culture.

And I'll take you inside my journey through my 15th season in the NFL. Looking forward to you joining me this season, the season of more, on The Off The Off The Edge with Cam Joom podcast. Catch new episodes every Wednesday on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by Liberty Mutual Insurance. Only pay for what you need. Liberty, Liberty, Liberty, Liberty. Hey everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies

to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give. give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Fiorio and together we host the NFL fantasy football podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL

fantasy football podcast. Your Ultimate Source for Player News, Draft Tips, and Winning Strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet, we've got the insight to help you crush your opponents. Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, everybody. This is Jordan Rodriguez, and I am so excited to share that we are trying out a new capsule series for NFL D.FELD. 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, how decision makers from coaches to executives, to scouts, to players think and the process itself of the sport. How football people

do football is 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 president of football operations, Brandt Tillis. And today, I am so thrilled to be speaking with Los Angeles Chargers assistant GM, Chad Alexander. Chad has helped build NFL teams for 27 years, with two decades in Baltimore in various roles in that storied front office and five years with 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 especially the way that these charges are built, 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 helping to build that ethos within the team, which of course starts with the players, but is also an important responsibility for the front office and coaching staff, too. I think you guys are going to love

this. Let's get right into it. Hi, Chad. Thrill to have you here today on NFL Daily's power players. Thank you so much for joining me. Thanks for having me. Jordan's great to see. I feel like we should have just had you come right up the street from El Segundo and come into the studio here. I'm staring right across the street at your home stadium. I know. I know. That's crazy. I love L.A. It's been cool since being here for a couple years. And I never lived here. before, but obviously visited it quite a few times. And this is just, it's a great area. It's a lot of fun. I know, warm winters, man. You can never go back. Can never go back. I mean, I'm not used to this for sure. You know, I want to get right into this idea. 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 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 sort of describe your team, and we've talked about this, as a little bit 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 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. 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, 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, you know, the last couple of weeks have 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 the two Super Bowl teams from from a year ago and I feel like 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 necessarily conventional in today's football but at the same time we're not really interested in style points and we were just really trying to build a bully. And I feel like we're trying to establish that.

Well, you see it because even with, you know, injuries happening and there's this sort of resilience, I think, that comes through and certainly has this season, including from the quarterback, who I think when Justin Herbert and especially kind of being in L.A. and the last, you know, before Jim came in and before you guys installed your staff and the rest of this roster, some of our reputation, you know, of being a finesse thrower, right? But you're seeing him put his foot in the ground.

You're seeing him lower his 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 be the face of this more physical brand of football that you guys are playing?

Yeah. And we never, when we got here, we never associated him really with anything that's, based on being finesse, you know, first of all, the guy is a specimen. I mean, he's huge physically and, you know, really tough mentally, really tough physically as he displayed by playing through, you know, several injuries and most recently the non-throwing hand. But Justin is extremely rugged, you know, as a player. And yeah, he's a quarterback that has all the attributes. He's got the big arm and he's a really athletic player and a good athlete

a guy that can run, but at the same time, he, he's extremely tough. And, you know, it's inspirational to his teammates, you know, for them to see a guy like that, play through injuries, for them to see a guy like that who's a really tough-minded and just has a no-nonsense approach to pretty much everything. I think it's, it's really, it's empowering for the rest of the team. 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. I love that response because you're also describing traits, right, that you really very 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 were already on the roster or drafting guys who have these traits. You have worked for 25 years in the league at the highest levels of scouting and pro personnel. And I always find that scouts are scouts for life, right?

Like you are always looking and assessing like how a part can fit to a whole, right? So when you're looking for trait, 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? 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 that's at the top of our draft board as we do a player that's, you know, really the last player on our list. And it's really all about sequencing guys and putting guys in an order. But we do. We look for those, those core principles. When 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 a type of. 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 for those you know the rare players that are that are the toughest of the tough the guys that are extremely you know durable

guys that are extremely tough-minded and you know those are the type of individuals that we look for we we talked to you know several different people when we go into these schools and we like to you know compare notes and and bring 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 as I've been in it, you know, there's not very many things that I haven't seen. So, you know, we, we kind of look at that and think about, you know, how's this guy going to project in our program, you know,

and also what's our development plan that we have for them. And so all of that stuff is taken into consideration, you know. Obviously, we consider analytics. and the player development part of it. But I think that for us, the best part about Jim and about Joe Hortiz, our general manager, is that they have a clear identity and a clear set of 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 transferred comments from the last school, we know which type of players are gonna survive, survive and thrive in this building. And those are 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.

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, country, you know, the people who are drawing up the contracts, the players themselves. What is the importance of like knowing what you're about and being able to communicate it? I think it's vitally important. You know, 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 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 and we discuss these players, there's open and honest communication. There's a lot of people that are giving their opinions and you're encouraged to give your opinion. You're not encouraged to, you know, your group think is not opinion, is not encouraged, you know, discussing things in silos is not encouraged. You're encouraged to

just throw it 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 so, you know, there's a lot of detail that goes into every discussion and every, every player that we pick. So, so, yeah, 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 may, you know, they may fit elsewhere,

but, you know, it probably wouldn't be a fit here. So I think that that's important. Yeah, so much of team building, 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 life lesson, too, as you grow up. 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. Of course, we don't shout here. When you think about, like, what you've been a part of and your life and your journey and coaching, I guess I would ask, like, if you were going to build a franchise from scratch, let's say it's on Mars you have a climate control oxygenated environment right it's you're starting totally from scratch i want to know what the 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 um when they come into an organization wow that's a good question i think uh 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. The quality of the people in the organization is always going to determine the success of the organization. And 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 knows you know what are you what are your non-negotiables uh how are you going to build a 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 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 be the head coach,

you know, who's going to be the leader of men, who's going to come in and preach his philosophy and who's going to be aligned with our vision. I think that's extremely important. 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. He's extremely authentic and- We've seen the clips. Right. And that's who he is. That's exactly you is. You know, people ask me all the time, you know, what's he like?

