The Detroit Lions appointed Mark Brunell as quarterback coach, the first NFL coaching job for the 19-year-old veteran who last played in the league in 2011.
Brunell is expected to lead the Lions’ first new full-time starting lineup in more than a decade, as Detroit wants to trade Matthew Stafford, the team’s caller since 2009, after he and the franchise agreed on a split earlier. this month. .
Brunell at least has the player experience to make it possible. He played most of his career in Jacksonville, starting 117 games over nine seasons in 1995. He entered the league in 1993 as a fifth-round pick for the Green Bay Packers.
It was in Jacksonville in 2003 and then in 2010 and 2011 with the New York Jets, where he made a cross with Detroit’s new attacking coordinator, Anthony Lynn. In 2009, Brunell played for the New Orleans Saints during the final year of new Lions coach Dan Campbell in the NFL. Brunell also played three seasons in Washington.
Brunell played in 193 professional games (151 starts) and completed 59.5% of his passes for 32,072 yards, 184 touchdowns and 108 interceptions. After retiring, he was the head coach at Episcopal School in Jacksonville, Florida, a mentor to quarterbacks who enrolled in the NFL draft and a radio host at WJXT in Jacksonville.
Detroit also announced the appointment of Duce Staley as assistant head coach / running coach – the same title he has held since the 2018 season in Philadelphia. Staley spent ten seasons as a coach with the Eagles, building himself up from the quality control coach for special teams, after retiring from his ten-year NFL career.
Staley interviewed the Eagles head coach after Doug Pederson was fired earlier this month.
Brunell and Staley are the youngest Lions coaches to have played in the NFL. Campbell played ten years in the league, Lynn seven, defense coordinator Aaron Glenn 15 and attacking line coach Hank Fraley 11.