Take a poll of most NFL assistant coaches and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a single one of them who hasn’t held head-coaching aspirations at some point in their careers.
Whether in games, practices or meetings, assistant coaches often place themselves in the shoes of their head coaches to both test and prepare themselves for the day that they finally secure that leading role. And some head coaches entrust assistants with planning and decision-making tasks to help them develop them for that future dream job.
But despite all of the preparation, there’s nothing quite like making the actual jump, coaches confess. From hiring decisions to roster construction to the planning of offseason, training camp and regular season practices, daily routines and more, a head coach’s plate is always full. There’s a lot of learning on the fly, and plenty of trial and error.
This season, the NFL welcomed five rookies to the head coaching ranks. To gain better insight on all that comes with that transition, and how coaches manage, we caught up with three of the five — the Dallas Cowboys’ Brian Schottenheimer, Jacksonville Jaguars’ Liam Coen and New Orleans Saints’ Kellen Moore — for a Q&A-style roundtable. (The Chicago Bears’ Ben Johnson and New York Jets’ Aaron Glenn declined requests for participation.)
Below, the coaches explain their ongoing transitions, lessons they’ve learned, advice they have received from other coaches, and advice that they would pass onto other future head coaches.
(Some questions and answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.)
You moved up one spot from coordinator to head coach, but I don’t think a lot of people realize just how big a leap that is in terms of responsibilities on and off the field. How would you describe that jump, and how are you managing to juggle it all?
Liam Coen: The scheduling part has definitely been the part that you probably take for granted a little bit. Every other job I’ve had, you’re essentially following a schedule, and we’re all so routine-based, and as a coordinator, you do create a schedule for your side of the ball whether it’s in the staff and the players, but it’s within a structure built by the head coach. And so when you get the job, and man, you have to schedule out Phase 1 — oh, and not even Phase 1 first. Prior to Phase 1, your coaches: What are their hours in operation and making sure that you give them some time? But also, it’s a first year. So we worked every Friday, which usually in the NFL, most Fridays are off as a staff. And then you have to organize Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, all the ins and outs of “OK, when do we want to do our culture meetings? How many times do we want to talk in front of the team in terms of the team meetings?” … And then we get with the strength coach, the athletic trainer, our sports science guys, because they all have a piece and a hand in how we practice, how we meet, how we do everything. … So I think from a scheduling standpoint and the routine of the day to day, that’s something that I’ve had to learn of how to be fluid, to have standards, to understand what you want to get accomplished.
Kellen Moore: It is a lot of juggling — a lot more on your plate and you’re pulled in a lot of directions. But I think the key is to trust the people around you to do the jobs you hired them for. … That’s enabled me to be involved in the whole process, and not just on offense. I’ve really enjoyed being involved in all phases of the operation and helping the defense with some perspectives from an offensive viewpoint.
Brian Schottenheimer: Well, it certainly is a big jump. I think you add into it being a play caller. There’s certainly that as well. You’re not just the head coach, but you’re the play caller. I do think being around the game my entire life is really a big part of this. And I think it’s mostly about time management, you know? I’m an incredibly hard worker. I love the grind of football. I love waking up early, going to bed late, trying to solve problems. But I really do look at it in terms of the buckets. I’ve got to allot three hours to my head-coaching duties, and I’ve got to allow three hours for my offensive deal. I’ve got to get in touch with (Matt) Eberflus on defense, (Nick) Sorensen on special teams. I’ve got to do personnel things. So it really is about time management, and the benefit for someone like me that’s taking over in a building that you’re familiar with and that you know, you understand how things get done. If I need to get a contract question done, I know where to go. If I need to get something done in the training room, I know where to go, whereas, when you bring a new head coach into a different facility, they have to kind of figure that out on their own, and that’s a benefit of taking over in a building that you’re aware of.
One thing Brian Schottenheimer wasn’t prepared for was dealing with NFL players haggling to snag single-digit jersey numbers. (Jerome Miron / Imagn Images)
What’s the silliest thing that has come across your desk that you had no idea fell under head coaching responsibilities?
