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Study: Do The Steelers Have The NFL’s Smallest Coaching Staff? (2025 Edition)

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I couldn’t let the 2025 offseason slip away without revisiting an annual topic: NFL coaching sizes and how the Pittsburgh Steelers’ staff stacks up to the other 31 teams. In the previous three years I’ve examined, Pittsburgh has finished last or close to last. Is this year any different? Pittsburgh didn’t make the coaching overhaul it did a year ago, but how has the rest of the league been moving and shaking? Are there any league-wide trends worth noting?

And most importantly: Does any of this matter? Is there a correlation between coaching staff size and team success?

Let’s start with the size of each team’s coaching staff heading into 2025. I broke it down into offensive, defensive, and special teams coaches. Those numbers are one short of the total. Add in the head coach to make the numbers match.

I only included coaches with listed on-field roles and responsibilities noted by the team website. Data analysts, for example, were not included. While critical to the team, I didn’t include the strength & conditioning staff, either. Art Rooney II would disagree with some of these numbers and point to “unofficial” coaches not listed. Last year, the team had Ryan Shazier as an assistant. But because every team has a Ryan Shazier or two, I only counted the ones listed by the team in order to keep things uniform.

Here are the results.

Team Total Coaches Off. Coaches Def. Coaches ST Coaches
Miami Dolphins 27 13 11 2
Minnesota Vikings 27 14 10 2
Atlanta Falcons 26 13 10 2
Las Vegas Raiders 26 13 9 3
San Francisco 49ers 26 12 10 3
Denver Broncos 25 12 9 3
Houston Texans 25 12 9 3
Jacksonville Jaguars 25 12 10 2
Tennessee Titans 25 12 10 2
Washington Commanders 25 12 10 2
Green Bay Packers 25 12 9 3
Seattle Seahawks 25 12 10 2
New Orleans Saints 25 12 10 2
Indianapolis Colts 24 10 10 3
Los Angeles Chargers 24 11 10 2
Philadelphia Eagles 24 10 10 3
Detroit Lions 24 12 9 3
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24 13 8 2
Carolina Panthers 24 10 11 2
Baltimore Ravens 23 10 9 3
Kansas City Chiefs 23 11 9 2
New England Patriots 23 10 10 2
New York Jets 23 11 9 2
Dallas Cowboys 23 11 9 2
Chicago Bears 23 11 9 2
New York Giants 23 10 10 2
Los Angeles Rams 23 12 8 2
Cleveland Browns 22 11 8 2
Buffalo Bills 22 10 9 2
Cincinnati Bengals 21 10 8 2
Arizona Cardinals 21 10 8 2
Pittsburgh Steelers 19 10 7 1

Once again, the Steelers rank last. It’s the second-straight season Pittsburgh has finished at the bottom. In 2022 and 2023, the New England Patriots ranked last, but after Bill Belichick left, the team added several more coaches.

Pittsburgh’s the only team in the NFL with under 20 coaches. Their 10 offensive coaches aren’t out of the norm, but the Steelers are last with only seven defensive coaches, though head coach Mike Tomlin has a deep defensive background. Pittsburgh remains the only team with one titled special-teams coach, Danny Smith. Undoubtedly, he receives help, but every other team has at least a dedicated assistant.

The Miami Dolphins continue to have the NFL’s largest coaching staff. They ranked first last year with 27 and held steady in 2025, tying the Minnesota Vikings as the league’s top mark.

Below are the year-over-year trends across the NFL.

Year Total Coaches Offensive Coaches Defensive Coaches ST Coaches
2022 21.7 9.8 8.4 2.3
2023 23.0 10.8 8.8 2.3
2024 23.7 11.4 9.0 2.3
2025 23.9 11.4 9.3 2.3

For the first time since we began examining the data, there wasn’t an increase in offensive coaches. That number remained flat at 11.4. As did special teams, which has been remarkably consistent at 2.3 in all four years. Granted, it’s a much smaller sample size with less variation. Defensive coaches continue to increase, rising from 9.0 in 2024 to 9.3 in 2025. That slightly increased the overall average of coaches on staff from 23.7 last year to 23.9 this season. Pittsburgh is five coaches below the average.

Overall, this was the smallest increase in coaching size since we began studying trends.

But does it matter? Does a larger coaching staff make for a better team? There’s no exact way to judge it. But here’s the win-loss percentage for the teams with 25-plus coaches last year versus the ones with 22 or fewer.

25 or More: 96-108 (.471) – 33.3-percent playoff rate
22 or Fewer: 75-61 (.552) – 50-percent playoff rate

On that limited scope, a bigger coaching staff didn’t lead to more wins or increased playoff success. Teams with 25-plus coaches were sub-.500 compared to the .552 win rate of teams with 22 or fewer. Half of those teams, including the Steelers, made the playoffs. Last year, the data didn’t show either to have an advantage, and my main conclusion in my now four years of study is that there isn’t a strong correlation between the two.

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