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Mike Phair

Mike Phair – Defensive Line Coach and Run Game Coordinator

Veteran NFL coach Mike Phair returns for his second season with the Ottawa REDBLACKS as Defensive Line Coach, while adding the title of Run Game Coordinator, for the 2023 season.

A graduate of Arizona State University and former linebacker, Phair is coming off an inaugural Canadian football campaign that saw defensive lineman Lorenzo Mauldin record a franchise record 17 sacks before being named the league’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player. In all, Phair’s d-line recorded a league second-best 47 sacks in 2022.

Prior to making the move north, Phair had an extensive NFL coaching career that has included 10 years as a coach and six years as a scout. He broke into the league in 2009 as an Assistant Defensive Line Coach with the Seattle Seahawks before taking over the position group with the Chicago Bears in 2011. He would coach the Bears until 2013 before moving on to coach the defensive lines of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2014), Indianapolis Colts (2018-2019) and Carolina Panthers (2020).

No stranger to winning football, Phair won a Super Bowl with the Bucs in 2002, as well as an NFC Championship with the Seahawks in 2005.

Phair first cut his teeth as a coach while a graduate assistant and Defensive Line Coach at Arizona State, before moving on to coach the linebackers and special teams at Tiffin (Ohio) University. The Arizona native has also coached at the University of Illinois (2015-2017), first as co-Defensive Coordinator and Defensive Line Coach and then as Run Game Coordinator and Defensive Line Coach, and Stanford University (2021) as Defensive Assistant Coach.

Phair also has a background in scouting, working as an Area Scout for the Buccaneers (2002-2004) and Seahawks (2005-2007).

 

Career headlines:

  • Coached the Carolina Panthers’ Brian Burns to a nine-sack season in 2020.
  • Coached the Indianapolis Colts’ Justin Houston to an 11-sack season, with a defence total of 41 sacks in 2019.
  • Led the Colts’ d-line to an eighth-best fun defence in 2018.
  • Coached the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Gerald McCoy to a Pro Bowl appearance in 2014.
  • Coached a Chicago Bears d-line to a league-best 44 defensive takeaways in 2012.
  • Coached Chicago’s Julius Peppers to two Pro Bowls (2011/2012), and Henry Melton to a Pro Bowl in 2012.
  • Coached Terrell Suggs at ASU in 2000.
  • While at the University of Illinois as Defensive Line Coach and Co-Coordinator, coached Jihad Ward to a becoming a second-round pick in 2016 and Dawuane Smooth to a third-round selection in 2017.