And I'm like, all you gotta do is watch one his press conferences. That's who he is, you know. He's all ball all the time and 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 I also believe that the locker room is the smartest room in the building. And they didn't get to where they are just by you just on 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 situation 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 i think that's really important and you know it's also it's not just a head coach it's 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 i've 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 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. You know, how are you going to build the roster and how are you going 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, you know,

it doesn't matter who gets it right as long as, you know, you go into a room and you decide what's the best decision for the organization. And each player, has to have their own individual developmental plan, you know, whether 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 are you going to spend the resources, where the, the, the resources are going to be allocated. You definitely want to have a draft-centric approach. 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, you know, competition is paramount. So I think those are probably the three things that you want to establish when coming in. 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 saying, 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. You mentioned earlier in our conversation, no silos, right? Right. Absolutely. 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 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 to understand the people of the building as much as you're understanding the process of the building, 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? 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. 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 is this guy taking notes? You know, how is he watching film? Is he, you know, does he communicate well? Does he learn well? Like what are the things that he needs to work on? What's his attitude like? All those things. 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 his kid's background?

What makes him tick? You know, how is he motivated? How does he learn? And I think those types of questions constantly have to be asked in order to come up with a great developmental plan for each player that's on our roster. So I think that's, you know, it's really important. I think, you know, there's no quick fix to any of it, but it all comes to, you know, just constant communication about, you know, everything and everyone in the

the building and trying to develop, you know, the players, but also trying to develop us as people that work in football ops, that trying to develop coaches, you're trying to develop scouts and, you know, come up with the best plan for everyone to, to improve and, and ultimately just to improve the team as a whole. 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 Auburn and Alabama 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 still, like, I think that I like what 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 pulse of these buildings. And I know from your own experience and then also,

what you're doing now in managing a lot of these people. What was the biggest, most important thing in terms of your development of like, 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 in different places at once? That's a good question. I think, you know, and, you know, obviously in starting out, you know, 27 years ago, know, yeah, you're learning how to identify talent.

You know, you're looking for what traits each coach specifically wants for their position. And, you know, again, it's through communication. So you're talking to the coach, hey, what are you talking to the linebacker coach, hey, what are you looking for in terms of the linebacker reading his run fits? What are you looking for in terms of, you know, what keys are they looking for? And I think, you know, 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 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 yeah, I think that that's the only way that you're going to grow and develop as someone in personnel and football ops in general is just really through a lot of communication. And that's what we do. That's what we preach. And, you know, that's kind of how we operate, you know. And once you're in it for a long time and you feel like you've been through a lot of different scenarios and you've seen a lot of different, you know, situations, that helps you from a management perspective. 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, 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. You can never communicate enough about players. I think 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 any part of like the onboarding process.

Yeah, that's a tough line to walk. You have to be open, as open minded as possible while still being incredibly decisive in crunch time. And that takes time too. Chad, you're at the top of your game here. you're 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 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 love the process and love football and have, you know, since I was a little kid, you know,

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, you know. 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, so I'm always interested in, you know, anything that's, you know, cutting edge in analytics or coaching or scouting. I just have a passion to learn. And I think 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. And we also, we're not going to let anybody outwork us. And I think that's a major part of why we've had success here and hopefully why we're going to continue to have success. Awesome. You're listening to Chad Alexander, the assistant general manager of the Los Angeles Chargers. Chad, awesome, awesome stuff.

Thank you so much for joining me today on NFL Daily Power Players. Thank you so much. Thanks, Jordan. That, of course, was Chargers Assistant General Manager, Chad Alexander. We thank him for his time. I could have talked to him all day because what they're building over there, this combination of sort of vintage, like, old school ideas and traits and toughness and then this really modern way of blending analytics and coaching and certainly some cutting edge coaching, especially on.

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 Chad obviously has a huge role in that. 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. You hear that? That's the sound of the group chat going off when your fantasy team scores another touchdown in the playoffs. I'm J.J. Zachary Eisen, host of the Late Round Fantasy Football podcast. Every move matters this time of year.

So tune in daily to help build a championship roster to beat your friends, your family, and that one co-worker who won't stop talking. Literally. Listen to Late Round Fantasy Football on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up? It's Cam Jordan. I'm back with season. three of your favorite podcast. The Off the Edge with Cam Joined podcast. Tap in every Wednesday to hear conversations with my friends and stars from the NFL,

the sports world in general, and entertainment. About anything from teams and players making waves to pop culture. And I'll take you inside my journey through my 15th season in the NFL. Looking forward to you joining me this season, the season of more on the Off the Edge with Cam Joined podcast. Catch new episodes every

Wednesday on the IHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Brought to you by Liberty Mutual Insurance. Only pay for what you need. Liberty, Liberty, Liberty, Liberty. Hey everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move to Six, we take you inside the game

from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team-building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision-makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday.

Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Florio, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL Fantasy Football podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet. We've got the insight to help you crush your opponents. Listen to the NFL fantasy football podcast on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.