The Detroit Lions have finalized their 2025 coaching staff. Here’s a closer look at the changes.
The Detroit Lions announced on Tuesday the entirety of their 2025 coaching staff. Obviously, this year the Lions went through some pretty significant changes. Detroit lost both their offensive coordinator (Ben Johnson) and defensive coordinator (Aaron Glenn) to head coaching jobs , and both ended up taking a few Lions coaches with them.
So this year’s staff has a bunch of new names to it.
Here is the full list of the Lions’ coach staff, with new hires (or new positions for returning coaches) bolded.
Head Coach
- Dan Campbell
Offensive staff
- John Morton – Offensive Coordinator
- Scottie Montgomery – Assistant Head Coach/Wide Receivers
- David Shaw – Passing Game Coordinator
- Mark Brunell – Quarterbacks
- Tashard Choice – Running Backs
- Tyler Roehl – Tight Ends
- Seth Ryan – Assistant Tight Ends
- Hank Fraley – Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line
- Steve Oliver – Assistant Offensive Line
- Bruce Gradkowski – Offensive Assistant
- Marques Tuiasosopo – Offensive Assistant
- Justin Mesa – Offensive Quality Control
The only unannounced changes here are the addition of two new assistants. Marques Tuiasosopo is a former NFL quarterback who has been coaching at the college level since 2009—most recently with Rice as their offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. He also overlapped with new Lions offensive coordinator John Morton back during his playing days with the Raiders.
Justin Mesa, too has been coaching at the college level for about 15 years, serving roles from tight ends coach, wide receivers coach, and most recently as the Washington State special teams/assistant tight ends coach.
Also of note, Seth Ryan has moved from an assistant receivers coach to assistant tight ends.
Defensive staff
- Kelvin Sheppard – Defensive Coordinator
- Kacy Rodgers – Run Game Coordinator/Defensive Line
- David Corrao – Senior Defensive Assistant/Outside Linebackers
- Shaun Dion Hamilton – Linebackers
- Deshea Townsend – Passing Game Coordinator/Defensive Backs
- Jim O’Neil – Defensive Assistant/Safeties
- August Mangin – Defensive Assistant
- Caleb Collins – Defensive Assistant
- Dre Thompson – WCF Minority Coaching Assistant/Defensive Quality Control
Jim O’Neil finally has “safeties” attached to his title, as that was the unit he worked with in an unofficial capacity in 2024.
Beyond that, there are two new assistants.
August Mangin has been with the 49ers since 2021. He served most recently as special teams quality control/game management specialist. Interestingly, he has a connection to new Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard, as they played alongside each other at LSU —Mangin as a fullback, Sheppard as a linebacker.
Caleb Collins also has an LSU background (defensive assistant—2018, 2019). He most recently was Baylor’s outside linebackers coach for the past four seasons.
Special teams staff
- Dave Fipp – Special Teams Coordinator
- Jett Modkins – Assistant Special Teams
Other staff
- Mike Clark – Director of Sports Performance
- Jill Costanza – Director of Sports Science
- Josh Schuler – Head Strength & Conditioning
- Corey Smith – Assistant Strength & Conditioning
- Jesse Giambra – Chief of Staff/Head Coach Administration
Giambra—who is regularly mistaken for Tanner Engstrand because of a mislabeled photograph—sees a title change from Teams Operations Manager/Head Coach Administration, to Chief of Staff/Head Coach Administration.
Previously announced hires: