Vrabel, Macdonald Get Defensive Coaches Off Super Bowl Schneid That Dates to Bill Belichick

Belichick was the last defense-focused head coach to appear in a Super Bowl.

Mike Vrabel played for Bill Belichick with the Patriots before entering coaching. Now, he has New England playing in the Super Bowl for the first time since Belichick’s departure. | George Walker IV / Tennessean.com via Imagn Content Services, LLC

The 2020s have been an era of offensive dominance in the NFL. Between the dynastic run of Andy Reid’s Chiefs and the proliferation of the Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan coaching trees across the NFL, elevating young offensive minds has been a serious trend across the league for years, and it has shown in the Super Bowl matchups.

Since Super Bowl LIV, which capped the 2019 season, the Big Game’s head coaches have exclusively been those with offensive backgrounds. Reid has coached in five of those games, of course, winning three, but he’s been joined by Shanahan (Super Bowls LIV, LVIII) Bruce Arians (Super Bowl LV), McVay and Zac Taylor (Super Bowl LVI) and Nick Sirianni (Super Bowls LVII, LIX). That run comes to a close next Sunday.

More: Mike Vrabel’s Chance at NFL History—Who Has Won a Super Bowl As Both Player and Coach?

It is too early to tell whether defense is back in vogue, but both the Patriots and Seahawks will be led by defensive-minded head coaches in Super Bowl LX. New England’s Mike Vrabel played linebacker for Bill Belichick’s Patriots dynasty before becoming defensive coordinator of the Texans in 2017. A year later, he took over as head coach of the Titans, and now occupies his legendary coach’s old role, looking to bring New England back to the top of the sport.

Seattle’s Mike Macdonald was defensive coordinator of the Ravens under John Harbaugh from 2022 to ‘23 before landing his first head coaching job with the Seahawks. Vrabel is coaching his first Super Bowl in his first year back with the Patriots; Macdonald only had to wait until year two in Seattle.

The Mike Vrabel vs. Mike Macdonald Super Bowl matchup snaps a streak of offensive dominance that dates back to Bill Belichick’s Patriots dynasty

Amazingly, Belichick was the last defensively-minded head coach to lead a team in any Super Bowl, when his New England team defeated McVay’s Rams at Super Bowl LIII to capture his sixth ring as head coach in 2019.

The last time that we had a defense vs. defense head coaching matchup? Two years earlier at Super Bowl LI, when Belichick’s Patriots took down Dan Quinn’s Falcons in their epic overtime comeback.

The last defense vs. defense matchup that didn’t feature Belichick came in Super Bowl XLVIII, in which Pete Carroll’s Seahawks beat John Fox’s Broncos.

The last run of Super Bowls this one-sided came generations ago

Broncos coach Mike Shanahan won two Super Bowls with quarterback John Elways during a stretch in the 1990s when offensive coaches dominated the Big Game. | RVR Photos-Imagn Images

We’ve seen lopsided runs of offensive or defensive dominance, but it has been a while. Offensive coaches had an edge at the end of the 1990s, capturing six consecutive Super Bowls from 1996 to 2000.

Season	Super Bowl	Winner	Coach	Focus	Loser	Coach	Focus	Score
1995–96	XXX	Cowboys	Barry Switzer	Off.	Steelers	Bill Cowher	Def.	27–17
1996–97	XXXI	Packers	Mike Homgren	Off.	Patriots	Bill Parcells	Def.	35–21
1997–98	XXXII	Broncos	Mike Shanahan	Off.	Packers	Mike Holmgren	Off.	31–24
1998–99	XXXIII	Broncos	Mike Shanahan	Off.	Falcons	Dan Reeves	Off.	34–19
1999–2000	XXXIV	Rams	Dick Vermeil	Off.	Titans	Jeff Fisher	Def.	23–16
2000–01	XXXV	Ravens	Brian Billick	Off.	Giants	Jim Fassell	Off.	34–7

There were a number of top defensive coaches in the mix during this era, like Cowher and Parcells, along with some other clear caveats. Most notably, while Billick was an offensive coach by trade, having led the Vikings attack before taking over in Baltimore, no one would mistake that for an offense-first club considering the Ray Lewis-led defense is one of the most fearsome in NFL history.

