For the past six years, Steve Spagnuolo has been the quiet foundation of the Kansas City Chiefs’ rise from also-ran to dynasty. While Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid get the credit they deserve, this team would merely be a playoff participant rather than three-peat threat without its veteran defensive coordinator.
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Spagnuolo’s ability to make in-game adjustments and disguise his intentions has locked opponents in an endless labyrinth. In the 2025 AFC championship, his perfectly tailored corner blitz sent Josh Allen retreating on the biggest fourth down of the game to force an incompletion that sent the Chiefs to their fourth Super Bowl in five years.
Spags sends the corner blitz, Josh Allen has to backpedal 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage, still manages to get a back-foot throw to Dalton Kincaid annnnnnd he can’t finish the miracle
— Christian D’Andrea (@trainisland.bsky.social) January 26, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Kansas City has had a top-10 scoring defense five of Spagnuolo’s six years calling the plays. While rarely statistically elite, that unit creates the pressure and playmaking that allow the Chiefs to escape with close wins time after time.
But while other highly regarded assistants like Aaron Glenn, Ben Johnson, Liam Coen, Mike Macdonald and Jerod Mayo earned head coaching roles the last two offseasons, Spagnuolo hasn’t sniffed the coaching rumor cycle or taken any interviews with teams in need of new coaches.
Why?
The simplest explanation is that Spagnuolo had his chance and failed pretty spectacularly. He was head coach of the St. Louis Rams for three seasons between 2009 and 2011. He won a single game in his debut season and two in his finale. Sandwiched between them was a 7-9 campaign that served as a fitting preview of the mediocrity replacement Jeff Fisher was about to unleash on the team’s final years in Missouri.
Spagnuolo got four more games as the New York Giants’ interim head coach after the team dismissed Ben McAdoo in 2017. He went 1-3 with a team that had gone 2-10 with him as defensive coordinator and ranked 31st when it came to yards allowed that season.
He’s now 65 years old, which would make him the league’s third-oldest head coach behind his boss Andy Reid and newly hired Las Vegas Raiders lightning rod Pete Carroll. Of top of that, prime coach interview time also happens to be when “Spags” is busiest — the middle of the Chiefs’ perennial run to the AFC championship game.
Thus, Spagnuolo is forced to settle for confetti showers and the security of merely being one of the league’s best assistant coaches. That’s something that works great his players.
Goes without saying of course, but there is so much respect for DC Steve Spagnuolo
14 QB hits, 9 tackles for loss, 8 sacks, 1 blocked field goal for the Chiefs defense against the Texans
Leo Chenal: "We're all ready to go to war for him" pic.twitter.com/jR2SrFU7iR
— Caroline Soro (@caroline_soro) January 19, 2025
