The Kansas City Chiefs took home their third championship in five seasons, officially cementing themselves as a dynasty and the new kings of the NFL. This has caused everybody to begin singing the praises of head coach Andy Reid. Now all the praise for Reid is well deserved and earned, however, there is someone who is being overshadowed in all of this: Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo. Spagnuolo came up with a game plan that stopped Brock Purdy and the 49ers.
Now coming up with Super Bowl-winning game plans is nothing new for Spagnuolo. This win marked the fourth time that Spagnuolo has been on the winning side of the Super Bowl, all of which came when he was a defensive coordinator. With all the success Spagnuolo has had you have to question: what will Spagnuolo’s legacy be?
The Good of Steve Spagnuolo
Embed from Getty ImagesTo begin with, let’s start by explaining all the good things that Spagnuolo has done throughout his coaching career. He has been coaching football since 1981, bouncing around between college and the pros. However, two stops are more memorable than the rest.
New York Giants
Spagnuolo had two stints for the Giants. He was DC from 2007-08 and 2015-17. He was also the interim head coach for the final four games of the 2017 season after Ben McAdoo was fired. Spagnuolo was solid in both of his stints with the Giants. In his second stint, he was able to use the high-price free agents he got to create one of the best defenses in the league.
However, no matter how impressive his time with the Giants was, nothing would top what he did in Super Bowl 42. Entering the game the Giants were facing an impossible task, stopping the undefeated Patriots and one of the greatest offenses we’d ever seen. However, Spagnuolo came up with the perfect game plan that held this historic offense to only 14 points. Not just that but the Patriots’ offensive line was seen as one of the greatest of all time. It was impossible to touch Tom Brady let alone sack him. However thanks to Spagnuolo’s scheme, the Giants sacked Brady five times and hit him almost every play.
This performance is the crown jewel of Spagnuolo’s career. Whenever you bring him up, that Super Bowl is one of the first things people mention. It was the moment that made him a household name and got everyone paying attention.
Kansas City Chiefs
Now his time with the Giants might have been his most memorable stop, but he found the most success when he was with the Kansas City Chiefs. Spagnuolo was hired to be the Chiefs defensive coordinator before the 2019 season. He was reuniting with Andy Reid, a guy he spent years under in Philadelphia.
Spagnuolo has become a fixture in the Chiefs coaching staff. Since he arrived in 2019, the Chiefs have appeared in four Super Bowls, winning three of them. Sure, the Chiefs offense is getting all the shine for this dynasty. However without Spagnuolo’s defense, who knows if the Chiefs have the success they do?
Look at this season alone, in a season where the Chiefs offense was the worst it has been in years. Yet they still won the Super Bowl. How? Well, the Chiefs defense was one of the best in the NFL. In terms of yards allowed per game, the Chiefs ranked second giving up the second fewest amount of yards in a game. They also ranked fourth in passing defense. The defense picked up the slack for the offense. Who knows what these Chiefs would do without Spagnuolo running the defense at the level he was?
The Bad of Steve Spagnuolo
Now even though Spagnuolo has had a lot of high moments in his career, there have been a few lows as well, specifically when it comes to his time as head coach. After another impressive season as the Giants DC in 2008, the St. Louis Rams brought him in to be the next head coach. The hope was that he could take the aggressive approach he had as DC and transform that to fit a whole team.
Unfortunately for Spagnuolo, his time in St. Louis was an absolute disaster. In three seasons as the Rams’ head coach, he had a record of 10-38 and failed to win more than three games in two of the seasons. The biggest issue that Spagnuolo had was the offense. The Rams’ offense was one of the worst in the league during the Spagnuolo era. The offense finished dead last in two of the three seasons he was at the helm. This, along with overall team regression, is the biggest reason why he didn’t work out in St.Louis.
As mentioned earlier, he also was the interim head coach for the Giants. However there was so much drama and chaos surrounding that team, that it’s unfair to put anything that happened during that span on him.
The Verdict
Just like anyone who has spent years in the NFL, Spagnuolo’s tenure has been a roller coaster. He has reached the highest of highs, as well as the lowest of lows. But the question is which Spagnuolo will we remember? Will we remember the coordinator who was able to help his teams win four Super Bowls? Or will he be remembered because of his failures as head coach?
I believe that we will look at Spagnuolo in a more positive light. People will be quicker to bring up what he did in Super Bowl 42 and his time with the Chiefs a lot more than his time with the Rams. Those jobs showed that when Spagnuolo has control and knows what he is doing things can be successful. The mark of any great coordinator.
Thanks for reading! Credit for my feature image goes to Stephen Maturen. You can find more NFL content at Belly Up Sports and follow me on Twitter/X.
