Kansas City Chiefs continue to churn coaching staff with defensive veteran coach who has ties to Steve Spagnuolo
The Kansas City Chiefs are bringing in another coach from Steve Spagnuolo’s tree.
The Kansas City Chiefs are making another new addition to the coaching staff for the 2026 NFL season.
The team officially announced six new hires on Feb. 13: DeMarco Murray (RBs), Chad O’Shea (WRs), Terry Bradden Jr. (Assistant DL), Nate Pagan (offensive quality control), and CJ Cox (defensive quality control).
Now, they’re bringing in a veteran defensive coach who has ties to Steve Spagnuolo to help with some of the recent brain drain in the defensive secondary. The Chiefs lost their former safeties coach, Donald D’Alesio, ahead of the 2025 NFL season. They never replaced him and shifted the responsibilities to Steve Spagnuolo, Dave Merritt, and other defensive assistants. Now, they’ve got a different solution in mind to help coach Merritt manage the secondary and free up Spags as well.
KC Chiefs add Andre Curtis to the roster as a defensive back and safeties coach
The Chiefs are bringing veteran secondary coach Andre Curtis to Kansas City. He has practically two decades of coaching experience in the league, with plenty of success stories. Curtis got his NFL start under Dave Merritt as a defensive quality control coach with the New York Giants in 2006, before Steve Spagnuolo became defensive coordinator in 2007. Curtis helped the Giants win Super Bowl XLII against the Patriots. He followed Spags to the St. Louis Rams in 2009, becoming his defensive backs coach. From there, he followed Spags to the New Orleans Saints in 2012, serving as the team’s assistant secondary coach. That’s where their paths as NFL coaches began to diverge.
Spags was defensive coordinator in New Orleans for one season in 2012, but Curtis stayed in his role through 2014. Curtis then joined the Seattle Seahawks organization as an assistant secondary and safeties coach in 2015 and remained with the organization, serving in various defensive secondary roles through the 2021 NFL season. From 2022 through 2024, Curtis was the safeties coach for the Chicago Bears, and most recently, he served as the defensive passing game coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys in 2025. With Dallas moving on from defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, Curtis was not retained either, creating an opportunity to join Kansas City’s coaching staff.
While the defensive secondary was a sieve for the Cowboys in 2025, that was moreso due to injuries and depth problems at cornerback and safety. The Chiefs have personnel issues of their own to tackle, but Curtis should realistically be in a better spot to succeed under Spags.
Kansas City Chiefs News
Chiefs just made an expected Patrick Mahomes move to completely change the outlook of the offseason and their role during free agency
The Chiefs have more restructures and cuts to make.