Schottenheimer: Well, I would say, it’s not silly, but I do think it’s something that’s new, and even experienced head coaches probably have to deal with it, and that’s these damn single-digit jersey numbers that all these guys want. And again, our philosophy is very simple: We don’t get involved in that stuff. The players have to work it out. Why? Because we don’t value any player more than another player. But certainly, the league didn’t do us any favors when they said that really anybody except for offensive linemen and defensive linemen can be in these low numbers, because everybody thinks those single-digit numbers look really cool.
Moore: The team-building activities were the fun part where I had to make some decisions there. But maybe I would say travel. Making a decision on hotels, or, deciding, “How are we going to travel, when are we going in?” Are we traveling in team-issued gear? Are we wearing suits and tie? Where is everyone sitting on the plane? All those little different things.
Coen: Honestly, we’ve had such a unique situation because of (executive vice president of football operations) Tony Boselli. Having him in the role that he’s in really takes so much of that off of my plate. Now, we have those discussions. For instance, we got to pick all the jersey combinations because they’re in sequence with — maybe we’re doing a white-out or a blackout; just like little things that maybe are on the business side right that comes over to the football side. … So, I don’t think I’ve had anything that’s truly come across that you’re like, “C’mon man.” I mean, any time a player maybe has an incident, or is late, or things like that, those are the frustrating things. But ultimately, the communication. Early on, we had some communication issues with players and coaches not communicating, like “I’m gonna miss this day,” or “Coach, I’m gonna be late this day,” or whatever it is. That was a little unacceptable early on in terms of the lack of communication, and we got some of that stuff cleaned up. That was probably the most, I guess you would call it frustrating or time-consuming thing that maybe doesn’t always have to do with what’s on the grass.
What was the best piece of advice that you received on making that transition from coordinator, head coach? And who did it come from?
Moore: There are a lot of points of reference from that standpoint. I certainly lean into lessons from a lot of current head coaches in the NFL and some of the guys that I’ve spent time around. I think most of those guys have emphasized focusing on the task at hand and what matters most. Also, the importance of really trusting your staff — trusting those guys and letting them roll. I learned from being around Nick (Sirianni) last year, myself coming in and having never been a part of Philadelphia last year, and he really gave me space to just go with it. He was there, and he was a part of it. But he was really trusting and let me go. He certainly commented about believing in bringing people in and letting them go.
Coen: Every single piece of advice from a former head coach or a current head coach that I spoke to has been, “Be yourself.” It was really cool. I spoke to Nick Sirianni at the owners’ meetings. Obviously everybody in the world was busting my chops about the (introductory) press conference. Totally acceptable and understandable. But what was cool was Nick Sirianni grabbed me at the owners meetings — never met him before — and was like, “Dude, use that. Use it as fuel. Your players will rally. They get scrutinized all the time in the media. And so when their coach does own that. Use it. Take it and ultimately, just be yourself.” You know he gets crap all the time, for the sideline stuff or whatever it is. … But to hear a guy that just won the Super Bowl that at one point last year, they said he was going to be fired, and to hear him say, “You know, just be yourself and just do it,” was cool. (Detroit Lions coach) Dan Campbell, said the same thing. Remember he talked about knee caps getting bitten off at his press conference and people were killing him about it. He was like, “Man, just use it as fuel.” … So as I thought about their (advice), it meant, do not let becoming “the boss” change how you interact, change how you communicate, change how you perceive yourself. Just like, before, you can lead, you can serve. And I am truly in a position to serve the players, the organization, my staff, support staff. We need to serve before we can truly lead.
Schottenheimer: Probably my father. He just said, “Hey, when you get your opportunity, just always be authentic. Be who you are. Lead the way you want to lead. Communicate the way you want to communicate, practice the way you want to practice.” And I think that’s something that I’ve always done in every position I’ve ever held, because if you’re not convicted about it, or if you’re not true to yourself and what you truly believe, then I believe — very strongly, I believe — people can sense that. “Oh, that’s not really what he believes.” And so I’ve always tried to do that, will always do that, and it’s something my dad started talking to me about a long time ago when I first got into the business.
What was the biggest curveball you got hit with during OTAs and or mini camps, and how did you adjust?
