The Detroit Lions hired Mark Brunell as coach, the first NFL coach for the 19-year veteran who last played in the league in 2011.
Brunell is expected to coach the first new Lions starting quarterback in the last decade as Detroit tries to trade Matthew Stafford, the team’s 2009 caller, after he and the franchise agreed on a split earlier this year. months. .
Brunell has the playing experience, at least, to be able to do it. He played most of his career in Jacksonville, starting 117 games in nine seasons since 1995. He joined the league in 1993 as a voter in the fifth round of the Green Bay Packers.
He was in Jacksonville in 2003 and then with the New York Jets in 2010 and 2011, where he intersected with Detroit’s new offensive coordinator, Anthony Lynn, who was the coach of defenders at the time. In 2009, Brunell played for the New Orleans Saints during Lions coach Dan Campbell’s senior year in the NFL. Brunell played in Washington for three more seasons.
Brunell played in 193 career games (151 starts), completing 59.5% of his passes for 32,072 yards, 184 touchdowns and 108 interceptions. After retiring, Brunell was the head coach at the Episcopal School in Jacksonville, Florida, a mentor for the NFL draft defenders and a radio station on the WJXT in Jacksonville.
Detroit also announced the hiring of Duce Staley as assistant head coach / back-to-back coach – the same title he held in Philadelphia as early as the 2018 season. the quality control coach of the special teams, after retiring from his 10-year career in the NFL.
Staley was interviewed for head coach of the Eagles after Doug Pederson was fired earlier this month.
Brunell and Staley are the last Lions coaches to play in the NFL. Campbell played 10 years in the league, Lynn seven, defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn 15 and offensive line coach Hank Fraley 11.