KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Chiefs will bring back all but one member of their assistant coaching staff from the group that led them to a win in Super Bowl LVIII, with the only changes coming on the defensive side of the football.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid announced at the NFL Combine that outside linebackers coach Ken Flajole had retired. Defensive assistant Rod Wilson will move into that role now, while Alex Whittingham, formerly defensive quality control coach, moves back to a defensive assistant role with a larger portfolio than in his previous role. The club also hired Louie Addazio to step into Whittingham’s former slot.
“Louie’s got a bunch of experience coaching, he also adds a flavor that he’s been an offensive coach, a line coach at the major college level, and that will give us some good, productive information for the defense going forward,” Reid said. “So able to add good, good quality into the mix here.”
The offensive coaching staff remains intact. That includes Connor Embree, who will return for a second season as the team’s wide receivers coach.
Wilson has spent the past seasons with the Chiefs in two stints, first serving three years as assistant special teams coach departing for his alma mater South Carolina coaching linebackers. He was inside linebackers coach at Coastal Carolina in 2021 before returning to Kansas City as a defensive assistant. The 42-year-old Wilson was a six-year veteran in the NFL at linebacker, playing 51 games in stints with Chicago and Tampa Bay. He spent much of his career a special teams ace for Chiefs coordinator Dave Toub during his time with the Bears.
Whittingham is entering his seventh season with the Chiefs after starting as a defensive assistant in 2018 and moving to defensive quality control in 2019. He joined the Chiefs after playing football at Utah under his father, Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham, who was a college teammate of Andy Reid at BYU. His grandfather, Fred “Mad Dog” Whittingham, was an unbeaten Golden Gloves boxer who played seven seasons as a middle linebacker in the NFL.
The 30-year-old Addazio played collegiately for a season at Syracuse before transferring to Boston College, where he played 33 games with nine starts. He entered the coaching ranks as a graduate intern and assistant at Ohio State for three seasons before stints with Bowling Green, Colorado State, Nevada and Texas A&M. His father, Steve Addazio, was his head coach at Boston, and he worked for his father after he took the Colorado State head coaching job. The pair have been assistants together for the past two seasons at Texas A&M.
2024 Chiefs Coaching Staff
Head coach Andy Reid
Assistant head coach/special teams coordinator Dave Toub
Andy Hill, assistant special teams
Offensive coordinator Matt Nagy
David Girardi, quarterbacks
Dan Williams, offensive quality control/assistant quarterbacks
Todd Pinkston, running backs
Porter Ellett, assistant running backs
Tom Melvin, tight ends
Connor Embree, wide receivers
Andy Heck, offensive line
Corey Matthaei, assistant offensive line
Joe Bleymaier, pass game coordinator
Kevin Saxton, offensive assistant
Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo
Joe Cullen, defensive line
Terry Bradden, assistant defensive line
Brendan Daly, linebackers
Rod Wilson, outside linebackers
Dave Merritt, defensive backs
Donald D’Alesio, safeties
Alex Whittingham, defensive assistant
Louie Addazio, defensive quality control
Vice president of sports medicine and performance Rick Burkholder
Ryan Reynolds, head strength & conditioning/director of sports science
Greg Carbin, assistant strength & conditioning
Nick Cassettta, assistant strength & conditioning
Spencer Reid, assistant strength & conditioning
Mike Frazier, statistical analysis coordinator
Marc Richards, football research analyst
