While NFL teams race to hire younger coaches in search of the next Sean McVay, two defensive coordinators in their 60s are providing an important reminder in Super Bowl 59:
Experience matters. In 2025, experience still wins.
The Philadelphia Eagles’ Vic Fangio, 66, and the Kansas City Chiefs’ Steve Spagnuolo, 65, ran the No. 2 and No. 4 scoring defenses in the NFL this season, respectively.
Their detail-oriented mindsets are evident in how their defenses and teams practice and play. Their approaches have helped create and maintain the cultures of their organizations.
And on game days, their personnel deployment and timely calls have given their teams a distinct advantage in critical situations.
Spagnuolo’s five-man pressure with blitzing safety Justin Reid and corner Trent McDuffie outschemed Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady, 35, badly on the AFC Championship’s critical 4th and 5 – when Josh Allen nearly hero-ball’d a solution to Dalton Kincaid anyway.
Fangio’s relentless Eagles defense held a Washington offense that scored 38 points and averaged 6.6 yards per play against the top-seeded Lions to 23 points and 4.5 yards per play in the NFC Championship Game.
Middle linebacker Zach Baun led the way, with a team-high 12 tackles, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. Baun was a career outside linebacker and special teamer with the Saints until he signed in Philly as a free agent last spring, and Fangio moved him to off-ball linebacker.
Now Baun is a first–team All-Pro and a Defensive Player of the Year finalist.
Talented players drive any team’s championship run.
It certainly helps Spagnuolo, for example, that he has Chris Jones rushing the passer for the Chiefs. Jalen Carter is blossoming into one of the most feared players in the league for Fangio’s Eagles unit.
The coaches’ impact on their teams is undeniable, though, and irreplaceable.
It’s more evident this season in Philly. The Eagles’ defense collapsed and became arguably the NFL’s worst in 2023 under the combination of Sean Desai and Matt Patricia.
It surged immediately back into the NFL’s No. 1 overall defense under Fangio, with the help of Howie Roseman’s selections of corners Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean.
Not that Spagnuolo is overlooked in K.C. But he is still underappreciated.
As great as Patrick Mahomes is at quarterback, Spagnuolo is part of the three-legged stool holding up the Chiefs’ three-peat chase along with head coach Andy Reid and the amazing QB.
Reid, by the way, as head coach and offensive play caller, is 66 years old and chasing his fourth ring.
Not that there’s anything wrong with an organization hiring a bright, young mind to run a team or defense – to seek and harness the cutting edge of the game’s progress.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni, 43, and offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, 36, have helped guide their team here without the same tenure as the aforementioned vets.
It’s instructive to understand, however, that McVay – who won Super LVI with the Rams at age 36 – is the only young coach to win a Super Bowl recently.
Reid has won the last two years in his mid-60s. Prior to McVay, Bruce Arians won with the Buccaneers at 68.
Reid won his first with the Chiefs in his early 60s. Bill Belichick won ring No. 6 at 66 by holding McVay’s Rams to three points to close the 2018 NFL season.
Doug Pederson was 50 when he led the Eagles to their only Super Bowl victory. And before that it was Belichick, the Broncos’ Gary Kubiak at 54, Belichick, Pete Carroll with the Seahawks at 62 and the Baltimore Ravens’ John Harbaugh at 50 in Feb. 2013.
Tom Coughlin was 61 and 65 when he took the Giants to the promised land.
An NFL head coach younger than 50 has not won a Super Bowl since Mike McCarthy at 47 in Feb. 2011. That was a three-year run of younger coaches lifting the Lombardi Trophy, beginning with Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin, 36, and New Orleans’ Sean Payton, 46.
Not that young NFL coaches can’t succeed, if not thrive.
Kyle Shanahan has had his 49ers in the Super Bowl twice recently at ages 41 and 45. The Bengals’ Zac Taylor nearly beat McVay at 38.
It’s worth remembering, though, as the Chicago Bears hired Ben Johnson, 38, and the Jacksonville Jaguars hired Liam Coen, 39, that there is more to coaching than calling plays.
Even at the coordinator level, where Fangio’s and Spanguolo’s vaults of knowledge and approaches can buttress their programs and impact the culture – not just the scheme.
It’s also worth pondering how the levels of experience in this Super Bowl 59 will dictate the game: Reid vs. Fangio is a much fairer fight on that front than Spagnuolo vs. Moore. Can the young Moore think forward enough to overcome Spagnuolo’s experience in these big spots?
When Carroll, 73, took the Las Vegas Raiders head coaching job recently, jokes ran rampant about the AFC West becoming the NFL’s new retirement home for head coaches. But the real joke is on the football minds who do not recognize the value of experience in this kid’s game played in the pros.
Tom Brady, the Raiders minority owner who ran the search for head coach, recognized it after failing to land Johnson, the Lions’ offensive coordinator who opted to stay in division with the Bears.
Once Johnson packed for the Windy City, Brady fell back on what he knows works: An older, experienced coach with the wisdom to know how to create a culture, create a game plan and avoid the mistakes young coaches haven’t made yet.
Winning games in the NFL – let alone winning a championship – the knowledge of how to avoid losing, as Belichick says. Often, it takes someone who has lost before to truly understand how to stop it from happening again.
