Chiefs sign defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo to extension after 4th Super Bowl win

The Kansas City Chiefs fans have more to celebrate on Wednesday besides another Super Bowl victory.

As fans were lining the streets and the players and staff were prepping for the parade, the Chiefs announced that they've signed defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, one of the architects of their third Super Bowl win in five years, to a contract extension.

The Chiefs did not release any details on length or compensation.

Spags has been with the Chiefs for five seasons, the longest he's stayed at a single coaching position since he was with Connecticut in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He's spent his career moving from defense to defense, mostly in 1-3 year chunks. His stop with the New York Giants in the late 2000s resulted in a career-making Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots, which in turn gave him his only shot as head coach when the St. Louis Rams hired him from 2009 to 2011.

His stint with the Rams could have gone better. They went a league-worst 1-15 in 2009 and tied for league-worst in 2011 with a 2-14 record, with a 7-9 record in 2010 sandwiched between. With only 10 wins over three years, it wasn't surprising that the Rams fired him early in 2012. He then spent time with the New Orleans Saints and Baltimore Ravens, and returned to the Giants before the Chiefs hired him in 2019. Five years and three Super Bowl wins later, he's on top of the world.

The Chiefs' brilliant defensive performance against the San Francisco 49ers was only a few days ago, but over that time, everyone from fans to players to a Rams executive has either endorsed Spags getting another chance to be head coach, or wondered why he hasn't gotten more head coach interviews.

And given Spags' success in Kansas City, it's a worthy question. But it's also possible he's in the middle of doing an interview right now — a long, long interview that's also known as being the defensive coordinator for the Chiefs. Because Andy Reid won't be head coach forever; at some point he will move into retirement. And when that happens, they could turn to Spags. He's a former head coach who has established relationships with the players and organization. It would be a no-brainer for the Chiefs to treat him as the head coach-in-waiting and elevate him when the time is right, making the transition from the past to the future as easy as possible.

But that's the far future. The only future the Chiefs are concerned with right now is the parade on Wednesday afternoon, and soon after that, the 2024 season. And with Spags back, the Chiefs will continue to spook NFL offenses, maybe all the way back to another Super Bowl.