Prior to that run, the longest streak of offensive dominance came in the early-to-mid 1980s, as legends like Bill Walsh and Joe Gibbs came into their own.

Season	Super Bowl	Winner	Coach	Focus	Loser	Coach	Focus	Score
1981–82	XV	Raiders	Tom Flores	Off.	Eagles	Dick Vermeil	Off.	27–10
1982–83	XVI	49ers	Bill Walsh	Off.	Bengals	Forrest Gregg	Off.	26–21
1983–84	XVII	Washington	Joe Gibbs	Off.	Dolphins	Don Shula	Def.	27–17
1984–85	XVIII	Raiders	Tom Flores	Off.	Washington	Joe Gibbs	Off.	38–9
1985–86	XIX	49ers	Bill Walsh	Off.	Dolphins	Don Shula	Def.	38–16
1986–87	XX	Bears	Mike Ditka	Off./ST	Patriots	Raymond Berry	Off.	46–10

This run ended similarly to the more recent one, with the dominant ‘85 Bears defense led by Hall of Fame tight end Mike Ditka, who focused primarily on pass catchers and special teams with the Tom Landry-led Cowboys before returning to Chicago to lead the Bears.

Flores’s Super Bowl XV win with the Raiders ended perhaps the most dominant run for coaches focused on one side of the ball, when legendary defensive minds like Landry, Shula and Chuck Noll ruled the league.

Season	Super Bowl	Winner	Coach	Focus	Loser	Coach	Focus	Score
1971–72	VI	Cowboys	Tom Landry	Def.	Dolphins	Don Shula	Def.	24–3
1972–73	VII	Dolphins	Don Shula	Def.	Washington	George Allen	Def.	14–7
1973–74	VIII	Dolphins	Don Shula	Def.	Vikings	Bud Grant	O/D	24–7
1974–75	IX	Steelers	Chuck Noll	Def.	Vikings	Bud Grant	O/D	16–6
1975–76	X	Steelers	Chuck Noll	Def.	Cowboys	Tom Landry	Def.	21–17
1976–77	XI	Raiders	John Madden	Def.	Vikings	Bud Grant	O/D	32–14
1977–78	XII	Cowboys	Tom Landry	Def.	Broncos	Red Miller	Off.	27–10
1978–79	XIII	Steelers	Chuck Noll	Def.	Cowboys	Tom Landry	Def.	35–31
1979–80	XIV	Steelers	Chuck Noll	Def.	Rams	Ray Malavasi	Def.	31–19

Even the losers in this run were mostly defensive-minded. Legendary Vikings coach Bud Grant is a unique case; he became the head coach for the CFL’s Blue Bombers one year after an pro football career in which he played on both sides of the ball throughout. (He also played for the NBA’s Minneapolis Lakers from 1949 to ‘51.) His defense, known as the “Purple People Eaters,” was one of the NFL’s elite units, but he also coached quarterback Fran Tarkenton, one of the most innovative players in the league’s early history.

More: ‘If Winning or Losing Is Going to Define You, You’re on a Rough Road’

While the early years of the NFL are stereotypically thought of as a defense-first era, the first five victorious coaches of the Super Bowl era all came from the offensive side.

Season	Super Bowl	Winner	Coach	Focus	Loser	Coach	Focus	Score
1966–67	I	Packers	Vince Lombardi	Off.	Chiefs	Hank Stram	Off.	35–10
1967–68	II	Packers	Vince Lombardi	Off.	Raiders	John Rauch	Off.	33–14
1968–69	III	Jets	Weeb Ewbank	Off.	Colts	Don Shula	Def.	16–7
1969–70	IV	Chiefs	Hank Stram	Off.	Vikings	Bud Grant	O/D	23–7
1970–71	V	Colts	Don McCafferty	Off.	Cowboys	Tom Landry	Def.	16–13

A run of dominance from coaches with backgrounds on one side of the ball is nothing new, but the fact that no defense-first head coach had even appeared in the Super Bowl in six seasons is unprecedented.

Time will tell whether Vrabel and Macdonald’s immediate success will shift the momentum back towards defensive coaches. So far in this coaching cycle, the breakdown is fairly even between offense and defense.

---