Has an NFL head coach ever been demoted instead of fired, resigned, or retained? Teams always seem to fire or retain, never demote to coordinator or assistant coach. Has an exception ever occured?
Not that I can think of off the top of my head. Coaches are fired for a variety of reasons, but they almost always come down to one thing: they’re not winning (or Steve Spurrier’s available). If someone isn’t winning games, they can start to lose the respect of the players. Taking a demotion would exacerbate that, and no owner wants an offensive coordinator whose players don’t respect him.
The closest thing I can think of to the situation you’re asking about would be in Seattle. Mike Holmgren went to the Seahawks as Coach/General Manager - I think he was “Vice President of Football Operations.” After a couple of losing seasons, he was stripped of his GM duties (with his consent), and made solely a head coach. It’s improved the team.
How about being fired, then demoted? Gunther Cunningham, head coach of the KC Chiefs, found out he was fired on the internet, replaced by Dick Vermeil 3 years ago, and just recently hired as defense coordinator under Vermeil.
My memory may be a bit off, and I don’t know if this qualifies exactly, but I believe that Mike Holgren was originally Head Coach and GM of the Seahawks and was later demoted to simply head coach.
The closest instance I can think of happened with my hometown team, the New Orleans Saints. Linebackers coach Rick Venturi took over the head coaching reins on an interim basis after the incumbent head coach Jim Mora resigned mid-season 1996.
The next off-season, the Saints hired Mike Ditka as their head coach. Ditka kept Venturi on his staff as a linebacker coach.
I can’t think of such an instance, though in some ways, it would be a good idea.
The skills it takes to be a good head coach are rather different from those that it takes to be a great defensive or offensive coordinator. In many cases, unsuccessful head coaches were very good, very capable assistants, who were expert X’s and O’s guys in their fields, but who didn’t grasp the big picture well enough or who didn’t have the leadership skills to be head coaches. When it becomes clear that a brilliant defensive coordinator isn’t a great head coach, it would be NICE if he could be restored to the job he did best… but that probably wouldn’t work in most cases. Whoever DOES get hired as the new head coach is going to want to hire his own staff. And even if the new coach were willing to keep on the old coach (Richie Petitbon was a superb defensive coordinator, and Norv Turner could’ve done worse than to keep Richie on in that capacity), the players won’t have the same respect they once had for their old coordinator, when they know he’s been demoted.