Chris Beatty didn’t know the number was zero.
Until the Chicago Bears promoted Thomas Brown to interim offensive coordinator on Nov. 12, the NFL didn’t have a single Black offensive coordinator. And after Brown was promoted again to interim head coach later that month following the firing of Matt Eberflus, the Bears gave Beatty the bump to take him from wide receivers coach to the league’s lone Black offensive coordinator.
“That’s kind of … sad,” Beatty said recently. “I definitely didn’t think that we were at that stage right now.”
The Bears’ coaching staff wasn’t retained after the 2024 season, and Beatty was named the Las Vegas Raiders’ receivers coach. As a result, the number of Black offensive coordinators in the NFL is back down to zero. With only the New Orleans Saints’ position left to fill, Mike Kafka of the New York Giants, who’s part Puerto Rican, is the league’s lone OC of color.
Many of the NFL’s top officials believe that diversity at offensive coordinator will increase over time. Since the institution of the Rooney Rule in 2003, the league has started several programs geared toward increasing the diversity in the coaching ranks and believes they’re working even as the results lag.
“I don’t think it means it’s not working,” commissioner Roger Goodell said last year when asked why the league had zero diverse offensive coordinators. “These offensive assistants are young, and they need the ability to have the exposure and the experience to grow to be able to become offensive coordinators and then head coaches. I think it’s too early to say it’s not working. I don’t accept that.”
After the firings of Jerod Mayo and Antonio Pierce and the New York Jets’ hiring of Aaron Glenn, the number of Black head coaches is down to five (Todd Bowles, Raheem Morris, DeMeco Ryans, Mike Tomlin and Glenn). Overall, there are seven head coaches of color (the aforementioned five plus Dave Canales and Mike McDaniel). That’s progress — there were no more than three Black head coaches in the NFL from 2019 to 2023 — but it hasn’t translated to offensive coordinator.
“Different opportunities aren’t afforded all the time to people of color,” Beatty said. “We’ve got so many people that have been successful. So, you hope that those stigmas go by the wayside at some point just like they did for the quarterback position. When I grew up, there were hardly any Black quarterbacks, and now the league is full of ’em. Hopefully, those things will change in the near future.
“But minds have got to change as well.”
Bears wide receivers coach Chris Beatty became the offensive coordinator in Week 14 after Thomas Brown was named the interim head coach. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
It’s no secret that the path to the offensive coordinator position runs through the quarterback room. While that has been a position that Black individuals were historically excluded from coaching — or even playing — that has changed in recent years. There were nearly two dozen quarterbacks of color who started a game last season and a league-record nine quarterback coaches of color.
“I knew coming in a few years back when I got into the NFL that there weren’t many African Americans in the quarterback room,” former Bears quarterbacks coach Kerry Joseph, who is Black, said recently. “You have to be ready to embrace the challenge when you get those opportunities.”
Several diverse QB coaches worked with top-16 passers this season: Charles London (Seahawks), Thad Lewis (Buccaneers), Tee Martin (Ravens), Ronald Curry (Bills), Jerrod Johnson (Texans), Israel Woolfork (Cardinals) and Tavita Pritchard (Commanders).
Besides the aforementioned QB coaches, diverse assistants holding other roles who have been considered for offensive coordinator positions include Brown, Beatty, Los Angeles Rams passing game specialist Nate Scheelhaase, Detroit Lions running backs coach Scottie Montgomery, Commanders passing game specialist Brian Johnson, Los Angeles Chargers passing game coordinator Marcus Brady, Minnesota Vikings receivers coach Keenan McCardell and Cincinnati Bengals receivers coach Troy Walters, among others.
It seemed plausible that their success could boost the number of diverse offensive coordinators this offseason, but that didn’t come to fruition.
“We’re hoping that what we’re seeing right now is an anomaly,” NFL senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer Jonathan Beane said. “It’s not a pipeline problem. There’s a lot of strong candidates that happen to be diverse (who are prepared) to go into the offensive coordinator role.”
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When Jon Embree played in the NFL in the late 1980s, it was commonplace for coaching staffs to have just one Black assistant coach each on offense and defense. A Black coordinator on either side of the ball was a rarity. So, when Embree got into coaching in the ’90s, he knew what to expect.
“You understand that it’s going to be uphill,” Embree, now the Dolphins’ tight ends coach, said recently. “You just try to find a way to fight your way up that dang hill.”
But while the number of Black offensive coordinators remains low, diversity among the NFL’s defensive coordinators has steadily grown. There are currently over a dozen defensive coordinators of color. And, of the seven head coaches of color, five have defensive backgrounds.
One potential reason for the discrepancy is that defenses tend to have more diverse players. In the past, Black players faced obstacles when it came to getting opportunities to play what were deemed “thinking positions,” such as quarterback, offensive line and linebacker. While that’s no longer the case, there’s a lingering notion that offense is the more analytical or sophisticated unit.
“Some people feel like it’s a more aggressive mindset on defense and a little bit more, ‘Go get ’em,’ as opposed to what people think is a thinking man’s side of the ball on offense,” Beatty said. “That’s clearly not the case, but the perception is that way. There’s a lot of smart coaches at every position, and there’s a lot of guys worthy of being head coaches at every position. But stereotypes and things like that, they still exist.”
Breaking through that is dependent upon head coaches avoiding the pitfalls of those stereotypes. But, for that to happen, they need to have developed relationships with up-and-coming diverse assistants.
“When you’re a head coach, you’re going to choose guys that you trust or you know,” McCardell said. “That’s in any business. They’re going to hire the people that they trust or they feel comfortable with.”
