The National Football League (NFL) is the most lucrative sports league in the United States. With billions in annual revenue, exorbitant player salaries, and valuable franchises, it’s clear that professional football is big business. However, while star players can command contracts worth tens of millions per year, NFL head coach salaries are relatively modest in comparison. So what is the lowest annual salary for an NFL head coach?
NFL Coaching Salaries
Unlike player contracts which are publicly reported, NFL coaching salaries are not required to be disclosed. Teams are not obligated to share details on how much they pay their head coach or assistant coaches. As a result, the exact salaries are not always known to the public.
There are some general estimates and ranges available based on leaks and reports. Most NFL head coaches tend to make between $4 million to $10 million per year on average. High profile, successful coaches can make $15 million or more. The New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is believed to be the highest paid at around $20 million per year.
Salaries for first time NFL head coaches tend to start lower, around $2 to $5 million. There are often incentives built into contracts tied to performance that allow coaches to earn more based on success. Assistants make far less, with salaries ranging from the low hundreds of thousands for entry-level assistants to a few million for experienced coordinators.
Lowest Reported Salaries
While hard data on NFL head coach pay is difficult to find, there have been a few reported lowest or small salaries over the years:
- Pete Carroll – Reportedly made just $4 million in his first year with the Seattle Seahawks in 2010. This was Carroll’s second stint as an NFL head coach.
- Jim Zorn – Earned a reported $2 million salary coaching the Washington Redskins in 2008. Zorn was a first-time head coach.
- Marc Trestman – Had a reported salary of just $1.5 million with the Chicago Bears in 2013. Trestman was also in his first NFL head coach role.
Some other notably low recent salaries have included Todd Bowles earning just over $2 million with the New York Jets and Doug Marrone making $2.5 million coaching the Jacksonville Jaguars. Both were first-time head coaches when they signed those deals.
Low Salaries for New Coaches
The general trend seems to be that first-time NFL head coaches or veteran coaches taking over new teams tend to have lower starting salaries. This makes sense for a few reasons:
- Proven Success – A coach without a proven track record won’t command as high a salary as a Super Bowl winning coach until they build their resume.
- Rookie Contracts – Younger, first-time coaches are often willing to accept lower pay when first taking a head coach position.
- Incentives – Teams include performance bonuses that allow coaches to increase their earnings through success.
So when looking at the lowest paid coaches in the NFL, the ones at the bottom of the salary scale tend to be either brand new head coaches or experienced coaches starting over with a new franchise. Their salaries start lower but increase once they prove themselves.
Lowest Potential Salary
While the NFL head coaches discussed above have had some of the lowest reported salaries, there is actually no defined minimum salary requirement for an NFL head coach. Hypothetically a team could pay a head coach a small salary if they were willing to accept it.
For example, the famed Vince Lombardi only made about $150,000 total over five years coaching the dominant Green Bay Packers teams of the 1960s. Adjusted for inflation, that would equate to around $1.2 million spread out over five seasons, very low by today’s standards.
An NFL team strapped for cash could conceivably offer a rookie coach or someone looking for another chance a league-minimum level contract. For example, around $500,000 per year. Of course, the coach would probably expect incentives to quickly raise that amount with team success.
The lowest potential NFL head coach salary is essentially whatever amount a team could negotiate with a coach based on their situation. While it’s unlikely, a salary under $1 million is theoretically possible.
Assistant Coaches Salaries
NFL assistant coach salaries are more modest than head coaches. The average salary for assistants ranges from around $300,000 to $1 million based on role and experience. Here are some of the lowest assistant coach salaries:
- Quality control coaches – $30,000 to $70,000 per year
- Entry level position coaches – $150,000 to $250,000
- Experienced position coaches – $500,000 to $1 million
- Top coordinators – $1 million to $2 million
These assistant coach salaries demonstrate just how significant the coaching salary hierarchy is in the NFL. While head coaches are paid in the millions, their staffs can make a fraction of that amount.
Conclusion
Determining the absolute lowest NFL head coach salary is difficult given the lack of transparent data. However, based on reports over the years, some of the lowest paid NFL head coaches have made around $1 million to $2 million annually.
First-time head coaches and veteran coaches starting over have accepted lower salaries that increase with performance incentives built in. Theoretically there is no minimum required salary, but it is likely coaches will make at least $500,000 or more even on the low end.
NFL assistants, on the other hand, can make as little as $30,000 per year for entry-level roles up to around $2 million for top coordinators. But with no defined reporting requirements, the full range of NFL coaching salaries remains somewhat uncertain.