At the start of the 2024 season, nine out of the 32 NFL teams had head coaches of color, marking a historic high.

However, the overall picture of coaching diversity in the NFL is more complicated.

In its NFL Coaches Project, YSL News Sports collected detailed information—such as age, gender, ethnicity, playing history, and coaching background—of all on-field coaches in the league at the season’s start. This encompassed everyone from head coaches and coordinators at the top tier to quality control coaches and those in entry-level positions. The data excludes strength and conditioning coaches, analytics staff, administrative roles, and interns.

The findings for 2024 indicate advancements in some areas—like position coaches, where almost half are non-white—while showing setbacks in others, especially on the offensive side. The proportion of non-white coaches in offensive positions declined compared to 2023, and for the first time since 1988, there were no Black offensive coordinators in the league at the season’s onset.

Overall, the composition of on-field coaches in the NFL remains largely unchanged on a percentage basis from last year. At the beginning of this season, non-white coaches accounted for about 44.3% of coaching staffs, nearly identical to the previous year.

Richard Lapchick, who established The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida, has monitored NFL diversity for over a decade. He commended the league for its recent initiatives and highlighted the increase of head coaches of color from six to nine as a notable achievement, despite the challenges in other areas, such as offensive coaching roles.

“I’m more impressed with the progress than I am troubled by the negative statistics,” stated Lapchick, who, though no longer with Central Florida, is still the president of The Institute for Sport and Social Justice, a nonprofit organization.

Progress in NFL Head Coaching

This offseason, eight head coaching positions were available in the NFL, with half filled by coaches of color: Raheem Morris in Atlanta, Dave Canales in Carolina, Antonio Pierce in Las Vegas, and Jerod Mayo in New England. Pierce was elevated after serving as interim head coach, while Mayo took over from Bill Belichick, with no other candidates interviewed.

YSL News Sports found that this was the first occasion since the Rooney Rule’s introduction in 2003, which mandates interviews with candidates of color, that four head coaching positions were filled by coaches of color in the same hiring cycle.

This also means that, for the first time in NFL history, more than 25% of head coaching roles are held by coaches of color.

Lapchick emphasized the importance of focusing on diversity at the head coach level, which should garner the most attention, as it represents the leadership of the team.

“That’s where the focus should be,” he said. “These are the individuals the teams are showcasing as their leaders. Historically, this area has seen minimal progress, so the increase in head coaches of color is a noteworthy accomplishment for the NFL.”

The data from YSL News Sports tracks the composition of coaching staffs at the beginning of each season for consistency. Since then, the number of non-white head coaches has decreased, with former New York Jets coach Robert Saleh being one of two head coaches dismissed in recent months (the other being Dennis Allen, who is white).

Absence of Black Offensive Coordinators

While the increase in head coaching diversity is noteworthy, the drop in offensive coordinator diversity is concerning. For the first time in 36 years, none of the 31 NFL offensive coordinators at the season’s start were Black (the San Francisco 49ers have no designated offensive coordinator).

Two non-white coordinators from 2023, Thomas Brown and Brian Johnson, started the season as passing game coordinators, while Eric Bieniemy returned to coaching at UCLA. Canales transitioned from offensive coordinator to head coach of the Carolina Panthers.

Brown became the league’s sole Black offensive coordinator when the Chicago Bears promoted him after dismissing Shane Waldron. The only other coordinator of color is Mike Kafka from the New York Giants, who, although previously identified as white, now identifies as Hispanic due to his Puerto Rican heritage.

Despite half of the defensive coordinators being hired in the offseason.

While there has been some progress in hiring coaches of color, the situation with offensive coordinators paints a different picture. Last winter, 16 out of the 32 NFL teams appointed new offensive coordinators, and all of them were white.

Jonathan Beane, the NFL’s Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, did not participate in an interview but shared with The Athletic his hope that the lack of diversity among offensive coordinators is a temporary issue limited to just this year.

Encouragingly, data from lower coaching levels supports his optimism. The league now has two more non-white quarterback coaches compared to last year, and nearly half of the coaches at the position coaching level belong to diverse backgrounds.

Defense Shows Greater Diversity

Traditionally, there have been more coaches of color in defensive roles than in offensive ones, and this trend continues into 2024. Currently, over 54% of defensive coaches across all levels are non-white, while only 39% of offensive coaches are from diverse backgrounds.

The slight decrease in diversity among offensive coaches is occurring even as the league is actively promoting opportunities for more non-white coaches in entry-level positions. In 2022, the NFL mandated that each team must hire either a woman or a coach from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group as an offensive assistant. The league also allocates funds to support this hiring initiative.

Interestingly, the coaching category that has seen the most significant increase in the proportion of non-white coaches is not offense or defense, but special teams. Although coaches of color currently occupy only seven of the NFL’s 32 special teams coordinator roles, they fill half of the positions for assistant special teams coordinators.

Team Rankings

For the third year in a row, YSL News Sports analyzed coaching diversity by team and found that the teams ranked at both the highest (Pittsburgh Steelers) and lowest (Cincinnati Bengals) remain unchanged.

The Steelers have a coaching staff that is 63% non-white, making them one of seven NFL teams where coaches of color constitute the majority. Four of these seven teams started the 2024 season with a non-white head coach.

Conversely, the Bengals, New Orleans Saints, Los Angeles Chargers, and Kansas City Chiefs represent the four teams with coaching staffs that are two-thirds or more white. The Bengals, for example, have five coaches of color among the 21 on-field coaches, but none of these coaches hold coordinator positions or higher.