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It’d also help if head coaches were more willing to hire offensive coordinators who don’t directly coach quarterbacks.
“There’s coaches capable of (being offensive coordinators); it’s just you’ve got to be willing to go outside the box,” Embree said. “I don’t know if it’s a race thing per se, as far as that’s concerned. I think it’s more of a copycat league, right?”
A model that hasn’t been copied is the one employed by former Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians. He’s now a consultant under Tampa Bay head coach Todd Bowles, who succeeded him after serving as his defensive coordinator for three seasons. When the Bucs won the Super Bowl following the 2020 season, they had three Black coordinators: Bowles, offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich and special teams coordinator Keith Armstrong.
“That was not by design,” Arians said recently. “Those were just the best damn coaches I knew and that I had worked with over the years. We just happened to win a Super Bowl. I would’ve thought more teams might’ve copied it.”
Arians was an NFL head coach twice and largely had autonomy when it came to building out his coaching staff. He noted some owners and general managers do get involved, but he doesn’t see that as a valid excuse not to hire more diverse coaches.
“If you’re going to be a head coach in the National Football League, you should have enough contacts to fill out a diverse staff,” Arians said.
The disconnect between the number of diverse quarterbacks and quarterbacks coaches and diverse offensive coordinators puzzles Arians. Much like the league office, though, he’s optimistic the tide soon will turn.
“Coordinator has to follow sooner or later,” Arians said. “And then that’s going to lead to head coaching opportunities.”
(L to R) Former offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, head coach Bruce Arians and special teams coordinator Keith Armstrong helped lead the Buccaneers to a title in Super Bowl LV. (Cliff Welch / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Following the wave of protests in 2020 stemming from the murders of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery and the killing of Breonna Taylor, many corporations and institutions launched diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. But in the years since, DEI programming has been rolled back. The NFL says it won’t follow suit.
“We didn’t get into this because it was a trend, and we’re not getting out of it because it’s a trend,” Goodell said recently. “Our rules and our policies are really designed around how do we increase the number of people that have an opportunity to have a career in the NFL, including people of color and women, and that’s something that we fully believe is going to make the NFL better.”
The NFL has created several initiatives aimed at boosting diversity among offensive coaches. The Rooney Rule was expanded to include offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. And, starting last year, the league pushed back its hiring process by a week to give teams more time to decide.
“I think we’ve proven to ourselves that it does make the NFL better,” Goodell said of the Rooney Rule last February.
Since 2022, the league has required every team to have at least one offensive assistant coach who’s a person of color and/or a woman. It’s a one-year position sponsored by the league. The duties of the offensive assistant coach are up to the discretion of each team. Some teams, for example, have the assistant spend three weeks with each position group to give them a more varied experience. Other teams have the assistant home in on the quarterback room.
Annual programs such as the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship, the Quarterback Coaching Summit and the Coach Accelerator program are important steps in furthering diversity in the coaching ranks. Those vying for opportunities believe it’s imperative that those remain in place.
“I’ve been through, shoot, probably all of them,” Joseph said. “It’s all about really having the intention of utilizing those programs to find the good coaches and to give those coaches that opportunity. I think that’s where the programs are really beneficial. But I think when the program is there for a year or two and then it goes away, what happens after that?”
While team owners and executives are mandated to participate in the Accelerator program, it could be beneficial for more sitting head coaches to be involved as well. Some have participated over the years, but it’s not required.
“It would be great to have some active head coaches at the Accelerator so they can listen to some of the guys’ presentations,” McCardell said. “They should just continue to build that program and continue to get a chance to get coaches of color in front of the right people.”
K.J. Black (left) was a Bill Walsh diversity coaching fellow and offensive assistant for the Rams in 2022 and 2023 before joining the Falcons staff last season. (Kirby Lee / USA Today)
There’s also no formal opportunity for diverse assistants to network with non-diverse assistants. More of those assistant-to-assistant connections could be useful.
Some teams have created initiatives of their own. The Buccaneers, for instance, started a coaching academy in 2023. During the offseason, 25 finalists are brought into Tampa Bay for a week of on-field work and classroom sessions. Afterward, five of them are selected to participate in the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship during training camp.
“Say I’m not familiar with a guy,” Arians said. “Well, I can bring him in and work with him for three months and get familiar with about 10-20 guys.”
That type of programming goes a long way toward building familiarity between coaches and prospective candidates. For the candidates, it’s essentially a job interview. For those in hiring positions, it allows them to see how the candidates work with the rest of the staff, interact with the players and handle their various tasks.
The results of the DEI initiatives have shown up at head coach and defensive coordinator, but less so at offensive coordinator. Still, the NFL feels good about its trajectory.
“We’re confident that with the pipeline that we have, which is extremely strong, that progress will be made in that area,” Beane said. “We really do feel like we’re doing the right things to address that issue.”
The NFL’s diversity initiatives are important, but the hiring decisions ultimately come down to team owners. Ten women have controlling ownership stakes in teams, but there are only two who are of color. One of them, Buffalo Bills co-owner Kim Pegula, a native of South Korea, hasn’t been involved in day-to-day activities since suffering a brain injury in 2022.
“I mean, we’re still dealing with almost all White owners,” an NFL agent who represents coaches said. “In my opinion, if the league had the ability to have more influence over hires, it would be quite different. But we’re looking at some very, very wealthy White men, for the most part, who own every team. And they feel way more comfortable hiring people that look like them, especially with the position that is supposed to take care of the quarterback.”
(Top illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Photos: Aaron M. Sprecher via AP, Ben Liebenberg via AP, David Berding / Getty Images)
