Coaching Snapshot: Offensive Assistant Luke Steckel

A look into OC Matt LaFleur’s offensive staff

Name: Luke Steckel

Role: Offensive Assistant

NFL Coaching Experience: 9 seasons

Positions Coached: Assistant to the Head Coach (Cleveland, 2009-2012), Assistant to the Head Coach (Tennessee, 2013), Offensive Assistant (Tennessee, 2014-Present),

Collegiate Coaching Experience: None

Coaching Track Record

Cleveland Browns

Similar to fellow Offensive Assistant Mike Sullivan, Luke Steckel’s NFL coaching career has Cleveland roots.

Steckel’s role involved being assistant to HC Eric Mangini. Reading “Assistant to the...” may trigger images of The Office’s Dwight K. Schrute. However, Steckel’s responsibilities with the team are hard to define. His duties likely revolved around a bevy of individual tasks or assignments necessary to keep day-to-day operations flowing.

Cleveland would employ Steckel for four seasons. In that four-year span, Steckel would witness only 19 total wins - 10 of which were split in two Mangini seasons, leading to his termination from the Browns.

The other nine wins occurred during the Pat Shurmur regime. Shurmur manned the ship in Cleveland for two seasons, but suffered the same fate as his predecessor.

For Steckel, he would assist to very different head coaching minds - with Mangini being defense-oriented and Shurmur being more knowledgeable offensively.

Without a clearly defined role as a positional coach, Steckel still obtained experience that contributed to his current role in Tennessee.

Tennessee Titans

The son of Les Steckel - the Titans offensive coordinator during the Super Bowl season of 1999 - provides Luke with organization history. The elder Steckel spent five seasons working under HC Jeff Fisher and was present during the team’s transition from Houston to Tennessee.

Understanding the behind the scenes work, grueling hours and preparation of game plans are things Luke was likely exposed too as a kid, watching his father work. It may have motivated him to follow in his father’s footsteps after his own playing career in college came to an end.

Luke joined the Titans in the same role he had with Cleveland, this time assisting Titan HC Mike Munchak.

Following the 2013 season, Steckel was promoted to a more defined role as an offensive assistant. He worked under both HC Ken Whisenhunt and Mike Mularkey. He worked side-by-side with Sullivan, who remains on staff for the upcoming season.

Last season, Steckel assisted WR Coach Frisman Jackson in working with the receiver group. He could find work in a similar role working with new WR Coach Rob Moore.

The trio of Steckel, Sullivan and TE Coach Arthur Smith will be given new direction under OC Matt LaFleur. Familiarity with personnel should make their job a little less difficult.