A career in the NFL is a dream for many, whether they dream of playing in the Super Bowl themselves or their players pouring Gatorade down their backs after a Super Bowl win. For those interested in coaching, they may find themselves curious about salaries for all types of football coaches, including the NFL offensive coordinator salary.
Coaching Teams in Professional Football
Football is a complicated game of strategy for the players and requires a team of coaches to push the team to new heights, especially when playing at the professional level. According to the Dummies guide on American football coaching staff, the typical NFL team has around 15 assistant coaches in addition to the head coach.
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College football differs from the NFL standard; however, they still have a team of coaches that assist the head coach. Generally, the coaching team consists of 9 full-time assistant coaches and two graduate assistants in addition to the strength coaches.
The Types of Coaches in the NFL
In the NFL, every professional team has a head coach who has control over alignments, plays and personnel, depending on their coaching style and franchise's power structure. Assisting them are strength and conditioning coaches as well as a series of assistant coaches.
One of the assistant coaches is the quarterback coach. They're tasked with monitoring the quarterback's physical and mental capabilities and style as they play. The quarterback coach narrows in on the quarterback's footwork, throwing and pass-drop techniques. They ensure the quarterback doesn't develop bad habits and is mentally up to the task, ready to lead the team.
The offensive coordinator is another type of assistant coach on the professional level coaching team. Focusing on the offensive players, the offensive coordinator is the coach who typically calls the plays and works with quarterbacks. They develop offensive game plans, tailoring them to every opponent. Working closely with the head coach, the offensive coordinator ensures practices run smoothly with the offensive players.
NFL Offensive Coordinator Salary and Beyond
Coaching salaries vary widely and are conflated by coaches at the professional level. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), among the reported 249,900 coaches in the U.S. in 2020, the median pay for coaches and scouts averaged around $36,330 per year. The career is even expected to grow 26 percent between 2020 and 2030, much faster than the national average career growth of around 8 percent.
However, these numbers don't reflect coaches at the professional level in the NFL. Even in the NFL, coaching salaries vary widely depending on the franchise, the franchise's plans for the team's future, the coach's experience and countless other variables.
The NFL offensive coordinator salary tends to depend on how much the franchise wants to, and is able to, pay to keep the coordinator on the team. As the Boston Globe states, the New England Patriot's Josh McDaniels became the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the NFL when he signed a 5-year contract in 2018, making more than $4 million.
More on NFL Salaries
McDaniels' salary with the NFL is not standard. Depending on the franchise, the salary can range anywhere from a couple hundred thousand dollars to a couple million dollars. In most cases, the offensive coordinator is among the highest-paid coaches on the coaching team, but less than what the head coach makes.
According to CareerTrend, the average salary a quarterback coach might see in the NFL averages around $200,000. Typically, the franchise sets an assistant coach budget, which then is divided up among coaches.
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