Steve Spagnuolo enters Super Bowl on cusp of history

NFL

By Ryan Dunleavy

In case the written message on the “In Spags We Trust” T-shirts that they wore Sunday wasn’t clear enough, the Chiefs’ star players said the rest.

Kansas City wouldn’t be in Super Bowl 2024 — competing to win a third title in the past five seasons — if not for defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s schematic genius, player-friendly touch and the homespun charm that comes with bringing his wife’s banana cream pudding into the facility to share each week.

“I still think Spags should be up for Assistant Coach of the Year with what he’s been able to do with this defense from last year to this year,” All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones said after the Chiefs stymied the dynamic Ravens, 17-10, in the AFC Championship game. “How he was able to overcome a lot of bumps and how he was able to force a lot of guys to grow.”

Spagnuolo has built a case as one of the NFL’s all-time great assistant coaches.

He already is the only offensive or defensive coordinator to win Super Bowls in that role with multiple franchises (2007 Giants, 2019 and 2022 Chiefs), and a victory on Feb. 11 against the 49ers will break a five-way tie and make him the first four-time Super Bowl-winning coordinator on either side of the ball.

“Spags, it seems like when the games get bigger, when the challenges get higher, he performs even better,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said, paying forward a compliment often bestowed upon him.

The New York-based legacies of Tom Coughlin, Justin Tuck, Antonio Pierce and others benefited when Spagnuolo designed the pass rush that harassed Tom Brady and ruined the Patriots’ bid for an undefeated season in Super Bowl 2008.

But, as has been the case for other great coordinators, Spagnuolo’s success didn’t translate during his one full-time opportunity as a head coach.

He posted a .208 winning percentage that was third-worst in NFL history (minimum 50 games) with the 2009-11 Rams.

“When you are looking at defensive coordinators in the history of this game, he’s as good as we’ve seen,” NFL Network analyst Brian Baldinger told The Post. “If Spags was more [outspoken], maybe he could be a head coach again. But he’s so humble.

“It’s that he just understands how to use all of his pieces, and he understands what he has and what he doesn’t have. His game plan against Buffalo in the playoffs was totally different than against Buffalo in Week 14.”

Spagnuolo authored another masterpiece against the Ravens, dictating the terms so the NFL’s No. 1-ranked rushing attack attempted a season-low 16 runs — just six by running backs — the No. 4 scoring offense managed just a broken-play touchdown over the first 57 minutes and presumptive MVP Lamar Jackson tallied his second-lowest QBR (42.9).

“We threw the book at Lamar — zone pressures, man pressures, fake pressures, fake pressures that look like pressures that ended up being zone drops,” safety Justin Reid said. “We tried to do as much as we could to confuse him and not give him the same look twice the whole game.”

Spagnuolo trusted cornerbacks L’Jarius Sneed and Trent McDuffie — maybe the NFL’s best duo — on an island and enticed Jackson into making foolhardy deep throws.

He was 3 of 11 passing beyond 10 yards, including 2 of 7 beyond 20, per Pro Football Focus.

“You don’t know what you are going to get from Spags until the game is over,” Baldinger said. “They took the deep shots away and attacked the line of scrimmage really well with a variety of fronts. They made Lamar hold onto the ball in the first half, they came after him with blitzes in the second half and then they scrambled his limited scrambles.”

The Chiefs owe the Giants a debt of gratitude.

Their defense was a mess before Spagnuolo’s arrival in 2019 and subsequent guidance through several incarnations on the way to ranking No. 2 in scoring and No. 2 in total yards this season.

Spagnuolo’s second stint as Giants defensive coordinator (2015-17) ended when he went 1-3 as an interim head coach in place of the fired Ben McAdoo and was not retained by an incoming Pat Shurmur.

He spent the next year as a regular at NFL Films’ New Jersey headquarters, studying schemes alongside Baldinger, waiting for an opportunity like the one to reconnect with head coach Andy Reid, a friend since their college coaching days in the 1980s.

“Spags is the greatest defensive coordinator,” said Justin Reid, who has played for five play-callers in his career. “His defense is so fun to play in, and it’s so dynamic. It creates a whole bunch of special players.”

Some of those players might feel inclined to wear their new shirts emblazoned with Spagnuolo’s face around Las Vegas during Super Bowl week.

“I was humbled and embarrassed, to be quite honest with you,” Spagnuolo told Fox4 Kansas City during the on-field celebration. “Those guys had fun with it. Thank God we ended up doing well, because I would’ve felt really bad if we didn’t. These things aren’t good going to unless you win it — so we’re going to try to find a way to win it.”