Moore: The roster is obviously a moving dynamic and that’s something we’ve experienced with (quarterback) Derek Carr and (safety) Tyrann Mathieu working through their processes and ultimately deciding they were going to retire from the NFL. But, you’ve got to be able to adjust and focus on the next man. It’s an opportunity for someone else. So those were certainly things you’d view as curveballs and have to adjust to.
Schottenheimer: I would say the biggest thing is just, with the new NFLPA policies, the way you have to practice. We went back and forth about how we wanted to do it, and we decided that we were going to do 11-on-11 drills. We were going to do team drills, because we believe that practice is what separates us from everybody else in the league: the way we practice, and the, not intensity, but the crispness, the sharpness, the way we run in practice. And it took a lot of time and effort in team meetings to teach our guys, “OK, these are the rules, and this is what you can’t have. (Defensive backs) can’t have the same right to the ball as receivers do.” And our guys did an incredible job with it, but it was a lot of educating on, “OK, here’s how you play football in the spring,” but I thought our guys did great with it, and it ended up being a great offseason program for us.
Coen: Travis Hunter. That was an organizational decision in terms of needing to make sure that, obviously, from a coaching standpoint, we had enough support staff, player engagement, athletic training because he’s going to be playing a lot of snaps and doing a different deal. Sports science, strength and conditioning staff, everybody. Every single person had to be truly on board with taking on this situation and opportunity. When you’re talking about scheduling, that’s a curveball and a half because you’re saying, “OK, we’ve got to make sure he’s getting X amount of days on both sides of the ball, but on those days, he’s not on one side, we’re still making sure we’re getting him in meetings on the other side of the ball. So talk about (assistant) coaches having to take some extra workload on. They don’t get much of a break because if it’s during special teams (portions of practice), he’s not on a special teams unit but there’s going to be an offensive or defensive coach meeting with him every single minute of his day that he is in our building. That took a lot of time to map out, and it was a curveball, especially for a first-time head coach trying to put together a whole operation.
Liam Coen and the Jaguars have had to build a specific plan to get Travis Hunter all the work he needs on both sides of the ball. (Corey Perrine / Florida Times-Union via Imagn Images)
Coaches often use that break between mini camp and training camp to recharge, but also assess their methods and approaches to those offseason practices. What was an encouraging takeaway, and one needs-improvement aspect that you applied at training camp and will use in the regular season.
Schottenheimer: Well, first of all, you do have to recharge. I mean, it’s a grind when you come out of the season, and then there’s the coaching search process, and you go through the hiring process, you get hired, then you have to jump into doing the staff, and then the next thing you’ve got to do is get caught up on personnel. And you’re already on your way to the combine and you’re getting ready for the offseason program and things like that. So you definitely need a break. I definitely got away with my family. But again, same thing is, can you organize and manage your time? And so to me, you know, I would wake up early and do some of the things that I need to do; a lot of self-reflection. Again, I don’t think there’s one thing that jumps out that says, “OK, this was something I’m going to change.” I’m constantly trying to learn. I’m constantly trying to get better. I’m looking back — we tape all of our team meetings, all of our installations — but “Hey, what am I doing? Are the guys engaged?” But, when I look back on it, I think we did a really good job of again, starting this whole process with connection and love for one another, because we’re going to get the competitive side right, but the connection that we built, for example, we had our very first team meeting in the locker room. Well, why do you do that? You do that because that’s really where the magic happens in this league. You have tears of joy. You have tears of sadness in the locker room. You have tough games. You have great games that you celebrate, but I think that’s one of the things that we got right. But I’m not into rinsing and repeating. I always want to evaluate myself and the staff and how we do our practices, and I think you’ll see us constantly tweaking things just to try different things that might make it better.
Moore: I think so much is really just being really clean and really detailed and very precise with team meetings. I think just understanding that you can’t be in front of the team forever. You’re going to lose their focus. You’ve got to be really clean. You have to focus on being in there 15 to 20 minutes. Twenty-five is a long staff/team meeting. We’ve got to really get these guys prepared from a mental standpoint and from a mindset and mentality standpoint on really just how do you win football games. So, I spent a lot of time thinking about that this summer and building that process up on how to get those guys focused on the task at hand.
