Coordinators Who Could Elevate Their Stock During 2023 NFL Season

Most casual NFL fans aren’t too familiar with the coaching staffs of each team, but there are many individuals who help guide players through the season. The public tends to learn about the best assistant coaches towards the end of the year, when head coaching jobs become open. We’ll take a look at coordinators who may be in line for a top job come January.

Many wonder what Bieniemy must do to garner serious consideration for a head coaching position. He was the offensive coordinator for the high-powered Kansas City Chiefs for five seasons. He left the Chiefs to take the same role with the Washington Commanders. If Washington’s offense excels, evaluators will have no choice but to respect Bieniemy’s skill set.

For the first time in ages, the Lions are expected to be one of the better teams in the NFL. The talent they have on their roster has a lot to do with that, and it’ll be up to Johnson to make sure it comes together on offense. He did a solid job with a retooled team last year, and will look to improve on those results in 2023.

Not many believed that the Seahawks could hang in games last season with an unproven quarterback, but Seattle did just that under Waldron. Geno Smith’s reclamation sits at the top of the offensive coordinator’s resume, and Seahawks fans hope that their resurgence in 2022 wasn’t a fluke.

This will be the second season removed from Brian Daboll for Dorsey, who is looking to put his own stamp on the Bills offense. Daboll got a lot of credit for molding quarterback Josh Allen, and Dorsey will need to find a way to take him to the next level. There has been talk of limiting Allen’s designed runs, which might call for additional deep throws over the course of a game.

Head coach Zac Taylor deserves a ton of credit for turning the Bengals around, but Callahan has been a primary figure as well. He has the benefit of working with players like Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Joe Mixon, but Callahan certainly knows how to use them. He’s kept the train moving despite inconsistent offensive line play throughout the years.

Moore was once on track to become a head coach, but his stock seems to have cooled somewhat. He was viewed as a creative offensive mind with the Dallas Cowboys, and has since taken his talents to Los Angeles to be the offensive coordinator with the Chargers. Moore has a golden opportunity to unleash quarterback Justin Herbert with a skilled group of receivers and tight ends.

He kind of snuck up on everyone during the coaching cycle last year, but Evero was legitimately in the running for a couple of head coaching positions. The 42 year-old will run the Carolina Panthers’ defense this season, after a successful campaign heading the Denver Broncos’ unit last year. This role could be another stepping stone in his career.

The Bengals’ offense gets a lot of deserved attention, but their defense has quietly become one of the best units in football. The reason why Cincinnati has made deep playoff runs each of the last two years is their ability to get stops against great teams, which can be attributed to Anarumo’s clever schemes.

Despite being advertised as a failure with the Atlanta Falcons, Quinn has proven to be a quality defensive mind in the last decade or so. He led the “Legion of Boom” Seattle Seahawks defense, and has been at the forefront of an impressive Dallas Cowboys unit. One more strong season could tempt Quinn to test the head coaching rankings elsewhere once again.

Suing the NFL complicates his situation, but Flores’ accolades as a coach cannot be ignored. He did an excellent job navigating through difficult directional expectations with the Miami Dolphins, and was overqualified to be a senior defensive assistant with the Pittsburgh Steelers last year. It’s possible another team could tab Flores as a head coach if this stint with Minnesota goes well.

It didn’t feel like Wilks would get a second chance to be a head coach after his disastrous campaign with the Arizona Cardinals in 2018. However, he did a solid job as the interim head coach of the Carolina Panthers in 2022, and now finds himself as the defensive coordinator of the San Francisco 49ers. That role has been a gateway to head coaching gigs in recent seasons.