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
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.
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