The 2025 season will soon come to a close and as it does, thoughts will almost immediately turn to 2026 and the next wave of players entering the NFL.

Not that some people aren’t there already, especially with the forthcoming All-Star games but, while the likes of the Senior Bowl and East-West Shrine Game are great opportunities for players, they also present a great chance for lesser-known NFL coaches to showcase their skills.

“The Senior Bowl is not only a showcase for top football student-athletes, but also a wonderful opportunity for coaches that are nominated by their NFL clubs to further develop their skills and learn from one another,” Troy Vincent Sr, NFL executive vice president of football operations, said, before adding, “This is an important evaluation week for prospects as well as for coaches as they pursue their professional and personal goals.”

The coaches for the Senior Bowl will be Joel Thomas of the New Orleans Saints and Clint Hurtt of the Philadelphia Eagles, while the Shrine Bowl will be in the hands of Lunda Wells of the Dallas Cowboys and Marquice Williams of the Atlanta Falcons.

Head coaches and general managers from all non-playoff teams and Wild Card round participants had the opportunity to nominate assistant coaches to take on the coaching duties in the Senior Bowl. Hurtt and Thomas were then selected by a group composed of league office executives and representatives from the General Managers Advisory Committee. For the Shrine Bowl, at the conclusion of the NFL regular season, teams nominated deserving assistant coaches who were reviewed by a panel that includes NFL Football Operations staff, East-West Shrine Bowl leadership, members of the NFL’s General Managers Advisory Committee and the Fritz Pollard Alliance.

Coaches nominated by NFL clubs must be active assistant coaches who display extraordinary teaching and communication skills and who are recognised for their integrity and commitment to excellence in the coaching profession. The coaches must be accomplished at developing and preparing players to compete in the NFL.

Hurtt has been the senior defensive assistant/defensive line coach for the Philadelphia Eagles for the last two years, after spending seven seasons with the Seattle Seahawks (2017-23). He spent 13 years coaching college football, including four years as defensive line coach at both Louisville (2010-13) and his alma mater, the University of Miami (2006-09). Thomas spent the 2025 season with the New Orleans Saints in 2025 as associate head coach/running backs coach. He was previously with the team between 2015 and 2023. In 2024, he coached running backs for the New York Giants, having spent 13 seasons as a running backs coach in college, including time with Washington (2009-12), Purdue (2006-08), his alma mater Idaho (2004-05) and Louisville (2002-03).

Wells has spent the last six seasons as the tight ends coach of the Dallas Cowboys (2020-25). Before his time in Dallas, he was with the New York Giants (2012-2019) as an offensive quality control and assistant offensive line coach. Williams has coached special teams for the Falcons for the last five seasons and was also a coach in the Shrine Bowl last year.

“We are thrilled to have Clint Hurtt as our head coach of the National Team in the 2026 Panini Senior Bowl,” Drew Fabianich, the game’s executive director commented, adding that it was equally a “great pleasure to have Joel Thomas as our head coach of the American Team.

The Panini Senior Bowl is the longest continuously-running All-Star game and has taken place in Mobile, Alabama for the previous 75 years, while the East-West Shrine game, created by the Shriners in 1925, is driven by the desire to support Shriners Hospitals for Children in its mission to help children in need of expert medical care.

“We are extremely excited to have two experienced and respected NFL coaches leading our East-West Shrine Bowl,” said Bob Roller, vice-president of sports for Shriners Hospitals for Children.