Coen: I think finding a balance of how much they need to hear me in a team meeting. … When I was in L.A., (Rams coach) Sean (McVay) would have longer team meetings where it was great; so informative. And then I was in Tampa and Todd Bowles has one-minute team meetings. But the players played their tails off for him and respect him just as much, and he got the message across in his own way. I think that was something that over the summer that I looked at: trying to balance a little bit better. I don’t need to maybe get up in front of the team every day and do a 25-minute team meeting. Let me just highlight a couple plays on both sides post practice, but keep it short, keep it tighter, hold their attention for 10 to 12 minutes, maybe 15 at the most, and keep it moving and less monotonous. It can be hard to do, because I’m a talker. But it’s OK to shut up and listen. Maybe it’s letting someone else get up in front of the team, like our special teams coordinator Heath Farwell, who was undrafted, played 10 years in the league, was a special teams captain, won a Super Bowl. I had the opportunity to get him up in front of the team and tell his story, because there are so many more of those types of guys in the league than there are first-round picks that truly make it. … Hearing from him can be big. So, that’s something I learned over the summer: take a back seat and let other people have opportunities for the players to hear them.
You mentioned the best piece of advice that you had received, what’s another valuable bit of knowledge that you would pass onto a rookie head coach next year?
Schottenheimer: Man, yeah, honestly, I would say, “Be authentic. Be yourself,” but, since I’ve already answered that question, I would say, in the meantime, while they’re striving to become a head coach, they need to find time pockets to prepare and to figure out truly what you believe in, like, what do you truly believe in when it comes to football? I know during the bye weeks and things like that, in the past, I would spend those three or four days off, and I would literally put myself in my office at my house and literally spend hours just OK, “Hey, what’s my philosophy on offense? What’s my philosophy on defense? What do I want my staff to look like? What are the characteristics I want?” Because, again, it’s so crystal clear for me now that when I’m talking about it, I am convicted and I’m authentic, because it’s truly written down in a notebook — lots of notebooks, actually. But take the time to do that, because there’s going to always be things that come across your desk that you’re not prepared for, and I think that’s where you go into and you use your gut instinct and your ability to solve problems, because at the end of the day, when you’re a head coach, you’re a leader of men, but you’re also a problem solver.
Coen: You have, let’s call it 10 years you’ve been working. I’ve been building up a roster or a depth chart of coaches that you ultimately want to work with if you ever get the opportunity to hire people, right? But ultimately, it’s not a draft. It’s recruiting. … I found out very quickly that it was not a draft. I had to go back and put my college recruiter hat on and go recruit. Chad Morton, our running backs coach, has worked for coach Pete Carroll for his entire career up until last year in Chicago and had an opportunity to possibly go back. So I really had to recruit guys to ultimately come here. So I think that’s something I would give them as advice. … I think that part is so underappreciated. That process was the hardest thing I have done since becoming the head coach. Hands down. It was 7 a.m. ’til 2 a.m. for damn near almost three weeks straight of just — you’re Zooming guys on the West Coast, you’re competing, you’re trying to make calls. You’re also handling the coaches salaries, because we didn’t have anything in place at the time. I mean, that was chaos. So, have a plan of some structure, have a depth chart, have a roster. Then just be ready to go recruit.
Kellen Moore has leaned on some assistants on his staff with head-coaching job experience to help with on-the-job training. (Matthew Hinton / Imagn Images)
Moore: I do think what I’ve been fortunate to have here is to be able to lean on some people with experience, and I think that’s really important to have people around you who’ve been in those shoes. You know, Brandon Staley has been a head coach in this league. Scott Linehan has been a head coach in this league. The people who are in this organization already, starting with (executive vice president/general manager) Mickey Loomis, (assistant general managers) Jeff Ireland and Khai (Harley) who have all been in this league for a long time. So I think it’s important to lean into those guys and not be afraid to say “I don’t know” or “I don’t have the answer for that,” and trust those guys.
(Top illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; top photos: Stephen Lew / Imagn Images, Kevin Jairaj / Imagn Images, Derick E. Hingle / Getty Images)