(ThyBlackMan.com) It’s an exciting time to be a fan of NFL quarterbacks. Although the Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees era is over, there are still several current NFL quarterbacks that will be bound for the Pro Football Hall of Fame after their NFL careers are over. The only obvious slam dunk first ballot Hall of Fame quarterback still active is Pittsburgh’s Aaron Rodgers. The case for Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes is also clear due to his rare combination of personal accolades and his teams constant Super Bowl appearances over the past decade. It is also notable that most of today’s best NFL quarterbacks are African/Black including Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, last season’s Offensive Rookie of the Year Jayden Daniels, and the most recent Super Bowl winning quarterback, Jalen Hurts. ‘
The stigma behind whether African/Black quarterbacks can succeed in the NFL has been destroyed a while ago so much so that college quarterbacks being selected first in the NFL Draft like USC’s Caleb Williams and Miami’s Cam Ward are not asked the questions about their ability succeed due to “race” that even Lamar Jackson “subtly” seemed to face nearly a decade ago. There will not be many Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks being asked to convert to another NFL position like Jackson was by a prominent former NFL general manager.
While the most important player on the NFL field (quarterback) has tilted to being largely African/Black men, there are none who are designing and calling the plays with the label of offensive coordinator. Among the NFL’s 32 teams, 12 teams have African/Black defensive coordinators but none have an African/Black offensive coordinator as the 2025 NFL regular season approaches. This is significant in a league that has made important changes in the development of more prominent African/Black quarterbacks now and invested in the development of successful African/Black head coaches of the past such as the late Dennis Green.
As NFL head coaches are fired and then hired, NFL owners seem to lean more towards hiring more offensive-minded assistant coaches than defensive-minded assistant coaches because having a good offense definitely sells more tickets than having a good defense in the NFL. The offensive “genius” tag is also something that many NFL owners are attracted to having for their organization. That label only happens for offensive coordinators that are producing yards and points for their teams.
This is the second year in a row that the NFL doesn’t have an African/Black offensive coordinator among its 32 positions. It is also not surprising that a significant portion of offensive coordinators are former quarterbacks since that is the position on the field that has to know the most about what the offensive line, receivers, and running backs must do on each play along with his own responsibilities as a quarterback. Former NFL quarterback Kellen Moore turned newly hired New Orleans Saints head coach is the perfect example of how a successful college quarterback turned successful NFL offensive coordinator can lead a young coach on the fast track to be hired as an NFL head coach. Moore isn’t even 40 years old.
In 2025, 14 NFL teams hired or promoted new offensive coordinators and none were African/Black. It makes it more likely that the NFL will continue to have NFL head coaching hiring cycles like the most recent one when only one of the seven new NFL head coaches is African/Black, the New York Jets’ Aaron Glenn, who was the former Detroit Lions defensive coordinator. Ironically, one potential NFL assistant to keep an eye on towards being a possible NFL offensive coordinator is Detroit Lions pass game coordinator David Shaw, who was the winningest head coach in Stanford football history. Shaw successfully took over the reins of the Stanford program from Jim Harbaugh and had a ton of success. If the Lions passing game has another productive season, this time without former offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, then Shaw would be a likely beneficiary of a promotion to offensive coordinator likely on another NFL team.
Staff Writer; Mark Hines
