After his former team’s win in Super Bowl LVIII, Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill wondered on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, why Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo did not receive head-coaching interest this offseason.
One man who oversaw part of Spagnuolo’s one full-time head-coaching tenure, believes he deserves another shot.
“It is well past time to see Spags get another head coaching opportunity,” Rams COO Kevin Demoff, who was in St. Louis for the majority of Spagnuolo’s tenure with the Rams from 2009 to 2011, wrote on X in response to Hill on Tuesday.
“The team & organization he inherited in STL was a mess, nobody could have had success. Yet he changed the culture/staff & players believed. An amazing human deserving of the real shot we couldn’t give him.”
Spagnuolo was a hot coaching candidate when he was hired in St. Louis, one year removed from stopping the undefeated Patriots’ record-breaking offense in Super Bowl XLII as defensive coordinator of the New York Giants. But the Rams were in tough shape when they hired Spagnuolo in early 2009, having gone 3-13 in 2007 and 2-14 in 2008.
The Rams went 1-15 in Spagnuolo’s first season, followed by 7-9 in 2010. The positive momentum helped stabilize his job security, but as Demoff noted in a series of posts, the team was put up for sale shortly after Spagnuolo and that he and the team had a “salary cap mess” and an “aging roster” to deal with.
After a 2-14 season in 2011, Spagnuolo was fired. An NFL work stoppage and the change in ownership certainly didn’t help his cause, Demoff said, and neither did an injury-plagued and under-talented roster didn’t help.
“Maybe, just maybe, he deserves a real shot,” Demoff wrote.
Spagnuolo’s work as DC in Kansas City the past few years — and especially in the 2023 season — has helped revive his reputation as one of the best defensive minds of his generation. The Chiefs ranked second in the NFL in yards and points allowed this past regular season, and they continued their strong defensive play through the postseason en route to their third championship title in five seasons.
The 49ers had offensive success early in Super Bowl LVIII but stalled badly in the third quarter and settled twice late for field goals in a tight game the Chiefs would come back to win. “In Spags We Trust” became a rallying cry this postseason for arguably one of the best defenses in the NFL.
But in spite of the Chiefs’ defensive prowess, Spagnuolo — the architect of a unit that was rebuilt significantly over the past few years — did not receive any head-coaching interviews this cycle, or in the past few coach-hiring periods.
In his second tenure with the Giants, Spagnuolo took over as interim coach for Ben McAdoo during the 2017 season, going 1-3 down the stretch. In early 2018, the Giants interviewed Spagnuolo for their head-coaching vacancy but hired Pat Shurmur instead. A year later, Spagnuolo ended up with Andy Reid in Kansas City. Spagnuolo is not believed to have received any interviews in each of the past four coaching cycles.
On the surface, Spagnuolo’s head-coaching record (11-41 with the Rams and Giants) isn’t impressive. His age (64) might also be a deterrent for some teams. But if context and performance are critical factors, Demoff believes Spagnuolo is worthy of another shot based on what he saw in their time together in St. Louis, prior to the team moved west to Los Angeles.
“(Spagnuolo) inherited an awful situation & did the best he could to make it better,” Demoff wrote. “We became a better organization with him as our head coach.”
