Star players were injured. They were starting rookies. They had a brand new coaching staff. There are plenty of reasons why the Chargers shouldn’t have a defense that gives up the fewest points in the NFL.
Elijah Molden looks at the unit’s rise a different way.
“Why not us?” he told teammates last month before a game.
Discarded by the Tennessee Titans for a 2026 seventh-round draft pick after training camp, Molden has turned into a key force behind the Chargers’ defensive renaissance. He leads the Chargers (5-3) with a team-high three interceptions, five pass breakups and 32 tackles entering Sunday’s reunion with his former team.
There’s no bad blood about the trade, Molden said. He realizes he wouldn’t be playing if he was still with Tennessee (2-6), where Quandre Diggs and Amani Hooker have a firm grasp on the safety positions. When he arrived in L.A., Molden said he simply wanted an opportunity to play and show the type of player he was.
Now as one of the Chargers’ top-ranked defensive players, has Molden accomplished his goal?
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“It’s not over,” Molden said with a smile after he had six tackles and one interception against the Cleveland Browns last week.
Molden made the transition to the Chargers look seamless in August when he joined the team after training camp. He made his debut 11 days after arriving. He was forced into a starting role by Week 2 because of an injury to safety Alohi Gilman. Molden grabbed his first interception in the game.
Although Derwin James Jr. and Gilman were the incumbent safety starters, Molden’s play couldn’t be denied.
“We got three safeties that start for us,” defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale said. “And he’s one of them.”
Drafted in the third round in 2021, Molden began as a nickel for the Titans. Kristian Fulton, a cornerback whom the Titans drafted the previous year, knew almost immediately the former Washington Huskies star was going to make an impact in the NFL.
It was most obvious in a preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers when Molden came on a blitz, ducked his head to go through and under two offensive linemen, crawled several steps on his hands and knees, then wrapped up quarterback Kyle Trask for a sack.
Three years later, Fulton’s face still lights up when he thinks about one of the best plays he’s ever seen.
“We knew he had us one,” said Fulton, who joined the Chargers in the offseason as a free agent.
After playing for the Titans last season, Molden, Fulton and defensive lineman Teair Tart all are making key contributions to the Chargers’ defense. Fulton locked down a starting cornerback spot before being slowed by a hamstring injury. In the defensive line rotation, Tart has 11 tackles, an interception and a blocked field goal.
Combining the key offseason additions to returning stalwarts James and Gilman, the Chargers rank 11th in pass defense with 195.9 yards given up per game, a significant leap from the unit that was 30th last season.
Although they still have a daunting, back-loaded schedule that features five of the NFL’s top seven scoring offenses, the Chargers’ average of 12.6 points given up per game is on pace for a franchise record.
Molden can’t see a reason why the Chargers shouldn’t keep pushing for more.
“Why can’t we be the No. 1 defense this year in every category, not just points allowed?” Molden said. “Why can’t we take it a step further and why can’t we go out there and hold them to zero points instead of 10 points?”
There was never a time Molden couldn’t imagine reaching even the most far-fetched goals. He’s the son of Alex Molden, an eight-year NFL cornerback, and some of his earliest memories are of NFL locker rooms, attending team family events and watching his father run out of the tunnel.
But Molden had more than just high aspirations. He added a relentless work ethic and a football mind so sharp that he could learn the Chargers’ defense in a few weeks.
“If you guys can see the work that he puts in, the preparation, the attention to detail, it really makes a lot of sense why he goes out there and makes a lot of plays,” cornerback Tarheeb Still said. “He takes his craft very serious.”
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Despite being one of the defense’s newest additions, Molden has emerged as a respected voice in the room. Players from each position group address the defense on Saturdays before games, speaking up about their expectations for each week.
When he got his turn, Molden emphasized that everyone in the room had, at one point, been told a reason why they couldn’t achieve what they wanted.
Maybe it was the teacher who didn’t think an NFL career was feasible. The time a player second-guessed a lofty goal. Or, in Molden’s case, the team that didn’t find a place on the field for a defensive back who was only beginning his career.
“The reason why I’m here now is because I feel like a team didn’t believe in me,” Molden said. “I believed that my best football was ahead of me, and I wanted to play ball and achieve my goals. Like, why not? I’m here doing that.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
