The NFL’s 7 Best Assistant Coaches for 2024

The life of an NFL assistant coach is kind of odd.

If you’re a lifer at that level — when you’ve either never had a chance to be a head coach, or you got that chance and wasn’t able to make the most of it — there’s a purgatorial aspect to your profession.

Unless you are able to ever reach the next level of the org chart successfully, you will be seen by some as a cautionary tale — even if you’re happiest in that role. Your odds of being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as purely a coordinator are somewhere between Slim and None, and Slim just left town.

And you are subject to the vagaries of those above and around you in ways that can range from patently unfair to downright cruel.

After the 1975 season, Paul Brown of the Cincinnati Bengals retired from his head coach position to take more of an executive role. He had two assistants from which to choose as his replacement. He picked Bill "Tiger" Johnson, his offensive line coach. The other assistant quit the organization as a result, and when he tried to become a head coach elsewhere, he discovered that Brown had dirtied up his name throughout the NFL. That assistant wandered the earth for the next three years before he was given a head coaching opportunity from the worst team in football.

That assistant was Bill Walsh, and the worst team in football was the San Francisco 49ers. Nobody is immune.

So, it's always a good idea to give the best assistants in the NFL at any time the praise they deserve, and here are the top seven in the game today.

Steve Spagnuolo, Defensive Coordinator, Kansas City Chiefs

When it comes to assistant coaches in today's NFL, there's the Chiefs' defensive coordinator, and there's everybody else. It's entirely possible that the defending Super Bowl champs might have missed the playoffs entirely without Spags' defense, so  woeful was their offense through most of the season.

Spagnuolo has been in the league for a long time, both as a head coach and a defensive coordinator. He first rose to national prominence after his varied defensive fronts helped the New York Giants pull off one of the greatest upsets in pro football history over the previously undefeated New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.

That got Spagnuolo a three-year run as head coach of a St. Louis Rams team without the personnel for any level of success, and Spags went back to doing what he does best. He was washed out after a second time with the Giants in 2017, and in the year between that and the Chiefs' decision to hire him in 2019, Spagnuolo spent a lot of time with Greg Cosell at NFL Films HQ in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, chopping up new concepts.

That extra work has worked like a charm. Spagnuolo’s defenses don’t really have a “type” — he’s just as likely to blitz as he is to drop seven into coverage, and the schemes will look completely different more often than not pre- to post-snap.

Moreover, Spagnuolo is a brilliant teacher and motivator, who understands how to get buy-in from players throughout multiple eras.

“He’s a wizard," Chiefs defensive lineman Mike Danna told me about Spagnuolo during Super Bowl week . "The way he makes his checks, his pressures, his coverages. But aside from all that football stuff, just as a person, he’s a great man. He’s a faith-driven person. A lot of the things he believes in, I believe in. I’ve got a lot of respect for Coach Spags, and I’m just grateful to be a part of something like this."

Ben Johnson, Offensive Coordinator, Detroit Lions

Ben Johnson, who became Detroit's offensive coordinator in 2022 after several years on the Lions' staff in different roles, has been turning down head coach openings ever since the rest of the NFL saw what he could do with Jared Goff and Goff's compadres.

In 2021, the Lions (with Goff) ranked 29th in Offensive DVOA . Once Johnson took over, that shot up to seventh in 2022 , and fifth in 2023 . Like a lot of the best offensive minds in the game today, Johnson understands how to tie the running game and passing game together, but his real alpha skill is how he deploys his receivers with ideal deployment and spacing. Johnson's route concepts, combined as they are with play-action and pre-snap motion, and his understanding of how best to beat defenses with receiver placement? It's why the Lions shouldn't get too used to Johnson as the man calling the shots on that side of the ball.

Because eventually, and most likely sooner than later, Johnson will find his ideal home as a head coach.

“He had plenty of opportunities to leave, and for two years, he really did and could’ve left,” Goff said of Johnson in April . “For him, we’re lucky -- it’s not about the money for him. He loves coaching. He loves being around us. He’s a very rare type of person that way. I’m very thankful for him.”

Bill Callahan, Offensive Line Coach, Tennessee Titans

In 2023, the Titans' offensive line was a disaster, which did nothing to help rookie quarterback Will Levis. Tennessee's front five allowed a league-high 49 sacks in 2023, and only the New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs allowed more total pressures than the Titans' 245.

So, hiring former Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan as their new head coach was the Titans' ability to also get his dad, longtime offensive line mastermind Bill as part of the deal.

Which is exactly what happened.

Callahan has been turning offensive lines around since at least 1987, when he coached the line for Northern Arizona University. That led him to six different NFL teams from 1995 (Philadelphia Eagles) to the Cleveland Browns (2020-2023).

Callahan can coach any kind of blocking scheme at a ridiculously high level, and he's especially expert at bringing young linemen along.

From his biography on the Titans' official website :

During his time in the NFL, Callahan has spent 22 seasons coaching offensive lines and seven years as an offensive coordinator. His teams have gone to the playoffs 11 times, totaling 22 career postseason contests. He has helped his side of the ball finish with the No. 1 ranked rushing offense in 2000 (Raiders) and 2009 (Jets), as well as the top ranked passing offense in 2002 (Raiders). He has served on teams that finished in the top five in the NFL in rushing or passing 13 times. In the process, 14 offensive linemen under his tutelage have been selected to a total of 35 Pro Bowls.

Now, the Titans will hope that he will continue that magic.

Brian Flores, Defensive Coordinator, Minnesota Vikings

Most coaches believe in shades of gray in a schematic sense.

Brian Flores is not one of those coaches.

Last season, the Vikings under Flores as their defensive coordinator led the league in two categories: Snaps with six or more pass-rushers (34%; the New York Giants ranked second at 23%), and snaps with three or fewer pass-rushers (16%; the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints tied for second at 7%).

Flores' feast-or-famine approach was a big reason the Vikings ranked 11th in Defensive DVOA last season despite a cornerback group that really didn't have an alpha, and a group of pass-rushers that was pretty much Danielle Hunter and the Pips. Hunter is gone now to the Houston Texans, but the Vikings brought in two new edge defenders in Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel who add their own skill sets to Flores' blitz packages. Van Ginkel's positional versatility should serve him especially well.

But overall, it's a credit to Flores' understanding of the game that he's able to run with a determinism that would get a lot of defenses cooked over and over, and make it work beyond the limitations of his personnel.

Bobby Slowik, Offensive Coordinator, Houston Texans

Just as NFL teams were ready to give a head coaching gig a few years back to anybody who had ever had a cup of coffee with Sean McVay, the Kyle Shanahan tree out of San Francisco is really beginning to go beyond the roots. Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel is the most famous recent Shanahan acolyte, and Bobby Slowik of the Houston Texans is another name deserving of awareness.

Slowik was on Washington’s staff with Mike and Kyle Shanahan from 2011-13, and he then spent three years working with Pro Football Focus before Kyle Shanahan made Slowik his defensive quality control coach in 2017, and then to the offense from 2019-2022, ending his reign as Shanahan’s passing game coordinator.

The 2023 season marked Slowik’s first campaign running the Texans’ offense, and while the mercurial rise of rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud did a lot for Slowik, you have to counter that with the fact that Slowik did a lot for Stroud from the get-go.

Like Shanahan, Slowik understands how to use multiple personnel packages, tying the run game to the passing game, and quarterback mobility (both in and out of the pocket) to maximize not only his quarterbacks, but everyone else in the offense.

Perhaps the ideal distillation of Slowik's passing game philosophy was this Stroud 75-yard touchdown pass against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 18. Yes, it was receiver Nico Collins who caught the vertical route, but the Texans were also in 13 personnel -- three tight ends on the field. You can see how that package forced Indy's two deep safeties to hold up from following Collins overhead. Meanwhile, Stroud was using that hesitation to put up his best deep throw.

Jeff Stoutland, Offensive Line Coach, Philadelphia Eagles

Stoutland University is Harvard for offensive linemen. If you are accepted, and Eagles line coach Jeff Stoutland is your professor, you can expect your career to take a serious uptick. Stoutland has been Philly's O-line Buddha since 2013 (he was also given the title of Run Game Coordinator in 2018), and every player who's worked with him will testify to his brilliance.

"The last decade-plus has been me and him talking nearly every single day about the ways I can be better, the ways our offensive line could be better, and the ways our team could be better," recently retired (and future Hall of Fame) center Jason Kelce recently told me regarding Stoutland's influence. "I will miss those discussions. I will miss trying to make inside zone work when you’ve got someone between the slot and the tackle, and how do we take care of him? What if they have this blitz? What’s our answer for that? If the defensive line does this stunt, how are we picking up for that?

"All of these discussions happened on a daily basis, and it feels empty that they’re not happening now."

For those who have those discussions, Stoutland is ready and willing to impart the tricks of the trade that will make his players force multipliers. Perhaps the most impressive example is Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata. The Eagles took a chance on Mailata's athletic potential as an Australian rugby player, taught him the NFL game, and turned him into a top-tier player at his position.

Not many coaches could do that, but don't ever underestimate the academic value of Stoutland University.

Ryan Nielsen, Defensive Coordinator, Jacksonville Jaguars

The Jaguars hired Ryan Nielsen to be their new defensive coordinator after a 2023 season in which they ranked 10th in Defensive DVOA . Nielsen was running the Atlanta Falcons' defense last season, and that defense ranked 23rd. So, why isn't this hire a downgrade from what Jacksonville got out of former DC Mike Caldwell?

In Nielsen’s case, you have to look at what he got out of what he had. The Falcons might have had the NFL’s least impressive defensive roster, with no alpha edge-rusher, no star linebackers, and a couple of star defensive backs — safety Jessie Bates and cornerback A.J. Terrell — who were at their best under Nielsen’s tutelage.

Expect more man coverage and aggressive press concepts in the passing game — the Falcons played man on 28.7% of their snaps last season, while the Jaguars did so on just 14.7 of their snaps last season.

The Falcons' defense wasn't great from a personnel perspective for the most part, but they did a great job of limiting opponent opportunities in the red zone. Atlanta had the NFL's fourth-best percentage of red zone touchdowns allowed last season (45.3%, behind only the Tennessee Titans, Baltimore Ravens, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

As Nielsen recently told Jacksonville media, there's a method to that.

"We've got just some philosophy things that have success against offenses. Then, really our players do a really good job understanding situational football in the red zone. Meaning, what type of plays we get. The offensive playbook trims down a little bit, the run game is a little bit more direct quarterback runs, things like that happen. Our guys really understand, these are the plays that we have to defend. So, just a combination of those things. But again, day one. Let's go do it again. That was the whole point yesterday. Look, takeaways in the red zone, that changes football games. Huge plays. Let's do it again today."

Ryan Nielsen with more talent? It's a winning formula.

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